Search results for ""Author Roy"
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Hawker's Secret Cold War Airfield: Dunsfold: Home of the Hunter and Harrier
In 1948, Hawker Aircraft, faced with new jet projects that could not use their existing airfield at Langley, began the process of searching for alternative accommodation for their flight-testing requirements. It would, however, take three hard years before Dunsfold Aerodrome would be made available by a reluctant Air Ministry and the company was able to launch its first jet aircraft design - the Sea Hawk - into series production for the Royal Navy, closely followed by the superlative Hunter. Hawker Aircraft would go on to produce nearly 2,000 Hunters before other projects came to the fore. As Hunter production continued in the late 1950s, the company looked to its successor - the Mach 2 capable air superiority fighter designated P.1121, though this would stall before flight in the wake of serious national financial short-falls. With the loss of its premier project, the company came upon a radical new engine proposal and schemed an aircraft around it capable of vertical take-off and landing. While many decried the proposal, claiming it would never amount to anything, the Harrier would go on to prove the nay-sayers wrong as it came into its own during the Falklands War. Following the Harrier, Hawker Siddeley stepped into the competitive trainer aircraft market with the Hawk for the RAF. After completion of the RAF requirement, Hawk was sold into air arms across the world, including the US Navy, an incredible achievement for a UK design. British Aerospace then brought forth the Harrier GR.5, the UK version of the US AV-8B, a completely upgraded and improved Harrier. One might expect that this prolific output was the result of some massive industrial plant in the Midlands rather than an isolated aerodrome tucked in the rural hinterland of south Surrey. Surrounded for most of its existence by secrecy, due to the nature of its work, Dunsfold has largely escaped the notice of the general public. This work shines a light on the remarkable work carried out there.
£22.50
Hodder & Stoughton The Fallen Angel: The stunning conclusion to The King’s Witch trilogy
'An outstanding page-turner . . . historical fiction at its absolute best' - Alison Weir'An engaging heroine . . . and Borman's depiction of Villiers, with all his ruthless charisma, is striking' - The Sunday Times_____________________________________________Frances Gorges seems destined to be happy at last. King James has apparently lost his appetite for hunting witches, so the medical skills and herbal knowledge that saw Frances accused of witchcraft no longer seem to hang over her like a death sentence. The King would rather be hunting stag and boar - and Frances's beloved husband Thomas is firmly established in the royal household as the Master of Buckhounds. Their family is growing and their estates are secure.But life at court is never without intrigue, jealousy and danger for long, and a new arrival turns the world upside down.George Villiers is a young man with the face of an angel - and as his many enemies are about to discover, the cunning heart of a devil.Soon James is totally in thrall to this charismatic new lover. All the King's former favourites are crushed by Villiers' lies and ruthless scheming. Thomas's life is made a misery and Frances is back under suspicion as Villiers - rapidly made the Earl of Buckingham - moves to secure the hand and fortune of her friend Katherine Manners.Appalled at the courtier's greed and ambition and the King's weakness and lust, Frances finds herself drawn back towards her old friend Sir Walter Raleigh and his last, desperate plot to see a Catholic monarch on the throne. And then her troubles really begin...The Fallen Angel is a standalone novel of thrilling power and emotional drama. It is also the concluding volume in the King's Witch trilogy, establishing Tracy Borman as one of our leading writers of historical fiction.'Unexpected twists and turns with every page . . . masterfully crafted' - Nicola Tallis'Lots of fascinating detail and insight into James's backstabbing court . . . enjoyable' - The Times'Lush, wholly convincing and utterly gripping. Fact and fiction have rarely been blent so seamlessly' - Sarah Gristwood
£16.99
Oxford University Press Bismarck: A Life
This is the life story of one of the most interesting human beings who ever lived. A political genius who remade Europe and united Germany between 1862 and 1890 by the sheer power of his great personality. It takes the reader into close proximity with a human being of almost superhuman abilities. We see him through the eyes of his secretaries, his old friends, his neighbours, his enemies and the press. Otto von Bismarck 'made' Germany but never 'ruled' it. For twenty eight years he acted as a prime minister without a party. He made speeches, brilliant in content but hesitant in delivery, and rarely addressed a public meeting. He planned three wars and after a certain stage in his career always wore military uniform to which he had no claim. The 'Iron Chancellor', the image of Prussian militarism, suffered from hypochondria and hysteria. Contemporaries called him a 'dictator' and several observers credited him with 'demonic' powers'. They were not wrong. The sheer power of his remarkable 'sovereign sel' awed even his enemies. William I observed that it was hard to be emperor under a man like Bismarck. He towered physically and intellectually over his contemporaries. His spoken and written prose sparkled with wit, insight, grand visions and petty malice. He united Germany and transformed Europe like Napoleon before and Hitler after him but with neither their control of the state nor command of great armies. He was and remained a royal servant. This new biography explores the greatness and limits of a huge and ultimately destructive self. It uses the diaries and letters of his contemporaries to explore the most remarkable figure of the nineteenth century, a man who never said a dull thing or wrote a slack sentence. A political genius who combined creative and destructive traits, generosity and pettiness, tolerance and ferocious enmity, courtesy and rudeness - in short, not only the most important nineteenth-century statesman but by far the most entertaining.
£24.74
Oxford University Press Inc Marius Petipa: The Emperor's Ballet Master
One of the most important ballet choreographers of all time, Marius Petipa (1818 - 1910) created works that are now mainstays of the ballet repertoire. Every day, in cities around the world, performances of Swan Lake and The Sleeping Beauty draw large audiences to theatres and inspire new generations of dancers, as does The Nutcracker during the winter holidays. These are his best-known works, but others - Don Quixote, La Bayadère - have also become popular, even canonical components of the classical repertoire, and together they have shaped the defining style of twentieth-century ballet. The first biography in English of this monumental figure of ballet history, Marius Petipa: The Emperor's Ballet Master covers the choreographer's life and work in full within the context of remarkable historical and political surroundings. Over the course of ten well-researched chapters, Nadine Meisner explores Marius Petipa's life and legacy: the artist's arrival in Russia from his native France, the socio-political tensions and revolution he experienced, his popularity on the Russian imperial stage, his collaborations with other choreographers and composers (most famously Tchaikovsky), and the conditions under which he worked, in close proximity to the imperial court. Meisner presents a thrilling and exhaustive narrative not only of Petipa's life but of the cultural development of ballet across the 19th and early 20th centuries. The book also extends beyond Petipa's narrative with insightful analyses of the evolution of ballet technique, theatre genres, and the rise of male dancers. Richly illustrated with archival photographs, this book unearths original material from Petipa's 63 years in Russia, much of it never published in English before. As Meisner demonstrates, the choreographer laid the foundations for Soviet ballet and for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, the expatriate company which exercised such an enormous influence on ballet in the West, including the Royal Ballet and Balanchine's New York City Ballet. After Petipa, Western ballet would never be the same.
£30.56
Hodder & Stoughton The Private Lives of the Tudors: Uncovering the Secrets of Britain's Greatest Dynasty
'Borman approaches her topic with huge enthusiasm and a keen eye for entertaining...this is a very human story of a remarkable family, full of vignettes that sit long in the mind.' Dan Jones, The Sunday Times'Tracy Borman's eye for detail is impressive; the book is packed with fascinating courtly minutiae... this is a wonderful book.' The Times'Borman is an authoritative and engaging writer, good at prising out those humanising details that make the past alive to us.' The Observer'Fascinating, detailed account of the everyday reality of the royals... This is a book of rich scholarship.' Daily Mail'Tracy Borman's passion for the Tudor period shines forth from the pages of this fascinatingly detailed book, which vividly illuminates what went on behind the scenes at the Tudor court.' Alison Weir'I do not live in a corner. A thousand eyes see all I do.' Elizabeth IThe Tudor monarchs were constantly surrounded by an army of attendants, courtiers and ministers. Even in their most private moments, they were accompanied by a servant specifically appointed for the task. A groom of the stool would stand patiently by as Henry VIII performed his daily purges, and when Elizabeth I retired for the evening, one of her female servants would sleep at the end of her bed. These attendants knew the truth behind the glamorous exterior. They saw the tears shed by Henry VII upon the death of his son Arthur. They knew the tragic secret behind 'Bloody' Mary's phantom pregnancies. And they saw the 'crooked carcass' beneath Elizabeth I's carefully applied makeup, gowns and accessories. It is the accounts of these eyewitnesses, as well as a rich array of other contemporary sources that historian Tracy Borman has examined more closely than ever before. With new insights and discoveries, and in the same way that she brilliantly illuminated the real Thomas Cromwell - The Private Life of the Tudors will reveal previously unexamined details about the characters we think we know so well.
£13.49
Goose Lane Editions The Road to Canada: The Grand Communications Route from Saint John to Quebec
Since the last Ice Age, the only safe route into Canada's interior during the winter started at the Bay of Fundy and followed the main rivers north to the St. Lawrence River through what is now New Brunswick. Aboriginal people used this route as a major highway in all seasons and the great imperial powers followed their lead. The Grand Communications Route, as it was then called, was the only conduit for people, information and goods passing back and forth between the interior settlements and the wider world and became the backbone of empire for both England and France in their centuries of warfare over this territory. It was Joseph Robineau de Villebon, a commandant in Acadie, who first made strategic use of the route in time of war because he understood its importance in the struggle for North America. A strategic link between the Atlantic colonies and Quebec, the French made extensive use of the route to communicate and move troops between the northern settlements and Fort Beauséjour, Louisbourg, and Port-Royal. The British put great effort into maintaining and fortifying the route, building major coastal forts at Saint John to guard its entrance and erecting garrisons and blockhouses all along the way to the St Lawrence, first as a defence against the French and then to ward off the Americans. The route also played a key role in the American Revolution as well as the Aroostook War of 1839 that saw bodies of troops lining each side of the border extending from St. Andrews (NB) and Calais (ME) to Madawaska. In 1842, the Grand Communications Route and the Webster-Ashburton Treaty determined the location of the Canada—US border. It is still in use today: the Trans-Canada Highway and Route 7 follow its path. As well as telling the story of the Grand Communications Route from the earliest human habitation of the area, The Road to Canada describes the historic sites, forts, blockhouses and other historic remains that can still be visited today, including Martello Tower (Saint John), the Fort Hughes blockhouse (Oromocto), the Fort Fairfield blockhouse (Fort Fairfield, ME), Le Fortin du Petit-Sault (Edmundston), the Fort Kent blockhouse (Fort Kent, ME) and Fort Ingall (Cabano, QC). The Road to Canada is volume 5 in the New Brunswick Military Heritage Series.
