As the shadow of the millennium descended across England and Christendom, it seemed as if the world was about to end. Actually, it was only the beginning....

Welcome to the Year 1000.
This is what life was like.

• How clothes were fastened in a world without buttons, p. 10

• The rudiments of medieval brain surgery, p. 124

• The first millennium's Bill Gates, p. 192

• How dolphins forecasted weather, p. 140

• The recipe for a medieval form of Viagra, p. 126

• The belongings and body parts a married woman must forfeit if she committed adultery, p. 171

• The fundamental rules of warfare, p. 154

• What the hieroglyphics on English coins revealed, p. 68

• How fried and crushed black snails could improve your health, p. 127

• Omens of a turn-of-the-millennium apocalypse, p. 184
and much more....

THE YEAR 1000 is a vivid evocation of how English people lived a thousand years ago - no spinach, sugar or Caesarean operations in which the mother had any chance of survival, but a world that knew brain surgeons, property developers and, yes, even the occasional gossip columnist. In the spirit of modern investigative journalism, Lacey and Danziger interviewed the leading historians and archaeologists in their field. In the year 1000 the changing seasons shaped a life that was, by our standards, both soothingly quiet and frighteningly hazardous - and if you survived, you could expect to grow to just about the same height and stature as anyone living today. This exuberant and informative book concludes as the shadow of the millennium descends across England and Christendom, with prophets of doom invoking the spectre of the Anti-Christ. Here comes the abacus - the medieval calculating machine - along with bewildering new concepts like infinity and zero. These are portents of the future, and THE YEAR 1000 finishes by examining the human and social ingredients that were to make for survival and success in the next thousand years.
 

Surveying a broad landscape through a narrow lens, "1215" sweeps readers back eight centuries in an absorbing portrait of life during a time of global upheaval, the ripples of which can still be felt today. At the center of this fascinating period is the document that has become the root of modern freedom: the Magna Carta. It was a time of political revolution and domestic change that saw the Crusades, Richard the Lionheart, King John, and -- in legend -- Robin Hood all make their marks on history.

The events leading up to King John's setting his seal to the famous document at Runnymede in June 1215 form this rich and riveting narrative that vividly describes everyday life from castle to countryside, from school to church, and from hunting in the forest to trial by ordeal. For instance, women wore no underwear (though men did), the average temperatures were actually higher than they are now, and the austere kitchen at Westminster Abbey allowed each monk two pounds of meat and a gallon of ale "per day." Broad in scope and rich in detail, "1215" ingeniously illuminates what may have been the most important year of our history.

Mayday. Mayday. Mayday . . . Every member of the Goldfish Club has been forced to broadcast these terrifying words from a stricken aircraft, making them one of the most unusual fellowships in the world. Formed during the Second World War to foster comradeship among pilots who had been forced to bail out over water, the Goldfish Club has taken on new airmen (and one woman) ever since and there are hundreds of tales to be told. All are different. All are utterly gripping. Award winning journalist and author Danny Danziger has brought together some of the most powerful stories of this extraordinary brotherhood. A few will leave you open-mouthed, others may reduce you to tears, but all are a fascinating testament to the resilience of the human spirit.

300 million cubic miles of ocean. Stealthy, and deadly, the nuclear submarines of the Royal Navy lie in wait in the depths of the world's oceans, ready to listen, intercept, and attack wherever they may be needed - from the coastline of Libya to the ice caps of the Arctic. If the UK is hit by a devastating nuclear strike, they'll be the last military force standing. 200 million pounds of hardware. Award-winning journalist Danny Danziger has been allowed unprecedented access to the elite crew of one of the UK's attack class submarines, joining them on operations and hearing their stories. Unrestricted, and uncompromising, Sub paints a vivid picture of this fascinating, little-known branch of our armed forces. One incredible hunter-killer. In an increasingly unstable world, these are the people who keep us safe. It is time for the silent service to be heard.

Hadrian's Wall is one of the world's best known legacies of the Roman Empire. It has stood for two thousand years as a moment to its creator, and yet he himself remains an enigmatic figure. Now bestselling author Danny Danziger and Nicholas Purcell reveal the details of the extraordinary life of this mysterious man, and the age in which he lived and ruled. Hadrian was Spanish, and a restless, inquiring intellectual. He travelled constantly and spent much time in cultural centres like Athens and Alexandria. Although he was not warlike, he was a good soldier, and was comfortable mingling amongst all ranks. And yet his personal life was a complicated one, rife with scandal and conflicted sexuality. This complex character was also responsible for some of the world's most enduring architectural treasures. He built the Pantheon in Rome, the largest dome built using pre-industrial methods and a sprawling 900-room villa at Tivoli with a towering 'pumpkin dome' - a fittingly idiosyncratic memorial to this most unusual of emperors.

An ?intriguing? oral portrait of the people behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art ("Entertainment Weekly")
Using more than fifty interviews, award-winning writer Danny Danziger creates a fascinating mosaic of the people behind New York's magnificent Metropolitan Museum of Art. From the aristocratic, acerbic director of the museum, Philippe de Montebello, to the curators who have a deep knowledge and passionate appreciation of their collections, from the security guards to the philanthropists who keep the museum's financial life blood flowing, Danziger brings to life this extraordinary world through the words of those who are devoted to making the Met the American institution it surely is.

On 15 June 1215, rebel barons forced King John to meet them at Runnymede. They did not trust the King, so he was not allowed to leave until his seal was attached to the charter in front of him. This was Magna Carta. It was a revolutionary document. Never before had royal authority been so fundamentally challenged. Nearly 800 years later, two of the charter's sixty-three clauses are still a ringing expression of freedom for mankind: 'To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice'. And: 'No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or in any way ruined, except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land'. 1215 - THE YEAR OF THE MAGNA CARTA explores what it was like to be alive in that momentous year. Political power struggles are interwoven with other issues - fashion, food, education, medicine, religion, sex. Whether describing matters of state or domestic life, this is a treasure house of a book, rich in detail and full of enthralling insights into the medieval world.

What is it like to drive a Challenger tank over desert terrain for six days in a row? Or hover an Apache AH1 attack helicopter a hundred metres above enemy ground? How quickly can a Sapper clear a field of unexploded devices, or build a bridge - or blow one up? What is it like to fix bayonets, and engage in hand to hand combat, or train a 5.56 mm SA80 sniper sight on an enemy soldier, and pull the trigger? How do you find out what a soldier must learn on his way to war...? Ask him. In this extraordinary book, Danny Danziger interviews the people who fight our wars for us, providing a unique insight into the reality of what we ask of our armed forces. Groundbreaking and utterly compelling, WE ARE SOLDIERS takes the reader to the heart of the 21st century soldier's experience.