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Books > Fiction > True stories > Discovery / historical / scientific
The extraordinary story of how the Endurance, Sir Ernest
Shackleton's ship, was found in the most hostile sea on Earth in
2022 On 21 November 1915, Sir Ernest Shackleton's ship, Endurance,
finally succumbed to the crushing ice. Its crew watched in silence
as the stern rose twenty feet in the air and then, it was gone. The
miraculous escape and survival of all 28 men on board have entered
legend. And yet, the iconic ship that bore them to the brink of the
Antarctic was considered forever lost. A century later, an
audacious plan to locate the ship was hatched. The Ship Beneath the
Ice gives a blow-by-blow account of the two epic expeditions to
find the Endurance. As with Shackleton's own story, the voyages
were filled with intense drama and teamwork under pressure. In
March 2022, the Endurance was finally found to headlines all over
the world. Written by Mensun Bound, the Director of Exploration on
both expeditions, this captivating narrative includes countless
fascinating stories of Shackleton and his legendary ship. Complete
with a selection of Frank Hurley's photos from Shackleton's
original voyage in 1914-17, as well as from the expeditions in 2019
and 2022, The Ship Beneath the Ice is the perfect tribute to this
monumental discovery.
Local prosecution associations were a method of controlling crime
which was devised in the second half of the eighteenth century,
fifty years before the introduction of police forces. They were a
national phenomenon, and it is estimated that by the end of the
1700s around 4000 of them existed in England, but this book tells
the story of one particular society: the Hathersage Association for
the Prosecution of Felons and Other Offenders. Hathersage is a Peak
District village which recently came top in a Country Living poll
to determine the '20 best hidden gems in the UK'. The tourists who
now visit the village in their thousands each year come as walkers,
climbers, and cyclists. Its grimy history of wire and needle
manufacturing is almost forgotten. In addition to telling the story
of its ancient prosecution organisation, this book seeks to
illuminate some of the less conspicuous aspects of Hathersage's
social history by shining a light from the unusual direction of
minor crime and antisocial behaviour. It also describes the lives
of some of the residents of the village: minor gentry;
industrialists; clergy; and farmers, in addition to the mill
workers and labourers. With access to hand-written records going
back to 1784 which had never been studied before, the author has
drawn on contemporary newspaper articles and census returns to
assemble a montage which depicts the life of the village,
particularly during the 19th century. Many of these original
records have been reproduced in order to offer reader an
opportunity to interpret the old documents themselves. While
striving for historical accuracy throughout, the author has
produced a book which is both entertaining and informative. Any
profits from the sale of this book will go to the Hathersage
Association and will, in turn, be donated to the local charities
which the Association supports. Those charities include Edale
Mountain Rescue, the Air Ambulance, Helen's Trust, Bakewell &
Eyam Community Transport, and Cardiac Risk in the Young.
Local prosecution associations were a method of controlling crime
which was devised in the second half of the eighteenth century,
fifty years before the introduction of police forces. They were a
national phenomenon, and it is estimated that by the end of the
1700s around 4000 of them existed in England, but this book tells
the story of one particular society: the Hathersage Association for
the Prosecution of Felons and Other Offenders. Hathersage is a Peak
District village which recently came top in a Country Living poll
to determine the '20 best hidden gems in the UK'. The tourists who
now visit the village in their thousands each year come as walkers,
climbers, and cyclists. Its grimy history of wire and needle
manufacturing is almost forgotten. In addition to telling the story
of its ancient prosecution organisation, this book seeks to
illuminate some of the less conspicuous aspects of Hathersage's
social history by shining a light from the unusual direction of
minor crime and antisocial behaviour. It also describes the lives
of some of the residents of the village: minor gentry;
industrialists; clergy; and farmers, in addition to the mill
workers and labourers. With access to hand-written records going
back to 1784 which had never been studied before, the author has
drawn on contemporary newspaper articles and census returns to
assemble a montage which depicts the life of the village,
particularly during the 19th century. Many of these original
records have been reproduced in order to offer reader an
opportunity to interpret the old documents themselves. While
striving for historical accuracy throughout, the author has
produced a book which is both entertaining and informative. Any
profits from the sale of this book will go to the Hathersage
Association and will, in turn, be donated to the local charities
which the Association supports. Those charities include Edale
Mountain Rescue, the Air Ambulance, Helen's Trust, Bakewell &
Eyam Community Transport, and Cardiac Risk in the Young.
In the early 1990's Kristiane Backer was one of the very first
presenters of MTV Europe. For some years she lived and breathed the
international music scene, quickly gaining a cult following amongst
viewers and becoming a darling of European press. As she reached
the pinnacle of her success she realised that, despite having all
she could have wished for, she was never truly satisfied. Something
very important was missing. A fateful meeting with Pakistani
cricket hero Imran Khan changed her life. He invited her to his
country where she encountered a completely different world from the
one she knew, the religion and culture of Islam. Instead of pop and
rock stars she was meeting men and women whose lives were dominated
by the love of God and who cared very little for the brief glories
of this world. She began to read the Quaran and to study books
about the Faith. A few years later, after travelling more widely in
the Islamic world and knowing that she had discovered her spiritual
path, she embraced Islam in a London mosque. And then her real
adventures began.In this very personal memoir Kristiane Backer
tells the story of her conversion and explains how faith, despite
the many challenges she faced, has given her inner peace and the
meaning she sought.
