For years the rumours persisted: the apartheid state was responsible for the continual disappearance and assassination of anti-apartheid activists. Then, in November 1989, former security policeman Captain Dirk Coetzee made the announcement: ‘I was the commander of the South African police death squad. I was in the heart of the whore.’

Despite official denials and cover-ups, the rumours of apartheid’s death squads have now been proved to be all too real. Hundreds of anti-apartheid activists were killed and thousands tortured by a group of bizarre assassins, the foot soldiers of apartheid’s secret war. Jacques Pauw has been more closely involved with apartheid’s killers than any other journalist. For more than seven years, he has hunted them down and become a witness to their secret and forbidden world.

Into The Heart of Darkness is Jacques Pauw's follow-up to In The Heart Of The Whore will take you on a journey into the minds and lives of the men who went out to kill and kill again. What caused these souls to become so dark and guided them to so much evil?

Jacques Pauw is the author of the bestselling book The President’s Keepers. He is an award-winning journalist, television documentary producer and author. This is NOT an updated edition, just a re-release of the original 1997 book.

Based on Oliver Stone's documentary, JFK Revisited, read the transcripts and interviews that will change the way you think about the John F. Kennedy assassination. JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass contains the two working original screenplays for Oliver Stone’s JFK Revisited; both the two-hour version, Through the Looking Glass, and the four-hour version, Destiny Betrayed. These films are the first documentaries to feature the work of the Assassination Records Review Board. The Assassination Records Review Board worked from 1994–98 releasing records that the government has classified in whole or in part on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. They ended up releasing about two million pages or approximately sixty thousand documents. They also pursued an investigation into the autopsy and medical evidence in the JFK case. Although their releases and discoveries were quite important to the evidentiary record, they received very little exposure in the mainstream media. They also released documents relating to Kennedy’s foreign policy in both Cuba and Vietnam. In the former case, these were plans by the Pentagon to create a pretext to invade Cuba. In the latter, documents proved Kennedy was implementing a withdrawal plan from Vietnam. This book is unprecedented. It contains a compendium of information originating from the widest range of authorities on the JFK case ever assembled. This includes luminaries from several fields: pathology, surgery, ballistics, criminal investigation, neurology, history, and journalism. Never before have people like forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht, criminalist Henry Lee, Professor James Galbraith, author David Talbot, journalist Jefferson Morley, intelligence analyst John Newman, Professor Robert Rakove, and more appeared in one book; never have this many illustrious authorities been interviewed about their views on the policies and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The book also includes important witness interviews with Dr. Donald Miller about his colleague Malcolm Perry, Jim Gochenaur of the Church Committee, and Edwin McGehee of both the House Select Committee on Assassinations and the Jim Garrison investigation. The combination of this newly released information plus expert interviews changed the database and calculus of the JFK case. The scripts are included in this book, which were the backbone for Oliver Stone's films. It also includes important excerpts from the many interviews which did not make it into the final cuts of the films. JFK Revisited will challenge everything you thought you know about the JFK assassination.

In this captivating new book, pre-eminent scholar Howard M. Sachar tells the story of the modern Western world through the lens of one particular act of revenge: political assassination. By detailing the deaths of key political figures during a very fraught time period--the immediate aftermath of World War I--Sachar explores a much larger history: the gradual demise of Europe and its descent into World War II.

In beautiful prose, Sachar illustrates the consequences of the assassinations of Rosa Luxemburg and Kurt Eisner in Germany, and how the death of Giacomo Matteotti, a leader of the left in Italy, contributed to the rise of Mussolini. Through the executions of Matthias Erzberger, Walter Rathenau, and Ernst R?hm, Sachar shows the disintegration of Germany and the rise of Hitler. Further chapters explore the effects of political assassinations in Russia, Yugoslavia, and France, and the final chapter, which chronicles the deaths of Stefan and Lotte Zweig, serves as a thought-provoking metaphor for the assassination of the Old World itself.

Taking an approach that is both dark and illuminating, Howard M. Sachar provides an entirely new perspective on this extremely pivotal moment in twentieth-century history.