£13.99
JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck) Karl Popper and the Two New Secrets of Life: Including Karl Popper's Medawar Lecture 1986 and Three Related Texts
The story of how humans and all living things came into existence is told in two widely believed versions: the Book of Genesis and Darwin's Origin of Species. It was the philosopher Karl Popper who presented us with a third story, no less important. His New Interpretation of Darwinism denies the creative power of blind chance and natural selection and establishes knowledge and activity of all living beings as the real driving forces of evolution. Thus, spiritual elements are back in the theory of evolution, and in Popper's view "the entire evolution is an adventure of the mind."In this book, Hans-Joachim Niemann establishes Karl Popper as an eminent philosopher of biology. In the first chapter, biographical details are unearthed concerning how Popper's biological interests were inspired by a biological meeting in the old windmill at Hunstanton in 1936. The second chapter focusses on the year 1986 when Popper, in several lectures, summarized the results of his life-long biological thinking. The most important of these, the Medawar Lecture given at the Royal Society London, was lost for a long time and is now printed in the Appendix. A new world view begins to emerge that is completely different from Creationism or Darwinism.Twenty years after Popper's death, the last chapter looks back on his biological thoughts in the light of new results of molecular biology. His attack at that time on long-lasting dogmas of evolutionary theory turned out to be largely justified. The new biology seems even well suited to support Popper's endeavour to overcome the gloomy aspects of Darwinism that have made organisms passive parts of a machinery of deadly competition. Neither blind chance nor natural selection are the creative forces of all life, but rather knowledge and activity. How they came into existence is still a secret and a worthwhile research programme.
£53.10
MACK Bugis Houses, Celebes
In 1983, Ursula Schulz-Dornburg accompanied two ethnologists and an architect on a research trip to Tana Toraja on the central Indonesian island of Sulawesi. Initiated by the Royal Tropical Institute of Amsterdam, the trip was intended to “explore the changing patterns in architecture and symbolism among the Sa‘dan Toraja”. On the way back from Rantepao to Ujung Pandang airport, Schulz-Dornburg passed the distinctive houses of the Bugis or To-Ugiq people, perched on the yellow paddy fields. Fascinated by their complex, expressive architectures, she began to photograph the houses in the short time she had before leaving, realising that the structures would likely not exist in their traditional form for much longer. The result is a body of work that not only surveys the houses’ physical forms but also considers wide-ranging ideas of physical and emotional homebuilding and the precarious place of tradition in the present day. Poised between heaven and earth and standing above the water when the rice fields are flooded, the Bugis houses reflect the creation myth of their people, in which the gods of the upper and lower worlds came together to create man to populate the uninhabited middle world. The farmers depicted by Schulz-Dornburg are likewise suspended between historic tradition and the impending pressures of the contemporary world. As they go about their work or greet her camera, they and their homes are held in the balance between past and future, mythology and everyday reality. With these shrewd and sensitive images, Schulz-Dornburg captures life as it is built and lived within a particular culture and landscape, offering a searching reflection on the places we call home. With a text by Sirtjo Koolhof.
£30.59
Clinical Press Ltd National Elf Service: ...Not the NHS
Paul R Goddard, a retired consultant radiologist, has taken a Swift-like move and penned a slim satirical cartoon book. A former President of various medical societies including the Radiology Section of the Royal Society of Medicine, the Bristol Medico Chirurgical Society and the MRRA (UK), Professor Goddard is no stranger to controversy. His witty cartoons will cause much merriment amongst the workers in the National Elf Service, apart, perhaps, from some of the less discerning management and political acolytes (the more discerning will undoubtedly also enjoy the book!). There is an Elf Service in Cloud Cuckoo Land, a place that is sometimes known as Faerie and Elfdom. It is strange how the National Elf Service seems to mirror our own wonderful NHS but is peculiarly different.....in our system the patients are not cranked in on a giant conveyor belt such that a new patient arrives even as the last is leaving the surgery....and there is no huge physical gulf between the managers and the clinical staff as management try to pull the doctors over the cliff edge onto the rocks of despair! (Are you sure? ed.) In Faerie (Cloud Cuckoo Land?) the Right Horrible Jellybean Shunt is in charge...so different from our own world but eerily similar. He seems to think that the junior dwarves (doctors?) can work ten days a week. To find out what happens you will have to either purchase the book or steal one from some unsuspecting NHS worker who has placed his copy within easy reach. This book will make a great present for anyone who works in the health services... perhaps as a birthday or Christmas gift for a real worker or as a retirement present for a higher management acolyte?
£7.21
Whittles Publishing Scott's Forgotten Surgeon: Dr. Reginald Koettlitz, Polar Explorer
'...In this year celebrating the centenary of the conquering of the South Pole - it is more than fitting to have one of the unregarded figures of Antarctic history brought into the limelight of remembrance'. Extract from Introduction by Dr. Ross D.E. MacPhee, American Museum of Natural History As senior surgeon on board Discovery, Dr. Reginald Koettlitz played a vital role in the heroic period of polar exploration when Nansen, Amundsen, Shackleton and Scott dominated the headlines. He was awarded a medal by the Royal Geographical Society for his role in the Discovery Expedition, 1901-04. During the earlier successful three-year Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition to Franz Josef Land, Koettlitz fine-tuned his measures to prevent scurvy, became an experienced ski runner, dog and pony handler and expert in polar survival. These skills were available when Koettlitz was appointed senior surgeon on the Discovery Expedition led by Scott, but due to personal reasons and the inability to acknowledge Koettlitz's polar experience, both Scott's expeditions were beset by major life-threatening issues that Koettlitz had faced and resolved on Franz Josef Land. On the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition Scott and his four companions died on their failed attempt to be the first to reach the South Pole. In addition, Koettlitz travelled across north-east Africa from Berbera to Cairo on foot, mule and camel, crossing the Blue Nile to Khartoum shortly after the Battle of Omdurman. Before leaving for South Africa he assisted Shackleton in planning the Nimrod Expedition which almost resulted in the South Pole being reached. This well-researched account is enriched with previously unseen archive material such as correspondence with Nansen and photographs relating to polar history during the period 1890-1916.
£18.99
University of Pennsylvania Press Ennobling Love: In Search of a Lost Sensibility
"Richard, Duke of Aquitaine, son of the King of England, remained with Philip, the King of France, who so honored him for so long that they ate every day at the same table and from the same dish, and at night their beds did not separate them. And the King of France loved him as his own soul; and they loved each other so much that the King of England was absolutely astonished at the vehement love between them and marveled at what it could mean." Public avowals of love between men were common from antiquity through the Middle Ages. What do these expressions leave to interpretation? An extraordinary amount, as Stephen Jaeger demonstrates. Unlike current efforts to read medieval culture through modern mores, Stephen Jaeger contends that love and sex in the Middle Ages relate to each other very differently than in the postmedieval period. Love was not only a mode of feeling and desiring, or an exclusively private sentiment, but a way of behaving and a social ideal. It was a form of aristocratic self-representation, its social function to show forth virtue in lovers, to raise their inner worth, to increase their honor and enhance their reputation. To judge from the number of royal love relationships documented, it seems normal, rather than exceptional, that a king loved his favorites, and the courtiers and advisors, clerical and lay, loved their superiors and each other. Jaeger makes an elaborate, accessible, and certain to be controversial, case for the centrality of friendship and love as aristocratic lay, clerical, and monastic ideals. Ennobling Love is a magisterial work, a book that charts the social constructions of passion and sexuality in our own times, no less than in the Middle Ages.
£29.99
Princeton University Press Painting by Numbers: Data-Driven Histories of Nineteenth-Century Art
A pathbreaking history of art that uses digital research and economic tools to reveal enduring inequities in the formation of the art historical canonPainting by Numbers presents a groundbreaking blend of art historical and social scientific methods to chart, for the first time, the sheer scale of nineteenth-century artistic production. With new quantitative evidence for more than five hundred thousand works of art, Diana Seave Greenwald provides fresh insights into the nineteenth century, and the extent to which art historians have focused on a limited—and potentially biased—sample of artwork from that time. She addresses long-standing questions about the effects of industrialization, gender, and empire on the art world, and she models more expansive approaches for studying art history in the age of the digital humanities.Examining art in France, the United States, and the United Kingdom, Greenwald features datasets created from indices and exhibition catalogs that—to date—have been used primarily as finding aids. From this body of information, she reveals the importance of access to the countryside for painters showing images of nature at the Paris Salon, the ways in which time-consuming domestic responsibilities pushed women artists in the United States to work in lower-prestige genres, and how images of empire were largely absent from the walls of London’s Royal Academy at the height of British imperial power. Ultimately, Greenwald considers how many works may have been excluded from art historical inquiry and shows how data can help reintegrate them into the history of art, even after such pieces have disappeared or faded into obscurity.Upending traditional perspectives on the art historical canon, Painting by Numbers offers an innovative look at the nineteenth-century art world and its legacy.
