Set children on the tracks of Bern's ghosts and monsters with this active guide through the old city. Five stories lead through the narrow alleys to a haunted house, a child eater, naughty gargoyles, buried treasure and much more. Engaging maps point out interesting facts about the old city. With this book, Bern's streets turn into a guaranteed fun adventure! By Bern Munster Tower caretaker Marie-Therese Lauper.

It is widely believed that people living in the Middle Ages seldom traveled. But, as Medieval Travel and Travelers reveals, many medieval people - and not only Marco Polo - were on the move for a variety of different reasons. Assuming no previous knowledge of medieval civilizations, this volume allows readers to experience the excitement of men and women who ventured into new lands. By addressing cross-cultural interaction, religion, and travel literature, the collection sheds light on how travel shaped the way we perceive the world, while also connecting history to the contemporary era of globalization. Including a mix of complete sources, excerpts, and images, Medieval Travel and Travelers provides readers with opportunities for further reflection on what medieval people expected to find in foreign locales, while sparking curiosity about undiscovered spaces and cultures.

October 2, 2002. A bullet pierced the window of a crafts store in Maryland, just missing the cashier. But other bullets hit their targets. In Pursuit follows the hunt for the Beltway snipers during the twenty-three-day shooting spree that terrorized Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. David Reichenbaugh, the criminal intelligence operations commander for the Maryland State Police, and commanding officer at the scene during the snipers' capture in Myersville, Maryland, played a major role in the investigation from the first day of the killing spree through its final act, as the snipers were cornered in a rest area in western Maryland. He is one of a very few who know the complete details of the investigation and capture of the snipers. Working against the clock with few clues and little evidence, hundreds of investigators from federal, state, county, and city law enforcement agencies struggled to find answers to the questions: Who were the killers? Was their choice of victims random? And most of all, Why did they kill? When the killers began leaving notes to taunt the police, investigators were finally able to begin assembling a picture, piercing the fog of uncertainty and terror that filled the region. In Pursuit is a step-by-step procedural that offers an inside look at how investigators made sense of the dizzying array of facts, conjectures, motives, and opportunities and brought to heel two of the most diabolical killers in the nation's history.

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.

As a neurosurgeon, I lived in a world filled with fear and suffering, death and cancer. But rarely, if ever, did I think about what it would be like if what I witnessed at work every day happened to me. This book is the story of how I became a patient myself. As a retired brain surgeon, Henry Marsh thought he understood illness, but he was unprepared for the impact of his diagnosis of advanced cancer. And Finally explores what happens when someone who has spent a lifetime on the frontline of life and death finds himself contemplating what might be his own death sentence. As he navigates the bewildering transition from doctor to patient, he is haunted by past failures and projects yet to be completed, and frustrated by the inconveniences of illness and old age. But he is also more entranced than ever by the mysteries of science and the brain, the beauty of the natural world and his love for his family. Elegiac, candid, luminous and poignant, And Finally is ultimately not so much a book about death, but a book about life and what matters in the end.

'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.

There are some truths that are inescapable, and one such truth is the necessity for harmony and disharmony in our natural world: predator and prey, humans and wildlife, nature and the forces of nature. In Jack Boudreaus ninth book, KING OF THE MOUNTAIN, he takes a deep look at the delicate balance of co-existence. He introduces us to the hunters, landowners and conservationists that have witnessed the changing world of BCs great north. True to Jacks style, these stories are personal, humorous and sometimes tragic for both human and animal.

Salmon, one of the most determined, single-minded creatures on earth, have for hundreds of thousands of years succeeded in returning from the sea to their birth rivers to spawn - no matter the conditions or obstacles. But in recent years increasingly fewer are returning due to steady incursions into their habitat from dams, industry, and climate change. The salmon of the Pacific Rim are set for near extinction, just like the salmon that once filled the Atlantic Ocean.

Stronghold is an enthralling account of an unlikely visionary, Guido Rahr, and his mission to protect the world s last bastion of wild salmon. The reader is taken on wild and at times dangerous adventure, as we follow him from Oregon to Alaska to one of the world s last remaining wildernesses, in the Russian Far East - a landscape of ecological richness and diversity that is rapidly being developed for oil, gas, minerals, and timber.

As Guido befriends and navigates scientists, conservationists, corrupt officials, Russian oligarchs, unexpected allies, and impenetrable bureaucracies, he reveals the astonishing natural history of the endangered salmon, a species whose demise will reverberate across the planet. And he sets into motion a plan that can secure their survival.

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.

In November, 1915 a woman appeared amid the fighting at Gallipoli. She laid a wreath on a grave and then disappeared. It was the grave of a hero, a man killed at the landings and awarded the Victoria Cross. There were two women who truly loved this man. Was the visitor a dedicated nurse and hospital founder who saved the lives of thousands in a 50 year career - a woman awarded medals by Britain, France and Turkey? Or was it a famous explorer, fluent in Arabic and Persian, a friend of the famous including T E Lawrence and Winston Churchill and the only female delegate among thousands at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919? Five years of research has revealed this amazing true story. It has emerged from tantalising clues, unpublished love letters and false trails deliberately left to hide the truth. Which woman was it? Who was The Only Woman at Gallipoli?

"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."

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?

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.

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.

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.