A vivid, richly informative biography of the medieval entrepreneur, social reformer and 'influencer' at court. The extraordinary story of Richard Whittington, from his arrival in London as a young boy to his death in 1423, against a backdrop of plague, politics and war; turbulence between Crown, City and Commons; and the unrelenting financial demands of Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V, to whom Whittington was mercer, lender and fixer. A man determined to follow his own path, Whittington was a significant figure in London's ceaseless development. As a banker, Collector of the Wool Custom, King's Council member and four-time mayor, Whittington featured prominently in the rise of the capital's merchant class and powerful livery companies. Civic reformer, enemy of corruption and author of an extraordinary social legacy, he contributed to Henry V's victory at Agincourt and oversaw building works at Westminster Abbey. In London, Whittington found his 'second' family: a mentor, Sir Ivo Fitzwarin, and an inspirational wife in Fitzwarin's daughter Alice. Today's Dick Whittington pantomimes, enjoyed by millions, have a grain of truth in them, but the real story is far more compelling-minus that sadly mythical cat.

Peter Shore worked under Hugh Gaitskell, serving in successive Labour Cabinets under first Harold Wilson and subsequently James Callaghan. He wrote the 1964, 1966 and 1970 general election manifestos for the party and stood in both the 1980 and the 1983 party leadership elections. He would go on to be known as one of the Labour Party's most important thinkers. He had a long political career at the upper levels of the Labour Party and was close to successive leaders. Despite this, he was also independent minded, as evidenced by the 1976 IMF crisis and his long-standing opposition to European integration. As well as this key debate, the authors also address crucial issues within the Labour movement, from macroeconomic management to the extent to which the party can be a force for socialism. This remarkable new study offers a comprehensive and timely reappraisal of the man and his record, examining the context within which he operated, his approach and responses to changing social and economic norms, his opposition to Britain's membership of what is now the EU, and how he was viewed by peers from across the political spectrum. Finally, it examines the overall impact of Peter Shore on the development of British politics. With contributions from leading experts in the fields of political theory, and from Shore's own contemporaries, this book is an important new assessment of one of Labour's most interesting political thinkers in twentieth-century British politics.

A detailed account of the extraordinary life of Austin Steward, a black man who lived in the early nineteenth century as both a slave and then later a free man. Originally published in 1861, Austin Steward's memoir has long been a staple source of first-hand evidence about activism against slavery and racism by freed blacks. Long out of print, the narrative is now available with additional biographical information and a critical introduction by historian Graham Hodges. The introduction affords an in-depth discussion of Steward's career - rising from enslavement to success as a self-made businessman in upstate New York and as leader of the ill-fated Wilberforce Colony in Ontario, Canada. Hodges also expands upon previous recognition of Steward's sizable role in free black activism in the antebellum northern states. Replete with images from Steward's life, this new edition of his classic narrative is stocked with details about the author's relationships with antislavery activists Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, Nathaniel Paul, and Gerrit Smith. The book offers insight into the creation of African American community life in upstate New York and into the doomed black utopia of Wilberforce.

Philip and Alexander of Macedon transformed a weak kingdom in northern Greece into a globe-spanning empire. In so doing, they changed the course of history. By the end of his short life, Alexander the Great had eclipsed the power of Persia, crossed the Hindu Kush and marched into what is now Pakistan, redrawing the map of the ancient world to create an empire that stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Indian subcontinent. But his success was not just the product of his own genius and restless energy, it was built on decades of effort by his father. History has portrayed Philip II of Macedon as an old man, one-eyed and limping, whose convenient assassination allowed Alexander the Great to come to power. However, there was far more to him than this. Through decades of hard fighting and clever diplomacy, Philip unified his country and conquered Greece. His son inherited all of this at the perfect moment and age for him to chance his luck and win greater glory. Between them, Philip and Alexander played a key role in spreading Greek language and culture over a vast area, the consequences of which were many and profound, for it led to the New Testament being written in Greek, and a Greek-speaking 'Roman' empire surviving in the eastern Mediterranean for a thousand years after the last emperor to rule from Italy. As authoritative as it is accessible, Philip and Alexander is the latest in a much-praised sequence of essential ancient histories from Adrian Goldsworthy; it is the work of a master historian at the peak of his powers. Praise for Philip and Alexander: 'A thrilling read, as sweeping as Alexander's conquests' TOM HOLLAND 'Sterling scholarship, engaging prose, insightful analysis and unbiased assessment' VICTOR DAVID HANSON 'History-writing at its best. Expert, fluent and vivid' BARRY STRAUSS