John Wilkes Booth's brash personality emerges as his life unfolds in this unique account - from his childhood as the son of one of America's foremost actors, to his own career as a theatrical star, to the development, implementation and aftermath of his plot against Lincoln. By 1865, at the age of 26, Booth had much to lose: a loving family, hosts of friends, adoring women, professional success, and the promise of yet more fame and fortune. Yet he risked everything to orchestrate a daring conspiracy to abduct Lincoln, take him south and barter him for Confederate prisoners of war. The Civil War effectively ended before Booth could carry out his plan, so he assassinated the president, believing him to be a tyrant who had turned the once-proud Union into an engine of oppression that had devastated the South. Through a combination of lively narrative and detailed daily logs, this book gives a day-by-day account of Wilkes' complex life - from his birth May 10, 1838, to his death April 26, 1865 - and offers a new understanding of the crime that shocked a nation.

Few events have been the subject of more conspiracy theories than the assassinations of the two Kennedy brothers. Indeed, a great many people consider that there were other individuals than Lee Harvey Oswald and Sirhan Sirhan involved in both murders. Was a shot fired from Dealey Plaza's grassy knoll? Why did Jack Ruby shoot Oswald? Was it the CIA, the Soviets, Cuban nationalists or the Mafia that arranged John Kennedy's assassination? Was Robert Kennedy shot from in front and behind, and who had the most to gain from his death? These are just a few of the questions that have been put forward by a myriad of conspiracy theorists and it is those people and their ideas that Mel Ayton has tackled head-on. Over many years, Mel Ayton has examined all the more substantial conspiracy theories and, through careful analysis of documents and eyewitness statements, he has demolished each one. In each case, Mel Ayton presented the results of his detailed investigations in periodicals as he worked through the various theories. These have now been brought together to provide a comprehensive analysis of all the main theories as to who, how and why the two Kennedy brothers met their deaths in such unusual circumstances. Though wild ideas will continue to be proposed and efforts will still be made to demonstrate that Oswald could not have fired off three shots with great accuracy in the few seconds available to him as the presidential cavalcade passed beneath the window where he crouched, or that there were sinister reasons why three CIA men were allegedly present on the night of Robert Kennedy's assassination, the harsh reality is that the Kennedy brothers were each killed by lone gunmen. This is an absorbing read, brought up to date with the addition of new material as it has been uncovered. Maybe, just maybe, this book will persuade people that the official accounts of both murders, although flawed, are not cover-ups but simply statements of fact.

This updated paperback edition of the acclaimed analysis of medical and political events surrounding the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan includes a new Postscript on the election of 1992 and "the public's right to know " which covers the health problems and disclosures of Bush, Tsongas, Buchanan, Perot, and Clinton in light of the issues of privacy and confidentiality.

On November 22nd, 1963 the assassination of President John F. Kennedy set into motion a series of events that irrevocably changed American politics and culture. The media frenzy spawned by the controversy surrounding the death of JFK has since given way to a powerful public memory that continues to shape the way we understand politics, the 1960s, and the nation.

In The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: Political Trauma and American Memory, Alice George traces the events of Kennedy s assassination and Lyndon B. Johnson s subsequent ascension to the presidency. Covering both the political shifts of the time and the cultural fallout of the national tragedy, this book introduces students of the twenty-first century to both an iconic event and to the context in which that event was heralded as iconic. Drawing on newspaper articles, political speeches, letters, and diaries, George critically re-examines the event of JFK s death and its persistent political and cultural legacy.

On November 22nd, 1963 the assassination of President John F. Kennedy set into motion a series of events that irrevocably changed American politics and culture. The media frenzy spawned by the controversy surrounding the death of JFK has since given way to a powerful public memory that continues to shape the way we understand politics, the 1960s, and the nation.

In The Assassination of John F. Kennedy: Political Trauma and American Memory, Alice George traces the events of Kennedy s assassination and Lyndon B. Johnson s subsequent ascension to the presidency. Covering both the political shifts of the time and the cultural fallout of the national tragedy, this book introduces students of the twenty-first century to both an iconic event and to the context in which that event was heralded as iconic. Drawing on newspaper articles, political speeches, letters, and diaries, George critically re-examines the event of JFK s death and its persistent political and cultural legacy.

