Angela Atkinson

West Swindon is a series of linked suburban centres planned and built from the 1980s to the west of the Wiltshire former railway town. But its story stretches back much further than most people realise. Way before the St. John family hunted on what is now Lydiard Park, Romans lived, made bricks - and died here. Should you think of West Swindon as nothing more than a soulless, twentieth-century urban conurbation then time spent within the pages of this book should hold some surprises for you. The authors between them weave a rich tapestry of West Swindon from its Roman beginnings through to the how, why and where of the western expansion of the 1970s and 1980s, encompassing street names, public art and green spaces. Their final flourish is a round-up of the notable 20th century buildings in the area - with a windmill thrown in for good measure.

An illuminating and infectiously enthusiastic guidebook to a town that many imagine is uninteresting and unattractive. Angela Atkinson's popular blog, 'Born Again Swindonian', shows how wrong this impression is, and she has now produced a full colour description and guide to prove it. Her words carry a genuine passion and commitment for her adopted home town, and her book is jam packed with pages explaining why. Her numerous, varied pilgrimages on foot around our town at a time when most people travel anonymously in cars has led her to see things in her own way and to feel drawn to share her thoughts with us all. Her conviction to shine light into sometimes neglected places has revealed surprising facts, helping people to discover more about what had felt like familiar places. Her commitment is exemplary, both to telling stories and for seeking successful outcomes for the places that she cares deeply about. Her observations are timely. From blue plaques to bluebells, computing to copses, sculptures to Swindon secrets, there is something for everyone sandwiched between these pages.

Ken White’s career spans an impressive six decades. He is perhaps best known for his murals, sited in a wide variety of locations. To date, he has painted over one hundred murals. For over twenty years Ken was the personal artist to Virgin boss Richard Branson and has completed works for him in Virgin establishments throughout the world, including recording studios, record shops, hotels and airport lounges. With the launch of Virgin Atlantic in 1984, Ken produced what is probably his most well know work: the ‘Scarlet Lady’ emblem, which features on all the airline's aircraft. Ken’s early career as a graphic designer in the swinging sixties saw his work grace a variety of music and arts magazines, including the legendary underground magazine Oz. Through the 1970s and 1980s, Ken designed a vast amount of concert posters and, most notably, the cover of XTC’s Black Sea album. Although mural work has provided a living, Ken has always been, first and foremost, a painter and is now gaining recognition for his works on canvas. Latterly, his work is concerned with depicting industrial landscapes and the lives of working men, strongly influenced by life in the railway workshops where he worked in his youth.

Swindon’s unusual history as a large industrial town in the heart of Wiltshire has defined its townscape for the last 200 years. The town is largely the creation of the nineteenth century, built around the Great Western Railway’s Works, but it nonetheless has over 600 listed buildings, not to mention scheduled monuments and three registered parks and gardens. In Swindon in 50 Buildings, local author Angela Atkinson examines not only such well-known Swindon landmarks and areas as the GWR Railway Village Conservation Area and the Old Town, but also everyday buildings that reveal aspects of Swindon’s always fascinating and surprising story. It is inevitable that many of the buildings in this book reflect Swindon’s great railway heritage, but others are small stories written in brick and stone that tell of a time before the railway came and changed everything. There are farmhouses now engulfed by twentieth-century housing estates and grander buildings such as Lydiard House. Rebuilt in the eighteenth century with a formal park, the Lydiard estate served as both an American army camp and prisoner of war camp during the Second World War. The story continues to the present day with buildings designed by such well-known architects as Hugh Casson, the creator of the Wyvern Theatre, and Norman Foster, architect of the landmark and award-winning Spectrum Building. It includes, too, the most recent of Swindon’s additions to the listed building’s register – and it’s one that will surprise you.

