John Jackson - Author
About the Author
John Jackson was born in 1929 in rural Devon, England, close to where he lives today. He is an established author, lawyer, businessman and political and constitutional campaigner, but he is probably still best known as one of the founders, and former chairman, of the Countryside Alliance.
Featured books by John Jackson
A Little Piece of England A tale of self-sufficiency
First published in 1979, a welcome reissue of John Jackson’s description of life on a Kent small-holding. With his wife and three children (all more or less enthusiastic about the move), they buy a house high in the North Kent Weald. Almost immediately the animals started arriving revealing the family’s genius for naming them. They didn’t need to do the self-sufficiency thing, they wanted to and this account is all the more believable as we read of just as many successes as failures. The family manages to balance the financial side of farming with care and good management; they don’t always manage to keep the animals under control, their decision to breed animals like Jacobs sheep that are able to jump and evade fencing don’t make things easy. Why do we still not use odd corners of the land for crops and grazing as the Jacksons did, why not run sheep with a lone horse at pasture, a mutually beneficial practice, small ways that make the most of the land, this is an enjoyable read that we can still learn from. A 'Piece of Passion' from the author... 'This book tells a tale of how a family - my family - living in a sliver of countryside in Kent in London's commuter belt, came over some ten years, to make itself, in its 'spare time' self sufficient in its requirements for milk, meat, eggs, vegetables and some fruit.My then wife Ann and I had each grown up in the countryside and we had missed the connection with the land we had known then. As child, I had lived in a former fisherman's cottage in Dorset when self sufficiency was a matter of necessity. My father was on the dole, of which there was not much in the 1930's, and my mother was in poor health. We lived on what we could grow or forage and if the tide was right what we could get out of the sea. I remember how a conger eel caught by my father would provide us with fish cakes for a week! But the book is also about more than the activities of a family and their animals. It is an attempt to make a small statement about people's relationship with the land they live on and the importance of that relationship. I have long believed that the 'health' of a nation is better and its communities and their cultures stronger, the more it cleaves and values the land it lives on.' Like for Like Reading Spotted Pigs & Green Tomatoes: A Year in the Life of Our Farm, Rosie Boycott Tales of the Country, Brian Viner
Other books by John Jackson
Railways of Leicestershire in the Twenty-first Century
A quick look at today's map of the county of Leicestershire and it's easy to see that its county town, Leicester, sits at an important railway crossroads. With London to the south and the East Midlands cities of Derby and Nottingham to the north, the line linking St Pancras and Sheffield is crossed in Leicester by one of England's most important east to west link lines. This link provides passenger rail journey opportunities to and from Birmingham to the west and the cities of Peterborough and Cambridge to the east. In addition, it is playing an increasingly important role as a freight route to and from East Anglia, including connecting the UK's largest container port at Felixstowe with a number of terminals across the country. The line between Leicester and Burton on Trent may have lost its passenger service, but it remains an important access route to the quarries in the area around Coalville. The county's railways may have been drastically pruned by the Beeching Axe, but they still have a wide variety of traffic on offer. In this book John Jackson looks at the variety of traffic at work on the county's main lines. The story is completed by a glance at today's roll of Brush's workshops in Loughborough and loco servicing and stabling facility now occupying the former depot at Leicester itself.
Rail Rover: Freedom of the Severn and Solent
As the Rover's name suggests, the north of the area ranges from Cardiff and Bristol (close to the Severn) to Swindon and Cheltenham, then extends down to the Southampton area (on the Solent) with a coastal stretch from Portsmouth as far as Weymouth. What's more, it takes in some fascinating railway centres such as Eastleigh, Salisbury and Westbury. The Rover offers travel on a variety of express and local passenger services operated by several different train companies, combined with a variety of freight action across the region. This includes the container trains to and from Southampton Docks, steel workings to and from South Wales and stone and aggregate movements from the Mendip Hills. The author demonstrates the variety of traffic on offer today across this popular Rover ticket area.