Since 1789, when George Washington became the first president of the United States, forty-three men have held the nation's highest office. Four were killed by assassins, and serious attempts were made on the lives of eight others.Add to that list Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, and it is reasonable to conclude that political prominence in the U.S. entails grave risks. In Defining Danger, James W. Clarke explores the cultural and psychological linkages that define assassinations and a new era of domestic terrorism in America.

Clarke notes an upsurge in political violence beginning with the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. Since then, there have been ten assassination attempts on nationally prominent political leaders. That is two more than the eight recorded in the previous 174 years of the nation's presidential history. New elements of domestic terror in American life were introduced in the 1990s by Timothy McVeigh, the "Oklahoma City Bomber," Ted Kaczynski, the "Unabomber," and Eric Rudolph, the abortion clinic bomber. These men were politically motivated; their crimes were unprecedented. These events and the perpetrators behind them are among the subjects of this book.

Defining Danger conveys two central themes. The first is that individual acts of violence directed toward America's democratically elected leaders represent a defining element of American politics. The second addresses how danger is defined, through an analysis of the motives and characteristics of twenty-one perpetrators responsible for these acts of political violence where shots were fired, or bombs detonated, and in most instances, victims died. The book is written in an accessible and engaging style that will appeal to the informed general reader, as well as to professionals in a variety of fields--especially in the wake of recent events and the specter of future violence that, sadly, haunts us all.

On December 27, 2007, a suicide bomber killed Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan. Brilliant and charismatic, the head of a political family as important to Pakistani history as the Gandhis in India or the Kennedys in the United States, Bhutto had recently returned from exile to challenge military dictator Pervez Musharraf in a democratic election. In the aftermath of the assassination, some blamed Musharraf; others blamed terrorists linked to the Pakistani security service, the ISI; still others pointed the finger at Bhutto s own spouse and entourage; and some speculated that it was a lone wolf attack. Though the individuals behind the conspiracy have never been found, in Getting Away with Murder Heraldo Munoz goes further than anyone else to unravel the mystery of Bhutto s death. Moreover, he explains the unexpected role America played in the tragic events, the byzantine relationship between Pakistan and the United States, and how Bhutto s assassination impacted world politics. In a country ruled more often by military dictators than by elected governments, Bhutto offered a secular, democratic hope. Arguably one of Pakistan s most iconic political figures, she became one of the world s few female heads of government. Her assassination tore the country apart, destabilizing the entire region. Leading the United Nations inquiry, Munoz delved into murky world of Pakistani politics and the infamous Bhutto family, awash in charisma and power, controversy and violence. His year-long investigation frames a story of betrayals, corruption, foreign influence, and unsolved political assassinations.

Munoz provides new insight into Bhutto s unprecedented rise and an unflinching, minute-by-minute narrative of the assassination itself. With impeccable research, Munoz also situates Bhutto in the decades-long history of U.S.-Pakistan relations and the emergence of global terrorism, pinpointing her death as the moment when those relations changed forever.

The result is a gripping narrative of Pakistan s turbulent political realities and the death of its leading politician."

Most historians, both ancient and modern, have viewed the Late Republic of Rome through the eyes of its rich nobility. In The Assassination of Julius Caesar, Michael Parenti presents us with a story of popular resistance against entrenched power and wealth. As he carefully weighs the evidence concerning the murder of Caesar, Parenti sketches in the background to the crime with fascinating detail about wider Roman society. In these pages we find reflections on the democratic struggle waged by Roman commoners, religious augury as an instrument of social control, the patriarchal oppression of women, and the political use of homophobic attacks. The Assassination of Julius Caesar offers a whole new perspective on an era we thought we knew well.

'A gripping history' Mary Beard 'A political thriller, and a human story that astonishes' Hilary Mantel 'Atmospheric and gripping, and [his] scholarship is impeccable' Greg Woolf Many men killed Julius Caesar. Only one man was determined to kill the killers. THE LAST ASSASSIN dazzlingly charts an epic turn of history through the eyes of an unheralded man. It is a hunt that an emperor wanted to hide, of torture and terror, politics and poetry, of ideas and their consequences, a gripping story of fear, revenge and survival.

