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A brilliant, beautiful account of how British boffins triumphed across the decades in creating everything from computer games to Martian landers.
The book contains chapters on the Beagle II, Elite - the 80s computer game, the Blue Streak missile, Concorde, mobile phone technology and the Human Genome Project, among others.
Britain is the only country in the world to have cancelled its space programme just as it put its first rocket into orbit. Starting with this forgotten episode, 'Backroom Boys' tells the bittersweet story of how one country lost its industrial tradition and got back something else. Sad, inspiring, funny and ultimately triumphant, it follows the technologists whose work kept Concorde flying, created the computer game, conquered the mobile-phone business, saved the human genome for the human race - and who now are sending the Beagle 2 probe to burrow in the cinnamon sands of Mars.
'Backroom Boys' is a vivid love-letter to quiet men in pullovers, to those whose imaginings take shape not in words but in mild steel and carbon fibre and lines of code. Above all, it is a celebration of big dreams achieved with slender means.

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Price Summary

  • We started tracking this book on April 26, 2012.
  • This book was £6.17 when we started tracking it.
  • The price of this book has changed 68 times in the past 4,376 days.
  • The current price of this book is £7.49 last checked one day ago.
  • This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past 90 days is £7.14.
  • This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past six months is £5.99.
  • This lowest price this book has been offered at in the past year is £4.74.
  • The lowest price to date was £0.99 last reached on December 13, 2013.
  • This book has been £0.99 2 times since we started tracking it.
  • The highest price to date was £8.99 last reached on March 1, 2016.
  • This book has been £8.99 one time since we started tracking it.

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Additional Info

  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Lending: Disabled
  • Print Length: 276 Pages
  • File Size: 3,004 KB

We last verified the price of this book about one day ago. At that time, the price was £7.49. This price is subject to change. The price displayed on the Amazon.co.uk website at the time of purchase is the price you will pay for this book. Please confirm the price before making any purchases.