From the forests of Inverness-shire to fashionable Park Lane,
London, this is the fascinating story of a small group of
individuals, whose lives intertwined across the social classes to
develop one of today's most beloved breeds of dog - the Golden
Retriever.Spanning more than seventy years, From Yellow to Golden
is a social and family history of seven people whose contributions
were pivotal in the development of the breed. It was their devotion
that helped make the Golden Retriever so successful as a working
dog and in the show ring. They have left a lasting legacy. It is a
legacy that is enjoyed by tens of thousands of owners around the
world today.Supporting Medical Detection Dogs
From the forests of Inverness-shire to fashionable Park Lane,
London, this is the fascinating story of a small group of
individuals, whose lives intertwined across the social classes to
develop one of today's most beloved breeds of dog - the Golden
Retriever.Spanning more than seventy years, From Yellow to Golden
is a social and family history of seven people whose contributions
were pivotal in the development of the breed. It was their devotion
that helped make the Golden Retriever so successful as a working
dog and in the show ring. They have left a lasting legacy. It is a
legacy that is enjoyed by tens of thousands of owners around the
world today.Supporting Medical Detection Dogs
This is the story of one man's dream, a vision. It is the story of
an enterprise unparalleled in the history of The Church of
Scotland. It is the story of commitment in the face of danger and
dogged persistence in facing up to immense obstacles in Scotland
and the shifting political scene in Palestine and Israel. It is the
story of a depth of faith which leaves you questioning your own.
The author was employed as a member of staff of The Church of
Scotland firstly in Malawi and then in Israel from 1986 to 1993. He
was later appointed the Church's Middle East Secretary and retired
in 2010. The sacrifice of The Great War was marked by many
memorials across the world. There is none more unique or poignant
than the Scots Memorial Church of St Andrew's in Jerusalem. The
Society of Friends of St Andrew's, Jerusalem, supports The Church
of Scotland in its work of maintaining this vital resource and its
ministry in this most Holy Land. Many of the Friends have military
connections and all wish to ensure that the commitment and
achievements of Scottish soldiers in the Middle East campaigns
continue to be recognised and remembered. This wonderful book
records the background to the vision for a Scots Memorial in
Jerusalem, its creation and challenges. By purchasing a copy you
are helping the Friends and The Church of Scotland to develop and
adapt the original vision and continue their work and influence in
the region. Major General Mark Strudwick, C.B.E. - President of the
Society of the Friends of St Andrew's, Jerusalem.
The sensational tale of the first mixed-race girl introduced to
high-society England and raised as a lady...
The illegitimate daughter of a captain in the Royal Navy and an
enslaved African woman, Dido Belle was raised by her great-uncle,
the Earl of Mansfield, one of the most powerful men of the time and
a leading opponent of slavery. When the portrait he commissioned of
his two wards, Dido and her white cousin, Elizabeth, was unveiled,
eighteenth-century England was shocked to see a black woman and
white woman depicted as equals. Inspired by the painting, Belle
vividly brings to life this extraordinary woman caught between two
worlds, and illuminates the great civil rights question of her age:
the fight to end slavery.
The feature film Belle is produced by Damian Jones (The Iron
Lady, The History Boys, Welcome to Sarajevo), written by Misan
Sagay, and directed by Amma Asante, and stars the extraordinary
Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Dido Belle, Tom Wilkinson, Sam Reid, Miranda
Richardson, Penelope Wilton, Tom Felton, Matthew Goode, and Emily
Watson.
An extraordinary account of one woman's single-minded campaign to
restore a Victorian steamship to her former glory and make her an
Andean attraction Here is a vivid account of Meriel Larken's
incredible quest to restore the "Yavari" steamship against the
odds--a ship that is now celebrating its 150 year anniversary in
2012. In 1862 the English-built "Yavari" was taken to bits and
shipped to South America. In an epic logistical feat it was carried
in thousands of pieces, by mule, up the Andes to Lake Titicaca,
12,500 feet above sea level, the world's highest navigable
waterway. She was reconstructed and for more than a century plied
her trade up and down the lake, but by 1985 she was a sad rotting
hulk--until she was found by Larken, who led the quest to project
to restore and preserve the ship. The oldest single screw iron
passenger ship in the world, this nautical and engineering jewel is
now a major Peruvian tourist attraction.
Memories of Chinatown is a Singapore classic and is now republished
with a new visual interpretation by watercolour artist Graham
Byfield. Both a memoir and a narrative guide to the vibrant spirit
of a bygone Singapore, it is written by much loved 'walking
treasure' and heritage tour pioneer Geraldene Lowe-Ismail. Blessed
with a rich trove of stories and personal knowledge stretching over
50 years, Geraldene delivers a unique insight into the glory and
past of one of Southeast Asia's truly original Chinatowns. For
anyone interested in heritage architecture and culture, this is a
fascinating read.