Assassination as a political act has a long history, predating the murder of Julius Caesar and continuing into our own time. The murder of the mighty has long fascinated artists and rebels but only rarely has it been studied in a scholarly manner. In Assassin, J. Bowyer Bell combines existing historical evidence with years of personal interviews with terrorists in Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. The result is an incisive study of that enigmatic figure, the revolutionary killer.

As Bell makes clear, the motives of the actors, and effectiveness of assassination, vary widely across time and place. Assassination in many parts of the world has not only been a normal political act, rational, explicable, but also often effective, in some cases taking fewer lives in the transfer of power than an election. Likewise, there have been all kinds of assassins--personal, psychopathic, professional, ranging from lonely failures trying to make their mark to authorized agents of the state.

Using the assassination of Henry IV of France as a historical backdrop, Bell writes about contemporary political murder from the perspective of one who has studied the subject of political violence for decades. Bell has met with or known well the perpetrators, conspirators, and intended victims of assassination who have escaped. His interviewees include a radical Irish revolutionary leader, an American Arabist diplomat, a spokesman for the PLO, and the president of a Mozambique liberation movement. The itinerary of his investigative journeys covers most of the flashpoints of contemporary political violence.

The people and places studied here at firsthand are engaged in a deadly game. The attrition rate is often high, the power fleeting, and the consequences often unforeseen. If past is prologue, assassination is to be with us for years to come. The volume will be essential reading for those engaged in the prevention of political violence and terror as well as historians and political scientists.

If you were beginning to believe that "lone nut" Lee Harvey Oswald did kill President Kennedy all by himself, this could be the book to convince you, that there was indeed a conspiracy and a cover-up. The contributors worked independently at first, and were drawn together by a shared outrage at statements on the assassination made in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" in 1992. They explain their evidence and reasoning in easily understandable language, and present insights on the physical evidence, the autopsy findings, the bullet trajectories, the interpretation of numerous eye-witness accounts, and the misleading logic of the official lone nut theorists. Among their conclusions are: crucial autopsy x-rays of JFK's skull have been fabricated; the official "magic bullet" theory is anatomically and ballistically impossible; autopsy pictures of the brain alleged to be JFK's are of someone else's brain; Kennedy was hit at least four times, and a minimum of six bullets were fired in Dealey Plaza that day; and new evidence indicates the Warren Commission inquiry was a political charade based on selected and manufactured evidence.

The murder of the Prime Minister, Butrus Ghali in 1910 was the first incident of its kind in Egypt for over a century, and it reflected the mood of Egypt's youth at the time. It also set a precedent for the more extreme elements of the population who saw assassination as a way to dispatch 'traitors' and as a potent expression of political dissent. Badrawi studies the circumstances that led to the violence and attempts to understand the mood and motives that provoked it.

On March 24, 1980, the assassination of El Salvador's Archbishop Oscar Romero rocked that nation and the world. Despite the efforts of many in El Salvador and beyond, those responsible for Romero's murder remained unpunished for their heinous crime. Assassination of a Saint is the thrilling story of an international team of lawyers, private investigators, and human-rights experts that fought to bring justice for the slain hero. Matt Eisenbrandt, a lawyer who was part of the investigative team, recounts in this gripping narrative how he and his colleagues interviewed eyewitnesses and former members of death squads while searching for evidence on those who financed them. As investigators worked toward the only court verdict ever reached for the murder of the martyred archbishop, they uncovered information with profound implications for El Salvador and the United States.