'Scotty was a huge part of our journey coming together as a team' Gareth Southgate, England manager In Never Give In, former Royal Marine Major Scotty Mills blends personal experiences from his remarkable life and career with inspirational advice and insights to provide his 12 Commando Rules for Life that could help anyone to do better and reach their targets. A sudden downpour while Scotty Mills was walking down a street in South London sent him diving for cover into the nearest shop. It turned out to be a recruitment centre for the Royal Marines and, after a few minutes' conversation while waiting for the rain to stop, Scotty was hooked and signed up to join the elite force. It changed his life and set him on a new direction that would end up with him leading the Marines on operations around the world, becoming an Olympic flag bearer in 2012 and dining at Buckingham Palace with the Queen and the royal family. Scotty shares his lessons of performance and resilience with the reader, inviting them into the secrets of elite culture. His compelling story is one that combines tragedy with remarkable insight about the power of human inspiration. Scotty has worked with many of our nation's top sports teams, helping them to achieve their goals, and in Never Give In he shares his methods with his readers to guide them to peak performance in all aspects of their life and career.

1-Recce was die skerpste, veelsydigste en dodelikste spesialiseenheid in die ganse Suid-Afrikaanse weermag. Dié manne was superfiks, bomenslik taai en het vir niks gestuit nie. Hulle het telkens hul lewens op die spel geplaas in die uitvoering van hoogs geheime operasies agter vyandelike linies.

Dekades lank is oor al dié hoogs geheime sendings geswyg. Nou, vir die eerste keer, openbaar die Recce's se groot generaals (waaronder die legendariese kol Jan Breytenbach) hoe hulle gestuur is om verskeie polities sensitiewe operasies uit te voer.

Daar word onthul hoe hulle in die doodsnikke van die apartheidsera gestuur is, en op die laaste oomblik verhoed is, om sleutel ANC-figure op te blaas. Hulle vertel van 1-Recce se betrokkenheid by die omstrede Grensoorlog en die bestaan van 'n hoogsgeheime "Eskadron" in die destydse Rhodesiese Weermag.

Ná jare van mites en geheimhouding gee dié boek 'n totaal nuwe blik op die Recce's en die werk wat hulle onsigbaar agter die skerms gedoen het.

A highly entertaining account of a young woman who went straight from her college sorority to the CIA, where she hunted terrorists and WMDs Reads like the show bible for Homeland only her story is real. --Alison Stewart, WNYC A thrilling tale...Walder's fast-paced and intense narrative opens a window into life in two of America's major intelligence agencies --Publishers Weekly (starred review) When Tracy Walder enrolled at the University of Southern California, she never thought that one day she would offer her pink beanbag chair in the Delta Gamma house to a CIA recruiter, or that she'd fly to the Middle East under an alias identity. The Unexpected Spy is the riveting story of Walder's tenure in the CIA and, later, the FBI. In high-security, steel-walled rooms in Virginia, Walder watched al-Qaeda members with drones as President Bush looked over her shoulder and CIA Director George Tenet brought her donuts. She tracked chemical terrorists and searched the world for Weapons of Mass Destruction. She created a chemical terror chart that someone in the White House altered to convey information she did not have or believe, leading to the Iraq invasion. Driven to stop terrorism, Walder debriefed terrorists--men who swore they'd never speak to a woman--until they gave her leads. She followed trails through North Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, shutting down multiple chemical attacks. Then Walder moved to the FBI, where she worked in counterintelligence. In a single year, she helped take down one of the most notorious foreign spies ever caught on American soil. Catching the bad guys wasn't a problem in the FBI, but rampant sexism was. Walder left the FBI to teach young women, encouraging them to find a place in the FBI, CIA, State Department or the Senate--and thus change the world.

'Mainstay of the Altos' is mostly the narrative of Val's life, but the last part he has called 'a catalogue of pleasures' and it is just that - a record of those activities and people who have enriched this remarkable life.

In 2018 Captain Louis Rudd MBE walked into the history books when he finished a solo, unsupported crossing of Antarctica, pulling a 130 kg sledge laden with his supplies for more than 900 miles. Louis’ skills had been honed in the SAS, on operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, but now – in the most hostile environment on earth – they would be tested like never before. Alone on the ice, Louis battled through whiteouts, 50 mph gales and temperatures of -30 degrees Celsius. It would take all his mental strength to survive.

In this gripping book Louis reveals how a thirst for adventure saw him join the Royal Marines at sixteen and then pass the SAS selection course at only twenty-two. He describes his first gruelling polar expedition with legendary explorer Lieutenant Colonel Henry Worsley in 2011 and the leadership challenges he faced a few years later when he led a team of Army Reservists across Antarctica. And he takes us with him step by painful step as he pushes himself to the limit, travelling alone on his epic and lonely trek across the continent’s treacherous ice fields and mountains.

