Search results for ""Author Roy Calley""

North Korea is the country with the highest number of military and paramilitary personnel in the world (nine and a half million). International organisations have declared that human rights violations there have no parallel in the modern world. It is estimated that 10,000 people die in North Korean prison camps every year. How did this come about? And what is life really like for the country's 26 million citizens? As a journalist who has visited the country and talked to the people on many occasions, Roy Calley is in a unique position to pull aside the veil to reveal the reality of life there. He explains how the nation changed virtually overnight from a Buddhist country to one embracing the 'Juche' theory of total selfreliance after independence from Japan. He also analyses the central importance of 'victory' in the Korean War (1950–53) to how the North Koreans - both those in absolute power and the people - view themselves. Some of the author's observations of everyday life come as a shock: in Pyonyang, for example, we find very little poverty. This is one of the most modern cities in the world, but it is completely devoid of any type of commercialism. The people genuinely adore the Kim dynasty. There is no possibility of self-advancement - but the concept means nothing to the ordinary citizen. To come to terms with the world's latest nuclear power we need to understand how she works. Roy Calley has gone inside to bring back a genuine report about one of the world’s least understood countries.

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Mary, Queen of Scots is one of the great tragic figures of British history. Born in Scotland one December morning in 1542, she was to become Queen of Scots just six days later. Growing up mostly in France and marrying the sickly French king Francis II in 1559, she returned to Scotland on his death, a widow at the age of eighteen. Four years later she married Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, but their miserable union ended with his murder and her subsequent marriage to his alleged killer, the Earl of Bothwell. Forced by rebellion to flee south to England, she was confined by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I in various manor houses and castles before, eighteen years later, being executed on her cousin's orders. On the Trail of Mary, Queen of Scots takes the reader on a journey through the landscape of Mary's time. In her footsteps we will visit resplendent castles, towering cathedrals, manor homes, chapels and ruins associated with Mary. Each location is brought to life through an engaging narrative and a collection of photographs and works of art.

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