On the evening of 14 April 1865 when President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in Ford's Theatre, an entire audience was witness to the tragedy. From diaries, letters, depositions, affidavits, and periodicals, here is a collection of accounts from a variety of theatergoers--who by chance saw one of the truly pivotal events in U.S. history. Providing minute first-hand details recorded over a span of ninety years, " We Saw Lincoln Shot" explores an event that will forever be the subject of debate and controversy. "I was present at the theater and saw it all," said Samuel Koontz. "In fact I was only about fifteen feet from the President when he was shot, although he was in a private box in the theater." In a letter to his parent Jason S. Knox wrote: "Dear Father, It is with sad feeling that I take up my pen and address you. Last Friday night at ten o'clock, I witnessed the saddest tragedy ever enacted in this country. Notwithstanding my promise to you not to visit the theater, I could not resist the temptation to see General Grant and the President, and when the curtain at Ford's rose on the play of 'Our American Cousin, ' my roommate and I were seated on the second row of orchestra seats, just beneath the President's box." Although there have been many studies of the Lincoln assassination, few have been devoted to the actual event. Overwhelmingly, historians have been attracted to the conspiracy that preceded Lincoln's death or to the aftermath. Too few have relied sufficiently upon eyewitness accounts, and some, without considering how the human mind fails to preserve minute details in long-term memory, have trusted recollections transcribed many years after Lincoln died. With a sharp focus upon the circumstances reported by one hundred actual witnesses, "We Saw Lincoln Shot" provides vivid documentation of a momentous evening and exposes errors that have been perpetuated as the assassination has been rendered into written histories.

Kanno Suga and Kaneko Fumika were both found guilty on different occasions in 1911 and 1926 of conspiring to assassinate the Japanese emperor. Kanno was executed and Kaneko hanged herself whilst in prison, but both women maintained their defiance of the State even in the face of death. Through examination of their own life stories and writings, Helene Bowen Raddeker brings to life the women's own interpretations of their lives and their attitudes to death, with the associations of political martyrdom, heroism and notions of immortality. She finds that their self-presentations became weapons in an ideological war of words about social and political realities and their deaths were a means of self-empowerment within their historical context.

The assassination of Yitzhak Rabin by Orthodox Jew Yigal Amir, twenty years ago this November, remains the most consequential event in the country's recent history. Killing a King relates parallel stories over the two years leading up to the assassination, as Rabin plotted political deals he hoped would lead to peace and Amir plotted murder. Dan Ephron covered both the rally where Rabin was assassinated and the subsequent murder trial. This deeply researched narrative is based on a trove of documents from the era and interviews with the key players, including members of Amir's family. Only through the prism of the murder is it possible to understand Israel today, from the paralysis in peace-making to the relationship between Netanyahu and Obama.

In End of Days, James L. Swanson, the New York Times bestselling author of Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer, brings to life the minute-by-minute details of the JFK assassination-from the Kennedys' arrival in Texas through the shooting in Dealey Plaza and the shocking aftermath that continues to reverberate in our national consciousness fifty years later. The assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, has been the subject of enduring debate, speculation, and numerous conspiracy theories, but Swanson's absorbing and complete account follows the event hour-by-hour, from the moment Lee Harvey Oswald conceived of the crime three days before its execution, to his own murder two days later at a Dallas Police precinct at the hands of Jack Ruby, a two-bit nightclub owner. Based on sweeping research never before collected so powerfully in a single volume, and illustrated with photographs, End of Days distills Kennedy's assassination into a pulse-pounding thriller that is sure to become the definitive popular account of this historic crime for years to come.

From the New York Times bestselling authors of The Nazi Conspiracy and The Lincoln Conspiracy comes a true, little-known story about the first assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy, right before his inauguration.

Kennedy, the thirty-fifth president of the United States, is often ranked among Americans’ most well-liked presidents. Yet what most Americans don’t know is that JFK’s historic presidency almost ended before it began―at the hands of a disgruntled sociopathic loner armed with dynamite.

On December 11, 1960, shortly after Kennedy’s election and before his inauguration, a retired postal worker named Richard Pavlick waited in his car―a parked Buick―on a quiet street in Palm Beach, Florida. Pavlick knew the president-elect’s schedule. He knew when Kennedy would leave his house. He knew where Kennedy was going. From there, Pavlick had a simple plan―one that could’ve changed the course of history.

Written in the gripping, page-turning style that is the hallmark of Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch’s bestselling series, this is a slice of history vividly brought to life. Meltzer and Mensch are at the top of their game with this brilliant exploration of what could’ve been for one of the most compelling leaders of the 20th century.