Corporate Cybersecurity
CORPORATE CYBERSECURITY An insider's guide showing companies how to spot and remedy vulnerabilities in their security programs A bug bounty program is offered by organizations for people to receive recognition and compensation for reporting bugs, especially those pertaining to security exploits and vulnerabilities. Corporate Cybersecurity gives cyber and application security engineers (who may have little or no experience with a bounty program) a hands-on guide for creating or managing an effective bug bounty program. Written by a cyber security expert, the book is filled with the information, guidelines, and tools that engineers can adopt to sharpen their skills and become knowledgeable in researching, configuring, and managing bug bounty programs. This book addresses the technical aspect of tooling and managing a bug bounty program and discusses common issues that engineers may run into on a daily basis. The author includes information on the often-overlooked communication and follow-through approaches of effective management. Corporate Cybersecurity provides a much-needed resource on how companies identify and solve weaknesses in their security program. This important book: Contains a much-needed guide aimed at cyber and application security engineers Presents a unique defensive guide for understanding and resolving security vulnerabilities Encourages research, configuring, and managing programs from the corporate perspective Topics covered include bug bounty overview; program set-up; vulnerability reports and disclosure; development and application Security Collaboration; understanding safe harbor and SLA Written for professionals working in the application and cyber security arena, Corporate Cybersecurity offers a comprehensive resource for building and maintaining an effective bug bounty program.
Rail Rover: East Midlands Rover
In this book, the author takes full advantage of the diversity on offer as a regular user of this rail ticket. It offers the choice of three of the country's main lines stretching north to south across the ticket's boundaries (West Coast, Midland and East Coast) and a wide variety of other railway lines in between. With Milton Keynes at its southern edge and north to Sheffield and Doncaster, from Staffordshire on the West Coast Main Line eastwards to Lincolnshire and South Humberside, it is an area rich in contrasts. The rover user is spoilt for choice of passenger train operators. Express services are provided by Virgin's Pendolinos and LNER's Class 91s and, soon, state-of-the-art Azumas, among others. These are complemented by a wide variety of both diesel and electric local services ensuring every day's journey is different. The area is also one of the busiest for observing the country's freight train movements, with many of the country's acknowledged freight hotspots falling in this rover ticket's area.
Exploring Devon and Cornwall's Branch Lines
The two most westerly counties in England remain hugely popular for travellers looking for a break in the UK. Perhaps less well known is the fact that, against all the odds when faced by the Beeching Axe, a number of popular destinations can still be reached by today's railway. From Barnstaple to Gunnislake, Exmouth to Falmouth, John Jackson explores the variety of lines and stations that remain on the railway map in the counties of Devon and Cornwall. With much of the area's industry now consigned to history, there is little remaining freight traffic in the area. The main exception is the flow of Cornish china clay for export that is still carried by rail and centred on the area around Par and St Blazey. The author has spent countless hours chasing these somewhat elusive workings in recent years. From rolling countryside to seaside views, these two counties have it all.
Code Wars
When the top secret codebreaking activities at Bletchley Park were revealed in the 1970s, much of the history of the Second World War had to be rewritten. Code Wars examines the role of ULTRA (the intelligence derived from breaking secret enemy signals) on major events of the Second World War. It examines how it influenced the outcome of key battles such as D-Day, El Alamein, Crete, key naval battles, the controversy surrounding Churchill and Coventry, the shadowing of Hitler's V1 pilotless aircraft and the V2 rocket. The book also examines the pioneering work in breaking Enigma by the Polish cryptographers, and the building of Colossus, the world's first digital, programmable computer, which helped unravel the secret orders of Hitler and the German High Command. It also tells the story of the American successes in breaking Japanese signals, known as Magic. It also stresses the vital role of the intercept stations which took down the enemy messages, providing the raw material for the cryptographers to break. The book shows how the codebreakers were able to shorten the war by as much as two years and bring Signals Intelligence, in the post-war years, into a new era of military intelligence gathering.
GB Railfreight
Formed in 1999, GB Railfreight was one of several new rail freight operators to appear after the privatisation and break-up of British Rail in the 1990s. After winning a contract to operate infrastructure trains for Railtrack in 2000 the company enjoyed a long period of rapid growth to become one of the UK's principal rail freight companies, later expanding into passenger operations. Today, with a fleet of over 100 locomotives, the company operates a wide and varied range of services across the UK. This book aims to take a look at the operations and fleet of this successful rail business.
Second Generation EMUs
It is now some forty years since the term 'Second Generation EMU' entered rail industry parlance. The British Rail (BR) Class 313 heralded a new era back in 1976/77 with BR's first order of suburban passenger trains with both a pantograph (for 25Kv AC) and shoegear (for 750V DC 'third rail'). These units continue to see daily service both on north of London commuter services and on Sussex's Coastway services. Since those early days, over forty classes of EMU have entered traffic throughout what is now, of course, a privatised railway. More and more operators are able to opt for their use over DMUs as more of the country benefits from installation of an electrified railway. This book offers a look at all the classes found in the UK, as well as a look at the country's electrified lines.
