History Meets Fiction

An introduction to the investigation, extraction, processing and specification of natural soil and rock materials, with an emphasis on why particular material properties are sought and how they may be modified.The book covers the full range of soil and rock construction materials including crushed stone, sand and gravel, natural and prepared roadbase, earth fill and rock fill, heavy clays, armour stone and dimension stone. Environmental aspects of quarrying, such as the use of waste materials, blast monitoring and pit reclamation, are studied in detail. New developments are discussed such as the trend towards fewer but larger quarries, the employment of by-products, and the need for upgrading marginal materials.The use of plenty of diagrams and photos, and a clear writing style, make this an easy book to follow and extensive reference lists in each chapter guide the reader further into the more specialist topics.

Is history factual, or just another form of fiction?Are there distinct boundaries between the two, or just extensive borderlands?How do novelists represent historians and history? The relationship between history and fiction has always been contentious and sometimes turbulent, not least because the two have traditionally been seen as mutually exclusive opposites. However, new hybrid forms of writing ? from historical fiction to docudramas to fictionalised biographies ? have led to the blurring of boundaries, and given rise to the claim that history itself is just another form of fiction. In his thought-provoking new book, Beverley Southgate untangles this knotty relationship, setting his discussion in a broad historical and philosophical context. Throughout, Southgate invokes a variety of writers to illuminate his arguments, from Dickens and Proust, through Virginia Woolf and Daphne du Maurier, to such contemporary novelists as Tim O?Brien, Penelope Lively, and Graham Swift. Anyone interested in the many meeting points between history and fiction will find this an engaging, accessible and stimulating read.