£30.00
Hodder & Stoughton Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle
**Explore the fascinating history of the real Downton Abbey as the Crawley family saga makes its way on to the big screen with Downton Abbey, the major motion picture**'Bright, breezy and unpretentious' Guardian'A loving and faithful portrait of Almina and her world' Countryfile magazine* * * * * *The story of the real Downton Abbey, told by Lady Fiona Carnarvon, chatelaine of Highclere Castle where the phenomentally successful TV series was filmed.Lady Fiona Carnarvon became the chatelaine of Highclere Castle - the setting of the hit series Downton Abbey - eight years ago. In that time she's become fascinated by the rich history of Highclere, and by the extraordinary people who lived there over the centuries. One person particularly captured Fiona's imagination - Lady Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon. Almina was the illegitimate daughter of banking tycoon Alfred de Rothschild. She was his only daughter and he doted on her. She married the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, at 19, with an enormous dowry. At first, life at Highclere was a dizzying mix of sumptuous banquets for 500 and even the occasional royal visitor. Almina oversaw 80 members of staff - many of whom came from families who had worked at Highclere for generations. But when the First World War broke out, life at Highclere changed forever. History intervened and Almina and the staff of Highclere were thrown into one of the most turbulent times of the last century. Almina was forced to draw on her deepest reserves of courage in order to ensure her family, the staff and the castle survived. This is the remarkable story of a lost time. But Highclere remains and in this book, Fiona weaves Almina's journey and those of her family into the heritage and history of one of England's most exquisite Victorian castles.
£12.99
Amberley Publishing Jigsaw Puzzles: Tactical Intelligence in the Falklands Campaign
On 2 April 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands. The British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, was determined that Argentina’s seizure of British sovereign territory would not stand. A Task Force, led by the Royal Navy, was ordered to the South Atlantic to recover the Falklands. The campaign that followed became a remarkable chapter in British military history. This book gives a ‘warts and all’ description of Giles Orpen-Smellie’s experience, as a battalion intelligence officer, of how battlefield or tactical intelligence, relevant at battalion level during the battles ashore, was collected and assessed to develop a picture of the Argentine defenders. He explains what information was known at the time, the gaps in that information and how the information that was available influenced decisions. He goes on to compare what he believed he knew in 1982 with what he now believes to have been a rather different reality. The South Atlantic was the last place on earth that Britain had expected to mount a military operation. Consequently, almost no peacetime contingency planning had been done. The campaign that followed, widely regarded as an efficient and spectacular British success, was actually a much closer-run thing than had been realised when Argentine forces on the Falklands surrendered on 14 June 1982. The British victory was won by a bloody-minded determination to ‘muddle through’ and get the job done with boldness and risk-taking overcoming the previous lack of planning and preparation. It was this determination that gave the British their edge. However, the harsh school of conflict exposed some gaps in British military training and capabilities. Tactical intelligence was one of those gaps and this book describes how tactical intelligence almost became an Achilles heel in what was otherwise an impressive British military operation.
£20.00
Yale Egyptological Institute Cult and Ritual in Persian Period Egypt: An Analysis of the Decoration of the Cult Chapels of the Temple of Hibis at Kharga Oasis
This book focuses on the decorative schemes of several chapels in the earlier part of the Temple of Hibis, one of the most important temples from Late Period Egypt. The chapels studied here were either established and/or decorated during the first Persian Period (525-404 BCE). 45 b/w illustrations & 20 pages of colour plates. Ancient Egyptian temple walls expressed royal and political ideologies, reflected the ancient Egyptian secular and spiritual world order, supplied a medium for the reenactments of assorted myths, and implied a metaphor for the universe. Despite the conventional overall architecture plan of the Temple of Hibis, it exhibits numerous particularities and, while the more prominent parts of the temple, such as the sanctuary, have been studied by numerous scholars, in other areas the decoration schemes remain largely unexplained. The chapels studied in this book were located around the main sanctuary A, but have rarely been the subject of scholarly discussions. The book concentrates on chapels F and G to the south of sanctuary A on the first level of the temple and all the decorated chapels, E1, E2, H1, and H2, on the second level of the temple. Each chapter begins with a brief description of the scenes and their basic layout and a complete translation of the accompanying texts. A more in-depth analysis regarding both text and image follows in the commentary. It includes the analysis of the different aspects of the gods, their origins, and the development of their cults that are significant to the scenes and to each other. Also discussed are their coherence, any aspects that are especially emphasized, and any other information that could be gleaned from the whole scene. The analysis tries to detail the specific composition that makes up the mosaic of the picture, wall, or room. Attention is paid to both the scenic arrangement and the hieroglyphic inscriptions, as the interpretation of one would be meaningless without the other. Attention is given to investigating the general function of the different rooms by means of their decoration and by identifying the patterns or important themes generated by the layout of the scenes. The results are summarized in the last chapter. A number of line drawings have been inserted into the text beside a described scene as an aid to the reader.
£42.00
Lexington Books The Concession of Évora Monte: The Failure of Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century Portugal
In a period when the monarch was the key figure in the Portuguese government, the struggle for the throne among members of the royal family was of crucial significance. Against a backdrop of new liberal ideas, economic conservatism, and modernization, Dom Pedro challenged his brother, Dom Miguel (the Usurper), on behalf of his young daughter (Maria II) for the throne. But this struggle for the throne, and for a workable constitution, did little to change the fundamentally agrarian economy, so that in the end neither the monarch, nor the liberal ideals of the urban elite, nor foreign pressures had any fundamental effect on society as a whole. The Concession of Évora Monte describes the economic and political problems unleashed by the Peninsular War and the evacuation of the court to Brazil; the 1820 revolution, the first Portuguese constitution, and the counter revolution; the attempt by Dom Pedro when he became king (while also emperor of Brazil) to introduce the new Constitutional Charter and pass the throne on to his young daughter; the usurpation of the throne by his brother Dom Miguel; the War of the Two Brothers in which Dom Pedro defeated Dom Miguel and forced him into exile. The signing of the Concession in 1834 marked the end of the civil war, but it did not bring peace and stability. The changes introduced by the victorious Dom Pedro did not solve the basic issues of Portuguese society, nor did the efforts of his daughter, Maria II, during the 1830s and the 1840s. Several attempts were made to impose a new liberal constitution on the country, but in the end it was the formation after 1850 of new political parties sharing the governing which brought stability. The country remained conservative despite the modernization which came to the cities but which penetrated the countryside only to a degree. This book argues that liberalism in Portugal was an urban phenomenon involving a very small minority of the people, and points to a variety of reasons for this. Portugal remained a rural, conservative society into the twentieth century and throughout the Salazar regimes until, perhaps, the Carnation Revolution in 1974.
£88.00
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Trailblazer in Flight: Britain's First Female Jet Airline Captain
Yvonne Pope Sintes only ever wanted to fly. But in the 1950s, very few women were allowed into the male dominated world of aviation. Whilst many women were consigned to the role of house-wife, Yvonne chose a different path. Her dream was to join the ranks of the Royal Air Force, crisscrossing international skies. Despite an awareness of the pitfalls that might await her, she embarked upon her mission. Her story, told here for the first time and in her own words, is one characterized by gritty determination against the odds, a startling level of achievement and a continually modest approach to life and her own accomplishments. A career trajectory marked by such landmark achievements as becoming the first female Air Traffic Controller with the Ministry of Aviation, the first female civil airline pilot in the UK, and the first female jet airline captain in Britain are relayed in this inspiring autobiography. Bomb scares, engine failures and other perilous episodes punctuated Yvonne's experience. All are enlivened during the course of the narrative. A raft of prestigious awards including the Brabazon Cup, the International Owner and Pilots Association award for best Air Traffic Controller in Europe, the Amelia Earhart memorial Scholarship for licensed pilots to advance in aviation, the Whitney Straight Award for courage and determination in pursuit of an aviation career (awarded by Princess Anne) and the British Airline Pilots Association Award for work towards air safety all were awarded to Yvonne during the course of a spectacular career, the details of which make for a truly inspiring and engrossing read. Yvonne has taken this opportunity to record the pitfalls and landmark successes of her career for posterity. She does so in a style that is at once both humble and immensely celebratory of a profession that has meant so much to her. "I first met Yvonne and her husband Miguel in Mahon during September 1992 when I was researching my book on Dan-Air. It was immediately clear that she had a rare and fascinating story that deserved telling in its entirety to reach a much wider audience. I am pleased and proud to have played a small part in making that happen!" - Graham M. Simons, Editor
£14.99
Penguin Books Ltd Christmas at Battersea: True Stories of Miracles and Hope
Christmas at Battersea: True Stories of Miracles and Hope is full of heart-warming festive tales about the bond between man and animal, from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.'Battersea Dogs & Cats Home never closes its doors, not even on Christmas Day' - Paul O'GradyOn Christmas Day this year, an army of dedicated volunteers will be making the day as special as possible for the four-legged residents of Battersea, with knitted jumpers for poorly puppies and turkey dinners for hungry kittens.Christmas at Battersea features tales of rescue from Battersea's staff, and of inspirational owners who find a place in their hearts and homes for abandoned pets.You'll meet:- Scrappie the mongrel puppy, left in a bin on the coldest day of the year- Shadow the Pug, whose loyalty helps a widow through her first Christmas alone- The litter of puppies named after Santa's reindeer, in urgent need of a home on Christmas Eve- Rosie the Staffie, rescued from a freezing lakeFeaturing tear-jerking but uplifting real life stories about the animals that have passed through Battersea's doors at Yule time, Christmas at Battersea is the perfect present for animal lovers.Battersea Dogs and Cats Home is the oldest and most-loved animal home in the country, caring for thousands of lost, abandoned or unwanted cats and dogs every year. Royalties from the sale of this book go towards supporting the work of Battersea Dogs and Cats Home (registered charity no. 206394).
