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Books > History > General
The gripping account of how the IRA came astonishingly close to
killing Margaret Thatcher KILLING THATCHER is the gripping account
of how the IRA came astonishingly close to killing Margaret
Thatcher and to wiping out the British Cabinet – an extraordinary
assassination attempt linked to the Northern Ireland Troubles and
the most daring conspiracy against the Crown since the Gunpowder
Plot. In this fascinating and compelling book, veteran journalist
Rory Carroll retraces the road to the infamous Brighton bombing in
1984 – an incident that shaped the political landscape in the UK
for decades to come. He begins with the infamous execution of Lord
Mountbatten in 1979 – for which the IRA took full responsibility
– before tracing the rise of Margaret Thatcher, her response to
the ‘Troubles’ in Ireland and the chain of events that
culminated in the hunger strikes of 1981 and the death of 10
republican prisoners, including Bobby Sands. From that moment on
Thatcher became an enemy of the IRA – and the organisation swore
revenge. Opening with a brilliantly-paced prologue that introduces
bomber Patrick Magee in the build up to the incident, Carroll sets
out to deftly explore the intrigue before and after the
assassination attempt – with the story spanning three continents,
from pubs and palaces, safe houses and interrogation rooms, hotels
and barracks. On one side, an elite IRA team aided by a renegade
priest, US-raised funds and Libya’s Qaddafi and on the other,
intelligence officers, police detectives, informers and bomb
disposal officers. An exciting narrative that blends true crime
with political history, this is the first major book to investigate
the Brighton attack.
Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions
of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest
writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith
Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take
us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England
to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on
the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and
printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile
cloth and stamped with foil. Today, George Orwell is perhaps most
famous for his iconic novels - Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm
- but in his own time it was his remarkable nonfiction writing
which drew most attention. Kind-hearted, intelligent, often funny,
occasionally indignant, always insightful: his essays are some of
the best ever written. Among others, this selection includes
'Shooting an Elephant', 'Such, Such Were the Joys' and 'Some
Thoughts on the Common Toad'.
'A warm and tender tale about the power and healing of friendship
and community and the magic of books' - Ruth Hogan As the bombs
began to fall, the book club kept their hopes alive... The most
emotional, uplifting and captivating story of wartime London and
the extraordinary power of books to shine a light and draw people
together in the darkest of days, inspired by true events. London,
1938. Bookseller Gertie Bingham is facing difficult times, having
just lost her beloved husband, Harry, and with a lingering sadness
at never having been able to have a child of her own. Struggling to
face running the bookshop she and Harry opened together, Gertie is
preparing to sell up and move away when she is asked if she would
be willing to take in a young Jewish refugee from Germany. Gertie
is unsure and when sullen teenager Hedy Fischer arrives, Gertie
fears she has nothing left to give the troubled girl. But when the
German bombers come and the lights go out over London, Gertie and
Hedy realise that joining forces will make them stronger, and that
books have the power to bring young and old together and unite a
community in need in its darkest hour... *Annie Lyons was
shortlisted for the RNA Contemporary Romantic Novel of the Year
Award* Readers adore The Air Raid Book Club: 'Annie Lyons has
cleverly woven the horror and heartbreak of war with the resilience
of human nature, the strength of love, and the importance of
friends . . . perfect for fans of Lissa Evans and AJ Pearce' -
Kerry Barrett 'This is a book to be read and re-read - each time
there will be something new to discover . . . a triumph' - Celia
Anderson 'Warm and nostalgic . . . This story of love, bravery and
found family is heart-wrenching and utterly charming. I sobbed my
way through the final chapters' - Fiona Lucas 'A wonderful story of
strong female friendship and found family . . . I absolutely adored
it' - ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Real reader review 'A gentle,
heartwarming read . . . [with] two main characters who are lovely
ordinary people living in remarkable times' - ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Real reader review '[A] beautiful depiction of a community striving
to survive and thrive together . . . I came to love the many
characters and I felt like I, too, would be welcomed into their
book club' - ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Real reader review 'One of my
favourite books ever . . . reading this beautiful, heartfelt,
heartbreaking, but yet promising story leaves me feeling hope for
the human spirit' - ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ Real reader review
A New Yorker staff writer, investigates his grandfather, a Nazi
Party Chief, in this "unflinching, gorgeously written, and deeply
moving exploration of morality, family, and war” Patrick Radden
Keefe, author of Empire of Pain ‘The book we need right now’
Atul Gawande, author of Being Mortal What do we owe the past? How
to make peace with a dark family history? Burkhard Bilger hardly
knew his grandfather growing up. His parents immigrated to Oklahoma
from Germany after World War II, and though his mother was an
historian, she rarely talked about her father or what he did during
the war. Then one day a packet of letters arrived from Germany,
yellowing with age, and a secret history began to unfold. Karl
Gönner was a schoolteacher and Nazi party member from the Black
Forest. In 1940, he was sent to a village in occupied France and
tasked with turning its children into proper Germans. A fervent
Nazi when the war began, he grew close to the villagers over the
next four years, till he came to think of himself as their
protector, shielding them from his own party’s brutality. Yet he
was arrested in 1946 and accused of war crimes. Was he guilty or
innocent? A vicious collaborator or just an ordinary man,
struggling to atone for his country’s crimes? Bilger goes to
Germany to find out. What follows is a literary suspense story: a
tale of chance encounters and serendipitous discoveries in villages
and dusty archives across Germany and France. Intimate and
far-reaching, Fatherland is an extraordinary odyssey through the
great upheavals of the past century, tracing one family’s path
through history’s wreckage. For readers of Bart van Es’s The
Cut Out Girl or Edmund de Waal’s The Hare with the Amber Eyes,
this is a story of middle lands, torn allegiances and loaded family
inheritance.
