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open access ebook Historic England commissioned New Writing North to lead a national creative partnership to produce a set of contemporary high street tales. These short stories uncover and celebrate the everyday magic of the high street, from hidden histories to urban legends, connecting past, present and future. The commission is part of the High Streets Heritage Action Zones Cultural Programme, led by Historic England, in partnership with Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

"Ladies and gentlemen, for the very final time, Elizabeth and Edwin Barnabus will perform the grand illusion of the Vanishing Man." Elizabeth Barnabus is a mutineer and a murderer. So they say. The noose awaits in Liverpool as punishment for her crimes. But they’ll have to catch her first. Disguised as a labourer, Elizabeth flees west across America, following a rumour of her long-lost family. Crossing the border into the wilds of the Oregon Territory, she discovers a mustering army, a king who believes he is destined to conquer the world, and a weapon so powerful that it could bring the age of reason crashing down. In a land where politics and prophecy are one and the same, the fate of the Gas-Lit Empire may come to rest on the perfect execution of a conjuring trick.

"As it is inked, so shall your oaths and bindings be." Tattoos are the only law on the Island of the Free, and there can never be a king. Every clan agrees on that. But a returning exile has smuggled something across the water that could send the old ways up in flames. Elias wants revenge on the men who severed his oaths and made him an outlaw. But, if his wealth and honour are to be restored, he’ll need help from the most unlikely quarter – a mysterious woman, landed unwontedly on Newfoundland’s rocky shore. "I love that these are great adventure stories, but also have a more thoughtful side to them – the worlds we visit are all very different and flawed in very different ways, but inhabited by people who have been shaped by the nature of those worlds. It’s very clever, but also very engaging – I find myself completely drawn in, unable to predict what will happen next. I also have a strong sense that there is an overall plan to the whole series – this is building into a fantastic overall tale. Really looking forward to the next instalment!” – Clare Littleford, author of The Quarry

The year is 2012 but it might as well be the Victorian age. The nations of the world are overseen by the International Patent Office, and its ruthless stranglehold on technology. When airships start disappearing in the middle of the Atlantic, the Patent Office is desperate to discover what has happened. Forbidden to operate beyond the territorial waters of member nations, they send spies to investigate in secret. One of those spies is Elizabeth Barnabus. She must overcome her dislike of the machinations of her employers, disguise herself as a man, and take to the sea in search of the floating nation of pirates who threaten the world order. “The winner of the 2018 Leicester Book Prize was Rod Duncan, for his novel The Queen of All Crows. This was a hugely imaginative, compelling and ambitious work of speculative fiction, which frankly I loved, start to finish. I’ve never read anything quite like it.” – Jonathan Taylor, judge of Leicester Book of the Year Award and author of Entertaining Strangers

You’d have to be mad to steal from the feared International Patent Office. But that’s what Elizabeth Barnabus is about to try. A one-time enemy from the circus has persuaded her to attempt a heist that will be the ultimate conjuring trick. Hidden in the vaults of the Patent Court in London lie secrets that could shake the very pillars of the Gas-Lit Empire. All that stands in Elizabeth’s way are the agents of the Patent Office, a Duke’s private army and the mysterious Custodian of Marvels. Rod Duncan returns with the climactic volume of The Fall of the Gas-Lit Empire, the breathtaking alternate history series that began with the Philip K. Dick Award-nominated The Bullet-Catcher’s Daughter. “The Gas-Lit Empire novels tell a great story, with a strong protagonist challenging rigid cultural norms, all in a richly built alternate history, uniquely designed.” – Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist and Craigconnects

In the divided land of England, Elizabeth Barnabus has been living a double life – as both herself and as her brother, the private detective. Witnessing the brutal hanging of someone very close to her, Elizabeth resolves to throw the Bullet Catcher’s Handbook into the fire, and forget her past. If only it were that easy! There is a new charitable organisation in town, run by some highly respectable women. But something doesn’t feel right to Elizabeth. Perhaps it is time for her fictional brother to come out of retirement for one last case? Her unstoppable curiosity leads her to a dark world of body-snatching, unseemly experimentation, politics and scandal. Never was it harder for a woman in a man’s world… “Books work on several levels. A good story is complete in itself yet, at the same time, reading is a dynamic process: readers are not passive consumers of words. I’ve no idea what Duncan intended when writing, other than to invent a world and tell a story. Yet, for this reader at least, the subtexts and resonances of a divided Britain run by capricious aristocrats and politicians with vested interests were as entertaining as the story.” – Heroines of Fantasy

Philip K Dick Award finalist. East Midlands Book of the Year shortlist. “Rod Duncan’s The Bullet Catcher’s Daughter is a magic box pulsating with energy. Compulsive reading from the get-go, the blend of steampunk alternate history wrapped in the enigma of a chase makes for first-rate entertainment in this finely crafted novel.” – Graham Joyce, author of Year of the Ladybird Elizabeth Barnabus is a consulting detective. More accurately, she is a consulting detective when disguised as her brother, the two of them long on the run from a family debt. Hired to find a missing aristocrat, Elizabeth and her brother run afoul of both nations of the divided England, including the all-powerful Patent Office, which manages the careful detente between the countries.

Vehicle sensitivity to transient side wind gusts has gained interest in the recent past. Documentation of actual on-road wind conditions is currently lacking. A 1983 Ford Thunderbird has been instrumented to provide information in this area. Collection of naturally occurring wind data measured at a stationary site and on a traveling vehicle on the open road has been performed. Statistical analysis has been performed on collected data in an attempt to characterize on-road wind conditions. A transformation process from moving to stationary coordinates has been developed. A reverse transformation may be utilized using the extensive set of existing stationary wind data to provide information on wind that a vehicle encounters on the open road.