'In explaining the rise to power of Kim Yo Jong, Lee displays his deep knowledge and understanding of North Korea's extreme, ruthless and self-obsessed dynastic autocracy, the creators and rulers of a de-facto nuclear weapon state. Not a reassuring story'- Sir John Scarlett, former Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) The Sister is a fascinating, authoritative account of the spectacular rise of Kim Yo Jong, de-facto deputy to her brother, Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, and the most powerful woman in North Korea. In 2022, in a particularly fiery speech, Kim Yo Jong threatened to nuke South Korea, reminding the world of the dangers posed by her state. But how did the youngest daughter of Dear Leader Kim Jong Il, his ‘sweet princess’, become the ruthless chief propagandist, internal administrator and foreign policymaker for her brother’s totalitarian regime? The Sister, written by Sung-Yoon Lee, a scholar and specialist on North Korea, uncovers the truth about Kim Yo Jong, her close bond with Kim Jong Un and the lessons in manipulation they learned from their father. He also examines the iron grip the Kim dynasty has on their country, the grotesque deaths of family members deemed disloyal, and the signs that Kim Yo Jong has been positioned as her brother’s successor should he die while his own children are young. Readable and insightful, this book is an invaluable portrait of a woman who might yet hold the survival of her despotic dynasty in her hands. 'An incisive portrayal of North Korea's "princess", Kim Yo Jong, but also a chilling portrait of a family dynasty that has oppressed and exploited North Korea for generation after generation' - Max Boot, Washington Post columnist, author and senior fellow, Council on Foreign Relations

"There is a lack of quiet in Sylvia that craves for action.... She knows that she is special and that she possesses unusual and varied abilities." -- From the Mossad's psychological evaluation of Sylvia Rafael

When Moti Kfir, head of the Academy for Special Operations of the Mossad, first interviewed Sylvia Rafael in a coffee shop, he knew she would make a great combatant for Israel's intelligence agency. She was outgoing, resourceful, brilliant, and had a talent for bonding with others. When Kfir warned her that the mysterious job they'd met to discuss could be dangerous, she simply sat back comfortably in her chair and smiled.

Sylvia Rafael is the page-turning account of a young, dedicated agent as told by the man who trained her. Drawing on extensive research and interviews, authors Ram Oren and Moti Kfir tell the story of Rafael's rise to prominence within the Mossad and her intelligence work trying to locate Ali Hassan Salameh -- the leader of Palestine's Black September organization and the mastermind behind the murder of eleven Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. Her team's misidentification of their mark would eventually lead to her arrest and imprisonment for murder and espionage.

Now available in English for the first time, Sylvia Rafael offers new insight into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, its history, and its human cost. It is a gripping, authentic spy story about a fearless defender of the Jewish people.

A New York Times Best Seller! Richard Belzer and David Wayne are back to set the record straight after Dead Wrong; this time they're going to uncover the truth about the many witness deaths tied to the JFK assassination. For decades, government pundits have dismissed these "coincidental" deaths, even regarding them as "myths" as "urban legends." Like most people, Richard and David were initially unsure about what to make of these 'coincidences'. After all, events don't "consult the odds" prior to happening; they simply happen. Then someone comes along later and figures out what the odds of it happening were. Some of the deaths seemed purely coincidental; heart attacks, hunting accidents. Others clearly seemed noteworthy; witnesses who did seem to know something and did seem to die mysteriously. Hit List is a fair examination of the evidence of each case, leading to (necessarily) different conclusions. The findings were absolutely staggering; as some cases were clearly linked to a "clean-up operation" after the murder of President Kennedy, while others were the result of 'other forces'. The impeccable research and writing of Richard Belzer and David Wayne show that if the government is trying to hide anything, they're the duo who will uncover it. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

On 20 June 1900, Baron von Ketteler, the German Minister, was assassinated in a Peking street. By 4pm the first shots were fired into the legation quarter and the siege of foreigners by Boxers and imperial troops had begun. Among the besieged were 148 women from America, Europe, Russia and Japan and Maud, the Baron's American widow. What were their experiences? How did they cope with their 79 children for two months, without enough to eat, often under fire? This book tells their story - of courage, grief, humour, friendship, ill-health, and hard work - mostly through their own accounts. It identifies the women for the first time as individuals: missionary teachers and doctors, "globe trotters", and the wives of diplomats, officials, railway engineers, merchants, bankers and the owner of the Peking Hotel.