£10.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Falklands Guns: The Story of the Captured Argentine Artillery that Became Part of the RAF Regiment
The Oerlikon twin 35mm anti-aircraft gun was the one weapon in the Argentine armoury which had a major impact on the British air campaign during the Falklands Conflict in 1982. Indeed, General Mario Benjamin Men ndez, transient Argentine Governor of Las Islas Malvinas, proudly boasted that: The anti-aircraft gunners were the only Argentine forces on the Malvinas not to be beaten directly by the British and can take pride in being the first and the last to fire on the enemy.' Following the Argentine surrender, what were then the latest of these Swiss-built all-weather Skyguard radar-directed guns, which had been purchased by the Argentine Government for 30 million, were recovered from the Falklands' battlefields by a young squadron leader who recognised their value to the RAF for airfield defence. That officer, Michael Fonf , was then handed the task of creating two Royal Auxiliary Air Force Regiment squadrons from scratch to operate the guns. This story of the Falkland Guns begins with an account of the experiences of three Argentine anti-aircraft artillery units during the Falklands War, drawing in part on many original Argentine documents the enemy gunners left behind, being unable to take them with them as prisoners of war. Comparisons are drawn with the inferior British equivalents by the gunners who had to man them and the obvious benefits the capture of the new Oerlikons would be to the RAF. After successfully incorporating Nos. 2729 and 2890 Squadrons into the RAF Regiment's structure - which included women in combat roles for the first time - Michael Fonf was promoted to Wing Commander. He was then handed responsibility for all RAF ground-based air defence weapons during the long years of the Cold War.
£22.50
Diversion Books American Castle: The Notorious Legacy of Mar-a-Lago
The unvarnished history of America’s most notorious palace and its American queenMoments before the Roaring Twenties sunk into the Great Depression, socialite heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post and financier E.F. Hutton constructed an estate to outdo all estates. To the tune of $4 million (about $68 million today) and four years of labor they called forth a 118-room mansion in a conflated Spanish, Portuguese, and Venetian design over a coral reef in hurricane-prone Palm Beach County. They named it Mar-a-Lago—a winter haven where corporate titans, the glitterati, and nobility gathered. But the honeymoon didn’t last long. In American Castle, Pulitzer Prize finalist Mary C. Shanklin reveals a century of controversy, politics, and lifestyles of the super-rich and powerful after Mar-a-Lago became a part-time residence and party place upon Post’s divorce from Hutton over mutual adultery. It’s a story of an American royal who, at the age of 27, inherited a cereal company that would later become the General Foods Corporation and spent a lifetime in business, art collection, philanthropy, and the management of multiple estates—including her white elephant, Mar-a-Lago. Though she tried time again, as Shanklin covers in riveting detail, Post could not offload the behemoth due to its extraordinary maintenance costs and the uppity Palm Beach neighbors.Drawing from previously untapped interviews, documents, and recordings, Shanklin follows Mar-a-Lago’s evolution as it collides with the Kennedys, the state of Florida, a potential make-over as The Mar-a-Lago Center for Advanced Scholars, Lady Bird Johnson, Richard Nixon, the National Park Service, and—of course—Donald Trump, who pursued subdivision, threatened to sell to Reverend Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church, hosted Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley, made it a for-profit club, received scandalous dinner guests, turned it into his Winter White House, and watched the FBI raid before holding a home-court presser as the first former president to face criminal charges.How did the Palm Beach hamlet so lacquered in grace and elegance come to find itself rooted in American Castle: One Hundred Years of Mar-a-Lago.
£25.19
John Murray Press Mary Churchill's War: The Wartime Diaries of Churchill's Youngest Daughter
'A daily love letter from a brave young woman to her adored father . . . immensely evocative of wartime Britain, extremely well edited, and occasionally powerfully moving' ANDREW ROBERTS, TLS'It wasn't easy being a Churchill child - and only Mary managed it with serenity and aplomb, as her diary of wartime ATS service shows' ANNE DE COURCY, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH'Mary's affectionately intimate and emotionally volatile diaries [...] are an informal record that perfectly complements Churchill's own six authoritative volumes of memoirs of the second world war ... This is a happy book' SPECTATOR'Gives a new and valuable perspective on Churchill in wartime' THE OLDIE 'A fascinating and intimate insight into the iconic Prime Minister's family life' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'I am not a great or important personage, but this will be the diary of an ordinary person's life in war time. Though I may never live to read it again, perhaps it may not prove altogether uninteresting as a record of my life'In 1939 seventeen-year-old Mary found herself in an extraordinary position at an extraordinary time: it was the outbreak of the Second World War and her father, Winston Churchill, had been appointed First Lord of the Admiralty; within months he would be Prime Minister.The young Mary Churchill was uniquely placed to observe this remarkable historical moment, and her diaries -- most of which have never been published -- provide a front-row view of the great events of war, as well as exchanges and intimate moments with her father. But they also capture what it was like to be a young woman during wartime. An impulsive and spirited writer, full of coming-of-age self-consciousness and joie de vivre, Mary's diaries are untrammelled by hindsight or self-censorship or nostalgia.From aid raid sirens at 10 Downing Street to seeing action with the ATS, from cocktail parties with presidents and royals to accompanying her father on key diplomatic trips, Mary's wartime diaries are full of colour, rich in historical insight, and a charming and intimate portrait of life alongside Winston Churchill.Compiled and edited by Mary's daughter, Emma Soames, in collaboration with The Churchill Archives Centre.
£18.00
Shepheard-Walwyn (Publishers) Ltd Saviour of the Nation: An Epic Poem of Winston Churchill's Finest Hour
This engaging poem depicts Winston Churchill as a hero, in traditional epic style and echoes the works of Homer and Virgil. The metre adds an emotional intensity to the events of 20th century history more usually found within Classical literature. The narrative covers the period from 1940, when Great Britain faced perhaps the greatest threat to its very existence as an independent nation: invasion and defeat by the rampant forces of Nazi Germany, to 1941 when the United States entered the war after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In this acute crisis King George VI appointed a man whose reputation and earlier political success were questioned by many influential figures. Yet public opinion and some wiser men and women of substance, such as Lord Halifax, the alternative choice as Prime Minister at the time, determined the outcome. Their choice was thoroughly vindicated by the events that followed. His courage, boldness, rhetoric and inspiration united the country in its solitary stand against the might of the Luftwaffe and the potential landing of the dreaded Wehrmacht on British soil. Under his leadership the Royal Air Force defeated the Luftwaffe's attack, foiling Hitler's plans to invade England to the extent that he began to think instead of attacking his apparent ally, the Soviet Union, and to leave Britain to wither alone. Churchill knew that that he had only won a respite, but he set about to strengthen the country and to turn it from defence to aggression. The bomber force was developed, the army enlarged and re-equipped, the navy set to the task of eliminating German surface marauders and submarines. The population at large were motivated to make a supreme effort to resist the still extant threat to their whole way of life. Until Hitler attacked Russia, Britain stood alone, confronting a Europe largely controlled by the Nazis and their allies. To Stalin he offered full support: Hitler was the immediate threat to a civilised world. Only when the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the USA into the war, did he realise that Germany - and Japan - were sure to be defeated. He had led the British people from the brink of utter disaster to the expectation of victory.
£10.65
APA Publications The Mini Rough Guide to Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo (Travel Guide with Free eBook)
This pocket-sized travel guide to Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo is a convenient, quick-reference companion to discovering what to do, what to see and how to get around the destination. It covers top attractions like Promenade des Anglais, La Croisette, the Musee Matisse, Zplage, The Vieux Port, as well as hidden gems, including Cap d'Ail and Royal Fort. Our Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo guide book will save you time and enhance your exploration of this fascinating region. This Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo travel guide has been fully updated post-COVID-19. This Mini Rough Guide to NICE, CANNES & MONTE CARLO covers: Nice; Cannes; Monaco; Excursions.In this guide book to Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo you will find: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EVERY TYPE OF TRAVELLER Experiences selected for every kind of trip to Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo, from cultural explorations in Vieux Nice to family activities in child-friendly places, like Colline du Chateau or chilled-out breaks in popular tourist areas, like Mougins.TOP TEN ATTRACTIONSThis Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo travel guide covers the destination's top ten attractions not to miss, including Chapelle Bellini, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Promenade des Anglais, La Croisette and a Perfect Day itinerary suggestions.COMPACT FORMATCompact, concise, and packed with essential information, with a sharp design and colour-coded sections, this guide book to Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo is the perfect on-the-move companion when you're exploring Monaco.HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL INSIGHTSIncludes an insightful overview of landscape, history and culture of Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo.WHAT TO DODetailed description of entertainment, shopping, nightlife, festivals and events, and children's activities.PRACTICAL MAPSHandy colour maps on the inside cover flaps of this travel guide to Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo will help you find your way around.PRACTICAL TRAVEL INFORMATIONPractical information on eating out, including a handy glossary and detailed restaurant listings, as well as a comprehensive A-Z of travel tips on everything from getting around to health and tourist information.STRIKING PICTURESInspirational colour photography throughout.FREE EBOOK Free eBook download with every purchase of this Nice, Cannes & Monte Carlo guide book to access all content from your phone or tablet for on-the-road exploration.