Trains on the Midland Main Line
The Midland Main Line (MML) links London's St Pancras station to the East Midlands cities of Leicester, Derby and Nottingham. It then heads northwards through Chesterfield to Sheffield. Along the way, its southern section sees an extensive service of chiefly commuter services linking Bedford, Luton and St Albans both into the capital and south of it. Bedford also marks the northern end of existing electrification, although the route remains a candidate for this to be extended throughout. The iconic diesel High Speed Train fleet operates the longer distance services alongside the much newer Class 222 Meridians. With a wealth of previously unpublished photographs, John Jackson concentrates on the variety of traffic that can be seen along the MML. The branches to Corby and Matlock, which just survived the Beeching Axe, are also included. This book looks at both passenger and freight workings and the wide variety of activity on this important and busy line.
Special Advocates in the Adversarial System
The last twenty years have seen an unprecedented rise in the use of secret courts or 'closed material proceedings' largely brought about in response to the need to protect intelligence sources in the fight against terrorism. This has called into question the commitment of legal systems to long-cherished principles of adversarial justice and due process. Foremost among the measures designed to minimise the prejudice caused to parties who have been excluded from such proceedings has been the use of 'special advocates' who are given access to sensitive national security material and can make representations to the court on behalf of excluded parties. Special advocates are now deployed across a range of administrative, civil and criminal proceedings in many common law jurisdictions including the UK, Canada, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Australia. This book analyses the professional services special advocates offer across a range of different types of closed proceedings. Drawing on extensive interviews with special advocates and with lawyers and judges who have worked with them, the book examines the manner in which special advocates are appointed and supported, how their position differs from that of ordinary counsel within the adversarial system, and the challenges they face in the work that they do. Comparisons are made between different special advocate systems and with other models of security-cleared counsel, including that used in the United States, to consider what changes might be made to strengthen their adversarial role in closed proceedings. In making an assessment of the future of special advocacy, the book argues that there is a need to reconceptualise the unique role that special advocates play in the administration of justice.
The Scottish Rail Scene in the Twenty-First Century
The latest figures reveal that just under 100 million passenger journeys are made annually from over 350 stations in Scotland, but services from these stations vary widely. The heavily populated belt linking Glasgow and Edinburgh enjoys frequent services. Remote outposts such as Oban, Mallaig and Kyle of Lochalsh, meanwhile, cling to limited services that connect them to the rest of the rail network. Historically, much of Scotland's rolling stock has been hand-me-downs from elsewhere in the UK. But that is changing. The newly electrified Edinburgh to Glasgow line will see new units. In addition, there is a planned cascade of HSTs to link Scotland's other major cities. Serco is planning new rolling stock for its sleeper services to the south and Virgin East Coast will also shortly introduce new trains. Author John Jackson has travelled extensively across Scotland and here takes a look at the diversity of stations served by a variety of rolling stock before these proposed changes become reality. It also includes a look at the remaining freight traffic on offer.
Trains Around Peterborough
The city of Peterborough stands about 75 miles north of London on the East Coast Main Line (ECML). It is one of the railway's most important interchanges for both passenger and freight traffic; the services north and south are complemented by one of the most important east-to-west links, taking a variety of workings from Leicester and Nottingham to the cities and ports of East Anglia. It is a location where rail enthusiasts can be entertained by a variety of workings with the unexpected a possibility. Looking at both passenger and freight workings, John Jackson documents the rail movements around one of the key locations and most enduringly popular enthusiast spots on the East Coast Main Line.
Second Generation DMUs
It is now more than thirty years since two words synonymous with Diesel Multiple Units became part of railway parlance - 'Pacers' and 'Sprinters'. The Class 142 Pacers were introduced in the mid-1980s and, despite almost continuous criticism as to their lack of comfort, these 'nodding donkeys' remain in revenue-earning service. From these beginnings in the 1980s our rail network has seen a total of twenty or so classes of Second Generation DMUs enter service. Indeed, they are the mainstay of secondary passenger services on non-electrified lines right across the network. This book takes a closer look at these units in action with each class on display. From examples of ScotRail Class 158s and 170s on services out of Inverness to the Great Western Railway's Class 150s and 153s working services in Devon and Cornwall, this book is also a whistle-stop tour of non-electrified lines across the UK. These lines have survived into the twenty-first century and the second generation DMU has played an important part in this.
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