With edge-of-the-seat storytelling, Endurance is an awe-inspiring account of courage and resilience by a remarkable man.

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2020 From the bestselling author of Nixonland and The Invisible Bridge comes the dramatic conclusion of how conservatism took control of American political power. Over two decades, Rick Perlstein has published three definitive works about the emerging dominance of conservatism in modern American politics. With the saga's final installment, he has delivered yet another stunning literary and historical achievement. In late 1976, Ronald Reagan was dismissed as a man without a political future: defeated in his nomination bid against a sitting president of his own party, blamed for President Gerald Ford's defeat, too old to make another run. His comeback was fueled by an extraordinary confluence: fundamentalist preachers and former segregationists reinventing themselves as militant crusaders against gay rights and feminism; business executives uniting against regulation in an era of economic decline; a cadre of secretive "New Right" organizers deploying state-of-the-art technology, bending political norms to the breaking point-and Reagan's own unbending optimism, his ability to convey unshakable confidence in America as the world's "shining city on a hill." Meanwhile, a civil war broke out in the Democratic party. When President Jimmy Carter called Americans to a new ethic of austerity, Senator Ted Kennedy reacted with horror, challenging him for reelection. Carter's Oval Office tenure was further imperiled by the Iranian hostage crisis, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, near-catastrophe at a Pennsylvania nuclear plant, aviation accidents, serial killers on the loose, and endless gas lines. Backed by a reenergized conservative Republican base, Reagan ran on the campaign slogan "Make America Great Again"-and prevailed. Reaganland is the story of how that happened, tracing conservatives' cutthroat strategies to gain power and explaining why they endure four decades later.

A behind-the-scenes political memoir written by a prominent White House physician. I would talk to the president before the chief of staff even saw the president in the morning. I walked into work, and I was already in the Oval Office talking to President Trump. It was rarely medical, to be honest with you; it was whatever was going on in the news. I'd be the first person he'd see in the morning. The president was completing tasks two to three hours before anybody else showed up in the West Wing to work. He'd get up at five o'clock in the morning and would be watching TV, tweeting, making phone calls, and doing all types of other tasks. President Trump would poke his head into my office or I'd walk out, and we would say, "Good morning. Did you see this or that?" He was always asking me about things on TV and what was going on, from Iran to Stormy Daniels. He'd say, "Walk with me." So I'd walk him to the Oval Office, and we'd talk about everything. I'd walk out through the outer Oval Office and the chief of staff, national security advisor, and even the CIA briefer would be standing there, waiting to get in and talk to him. I'd walk out, they'd walk in, and his day would start. I was the first person he saw every morning and the last person he saw every evening when he went to bed.

'Nicola Tallis, one of our great popular historians.' Alison Weir

The first biography of Lettice Knollys, one of the most prominent women of the Elizabethan era.

Cousin to Elizabeth I - and very likely also Henry VIII's illegitimate granddaughter - Lettice Knollys had a life of dizzying highs and pitiful lows. Darling of the court, entangled in a love triangle with Robert Dudley and Elizabeth I, banished from court, plagued by scandals of affairs and murder, embroiled in treason, Lettice would go on to lose a husband and beloved son to the executioner's axe. Living to the astonishing age of ninety-one, Lettice's tale gives us a remarkable, personal lens on to the grand sweep of the Tudor Age, with those closest to her often at the heart of the events that defined it.

In the first ever biography of this extraordinary woman, Nicola Tallis's dramatic narrative takes us through those events, including the religious turmoil, plots and intrigues of Mary, Queen of Scots, attempted coups, and bloody Irish conflicts, among others. Surviving well into the reign of Charles I, Lettice truly was the last of the great Elizabethans.

A new and updated edition of Malcolm Beith's thrilling inside-account of Joaquin El Chapo Guzman's notorious Sinaloa drug cartel. Until 2016, the dense hills of Sinaloa, Mexico, were home to the most powerful drug lord since Pablo Escobar: Joaquin El Chapo Guzman. Guzman was among the word's ten most wanted men and appeared on Forbes magazine's billionaire list. With his massive wealth, his army of professional killers, and a network of informants that reached into the highest levels of government, catching Guzman was considered impossible - until it wasn't. Newsweek correspondent Malcolm Beith has spent years reporting on the drug wars and followed the chase with full access to senior officials and exclusive interviews with soldiers and drug traffickers in the region, including members of Guzman's cartel. Newly updated with Beith's gripping account of the trial that put Guzman away for life, The Last Narco is essential reading about one of the most dramatic news stories of our day - a true-crime thriller happening in real-time.