Who were the pioneers in science education, and what motivated them
to do what they did?" This book is the second volume of an attempt
to capture and record some of the answers to these questions-either
from the pioneers themselves or from those persons who worked most
closely with them. As with the first volume, we have attempted to
include as many pioneers as possible, but we know that there are
still many that are not included in this or the previous volume. As
we have posed questions, rummaged through files and oft?neglected
books, and probed the memories of many individuals, we have come to
realize our list of true pioneers is ever growing. As we consider
our list of pioneers, we know that there are names on the list that
most of us readily recognize. We also fully realize that there are
names of whom few of us have heard-yet who were significant in
their roles as mentors or idea development and teaching. We
continue to be impressed with our science education "family tree"
ever branching out to more individuals and connections. The stories
in this volume continue to demonstrate how vital this network was
in supporting the individual pioneers during their journey in
difficult times and continues to be for those of us today in our
own enterprise.
The riveting story of a true-life female Indiana Jones: an
archaeologist who survived the Nazis and then saved Egypt's ancient
temples. In the 1960s, the world's attention was focused on a
nail-biting race against time: fifty countries had contributed
nearly a billion dollars to save a dozen ancient Egyptian temples
from drowning in the floodwaters of the gigantic new Aswan High
Dam. It was a project of unimaginable size and complexity that
required the fragile sandstone temples to be dismantled, stone by
stone, and rebuilt on higher ground. But the massive press coverage
of this unprecedented rescue effort completely overlooked the gutsy
French archaeologist who made it all happen. Without the
intervention of Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, the temples would
now be at the bottom of a gigantic reservoir. Desroches-Noblecourt
refused to be cowed by anyone or anything. As a brave member of the
French Resistance in World War II, she had survived imprisonment by
the Nazis. Now, in her fight to save the temples, she had to face
down two of the most daunting leaders of the postwar world:
Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and French president Charles
de Gaulle. After a century and a half of Western plunder of Egypt's
ancient monuments, Desroches-Noblecourt helped preserve a crucial
part of its cultural heritage, and, just as importantly, made sure
it remained in its homeland.
A journey through time and water, to the bottom of the ocean and
the future of our planet. We do not see the ocean when we look at
the water that blankets more than two thirds of our planet. We only
see the entrance to it. Beyond that entrance is a world hostile to
humans, yet critical to our survival. The first divers to enter
that world held their breath and splashed beneath the surface,
often clutching rocks to pull them down. Over centuries, they
invented wooden diving bells, clumsy diving suits, and unwieldy
contraptions in attempts to go deeper and stay longer. But each
advance was fraught with danger, as the intruders had to survive
the crushing weight of water, or the deadly physiological effects
of breathing compressed air. The vertical odyssey continued when
explorers squeezed into heavy steel balls dangling on cables, or
slung beneath floats filled with flammable gasoline. Plunging into
the narrow trenches between the tectonic plates of the Earth's
crust, they eventually reached the bottom of the ocean in the same
decade that men first walked on the moon. Today, as nations
scramble to exploit the resources of the ocean floor, The Frontier
Below recalls a story of human endeavour that took 2,000 years to
travel seven miles, then investigates how we will explore the ocean
in the future. Meticulously researched and drawing extensively on
unpublished sources and personal interviews, The Frontier Below is
the untold story of the pioneers who had the right stuff, but were
forgotten because they went in the wrong direction.
THE CRIMES. THE STORIES. THE LAW 'Fascinating' - Sunday Times
'Masterful' - Judith Flanders 'A page-turning read' - Prof. David
Wilson Totally gripping and brilliantly told, Murder: The Biography
is a gruesome and utterly captivating portrait of the legal history
of murder. The stories and the people involved in the history of
murder are stranger, darker and more compulsive than any crime
fiction. There's Richard Parker, the cannibalized cabin boy whose
death at the hands of his hungry crewmates led the Victorian courts
to decisively outlaw a defence of necessity to murder. Dr Percy
Bateman, the incompetent GP whose violent disregard for his patient
changed the law on manslaughter. Ruth Ellis, the last woman hanged
in England in the 1950s, played a crucial role in changes to the
law around provocation in murder cases. And Archibald Kinloch, the
deranged Scottish aristocrat whose fratricidal frenzy paved the way
for the defence of diminished responsibility. These, and many more,
are the people - victims, killers, lawyers and judges, who
unwittingly shaped the history of that most grisly and storied of
laws. Join lawyer and writer Kate Morgan on a dark and macabre
journey as she explores the strange stories and mysterious cases
that have contributed to UK murder law. The big corporate killers;
the vengeful spouses; the sloppy doctors; the abused partners; the
shoddy employers; each story a crime and each crime a precedent
that has contributed to the law's dark, murky and, at times,
shocking standing.
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