In 1971, a caravan of 60 brightly painted school buses and assorted
other vehicles carrying more than 300 hippie idealists landed on
an
abandoned farm in central Tennessee. They had a mission: to be
a
part of something bigger than themselves, to follow a peaceful
and
spiritual path, and to make a difference in the world.
Out to Change the World tells the story of how those hippies
established The Farm, one of the largest and longest-lasting
intentional communities in the United States. Starting with the
1960s HaightAshbury scene where it all began and continuing through
the changeover from commune to collective up to the present day,
this is the first complete account of The Farm's origins,
inception, growth, and evolution. By turns inspiring, cautionary,
triumphant, and wistful, it's a captivating narrative from start to
finish.
Harold Wilson is the only post-war leader of any party to serve as
Britain's Prime Minister on two separate occasions. In total he won
four General Elections, spending nearly eight years in Downing
Street. Half a century later, he is still unbeaten, Labour's
greatest ever election winner. How did he do it - and at what cost?
Critics then and now have painted him as an opportunistic political
calculator, even as a Soviet secret agent. In this powerful new
portrait, drawing on previously unavailable sources and first-hand
parliamentary insight, acclaimed biographer Nick Thomas-Symonds
reveals a more complex figure. Wilson was a new kind of politician
but, in his own way, this media-savvy harbinger of modernity was
also a deeply traditional man, whose actions often suggest nothing
less than a spiritual mission. In an intriguing paradox, Wilson,
influenced by the distinctively democratic faith of his Yorkshire
boyhood, united a fractured Labour Party, ushering in the cultural
and social changes of the 'swinging sixties'. His was the
government to decriminalise homosexuality, legalise abortion and
abolish capital punishment. With a brilliant mind, sure-footed
political moves and a feel for public opinion, he was a survivor
who over and over again emerged from desperate crises - even,
perhaps, conspiracies - to lead his party to victory. It is time at
last to learn his secrets.
Did the ancient Greeks and Romans have conspiracy theories? How did
they prove their identity? And how much of the modern gold supply
comes from the Romans? In a series of short and humorous essays,
Insane Emperors, Sunken Cities, and Earthquake Machines features
more answers to questions that ancient historian Garrett Ryan is
frequently asked in the classroom, in online forums, and on his
popular YouTube channel Told in Stone. Unlike most books on the
classical world, the focus is not on famous figures or events, but
on the fascinating details of daily life. Learn the answers to: Did
a tsunami inspire the Story of Atlantis? How did they send
long-distance messages? What if Caesar had survived the Ides of
March? How did the Romans build the aqueducts? Did they practice
Buddhism? How deadly was the eruption that destroyed Pompeii? What
if the Roman Empire hadn’t been ravaged by the Antonine Plague?
Did they attend concerts? How did they pay taxes? Was Caligula
actually insane? Did they have tattoos?
In this book, Diana Bullen Presciutti explores how images of
miracles performed by mendicant saints-reviving dead children,
redeeming the unjustly convicted, mending broken marriages,
quelling factional violence, exorcising the demonically
possessed-actively shaped Renaissance Italians' perceptions of
pressing social problems related to gender, sexuality, and honor.
She argues that depictions of these miracles by artists-both famous
(Donatello, Titian) and anonymous-played a critical role in
defining and conceptualizing threats to family honor and social
stability. Drawing from art history, history, religious studies,
gender studies, and sociology, Presciutti's interdisciplinary study
reveals how miracle scenes-whether painted, sculpted, or
printed-operated as active agents of 'lived religion' and social
negotiation in the spaces of the Renaissance Italian city.
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Poems
(Hardcover)
Jeffery Ekins
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