£7.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Yacht Were You Thinking?: An A-Z of Boat Names Good and Bad
Naming a boat is as personal as naming a baby (even if few male skippers would risk telling the wife that). The culmination of many years of dreaming and penny pinching, the purchase of a boat of any size is a huge event for any sailor, and with that comes serious naming pressure. Many boatowners have a secret fear that someone else got their brilliantly original name first – or ruined it for ever by reducing its reputation to snigger-worthy opprobrium. Sometimes it’s so difficult to name a boat that skippers are desperate enough to ask the sorts of people who think Boaty McBoatface would be a good choice… The perfect gift for any skipper or would-be skipper, and featuring hundreds of common and uncommon names, this entertaining little book will answer perhaps the most important question new owners should ask themselves: what will this name say about me? And as everyone knows, once you’ve named a boat, you never ever change it, so it also answers the question: what is my boat name saying about me? Names will be categorised and listed alphabetically within these chapters: - Pun Intended (some reveal a classic wit, others reveal just how many desperate unfunny dullards there are sailing around in yachts called Seas the Day) - Common as Muck (bad names – Moondancer, Wave Catcher and others that sound like names from a bad children’s novel: where they come from, why they’re bad, and how to avoid inventing another) - A Bit of Pedigree (good names – but probably too classy for you to get away with copying them) - Don’t Even Go There (they might be uncommon these days, but sometimes there’s a good reason for that) - Word Piracy (expressions borrowed from other languages - with varying degrees of wisdom) - Myths, Legends and Gods (inspired by heroes and deities of cultures now lost to the past) - The Devil’s Own (don’t tempt fate by calling your boat Invincible, as the Royal Navy did each time the last one sank/exploded – plus other superstition-violating names) With fascinating history, a fair bit of psychology and a lot of humour, this is the essential guide for all would-be boat owners, and anyone buying a gift for Dad for Father’s Day or Christmas.
£9.99
Simon & Schuster Ltd The Last Tudor
‘How long do I have?’ I force a laugh.‘Not long,’ he says very quietly. ‘They have confirmed your sentence of death. You are to be beheaded tomorrow. We don’t have long at all.’ Jane Grey was Queen of England for nine days. Using her position as cousin to the deceased king, her father and his conspirators put her on the throne ahead of the king’s half-sister Mary, who quickly mustered an army, claimed her crown and locked Jane in the Tower. When Jane refused to betray her Protestant faith, Mary sent her to the executioner’s block. There Jane turned her father’s greedy, failed grab for power into her own brave and tragic martyrdom. ‘Learn you to die’ is the advice that Jane gives in a letter to her younger sister Katherine, who has no intention of dying. She intends to enjoy her beauty and her youth and find love. But her lineage makes her a threat to the insecure and infertile Queen Mary and, when Mary dies, to her sister Queen Elizabeth, who will never allow Katherine to marry and produce a potential royal heir before she does. So when Katherine’s secret marriage is revealed by her pregnancy, she too must go to the Tower. ‘Farewell, my sister,’ writes Katherine to the youngest Grey sister, Mary. A beautiful dwarf, disregarded by the court, Mary finds it easy to keep secrets, especially her own, while avoiding Elizabeth’s suspicious glare. After watching her sisters defy the queen, Mary is aware of her own perilous position as a possible heir to the throne. But she is determined to command her own destiny and be the last Tudor to risk her life in matching wits with her ruthless and unforgiving cousin Elizabeth. Praise for Philippa Gregory: ‘Meticulously researched and deeply entertaining, this story of betrayal and divided loyalties is Gregory on top form’ Good Housekeeping ‘Gregory has popularised Tudor history perhaps more than any other living fiction writer…all of her books feature strong, complex women, doing their best to improve their lives in worlds dominated by men’ Sunday Times ‘Engrossing’ Sunday Express ‘Popular historical fiction at its finest, immaculately researched and superbly told’ The Times
£18.00
Little, Brown & Company Antoinette's Sister
As Marie Antoinette took her last breath as Queen of France in Paris, another formidable monarch-Antoinette's dearly beloved sister, Charlotte-was hundreds of miles away, in Naples, fighting desperately to secure her release from the revolutionaries who would take her life. Little did Charlotte know, however, that her sister's execution would change the course of history-and bring about the end of her own empire."You are the queen. You are the queen that Antoinette wanted to be."Austria 1767: Maria Carolina Charlotte-tenth daughter and one of sixteen children of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria-knows her position as a Habsburg archduchess will inevitably force her to leave her home, her family, and her cherished sister, Antoinette, whose companionship she values over all else. But not yet. The Habsburg family is celebrating a great triumph: Charlotte's older sister, Josepha, has been promised to King Ferdinand IV of Naples and will soon take her place as queen. Before she can journey to her new home, however, tragedy strikes. After visiting the family crypt, Josepha contracts smallpox and dies. Shocked, Charlotte is forced to face an unthinkable new reality: she must now marry Ferdinand in her sister's stead.Bereft and alone, Charlotte finds that her life in Naples is more complicated than she could ever have imagined. Ferdinand is weak and feckless, and a disastrous wedding night plunges her into despair. Her husband's regent, Tanucci, a controlling and power-hungry man, has pushed the country to the brink of ruin. Overwhelmed, she asks her brother Leopold, now the Holy Roman Emperor, to send help-which he does in the form of John Acton, a handsome military man twenty years Charlotte's senior who is tasked with overseeing the Navy. Now, Charlotte must gather the strength to do what her mother did before her: take control of a country.In a time of political uprisings and royal executions and with the increasingly desperate crisis her favorite sister, Queen Marie Antoinette, is facing in France, how is a young monarch to keep hold of everything-and everyone-she loves? Find out in this sweeping, luxurious tale of family, court intrigue, and power.
£20.00
Pen & Sword Books Ltd HMS Terror: The Design, Fitting and Voyages of the Polar Discovery Ship
In the summer of 1845, Sir John Franklin and a crew of 128 men entered Lancaster Sound on board HMS Erebus and HMS Terror in search of a Northwest Passage. The sturdy former bomb ships were substantially strengthened and fitted with the latest technologies for polar service and, at the time, were the most advanced sailing vessels developed for Polar exploration. Both ships, but especially HMS Terror, had already proven their capabilities in the Arctic and Antarctic. With such sophisticated, rugged, and successful vessels, victory over the Northwest Passage seemed inevitable, yet the entire crew vanished, and the ships were never seen again by Europeans. Finally, in 2014, the wreck of HMS Erebus was discovered by Parks Canada. Two years later, the wreck of HMS Terror was found, sitting upright, in near pristine condition. The extraordinarily well-preserved state and location of the ships, so far south of their last reported position, raises questions about the role they played in the tragedy. Did the extraordinary capabilities of the ships in fact contribute to the disaster? Never before has the Franklin Mystery been comprehensively examined through the lens of its sailing technology. This book documents the history, design, modification, and fitting of HMS Terror, one of the world's most successful polar exploration vessels. Part historical narrative and part technical design manual, this book provides, for the first time, a complete account of Terror's unique career, as well as an assessment of her sailing abilities in polar conditions, a record of her design specifications, and a full set of accurate plans of her final 1845 configuration. Based on meticulous historical research, the book details the ship's every bolt and belaying pin, and ends with the discovery and identification of the wreck in 2016, explaining how the successes and ice-worthiness of Terror may have contributed to the Franklin disaster itself. It is an ideal reference for those interested in the Franklin Mystery, in polar exploration, the Royal Navy, and in ship design and modelling.
£27.00
Barry Michael Rose Sitting on a Pin: A Musical Memoir
Dr. BARRY ROSE, OBE Born in 1934, Barry Rose originally set out on a career in insurance, but at the age of 24 he suddenly quit the world of commerce, and became a mature student at the Royal Academy of Music. Whilst there, and still without any musical qualifications, he was appointed as the first Organist and Master of the Choristers of the new Guildford Cathedral, founding and directing a choir which made several award-winning recordings for EMI (including Platinum, Gold and Silver discs). In 1974 he was invited to move to St. Paul’s Cathedral, where he took over the training the world-famous choir, directing them at many great State Occasions, including The Queen’s Silver Jubilee and the 1981 wedding of The Prince of Wales. His recordings with the Cathedral choir range from Mozart and Handel with Dame Kiri te Kanawa to a gold-disc recording of the pop-song My Way and the original soundtrack of The Snowman. From St. Paul’s Barry moved on to run the choral music at The King’s School, Canterbury, but was lured back into Cathedral music at St. Albans Abbey and Cathedral in 1988 – where he stayed until Christmas 1997. With the St. Albans choir he toured the USA no less than five times, as well as making recordings and broadcasts. Barry was also the BBC’s Music Adviser to the Head of Religious Broadcasting – a post he was to hold from 1971-1990, broadcasting regularly as conductor, organist, pianist, and even writing and presenting a series of church music programmes on BBC2. With his brother-in-law he also founded and produced recordings for GUILD RECORDS, as well as acting as recording producer for other choirs on different record labels. A regular visitor to the USA since 1974, he has been visiting director of several high-profile choirs on the East Coast, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and many European countries. Married, with three grown-up children, he and his wife Elizabeth (to whom the book is dedicated) now live in rural Somerset, where he still makes music and enjoys his hobby of collecting and restoring vintage fountain pens.
