LONGLISTED FOR THE ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION 'One of the mysteries I've long been fascinated by, and I am so grateful that Ravi Somaiya has cracked it open so brilliantly' David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon A PLANE CRASH IN THE JUNGLE. A LEGENDARY STATESMAN DEAD. A TRAGIC ACCIDENT... OR THE ULTIMATE CONSPIRACY? In 1961, a Douglas DC-6B aeroplane transporting the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjoeld, disappeared over the Congolese jungle at the height of the Cold War. Soon afterward, Hammarskjoeld was discovered in the smoking wreckage, an Ace of Spades playing card placed on his body. He had been heralded as the Congo's best hope for peace and independence. Now he was dead. The circumstances of that night have remained one of the Cold War's most tightly guarded secrets for decades. Now, with exclusive evidence, investigative journalist Ravi Somaiya finally uncovers the truth, with dark implications for governments and corporations alike.

On 26th July 1986 a train derailed after striking a van at an open level crossing in a remote East Yorkshire village. The resulting carnage killed nine people, injured 42 and left dozens of survivors and families reeling from the shock for the rest of their lives. Now for the first time the full story of that tragedy can be told by the people who were there. The horror of the survivors, the bravery of the rescuers and the heartache for the people left behind. From one disaster came a campaign to have open crossings banned and to make sure a disaster like Lockington will never happen again. Richard M Jones is a researcher who has made it his life's ambition to record forgotten disasters and events lost to history. His achievements include writing the first book about the Great Gale of 1871 and placing a memorial for the Lockington victims. A serving member of the Royal Navy, he lives in Bridlington.

'A roaring tale ... remains as vivid and exciting today as it was on publication in 1697' Guardian The pirate and adventurer William Dampier circumnavigated the globe three times, and took notes wherever he went. This is his frank, vivid account of his buccaneering sea voyages around the world, from the Caribbean to the Pacific and East Indies. Filled with accounts of raids, escapes, wrecks and storms, it also contains precise observations of people, places, animals and food (including the first English accounts of guacamole, mango chutney and chopsticks). A bestseller on publication, this unique record of the colonial age influenced Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver's Travels and consequently the whole of English literature. Edited with an Introduction by Nicholas Thomas

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.

Pictures often tell stories. But pictures also have a story themselves when they have passed through many hands on their way into a museum. The author, who supports his views with the results of relevant provenance research, goes on a search for traces of these descriptions of the lives of artworks from the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne: the city of Cologne thus had to litigate against the daughter of Hermann Goering for nineteen years in connection with a painting by Cranach; a high price had to be paid for the acquisition of another painting because it was not wanted as a gift; and a courageous museum director made his acquisitions of art despite great resistance. In this book for all museum visitors and readers who would like to learn more about the exhibits, the stories behind the pictures come to life.

Spring 1958: a mysterious individual believed to be high up in the Polish secret service began passing Soviet secrets to the West. His name was Michal Goleniewski and he remains one of the most important, yet least known and most misunderstood spies of the Cold War. Even his death is shrouded in mystery and he has been written out of the history of Cold War espionage - until now. Tim Tate draws on a wealth of previously-unpublished primary source documents to tell the dramatic true story of the best spy the west ever lost - of how Goleniewski exposed hundreds of KGB agents operating undercover in the West; from George Blake and the 'Portland Spy Ring', to a senior Swedish Air Force and NATO officer and a traitor inside the Israeli government. The information he produced devastated intelligence services on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Bringing together love and loyalty, courage and treachery, betrayal, greed and, ultimately, insanity, here is the extraordinary true story of one of the most significant but little known spies of the Cold War. Acclaim for The Spy Who Was Left Out in the Cold: 'Totally gripping . . . a masterpiece. Tate lifts the lid on one of the most important and complex spies of the Cold War, who passed secrets to the West and finally unmasked traitor George Blake.' HELEN FRY, author of MI9: A History of the Secret Service for Escape and Evasion in World War Two 'A wonderful and at times mind-boggling account of a bizarre and almost forgotten spy - right up to the time when he's living undercover in Queens, New York and claiming to be the last of the Romanoffs.' SIMON KUPER, author of The Happy Traitor 'A highly readable and thoroughly researched account of one of the Cold War's most intriguing and tragic spy stories.' OWEN MATTHEWS, author of An Impeccable Spy

What does it mean to be on the wrong side of history?

Svenja O'Donnell’s beautiful, aloof grandmother Inge never spoke about the past. All her family knew was that she had grown up in a city that no longer exists on any map: Königsberg in East Prussia, a footnote in history, a place that almost no one has heard of today. But when Svenja impulsively visits this windswept Baltic city, something unlocks in Inge and, finally, she begins to tell her story.

It begins in the secret jazz bars of Hitler’s Berlin. It is a story of passionate first love, betrayal, terror, flight, starvation and violence. As Svenja teases out the threads of her grandmother’s life, retracing her steps all over Europe, she realises that there is suffering here on a scale that she had never dreamt of. And finally, she uncovers a desperately tragic secret that her grandmother has been keeping for sixty years.

