Description

Edmund Vale (1888-1969) was an extraordinarily prolific writer of guide books and popular works on architecture. Perhaps his best remembered work was “How to Look at Old Buildings” but in a career that began before the Great War, and ended in his 80’s he undertook a variety of commissions, including company histories and guide books for some of the National Parks . He undertook around a dozen commissions for the LMS. of which this is the only one to deal with  shipping services.

A brief history is given of each of the surviving routes with passing reference to those services – from Fleetwood and from Barrow, replaced by improved facilities at Heysham, and the Holyhead-Greenore service, a casualty of the Irish Civil War. Due coverage is given to the Clyde and lake paddle steamers.

Vale is a good writer; his second by second account of the calm and unfussy departure if the Irish Mail steamer is particularly vivid.

PREVIEW BELOW – MAY TAKE A WHILE TO LOAD.