£18.95
Oxford University Press Heligoland: Britain, Germany, and the Struggle for the North Sea
On 18 April 1947, British forces set off the largest non-nuclear explosion in history. The target was a small island in the North Sea, fifty miles off the German coast, which for generations had stood as a symbol of Anglo-German conflict: Heligoland. A long tradition of rivalry was to come to an end here, in the ruins of Hitler's island fortress. Pressed as to why it was not prepared to give Heligoland back, the British government declared that the island represented everything that was wrong with the Germans: 'If any tradition was worth breaking, and if any sentiment was worth changing, then the German sentiment about Heligoland was such a one'. Drawing on a wide range of archival material, Jan Rüger explores how Britain and Germany have collided and collaborated in this North Sea enclave. For much of the nineteenth century, this was Britain's smallest colony, an inconvenient and notoriously discontented outpost at the edge of Europe. Situated at the fault line between imperial and national histories, the island became a metaphor for Anglo-German rivalry once Germany had acquired it in 1890. Turned into a naval stronghold under the Kaiser and again under Hitler, it was fought over in both world wars. Heavy bombardment by the Allies reduced it to ruins, until the Royal Navy re-took it in May 1945. Returned to West Germany in 1952, it became a showpiece of reconciliation, but one that continues to wear the scars of the twentieth century. Tracing this rich history of contact and conflict from the Napoleonic Wars to the Cold War, Heligoland brings to life a fascinating microcosm of the Anglo-German relationship. For generations this cliff-bound island expressed a German will to bully and battle Britain; and it mirrored a British determination to prevent Germany from establishing hegemony on the Continent. Caught in between were the Heligolanders and those involved with them: spies and smugglers, poets and painters, sailors and soldiers. Far more than just the history of a small island in the North Sea, this is the compelling story of a relationship which has defined modern Europe.
£15.99
Transworld Publishers Ltd Touching Cloth: Confessions and communions of a young priest
'Touching Cloth can be compared to Adam Kay's This Is Going to Hurt and the writings of the Secret Barrister' Observer'I laughed my way through this... Funny, fascinating, and gorgeously humane' Marina Hyde'Funny and touching in equal measure' Tom HollandA laugh-out-loud memoir of becoming a 21st-century priest, Touching Cloth is also a love letter to the Prayer Book, Liverpool, funerals, cake tins, lager and, above all, to what the Church of England can be at its best. The very word 'reverend' inspires solemnity. To be a priest is to dedicate one's life to quiet prayer and spiritual contemplation. Isn't it?Fergus Butler-Gallie reveals what it's like to become a priest in the twenty-first century. Find out why black really is slimming, how to keep a straight face when someone is inadvertently hot-boxing a funeral, and which royal-themed biscuit tin can best contain a very loud personal alarm that no one knows how to switch off. Spot a sweet old lady trying to pay for a taxi with coinage from fascist Spain? Congratulations, shepherd, she's your problem now.Behind the daily scrapes is an all-too-human love letter to the Church of England, and the amazing variety of people who manage to keep it going, providing a listening ear, company and community at a time when so many people desperately need it, as well as a reflection on what it means to follow a spiritual path amid the chaos of the modern world.
£16.99
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Confessions: A Life of Failed Promises
When you combine the deepest learning and the highest readability with the most plumptious story-telling, the result is A. N. Wilson … Stephen Fry Known for his journalism, biographies and novels, A. N. Wilson turns a merciless searchlight on his own early life, his experience of sexual abuse, his catastrophic mistakes in love and his life in Grub Street as a prolific writer. Before he came to London, as one of the “Best of Young British” novelists, and Literary Editor of the Spectator, we meet another A. N. Wilson. We meet his father, the Managing Director of Wedgwood, the grotesque teachers at his first boarding school, and the dons of Oxford – one of whom, at the age of just 20, he married, the renowned Shakespearean scholar, the late Katherine Duncan-Jones. At every turn of this reminiscence, Wilson is baffled by his earlier self – whether flirting with unsuitable lovers or with the idea of the priesthood. His chapter on the High Camp seminary which he attended in Oxford is among the funniest in the book. We follow his unsuccessful attempts to become an academic, his aspirations to be a Man of Letters, and his eventual encounters with the famous, including some memorable meetings with royalty. The princesses, dons, paedophiles and journos who cross the pages are as sharply drawn as figures in his early comic fiction. But there is also a tenderness here, in his evocation of those whom he has loved, and hurt, the most.
£10.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Coastal Defences of the British Empire in the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Eras
Far more than an architecture book, Coastal Defences of the British Empire in the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Eras is a sweeping reinterpretation of the Martello towers, Grand Redoubts, Royal Military Canal and other new defence infrastructure. Lavishly illustrated with period maps, views, portraits, cartoons and newly commissioned colour photographs, it includes not only these structures' forerunners, and plans that were never executed, but also the grand strategy that informed them. At its best, this saw Britain's position as a vast land battle, with the deadly threat of the French-held Antwerp navy yards on its own 'left wing', and Lisbon as the enemy's 'weak left' to be 'turned'. The book also takes in the astonishingly inventive, bold and bloody small-boat wars that raged from the Baltic and Channel coast to Chesapeake Bay and Lake Ontario, and provides vivid pen-sketches of the now-obscure and sometimes deeply flawed strategic visionaries, engineers, inventors, and fighting men who held the line as - even after Trafalgar - the forces of an ever more powerful French empire circled like sharks. Along the way, it traces a fundamental change in the nature of war and society: from a ponderous game of fortresses and colonies played by rulers, to murderous 'foot by foot' defence of the whole territory of the nation by 'both sexes and every social type'.
£22.50
Amberley Publishing The Fall of Charles I
Was Charles I a tyrant? He was a small man with a stammer who inherited three kingdoms when young but ultimately lost his head. His mistakes were blatant but the conflicts that arose over religion and royal power would have tested a more skilful king. First with Scotland, then in Ireland and finally in England, powerful men with strong passions set themselves in opposition to him. English MPs, Scottish Calvinists and Irish Catholics all made demands. A nervous man and poor negotiator, Charles was nonetheless a courageous general. As sides coalesced and broke apart, new forms of government were hotly debated but no agreement reached. It was a tragic time, with lives and fortunes lost; for Ireland it was a catastrophe as England broke Irish Catholic society and confiscated land. Yet it was also a time of radical ideas, commercial success and scientific advancement. Who were Charles Stuart and Henrietta‑Maria, his French queen? What motivated their opponents, and why was it Oliver Cromwell who rose to power? Extraordinary characters like Alasdair MacDonald, John Lilburne, Murrough the Burner and Montrose all blazed their trails. This book combines the story of all three kingdoms and explores the motives of the principal protagonists to show why government collapsed and the king was finally executed.
£20.00
SPCK Publishing Caves, Coprolites and Catastrophes: The Story of Pioneering Geologist and Fossil-Hunter William Buckland
‘An irresistible biography of one of Oxford’s most colourful characters.’ John Hedley Brooke In 1824, William Buckland stood in front of the Royal Geological Society and told them about the bones he had been studying – the bones of an enormous, lizard-like creature, that he called Megalosaurus. This was the first full account of a dinosaur. During his life, Buckland would also demonstrate changes in the earth’s climate, champion health reform, wage war on slum landlords, and become infamous for eating everything he could, even a mummified human heart. Yet his name has been largely, and unjustly, forgotten. In this brilliantly entertaining, colourful biography – the first to be written for over a century – Allan Chapman brings William Buckland back into the light and explores his fascinating life in full. From his pioneering of geology and agricultural science to becoming Dean of Westminster, Caves, Coprolites and Catastrophes reveals a giant of intellect whose achievements helped revolutionise the British scientific community. Carefully balancing Buckland’s more eccentric escapades with his scientific prowess and the clash between science and religion in the 19th Century, Caves, Coprolites and Catastrophes is vivid, informative and thoroughly compelling. A captivating story packed full of compelling insights into the world of Victorian science and its relationship with the Christian faith, Caves, Coprolites and Catastrophes is an unmissable biography of an exceptional scientist whose legacy extends down to this day.