Inge's War listens to the voices that are often missing from our historical narrative – those of women caught up on the wrong side of history. It is a book about memory and heritage that interrogates the legacy passed down by those who survive. It also poses the questions: who do we allow to tell their story? What do we mean by family? And what will we do in order to survive?

'One of the non-fiction books of the year.' Andrew O' Hagan A powerful, evocative and deeply personal journey into the world of missing people When Francisco Garcia was just seven years old, his father, Christobal, left his family. Unemployed, addicted to drink and drugs, and adrift in life, Christobal decided he would rather disappear altogether than carry on dealing with the problems in front of him. So that's what he did, leaving his young wife and child in the dead of night. He has been missing ever since. Twenty years on, Francisco is ready to take up the search for answers. Why did this happen and how could it be possible? Where might his father have gone? And is there any reason to hope for a happy reunion? During his journey, which takes him all across Britain and back to his father's homeland of Spain, Francisco tells the stories of those he meets along the way: the police investigators; the charity employees and volunteers; the once missing and those perilously at risk around us; the families, friends and all those left behind. If You Were There is the moving and affecting story of one man's search for his lost family, an urgent document of where we are now and a powerful, timeless reminder of our responsibility to others.

On the morning of May 9, 1980, during sudden violent weather, a 600-foot freighter struck a support pier of the fifteen-mile Sunshine Skyway Bridge. The main span splintered and collapsed 150 feet into Tampa Bay. Seven cars and a Greyhound bus fell over the broken edge and into the churning water below. Thirty-five people died. Skyway tells the entire story of this horrific event. Through personal interviews and extensive research, Bill DeYoung pieces together the harrowing moments of the collision, including the first-person accounts of witnesses and survivors. The result is a gripping retelling of the worst ship-bridge collision in U.S. history.

A New York Times Bestseller. Great white sharks are enigmas. They ruled the oceans long before dinosaurs inhabited the earth, yet we know surprisingly little about them. Scientists speculate they can live for 60 years and grow to a massive 20 feet long. They heal miraculously from severe injuries and can sense a heartbeat from miles away. There is one place on earth where it is possible to study great whites in the wild: a spooky outcrop of jagged rocks off the coast of San Francisco. This godforsaken island is home to a handful of shark-obsessed scientists, ready to endanger their lives just to get close. This is a riveting adventure about great white sharks and the power they have over us.

"Compass" chronicles the misadventures of those who attempted to perfect the magnetic compass so precious to sixteenth-century seamen that, by law, any man found tampering with it had his hand pinned to the mast with a dagger. From the time man first took to the seas until only one thousand years ago, sight and winds were the sailor's only navigational aids. It was not until the development of the compass that maps and charts could be used with any accuracy even so, it would be hundreds of years and thousands of shipwrecks before the marvelous instrument was perfected. And its history up to modern times is filled with the stories of disasters that befell sailors who misused it. In this page-turning history of man's search for reliable navigation of treacherous sea routes around the globe, Alan Gurney brings to life the instrument Victor Hugo called "the soul of the ship."

This book tells stories of how ordinary people in their everyday lives have responded to the challenges of living more sustainably. In these difficult times, we need stories that engage, enchant and inspire. Most of all, we need stories of practical changes, of community action, of changing hearts and minds. This is a book that takes the question, "What can I do?" and sets out to find some answers using one of our species' most vital skills: the ability to tell stories in which to spread knowledge, ideas, inspiration and hope. Read about the transformation of wasteland and the installation of water power, stories about reducing consumption and creating sustainable business, stories from people changing how they live their lives and the inner transformations this demands.

Whether he's looking for wild orangutans on Borneo or diving off the coast of South Africa, Randy Wayne White is one of America's most adventurous travelers. Now Randy's back in Last Flight Out, a brand-new collection of essays keeping us up to date on his latest excursions.Randy White is a "mover" and has no time for people who can't keep up. Join him as he dives in the infamous lake called the Bad Blue Hole on the desolate Cat Island in the Bahamas. Search for the perfect hot pepper in Colombia, and closer to home, go raccoon hunting in Pioneer, Ohio, where the hunted almost always outsmart the hunters. Get in the ring with Shine Forbes, an eighty-year-old fighter in prime condition and Ernest Hemingway's former sparring partner, and go on a secret mission to steal back General Manuel Noriega's bar stools. Though he rarely finds what he's looking for - such as the half-human, half-alligator creature known as "Gatorman" - he cultivates his unique ability to revel in the unique and comical situations of each exotic trip.From a jungle survival school in Panama to a week at a professional wrestler's training camp, White leaves the reader mesmerized by the potential of undiscovered places and the promise of endless adventure in unfamiliar territory. An icon of the new breed of thick-skinned, high-endurance travelers, Randy White is the real deal. (6 x 9 /4, 266 pages)Randy Wayne White is a former fly-fishing guide. He wrote the "Out There" column for Outside magazine for many years, and is the author of The Sharks of Lake Nicaragua and Batfishing in the Rainforest. He is also the author of the popular "Doc Ford" mystery series. He is a monthly columnist for Men's Health.