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Full of eccentric characters, Killing Dragons is the story of the
first British mountaineers to tackle the Alpine summits of
Switzerland during the late eighteenth century. Originally the
explorers of this area were poorly equipped, wearing ordinary shoes
and no protective clothing. The British arrived intent on reaching
every Alpine summit, and 'mountaineering' was born. The title
refers to the mythical creatures said to inhabit these peaks: 'Here
be dragons,' said the old maps ...
Whether writing of the Alps, the high seas, or the North Pole,
Fergus Fleming has won acclaim as one of today's most vivid and
engaging historians of adventure and exploration. The Sword and the
Cross takes us to the Sahara at the end of the nineteenth century,
when France had designs on a hostile wilderness dominated by deadly
Tuareg nomads. Two fanatical adventurers, Charles de Foucauld and
Henri Laperrine, rose to the cause of their country's national
honor. Abandoning his decadent lifestyle as a sensualist and
womanizer, Foucauld founded a monastic order so severe that during
his lifetime it never had a membership of more than one. Yet he
remained a committed imperialist and from his remote hermitage
continued to assist the military. The stern career soldier
Laperrine, meanwhile, founded a camel corps whose exploits became
legendary. During World War I the Sahara's fragile peace crumbled.
In the desert mountains Foucauld paid a tragic price for his role
as imperial pawn. Laperrine, by then recalled to the Western Front,
returned to avenge his friend.
In a riveting narrative of daredevils and eccentrics, Fergus
Fleming gives us the breathtaking story of some of history's
greatest explorers as they conquer the soaring peaks of the Alps.
Fleming recounts the incredible exploits of the men whose
centuries-old fear of the mountain range turned quickly to
curiosity, then to obsession, as they explored Europe's frozen
wilderness. In the late eighteenth century French and Swiss
scientists became interested in the Alps as a research destination,
but in the 1850s the focus changed: the icy mountains now offered
an all-out competition for British climbers who wanted to conquer
ever higher and more impossible heights, and explorers fought each
other on the peaks and in the press, entertaining a vast public
smitten with their bravery, delighted by their personal
animosities, and horrified by the disasters that befell them.
."..excellent popular history, with its proper share of mad dogs
and Englishmen....Fleming's rendition is dramatic and masterful."
-- Anthony Brandt, National Geographic Adventure
'Constantly entertaining ... So much here to amuse and inform'
Observer 'These friendly, knockabout letters are a treat' Sunday
Telegraph 'Irresistible' New York Times ________________________
Before the world-famous Bond films came the world-famous novels.
This book tells the story of the man who wrote them and how he
created spy fiction's most compelling hero. In August 1952, Ian
Fleming bought a gold-plated typewriter as a present to himself for
finishing his first novel, Casino Royale. It marked in glamorous
style the arrival of James Bond, agent 007, and the start of a
career that saw Fleming become one of the world's most celebrated
thriller writers. Before his death in 1964 he produced fourteen
bestselling Bond books, two works of non-fiction and the famous
children's story Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. Fleming's output was
matched by an equally energetic flow of letters. He wrote
constantly, to his wife, publisher, editors, fans, critics and
friends, including Raymond Chandler, Noel Coward and Somerset
Maugham. His letters - witty and charming, funny and revealing -
chart 007's progress: from badgering his publisher about his quota
of free copies to apologising to readers for having mistaken a
certain brand of perfume and for equipping Bond with the wrong kind
of gun. Collected here together by his nephew, the letters provide
a fascinating insight into the mind of the man who created a
worldwide sensation. 'Splendid' New Statesman 'A revelation'
Guardian 'A fascinating portrait of Bond's creator, revealing a man
of keen wit and charm' Gentleman's Journal
On John Franklin's 1820 expedition to find the North-West Passage,
Michel Teroahaute cannibalized two team members and was preparing a
third when he was caught and killed. When Rene la Salle set off for
the Mississippi Delta in 1684, he missed the target by five hundred
miles, but on landing immediately built a prison for those who fell
asleep on watch. Consummate storyteller Fergus Fleming brings
together these and forty-three other gripping stories in Off the
Map. Spanning three ages of exploration, it is a uniquely
accessible and supremely entertaining history of adventure and
endeavor. Off the Map recounts episodes both classic and forgotten:
the classics are brought to life in more vivid colors than ever
before; the lesser-known stories offer accounts of feats that are
no less heroic or extraordinary but have long lain hidden in the
undergrowth of history. From the Renaissance golden age of
Columbus, da Gama, and Magellan to the twentieth-century heroics of
polar explorers such as Peary, Scott, and Amundsen, this is an
unforgettable journey into the annals of adventure.
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