£17.99
Headline Publishing Group Delicacy: AS SEEN ON BBC2’S BETWEEN THE COVERS
'Mesmerising . . . an extraordinary piece of writing.' - The i paper'A book that has the rare quality of being both poetic and accessible . . . missing Delicacy would be a huge mistake.' - Guardian'A book that gets wiser, darker, and more brutally truthful every time you turn the page. Word of mouth is slowly turning it into a passionately recommended cult hit. A book you give a friend in trouble.' - Caitlin Moran'Hilarious . . . heartbreaking.' - The Observer'A layer cake of truth, pain and wisdom iced with charm. I loved it.' - Sue PerkinsFrom award-winning comedian and writer Katy Wix comes Delicacy - a different kind of memoir from an astonishing new voice. Twenty-one snapshots of a life - some staccato, raw and shocking, some expansive, meditative, and profound, underpinned with moments of startling humour that shatter the darkness - all beginning with a single memory. A memory of cake. The sickly royal icing marked the moment Katy found her voice. The madeira cake was the sun her group therapy sessions orbited. The 'missing cake' from a lost holiday has never let go. The Bara brith eaten in hospital after a life-altering car crash was as tough as the metal that hit her. The supermarket rock cake was where she 'practised wanting'. Shocking, raw, darkly funny and deeply humane, Katy Wix's exploration of trauma, grief, addiction, love, loss, memory and hope is truly unforgettable.'Painfully raw and incredibly funny' - Simon Amstell 'A book that offers many pleasures . . . hectically funny, eloquently angry.' - TLS'Katy sees the world like no one else and deciphers it with extraordinary beauty. Delicacy took my breath away' - Lolly Adefope'Heartbreaking, ridiculously clever and laugh out loud funny. One of the best books on trauma I've ever read' - Scarlett Curtis 'Fabulous story-telling and completely delicious writing' - Cariad Lloyd, host of Griefcast 'Katy is a stunning writer, seamlessly moving between bitingly funny moments and moments that make you violently, cathartically sob at 2am. An absolute belter of a book that stays with you' - Roisin Conaty 'Brilliantly original, funny and insightful. Dry and comic, but also very moving. I absolutely loved Delicacy' - Katy Brand'Gentle, heartbreaking, laugh out loud funny and poetically told - an intimate memoir that stays with you' - Rose Matafeo'A stunning book in which darkness and light, tragedy and humour, pain and hope are all masterfully, affectingly balanced' - Liam Williams'Deeply comforting in how relatable it is, hilarious, and moving. I felt like this book was my best friend as soon as I started reading it' - Mae Martin'Brimming with graceful, charming writing - this book perfectly encapsulates so many moments we face as girls and women and I only wish I'd read it sooner' - Kiri Pritchard-McLean'Honest, raw, profound, deeply moving and funny' - Bridget Christie
£11.55
Taschen GmbH BIG. Yes is More. An Archicomic on Architectural Evolution
Yes is More is the easily accessible but unremittingly radical manifesto of Copenhagen-based architectural practice Bjarke Ingels Group, or BIG.Unlike a typical architectural monograph, this book uses the comic book format to express its groundbreaking agenda for contemporary architecture. It is also the first comprehensive documentation of BIG’s trailblazing practice—where method, process, instruments, and concepts are constantly questioned and redefined. Or, as the group itself says:“Historically, architecture has been dominated by two opposing extremes: an avant-garde full of crazy ideas, originating from philosophy or mysticism; and the well organized corporate consultants that build predictable and boring boxes of high standard. Architecture seems entrenched: naively utopian or petrifyingly pragmatic. We believe there is a third way between these diametric opposites: a pragmatic utopian architecture that creates socially, economically, and environmentally perfect places as a practical objective. At BIG we are devoted to investing in the overlap between radical and reality. In all our actions we try to move the focus from the little details to the BIG picture.” Bjarke Ingels attracts highly talented coworkers, but also gifted and ambitious clients from all over the world. He then creates intelligent synergies from wild energies and unforeseen dynamics, and transforms them into surprising, functional, valuable, and beautiful solutions to the specific and complex challenges in each task. BIG projects have won awards from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Architecture Biennale, as well as many other international prizes. Yes is More is a play on words that represents the company’s ethos and sums up its irreverent attitude towards excessive formalism, and its determination to involve the population at large in its creations. As an extension of its methods and results, its debut monograph uses the most approachable and populist means of communication available—the comic.
£25.00
Quarto Publishing Group USA Inc Inside Out Medieval Castle: Volume 2
Step into the past, a world of stone and steel—and excitement! With beautiful illustrations and captivating text, an interactive die-cut model reveals the many parts of a medieval castle. Though most people live in regular houses now, castles have influenced both architecture and lifestyles across the centuries. From their original purpose of defense and protection, to their housing of royalty and knights, Inside Out Medieval Castle includes everything you need to start your medieval adventure, from scaling a tower to outfitting an armory. After an introduction to the history of castles in medieval Europe, explore every nook and cranny of this amazing structure, including the castle’s: Portcullis, a grand, stake-bottomed entrance gate made of iron-covered oak that was moved up and down in stone grooves Murder holes, located in the castle’s ceiling, through which boiling water, heated sand, or rocks could be poured on intruders Squints, slits in the entryway walls that guards used to safely spy on, and sometimes shoot arrows at, visitors Tower staircases, which spiraled downward to the left so defenders could run down wielding swords in their right hands, while attacker coming up fought left-handed Garderobes, toilets found in some castles that consisted of a stone slab with a round hole that took waste down a shaft into the moat or cesspit Along the way, learn about the lives of the castle’s inhabitants and keepers, from the highly trained knights and powerful lords to the constables, bottlers (a title that later became “butler”), and messengers. Take a look, stay the night—you never know what you’ll uncover!
£12.99
GB Publishing Org Autobiology of a Vet: The life story of a veterinary surgeon - from the suburbs of South London to rural Kent via Africa
Opening with his award of Membership of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the book relates John's personal and family history from his English and Belgian parents and grandparents and their roles in two World Wars. His Belgian grandparents were evacuated to England in the first war: his father was shot at by the Germans during the liberation of Antwerp and his mother bombed in a pub in South London while serving in the London Auxiliary Ambulance Service in the second. Managing to get into veterinary college from a large comprehensive school in South London, John recounts tales from his studies and goes on to discuss various major debates which occurred during his career, including vaccinations and the anti-vaccine lobby. The role of badgers and TB is also discussed. The tale of his experience of meeting children with the drug-induced injury of thalidomide is both life-affirming and tear-jerking. His time in East Africa, including his experiences in Uganda under Idi Amin's dictatorship, is chilling but still funny and up-lifting. The tales of his experiences in general and specialist veterinary practice, with memorable farm, horse, dog and cat cases are enlightening, educational and sometimes sad but often very hilarious. The horrific experiences with foot-and-mouth disease will get any animal lover in tears and questioning what happened and why? But the option of a Vegan Utopia in a world without farm animals is dismissed as a sad alternative as demonstrated when large swathes of the United Kingdom were left without stock after the outbreak.
£10.64
Black Dog Press On the Road: Parking Markings: An artist’s book by Allen Jones
Allen Jones RA’s 52-page book On the Road: Parking Markings takes the reader on a graphic visual journey… by road.“Since roads were first bisected by a white line, a pictorial language has evolved that, in classic parlance, is the first or Primitive phase in ever-developing visual vocabulary,” says Jones. “Parking markings were introduced during my final years as a student. Produced with stencils, these marks are enlivened by human error and chance.“Because of increasing traffic during the 1960s a change was needed. Yellow represented a new and Classical phase, telling us what we should NOT do,” the artist continues. “Familiarity breeds contempt and by the 1990s the problem required desperate measures. Red, the colour of danger, anger and hell marked a third, Baroque phase in the developing language of road marking.“During the 1950s we were asked politely – in white. During the 1960s we were told – in yellow. During the 1990s we were shouted at – in red. Now the air – is blue.”Jones was elected a Royal Academician in 1986. He is one of Britain’s most distinguished artists from the pioneering Pop Movement, whose paintings and sculptures are held in many important international collections, including: Tate Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC, the Museum of 20th-Century Art in Vienna, the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.On the Road: Parking Markings is one of a collection of four artist’s books by Allen Jones that Black Dog Press is releasing in September 2022.
£17.95
McFarland & Co Inc The Plays of Thomas Kilroy: A Critical Study
Born in Ireland in 1934, Thomas Kilroy attended the University College of Dublin, where he received a degree in education that led to a teaching career. With the 1973 success of his novel ""The Big Chapel"", Kilroy took a break from teaching and devoted time to writing for the stage. Although he returned to the university scene in 1979 with a professorship at the University of Galway, he remained active in the dramatic arts, becoming a member of the Royal Society for Literature and the Irish Academy of Letters. Today, he has a number of plays and adaptations to his credit including ""The O'Neill"", ""The Death and Resurrection of Mr. Roche"", ""Tea and Sex and Shakespeare"" and an adaptation of ""Ibsen's Ghosts"". This appraisal of the works of Thomas Kilroy focuses on the common themes and methodology of his plays, including an unusual alliance between serious theatrical complexity and varied but demanding forms of comedy. A separate chapter is devoted to each play with the exception of ""The Death and Resurrection of Mr. Roche"" and ""The MacAdam Travelling Theatre"", whose complementary themes are discussed together. Reflecting on the essence of theatre, Kilroy's works combine meditations on humanity with references to Irish history, generally using historical reality as a dramatic starting point. Plays discussed include Kilroy originals such as ""Talbot's Box"", ""The Secret Fall of Constance Wilde and Blake"" as well as adaptations of well-known works such as ""The Seagull and Henry"". Interviews with stage directors and the playwright himself contribute to this in-depth analysis of Kilroy's dramatic art. Photographs of staged plays and a list of premieres of Kilroy's works (plays and adaptations) are also included.
£35.96
Simon & Schuster Ltd The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music
THE SUNDAY TIMES NO 1 BESTSELLER * ONE OF NME's BEST MUSIC BOOKS OF 2021 * ONE OF VARIETY'S BEST MUSIC BOOKS OF 2021 * INCLUDED IN AUDIBLE'S BEST OF THE YEAR LISTSo, I’ve written a book. Having entertained the idea for years, and even offered a few questionable opportunities (‘It’s a piece of cake! Just do four hours of interviews, find someone else to write it, put your face on the cover, and voila!’), I have decided to write these stories just as I have always done, in my own hand. The joy that I have felt from chronicling these tales is not unlike listening back to a song that I’ve recorded and can’t wait to share with the world, or reading a primitive journal entry from a stained notebook, or even hearing my voice bounce between the Kiss posters on my wall as a child. This certainly doesn’t mean that I’m quitting my day job, but it does give me a place to shed a little light on what it’s like to be a kid from Springfield, Virginia, walking through life while living out the crazy dreams I had as young musician. From hitting the road with Scream at 18 years old, to my time in Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, jamming with Iggy Pop or playing at the Academy Awards or dancing with AC/DC and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, drumming for Tom Petty or meeting Sir Paul McCartney at Royal Albert Hall, bedtime stories with Joan Jett or a chance meeting with Little Richard, to flying halfway around the world for one epic night with my daughters…the list goes on. I look forward to focusing the lens through which I see these memories a little sharper for you with much excitement.
