For over one hundred years the name Topham was inextricably linked to the Grand National, even though not a single runner in it ever carried their colours, and no member of the family ever rode over Aintree's famous fences. Yet their contribution to Grand National history was equally as important as all the heroes and heroines, both human and equine, who have thrilled successive generations of racegoers as they have done battle each spring to win the world's greatest steeplechase. For the Tophams were the promoters of the race, responsible for drawing up the race conditions, developing and...

The first history of the colourful and controversial Topham family who owned and managed Aintree racecourse and the Grand National for over a hundred and fifty years.

The 1917 Bolshevik Revolution irrevocably changed the course of history, with consequences still being felt a century later. This book offers a dramatic depiction of the chaotic events of the revolution, drawn from selected firsthand accounts.

Assembling extracts from letters, journals, diaries, and memoirs from a remarkably diverse cast of both Russians and foreign nationals who were there when the revolution broke, Petrograd, 1917 is a strikingly close-up account of these world-shaking events. Each entry is supplemented with a short introductory note that sets it in context, and...