**SECOND EDITION: UPDATED 2018**Are You Being Gaslighted?You're at a party and you notice your husband getting a bit too close to another woman. After the party, you confront him. He tells you to stop being so insecure and controlling; that he's his own man and if you don't like it, you shouldn't have acted like that in the first place. After arguing all night, you end up begging for forgiveness and apologize for the trouble. Maybe it's your mom - she's picking on you like it's a sport. She's worried about what you're wearing, what you're eating - who you're hanging out with - but it's unhealthy. Instead of fighting back, you just suck it up and take it - maybe you're too sensitive, or perhaps you really are crazy after all. Who can't take a bit of criticism, anyway? Or it's your boss, who told you that you had her support on your latest project, only to backpedal when it's time to present it to the team. Suddenly, she criticizes you for your poor choices and she's jumped ship - but when you talk to her later, she tells you it was wrong from the beginning and you need to be more careful in the future. You find yourself wondering if your judgment might really be flawed, after all. Maybe this stuff doesn't happen in your life, but for many people, it's an everyday reality. If you think it could never be you, think again Some of the most intelligent and capable people are living in painfully toxic relationships with narcissists, and they're plagued by regular bouts of gaslighting, an insidious form of emotional abuse and manipulation that can be crueler than more obvious forms of abuse because it sort of sneaks up on you. Because of its insidious nature, gaslighting is one form of emotional abuse that is hard to recognize and even more challenging to break free from. Part of that is because the narcissist exploits one of our greatest fears - the fear of being alone. This book offers a comprehensive plan for dealing with gaslighting and other forms of narcissistic abuse.Inside you'll find all kinds of tools to help you snuff out gaslighting and toxic emotional abuse, including the following. Start on the Road to Emotional Abuse RecoveryThe 10 Most Important Things You Need to Know if You're in a Toxic Relationship With a NarcissistMean People Suck: 3 Top Life Hacks for Dealing With Your Everyday, Average Narcissists3 Best Practices for Dealing With Negative People in Your LifeNarcissists in Relationships: Where Gaslighting Begins5 Surprising Facts About Gaslighting3 Shocking Common Qualities Among the Partners of NarcissistsThe 3 Stages of GaslightingGaslighting Stage Two: DefenseGaslighting Stage Three: DepressionHow can you tell if you're being gaslighted?Top 10 Warning Signs You're Being GaslightedNarcissistic Rage and Narcissistic Injury: 6 Life Hacks to Diffuse a Raging NarcissistSurviving Narcissistic Rage and Narcissistic Injury: Diffusing a Raging NarcissistOvercoming Your Narcissist: Top 10 Strategies to Overcome Anger and Gain PeaceTop 10 Tips for Enhancing Your Emotional and Mental HealthStaying in Control: Crucial Tactics for Managing Panic Attacks4 Must-Know Facts about Panic Attacks9 Best Ways to Manage Panic AttacksSelf-Confidence Booster: 8 Step Action Plan for Recovering From Narcissistic Manipulation and Abuse6 Tips for Overcoming Adversity8 Ways to Harness the Power of Personal BoundariesPLUS: A Special Bonus SectionBe Your Own Life Coach: A Comprehensive Self-Healing Program, Including 7 Days of Affirmations and Reflections Designed Just for Survivors of Narcissistic AbuseWhat are you waiting for? This is the book that can change your life

The sprawling urban conurbation that is Swindon began life as an Anglo-Saxon defensible settlement atop a limestone hill. Old Swindon would likely have remained a sleepy market town were it not for the Industrial Revolution. The subsequent acceleration in Swindon’s growth began with the construction of the Wilts & Berks Canal in 1810, though the real transformative factor came between 1841 and 1842 with the historic decision by Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Daniel Gooch to establish their Great Western Railway works in Swindon, leading to the birth of a new town: New Swindon. Today’s Swindon is a surprising, multilayered, creative hotspot that is home to artists and writers of every genre and calibre. In Secret Swindon, author Angela Atkinson explores some of the lesser-known episodes and characters in the history of this Wiltshire town, bringing to life tales of those who have lived in it and the places they inhabited.