£10.99
Cannibal/Hannibal Publishers A.F.Vandevorst: Ende Neu
A fascinating insight into the stimulating universe of Belgium's cult fashion designer duo A.F. Vandevorst. A universe of fetishes, fur, leather, sensual folds and tight straitjackets... That is what Belgian fashion designers A.F. Vandevorst stand for. This publication celebrates their twentieth anniversary. An Vandevorst and Filip Arickx met in 1987, on their first day of school at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. Ten years later, they set up their company Blixa and presented their first collection as A.F. Vandevorst in Paris. They have collaborated with such people as the flamboyant and world-famous hat designer Stephen Jones and have grown to become one of Belgium's most edgy cult designers, closely connected to the Antwerp Six (Dries Van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester, Walter Van Beirendonck ). With fashion shows and flagship stores in Paris, New York and London, they are much respected internationally and hugely admired in Japan. A.F. Vandevorst's aesthetics are the result of their strong love for the visual arts, music and literature and of their great interest in cultural archetypes. This book focuses on their diverse inspirations, including Joseph Beuys, the military and the medical scene, and is a collaboration with artists to whom An and Filip feel strongly connected. Among them is Blixa Bargeld (Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds/Einsturzende Neubauten), who was the source of their first company's name and has been a big inspiration ever since. Following an intuitive order, this book gives an intimate, very exciting and stimulating insight into the fascinating world of A.F. Vandevorst. Be inspired by twenty years of limitless passion for fashion.
£65.00
Filament Publishing Ltd Diana: The Voice of Change
Diana The Voice of Change throws a new light on the most famous woman of her time. Discover the truth about Diana s extraordinary life principles. Learn what created her love and the secret keys that focused her destiny. You can use these same keys to focus your own destiny, to help you find the voice of change that resonates with your whole being, and assists you to live your soul s purpose. This is the legacy that Diana wanted to give the women and men of the world! Learn: how Diana achieved freedom from oppression how she became a force of liberation that literally shook the world why she was taken from us to become a force of Divine Inspiration. Although Diana may no longer be in flesh, her spirit lives on communicating to us all. If you've wondered how Diana Princess of Wales developed the courage and power to bring about vast change in her life and that of the Royal Family, you can find out right here. If you would like to discover where Diana's love, hope and radiance came from, those essential qualities that helped to heal the colossal challenges she faced, and then moved her to become the Global Super Star, the information is within Stewart's extraordinary book "DIANA THE VOICE OF CHANGE". If you were startled by Diana's beauty and essence this book will reveal the key principles and empowerments that gave her the ability to express the wonder and awe that you so admired and still hear about - this book could even be an answer to some of your challenges!
£18.00
Transworld Publishers Ltd Boris Johnson: The Neverending Tory: The Adventure Where You Take Back Control
Now that Boris Johnson has left Downing Street to spend more time with his families, you can celebrate/lament his departure with this multiple-choice adventure where you take back control. Packed with 350 million* endings, this is the perfect stocking filler this Christmas.(* - this figure may be misleading).Yes, you are Boris Johnson, about to embark on a quest to fulfil your childhood ambition to be World King, a position so important that you will have to invent it first.It's not going to be easy.You will be entranced by a monster called Trump, bewitched by a sorceress called Carrie, captivated by your backbench Orcs - and royally shafted by a little hobgoblin called Michael Gove.Not everyone wants you to be World King.So watch out for those false turns which see you begging Prince Harry for a job, rotting in a Dubai jail, recruited by the KGB, wandering round Kabul trying to find 150 dogs to rescue, starting WWIII or mistaking wine, cheese, vomit and karaoke for a work event.And try instead to use your magical powers to become the Emperor of this land; the star of the hit musical "Boris on Broadway"; or even the PM who leads Britain back into the EU in 2024.Yes, you are The Neverending Tory.And this is your story.Kids of all ages love The Neverending Tory:"I read the endings where he doesn't become Prime Minister again and again"T. May, age 65, Maidenhead"I have never been Prime Minister, but this book gave me the chance to see what it might be like"J. Corbyn, age 73, The Allotment, North London
£9.99
Greenhill Books Bletchley Park's Secret Source: Churchill's Wrens and the Y Service in World War II
The World War II codebreaking station at Bletchley is well-known and its activities documented in detail. Its decryption capabilities were vital to the war effort, significantly aiding Allied victory. But where did the messages being deciphered come from in the first place? This is the extraordinary untold story of the Y-Service, a secret even more closely guarded than Bletchley Park. The Y-Service was the code for the chain of wireless intercept stations around Britain and all over the world. A few hundreds of wireless operators, many of them who were civilians, listened to German, Italian and Japanese radio networks and meticulously logged everything they heard. Some messages were then used tactically but most were sent on to Station X - Bletchley Park - where they were deciphered, translated and consolidated to build a comprehensive overview of the enemy's movements and intentions. Peter Hore delves into the fascinating history of the Y-service, with particular reference to the girls of the Women's Royal Naval Service: Wrens who escaped from Singapore to Colombo as the war raged, only to be torpedoed in the Atlantic on their way back to Britain; the woman who had a devastatingly true premonition that disaster would strike on her way to Gibraltar; the Australian who went from being captain of the English Women's Cricket team to a WWII Wren to the head of Abbotleigh girls school in Sydney; how the Y-service helped to hunt the German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic, and how it helped to torpedo a Japanese cruiser in the Indian Ocean. Together, these incredible stories build a picture of World War II as it has never been viewed before.
£19.99
Little, Brown Book Group Mutiny on the Bounty: A saga of sex, sedition, mayhem and mutiny, and survival against extraordinary odds
The mutiny on HMS Bounty, in the South Pacific on 28 April 1789, is one of history's great epics - and in the hands of Peter FitzSimons it comes to life as never before.Commissioned by the Royal Navy to collect breadfruit plants from Tahiti and take them to the West Indies, the Bounty's crew found themselves in a tropical paradise. Five months later, they did not want to leave. Under the leadership of Fletcher Christian most of the crew mutinied soon after sailing from Tahiti, setting Captain William Bligh and 18 loyal crewmen adrift in a small open boat. In one of history's great feats of seamanship, Bligh navigated this tiny vessel for 3618 nautical miles to Timor.Fletcher Christian and the mutineers sailed back to Tahiti, where most remained and were later tried for mutiny. But Christian, along with eight fellow mutineers and some Tahitian men and women, sailed off into the unknown, eventually discovering the isolated Pitcairn Island - at the time not even marked on British maps - and settling there.This astonishing story is historical adventure at its very best, encompassing the mutiny, Bligh's monumental achievement in navigating to safety, and Fletcher Christian and the mutineers' own epic journey from the sensual paradise of Tahiti to the outpost of Pitcairn Island. The mutineers' descendants live on Pitcairn to this day, amid swirling stories and rumours of past sexual transgressions and present-day repercussions. Mutiny on the Bounty is a sprawling, dramatic tale of intrigue, bravery and sheer boldness, told with the accuracy of historical detail and total command of story that are Peter FitzSimons' trademarks.
£20.00
Hodder & Stoughton Staying Power: A Year In My Life
Phil 'The Power' Taylor is the uncontested king of darts, his sixteen world championship titles between 1990 and 2013 far outclassing anything else the game has seen.He started out as a protégé of Eric Bristow, the Crafty Cockney, having wandered into his Burslem pub with a set of darts his wife had given him for his birthday. At that time Taylor was earning £52 a week working in a ceramics factory and hardly played. But jaws dropped and pint mugs tipped over as this newcomer suddenly unleashed a gift for flight that had soon eclipsed even the Crafty Cockney himself, and amassed Phil a haul of over 200 professional tournament victories.Staying Power is a year in the life of a legend, twice nominated for BBC Sports Personality of the Year, a man who made darts look a doddle to British pub-goers everywhere and set his seal on the game as the bloke to beat. A year of triumph and disaster, in which Taylor crashed out of the world championship in the second round to young outsider Michael Smith and fell asleep at home on Christmas day, exhausted from the strain of constant winning. A year when he played arguably the greatest ever game of darts, in the Grand Slam semi-final against recent world champion Adrian Lewis the two slugging it out to the wire. A year in which Taylor rocked Australia, fêted like royalty. A year of spats and hecklers, clashes on stage and off, of head-to-heads with the Dutch superstar Michael van Gerwen.But most of all this is a year in which Phil Taylor, one of sport's greatest champions, has looked hard at his life in his determination to stay in power.
£12.99
Hodder & Stoughton An Open Book - My Autobiography: My Story to Three Golf Victories
A golfer loved for his courage and charisma,Darren Clarke has the crowds behind him.They know he is a warm, funny raconteur who likes a Guinness, who both works hard and plays hard. More important, they know that this man pulled himself up by his bootstraps, having lost his wife Heather to cancer, to triumph at the 2006 Ryder Cup.Just days before the start of the 2011 Open at Royal St George's, Darren's game had once again deserted him, leaving him 'putting like a man with blurred vision'. A month before his 43rd birthday he was not in a good place. But Heather was 'watching from above', the crowd were roaring him on, golf guru Dr Bob Rotella was telling him to 'go unconscious' - and something sparked inside him. The rest is golfing history.Born in Dungannon, Northern Ireland, Darren caddied for his golf course greenkeeper father, turning pro in 1990. He has played in four victorious Ryder Cup sides and beat his close friend Tiger Woods in the 36-hole final of the 2000 WGC-Andersen Consulting Match Play. In 2002 he became the only player to win the English Open three times.In An Open Book he speaks candidly about fellow-players, coaches and golfing psychologists; about how he was bullied at school, narrowly missed and IRA bomb and eventually set up a foundation to develop junior golf in Ireland; and about how he found personal happiness again, marrying Alison Campbell in April 2012. Most vividly of all, he takes the reader down those rainswept fairways to the ecstasy of that final putt when, at his 20th attempt, he lifted the silver claret jug.
£12.99