Search results for ""Author Henry Hemming""

"A revelatory and wholly fascinating work of history. Superbly researched and written with gripping fluency, this lost secret of World War II espionage finally has its expert chronicler." - WILLIAM BOYD'Gripping and intoxicating, it unfolds like the best screenplay.'NICHOLAS SHAKESPEAREThe gripping story of a propaganda campaign like no other: the covert British operation to manipulate American public opinion and bring the US into the Second World War.When William Stephenson - "our man in New York" - arrived in the United States towards the end of June 1940 with instructions from the head of MI6 to 'organise' American public opinion, Britain was on the verge of defeat. Surveys showed that just 14% of the US population wanted to go to war against Nazi Germany. But soon that began to change...Those campaigning against America's entry into the war, such as legendary aviator Charles Lindbergh, talked of a British-led plot to drag the US into the conflict. They feared that the British were somehow flooding the American media with 'fake news', infiltrating pressure groups, rigging opinion polls and meddling in US politics.These claims were shocking and wild: they were also true. That truth is revealed here for the first time by bestselling author Henry Hemming, using hitherto private and classified documents, including the diaries of his own grandparents, who were briefly part of Stephenson's extraordinary influence campaign that was later described in the Washington Post as 'arguably the most effective in history'. Stephenson - who saved the life of Hemming's father - was a flawed maverick, full of contradictions, but one whose work changed the course of the war, and whose story can now be told in full.

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The English eccentric is under threat. In our increasingly homogenised society, these celebrated parts of our national identity are anomalies that may soon no longer fit. Or so it seems. On his entertaining and thought-provoking quest to discover the most eccentric English person alive today, Henry Hemming unearths a surprisingly large array of delightfully odd characters. He asks what it is to be an eccentric. Is it simply to thrive on creativity and non-conformity, and where does this incarnation of Englishness stem from? Hemming concludes that this tribe is, in fact, in rude health, as essential as ever to the English national identity, only they are no longer to be found where youd expect them.

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Together is about the extraordinary revival of small groups in Britain today.What happens when a room full of people decide to work towards the same dream? Why is it that when we come together in small groups we are so much more than the sum of our parts?From druids to bingo-clubbers, eco-warriors to flash-mobbers, historical re-enactors to bee-keepers, books groups and knitting circles, W.I.s, Young Farmers and the fan-owners of a football club, Together reveals the true story of modern Britain. The country we live in is in fact an extraordinary composition of small groups powered by shared interests and common ideals. Hemming reveals a different way of seeing society, one that recognizes the massive, untapped potential of these hundreds of thousands of small groups, how they work and what they enable us to do that we can't do alone.Witty and provocative, Together gives us an extraordinary cast of characters, a series of unlikely alliances and most importantly, a vision of what we can achieve Together.

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To understand any society look first to the outsiders...This monograph will tell the story of one of Saudi Arabia's most talked about contemporary artists. Abdulnasser Gharem stands apart in so many ways. He is a soldier and an artist. He is widely regarded as a pioneer in the region for his firebrand intellectual courage and innovative use of materials. Even though his work is in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Victoria & Albert Museum, he does not produce art for the sake of basking in its reflected glory but for bringing about change.

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''A truly page-turning, compulsive and also profoundly moving narrative. Superb.'' JAMES HOLLAND''Gripping, urgent, superbly reported and brilliantly written'' DAN JONES''A gripping and pacey book that reads like a thriller. I found it shocking in a world where I didn''t think I could be shocked any more. Henry Hemming wears his extensive research very lightly and manages to shape a great narrative from a complex and dark episode from our recent history. An important and skilfully crafted book.'' JOHN O''FARRELLHOW THE DEATH OF A SPY IN THE IRA LED TO ONE OF THE BIGGEST MURDER INVESTIGATIONS IN BRITISH HISTORY. On 26th May 1986, the body of an undercover British agent was found by the side of a muddy lane, with a rope tied around its wrists and tape over each eye. Years later, it was reported that this murder might have been carried out by another undercover British agent, known as ''Stakeknife''. In 2016, a detective b

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*** The Sunday Times bestseller ***'Vividly imagined and prodigiously researched' Helen Davies, Sunday Times, Books of the Year 'Such a rewarding read' John Preston, Daily Mail, Books of the Year'This odd, secretive man is brought to life', Robbie Millen, The Times, Books of the YearMaxwell Knight was a paradox. A jazz obsessive and nature enthusiast (he is the author of the definitive work on how to look after a gorilla), he is seen today as one of MI5's greatest spymasters, a man who did more than any other to break up British fascism during the Second World War – in spite of having once belonged to the British Fascisti himself. He was known to his agents and colleagues simply as M, and was rumoured to be part of the inspiration for the character M in the James Bond series.Knight became a legendary spymaster despite an almost total lack of qualifications. What set him apart from his peers was a mercurial ability to transform almost anyone into a fearless secret agent. He was the first in MI5 to grasp the potential of training female agents.M is about more than just one man however. In its pages, Hemming reveals for the first time in print the names and stories of seven men and women recruited by Knight, on behalf of MI5, and then asked to infiltrate the most dangerous political organizations in Britain at that time. Until now, their identities have been kept secret outside MI5. Drawn from every walk of life, they led double lives—often at great personal cost—in order to protect the country they loved. With the publication of this book, it will be possible at last to celebrate the lives of these courageous, selfless individuals.Drawing on declassified documents, private family archives and interviews with retired MI5 officers as well as the families of MI5 agents, M reveals not just the shadowy world of espionage but a brilliant, enigmatic man at its centre.

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Four young artists set off on a year-long journey (Sept 02 - Sept 03) across the Middle East, working through Turkey, Iran, Kurdish Iraq, UAE, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Israel. Their aim was to show - through art - their collective experience of the people and places they encountered, to leave behind popular misconceptions and, through an exchange of ideas, to enhance understanding. The result is Off Screen. Welcomed everywhere as artists, they got to places that journalists, tourists and writers don't get to. They made portraits of Iraqi artists in Baghdad three months after Bush declared hostilities over and hours later recorded the 4Ysuperscript th¨ of July celebrations in one of Saddam's former palaces; they recorded the invasion of Iraq from a village in Jordan, student protests in Iran, weddings, prayers, poems, wallscapes, MacDonald's workers in Oman, short stories about female identity and much, much more. This book presents the atmosphere and feel of the streets, mosques, homes and deserts they visited. Spontaneous images using tactile forms, colour and layered collages of typography and iconography are interwoven with diary extracts and ephemera to communicate a visually rich, deliberately subjective and very accessible record of this extraordinary journey. But more than that, this is a highly original portrait of cultural identity in the 21Ysuperscript st¨ century.

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