The "gripping and meticulously researched" (The Times, London) true story of the determined museum curators who saved the priceless treasures of China's Forbidden City in the years leading up to World War II and beyond. Spring 1933: The silent courtyards and palaces of Peking's Forbidden City, for centuries the home of Chinese emperors, are tense with fear and expectation. Japan's aircrafts drone overhead, its troops and tanks are only hours away. All-out war between China and Japan is coming, and the curators of the Forbidden City are faced with an impossible question: how will they protect the vast imperial art collections in their charge? A difficult and monumental decision is made: to safeguard the treasures, they will need to be evacuated. The magnificent collections contain a million pieces of art--objects that carry China's deepest and most ancient memories. Among them are irreplaceable artefacts: exquisite paintings on silk, rare Ming porcelain, and the extraordinary Stone Drums of Qin, which are adorned with 2,500-year-old inscriptions of cultural significance. For sixteen years, under the quiet leadership of museum director Ma Heng, the curators would go on to transport the imperial art collections thousands of miles across China--up rivers of white water, across mountain ranges, and through burning cities. In their search for safety the curators and their fragile, invaluable cargo journeyed through the maelstrom of violence, chaos, and starvation that was China's Second World War. Told for the first time in English and playing out across a vast historical canvas, this "compelling story of art, war, and adventure" (Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Romanovs: 1613-1918) follows the small group of men and women who, when faced with war's onslaught on civilization, chose to resist.

Tell them, the Night Heron is hunting ...A lone man escapes a labour camp in the dead of night, fleeing across the winter desert of north-west China. Two decades earlier, he was a spy for the British. Now he finds Beijing transformed and crawling with danger - the fugitive must quickly disappear on its surveillance-blanketed streets or face death. Desperate and ruthless, he reaches out to his one-time MI6 paymasters via journalist Philip Mangan, offering secrets in return for his life. Mangan is dragged into a deeper and deeper whirlpool of lies, as the secrets prove more valuable than either of them could ever have known...and not only to the British.

'The kind of history deserving of a cinematic blockbuster' Julia Lovell, Literary Review '[A] gripping and meticulously researched account of an epic effort to transport delicate scrolls, paintings and carvings thousands of miles under the threat of bombing and invasion' Rana Mitter, Times Literary Supplement 'Brilliant and thrilling... A tale of daring and adventure... A desperate race against time' Paul French, South China Morning Post _____ The gripping true story of the intrepid curators who saved China's finest art from the ravages of the Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Spring 1933. The silent courtyards and palaces of Peking's Forbidden City are tense with fear and expectation. Japan's aircraft drone overhead; its troops and tanks are only hours away. All-out war between China and Japan is coming, and the curators of the Forbidden City are faced with an impossible question: how will they protect the vast imperial art collections in their charge? The magnificent collections contain a million pieces of art - objects that carry China's deepest and most ancient memories. Among them are irreplaceable artefacts: exquisite paintings on silk, vanishingly rare Ming porcelain and the extraordinary Stone Drums of Qin, which are adorned with 2,500-year-old inscriptions of crucial cultural significance. For sixteen terrifying years, under the quiet leadership of museum director Ma Heng, the curators would go on to transport the imperial art collections thousands of miles across China - up rivers of white water, across mountain ranges and through burning cities. In their search for safety the curators and their fragile, invaluable cargo journeyed through the maelstrom of violence, chaos and starvation that was China's Second World War. Told for the first time in English and playing out across a vast historical canvas, this is the exhilarating story of a small group of men and women who, when faced with war's onslaught on civilisation, chose to resist. 'Fascinating... Brookes marries a reporter's grasp of detail with a novelist's narrative flair to bring clarity and readability to a complicated period of China's troubled history' Mail on Sunday

This Is A New Release Of The Original 1920 Edition.

We've all seen some poor adolescent spiral out of control and hoped that it would never be our kid making those kinds of mistakes. Why do some teens self-destruct? Can we communicate a little differently? Can we teach or encourage a little more? When do we let them make mistakes and face the consequences and when do we jump in to their rescue? This book contains true stories of parents and teens, written by ten different professionals who interact with teens in a variety of ways. Cops, teachers, administrators and counselors all provide valuable insight to parents about how to help your teens avoid the serious pitfalls of adolescence and capitalize on their mistakes for future success. WTF? Failure is not an option

THIS 128 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma, by Henry Adams. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 1417915986.

THIS 134 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma, by Henry Adams. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 1417915986.

'Authentic, taut and compelling. Brookes is the real deal' Charles Cumming The stunning third novel from multi-award-nominated author Adam Brookes is paranoid, tense and spy fiction at its very finest. Meet Pearl Tao: an American girl with a lethal secret. Pearl longed for the life of a normal American teenager: summers at the pool, friends, backyard barbecues in the Washington DC suburbs. But she was different. Pearl had a gift for mathematics, a college sponsorship from a secretive technology corporation, and a family riven with anger and dysfunction. And it's only now, at nineteen years old, that she has started to understand what role she is to play. What her parents intend for her. For Pearl Tao, any hope of escape lies with two British spies: Trish Patterson, sidelined in disgrace, and Philip Mangan, blown and discredited - and following his own trail of corruption. Finding out the truth about Pearl will be the most urgent, the most dangerous mission they'll ever undertake. 'The final instalment of Brookes' Mangan trilogy secures its status as a classic' Telegraph (50 Best Books of 2017) 'Riveting and accomplished' Sunday Times

'Authentic, taut and compelling. Brookes is the real deal' Charles Cumming Fearing for his life, journalist Philip Mangan has gone into hiding from the Chinese agents who have identified him as a British spy. His reputation and life are in tatters. But when he is caught in a terrorist attack in East Africa and a shadowy Chinese figure approaches him in the dead of night with information on the origins of the atrocity, Mangan is suddenly back in the eye of the storm. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away on a humid Hong Kong night, a key MI6 source is murdered minutes after meeting spy Trish Patterson. From Washington, D.C. to the hallowed halls of Oxford University and dusty African streets, a sinister power is stirring that will use Mangan and Patterson as its pawns - if they survive. Deeply steeped in tension and paranoia, Spy Games is Adam Brookes' follow-up to his award-nominated debut Night Heron and a remarkable, groundbreaking spy thriller.

A lone man, Peanut, escapes a labor camp in the dead of night, fleeing across the winter desert of northwest China.

Two decades earlier, he was a spy for the British; now Peanut must disappear on Beijing s surveillance-blanketed streets. Desperate and ruthless, he reaches out to his one-time MI6 paymasters via crusading journalist Philip Mangan, offering military secrets in return for extraction.

But the secrets prove more valuable than Peanut or Mangan could ever have known and not only to the British."