Framed By A Smoking Gun: the Explosive Life of Colonel B D Shaw by Clare E Wilkes

Description

Generations of chemistry students were captivated by B D Shaw’s maverick and humorous approach to chemistry lecturing at Nottingham University.  His use of Very pistols and a Crimean War musket to demonstrate the power of explosives betrayed his parallel career in the Territorial Army. It was easy to divert him from the mechanisms of chemical reactions to tales of Prisoner of War camps in World War II, though modesty kept him from bragging about his World War I Military Medal.

This book draws on a wealth of primary sources including photographs, scripts, recorded interviews, and a treasure-trove of letters written from the POW camps to loved ones in his home towns of Nottingham and Ilkeston.  200pp