The Minutes of the Lazarus Club T... Oct 29, 2008
Isambard Kingdom Brunel describes The Lazarus Club as a forum for individual thinkers, inventors and creators. Brunel is best remembered for his ambitious project to build the SS Great Eastern, the largest ship ever built at the time of her launch in 1858. (Suite101.com)
Big Ben 'UK's favourite landmark' Apr 9, 2008
The survey by construction firm Faithful and Gould marked the 202nd anniversary of the birth of engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. No Brunel structures made the top 10 but his Clifton Suspension Bridge was popular with west England interviewees. (BBC News -- UK)
Coining itThe Royal Mint unveils its latest designs for UK cash Apr 3, 2008
Only four non-royals have appeared on coins: Oliver Cromwell, Horatio Nelson, Winston Churchill and Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The designs were chosen through a competition which attracted more than 4,000 entries. (BBC News -- UK)
The troubleshooterThe life of industrialist Sir John Harvey-Jones, who has died aged 83 Jan 11, 2008
But it was the BBC's Troubleshooter series, first broadcast in 1990, that made him, according to one newspaper, the most famous industrialist since Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It also won him a Bafta award. (BBC News -- UK)
The posh yob of Middle England Dec 9, 2007
He certainly proved the BBC, which once billed him as "not a man given to considered opinion", wrong when he championed Isambard Kingdom Brunel in the BBC series Great Britons in 2002. His endorsement took a typically abrasive form, as did his putdowns of rival contender Shakespeare (he spelled his name five different ways so was "either dyslexic or an idiot") and Churchill (who he labelled "a drunk who happened to be in the right place at the right time"). (Scotsman)
The amazing secrets of Eurostar Sep 30, 2007
In a few weeks passengers will accelerate out of London's St Pancras station on a journey through one of the modern engineering wonders of Britain: a new rail line being compared to the technical feats of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and other great Victorian railway pioneers. High Speed 1 will be the country's first dedicated high-speed railway, running to the Channel Tunnel at speeds of up to 185mph. (Guardian Unlimited -- UK)
Review: Robert McCrum Jul 23, 2007
Like the Isambard Kingdom Brunel of contemporary fiction, JK Rowling delivers another massive (608pp) suspension of disbelief with practised efficiency - on time and on budget. There is, as before, no shortage of incident or conflict. (Guardian Unlimited -- Books)
New Malmaison Hotel in Reading Jun 23, 2007
Opening on July 30th 2007, the Malmaison Hotel Reading occupies what was the Great Western Hotel, a railway hotel built in 1844 and designed by the great Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It is said to be the oldest surviving railway hotel in the world, and has been transformed into a chic and stylish 72-room hotel. (Suite101.com)
- David McKie Feb 8, 2007
The year of Mozart and Shostakovich was also the year of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, born 1806. By a happy coincidence, BBC viewers voted him during the year the second Greatest Briton Ever. (Guardian Unlimited)
Nowhere to hide? Feb 5, 2007
Although limestone had been mined here since Roman times, serious quarrying took off in the years after 1837, when Isambard Kingdom Brunel began work on Box Tunnel, a huge engineering project that would result in the world's longest subterranean stretch of railway on the main London to Bristol line. Before you enter the tunnel beyond Chippenham you will see a small industrial line branching off into the earth on the right-hand side. (Guardian Unlimited)
