阿姆斯特朗公司位于英格兰北部的纽卡斯尔市的泰恩河畔，晚晴时期，它是世界著名的军舰制造商，也是清朝中国海军军舰重要的设计、制造厂家，这些战舰中包括了在甲午海战中不幸沉没的著名的“致远”号。
除了利用丰富的常见史料外，本书还大量发掘了保存于英国各机构的档案，以当年引进的各型号军舰为经，以清朝中国各级机构和官员的相关活动为纬，详细叙述了购自阿姆斯特朗公司的数十条军舰，从如何询价、设计、定型、制造到如何接引回国以及战舰的服役、战斗经过和最终结局的历史过程，对了解清朝中国海军建设及其在世界上的位置、清朝军事现代化思路和实践、清朝官僚体制的运行状况等都有非常重要的价值。本书配发的包括各种型号舰船设计图、剖面图在内的三百余幅精美插图和历史照片，极为珍贵。

Tish Murtha's important and stunning photographic essay on the hardships of youth unemployment in Newcastle during the Thatcher years. Tish believed that photography could change lives for the better but sadly died of a brain aneurysm in 2013 before her dream of a book could be realised. Tish was born in South Shields, near Newcastle, in 1956, the 3rd of 10 children. She left school at 16 and had a variety of different jobs from selling hot dogs to working in a petrol station. After enrolling on a night photography course, Tish decided she wanted to become a photographer and was offered a place at the prestigious School of Documentary Photography at the University of Wales under the guidance of Magnum photographer David Hurn. The photographs were shot over a few years starting in 1979 and exhibited at Newcastle's Side Gallery in 1981. They captured the hardship that the North East of England suffered during the Thatcher era. It really was a desperate time - a period of bitter conflict as young people grew more and more frustrated with an economic system that deprived them of a productive and meaningful future.