Captain Robin Hutchison was one of the longest serving and most experienced Masters to serve on the Clyde. In this book, he uses his experience, wit and eye for detail to tell the story of his favourite ships and the people he sailed with.

The first major biography of Oscar Wilde in thirty years, and the most complete telling of his life and times to date. NOMINATED FOR THE WOLFSON HISTORY PRIZE 2019 'The Book of the Year, perhaps of the decade' TLS 'Simply the best modern biography of Wilde... A terrific achievement' Evening Standard 'Page-turning... Vivid and desperately moving. However much you think you know Wilde, this book will absorb and entertain you' The Sunday TimesBooks of the Year Oscar Wilde's life - like his wit - was alive with paradox. He was both an early exponent and a victim of 'celebrity culture': famous for being famous, he was lauded and ridiculed in equal measure. His achievements were frequently downplayed, his successes resented. He had a genius for comedy but strove to write tragedies. He was an unabashed snob who nevertheless delighted in exposing the faults of society. He affected a dandified disdain but was prone to great acts of kindness. Although happily married, he became a passionate lover of men and - at the very peak of his success - brought disaster upon himself. He disparaged authority, yet went to the law to defend his love for Lord Alfred Douglas. Having delighted in fashionable throngs, Wilde died almost alone. Above all, his flamboyant refusal to conform to the social and sexual orthodoxies of his day make him a hero and an inspiration to all who seek to challenge convention. Matthew Sturgis draws on a wealth of new material and fresh research, bringing alive the distinctive mood and characters of the fin de siecle in the richest and most compelling portrait of Wilde to date.

First biography of a major anarchist thinker Draws on untapped archival primary sources and family records More interest in anarchist ideas as mutual aid has become more prevalent

Operation Market Garden was Major Digby Tatham Warter's first action. As the OC of 'A' Company, 2 Para, he led the advance to the Arnhem road bridge, brushing aside German resistance to reach the objective. Over the course of the next four days, Digby - a well-known eccentric - enhanced his reputation further by displaying solid leadership and a fearlessness that left everyone who witnesses it in awe. Picking up an umbrella and bowler hat from one of the houses, Tatham Warter strolled around the perimeter oblivious to shot and shell, instilling confidence in his men and inspiring them to battle on in the face of overwhelming odds. Wounded and captured at the battle's end, Digby escaped and linked up with the Dutch Resistance. For weeks he strutted around the area disguised as a deaf and dumb Dutchman to fool the Germans. He collected over hundred paratroopers ('evaders') and forged a plan to lead them through enemy lines to safety. His post-war years are just as exciting. This is his story.

Edward Snowden, the man who risked everything to expose the US government's system of mass surveillance, reveals for the first time the story of his life, including how he helped to build that system and what motivated him to try to bring it down.

In 2013, twenty-nine-year-old Edward Snowden shocked the world when he broke with the American intelligence establishment and revealed that the United States government was secretly pursuing the means to collect every single phone call, text message, and email. The result would be an unprecedented system of mass surveillance with the ability to pry into the private lives of every person on earth. Six years later, Snowden reveals for the very first time how he helped to build this system and why he was moved to expose it.

Spanning the bucolic Beltway suburbs of his childhood and the clandestine CIA and NSA postings of his adulthood, Permanent Record is the extraordinary account of a bright young man who grew up online - a man who became a spy, a whistleblower, and, in exile, the Internet's conscience. Written with wit, grace, passion, and an unflinching candor, Permanent Record is a crucial memoir of our digital age and destined to be a classic.

Glamorous, fun and packed with scandalous anecdotes, Never Shaken, Never Stirred tells the story of two extraordinary sisters, Ann and Laura Charteris, who made marrying well an art form. While Laura eventually became the Duchess of Marlborough, Ann became Mrs Ian Fleming, and the antics and attitudes of the two women inspired the writer to create the famous 'Bond Girl'. Along the way there were marriages, and affairs, with some of the biggest names of the twentieth century. Counting seven marriages between them, the sisters' collective husbands included a duke, four peers, Jackie Kennedy's brother-in-law and the alleged illegitimate son of the Queen's uncle. There were also passionate affairs with two Labour leaders, two press barons and a cluster of film stars. Indeed, the lives of the Charteris sisters are almost too extraordinary to believe, as they bagged husbands, bedded men, threw parties and travelled to some of the most glamorous destinations in the world, all at a time when such behaviour by aristocratic society women was unthinkable.