Attila the Hun - godless barbarian and near-mythical warrior king - has become a byword for mindless ferocity. His brutal attacks smashed through the frontiers of the Roman empire in a savage wave of death and destruction. His reign of terror shattered an imperial world that had been securely unified by the conquests of Julius Caesar five centuries before. This book goes in search of the real Attila the Hun. For the first time it reveals the history of an astute politician and first-rate military commander who brilliantly exploited the strengths and weaknesses of the Roman empire. We ride with Attila and the Huns from the windswept steppes of Kazakhstan to the opulent city of Constantinople, from the Great  Hungarian Plain to the fertile fields of Champagne in France. Christopher Kelly utilises a wealth of original texts - including the only surviving account of the historian who met Attila during a top-secret assassination attempt. This tale of espionage and counter-intelligence is one of the most thrilling in the whole of Roman history.Challenging our own ideas about barbarians and Romans, imperialism and civilisation, terrorists and superpowers, this is the absorbing story of an extraordinary and complex individual who helped to bring down an empire and forced the map of Europe to be redrawn forever.

Attila the Hun: Barbarian Terror and the Fall of the Roman Empire

Biographies & Memoirs

Christopher Kelly

Leaders & Notable People

Bodley Head

Attila The Hun: Barbarian Terror and the Fall of the Roman Empire

An Adventure in 1914 is a memoir written by my great grandfather Thomas Tileston Wells of New York City. Wells, a lawyer, wrote this document after a harrowing journey he took in the summer of 1914 with his wife and two children. He had planned on pleasurable hikes in the Swiss and Austrian Tyrol. Instead he was a witness to history's greatest train wreck - the outbreak of World War I. Wells wrote poignantly about the mobilization of European armies and its effect on the soldier's families. He wrote about the impossibility of using a return ticket on French railway lines when all trains were being used to transport soldiers. Wells was even arrested and threatened by Austrian authorities with immediate execution on the grounds of being a Russian spy! Wells escaped but his manuscript was never published...until now.In order to properly edit and provide context for Wells' memoir I needed to experience some of what he experienced. In the summer of 2015 I retraced the journey taken by Wells and his family over a century ago. I stayed at hotels where he had stayed, traveled by rail and boat taking photography along the way. As a historian (America Invades and Italy Invades: How Italians Conquered the World) I am fascinated by a time period when the world fundamentally changed. Wells was a witness to these tumultuous changes in the summer of 1914 and I am delighted to share his Adventure with the world.

An Adventure in 1914: An American Family's Journey on the Brink of WWI

Historical

Greenleaf Book Group Press

Have you ever wondered why some towns in Texas have French names? Or why there's a statue of a Shawnee chief at the US Naval Academy? Or what coastal wildlife refuges have to do with American fears of invasion? And what the Olive Oil Riot in Montana was really all about? America Invaded has the answers to these intriguing questions, and so many more. Ever since they first set foot on the North American continent, humans have explored, discovered, established boundaries - and subsequently invaded - all across the territory we now call the United States. In America Invaded, we track some of the many explorations and invasions that founded or destroyed towns, that set and reset state lines, and that shaped the peoples and culture of this nation.

America Invaded: A State by State Guide to Fighting on American Soil

History

Stuart Laycock

Americas

A month before Election Day, the Democratic nominee for United States Senate in Texas--a gay reality television star named Patrick Francis Monaghan--takes to the stage to deliver a speech. Before the candidate can begin, he is shot twice in the stomach. As doctors work to save him, the reader is taken on a touching journey through the preceding forty years of Patrick's life. Through a tight and appealing cast of characters, we see Patrick navigate what it is to be a gay man--and a public figure--in our rapidly changing world.

The Pink Bus

Lethe Press

Attila the Hun - godless barbarian and near-mythical warrior king - has become a byword for mindless ferocity. His brutal attacks smashed through the frontiers of the Roman empire in a savage wave of death and destruction. His reign of terror shattered an imperial world that had been securely unified by the conquests of Julius Caesar five centuries before. This book goes in search of the real Attila the Hun. For the first time it reveals the history of an astute politician and first-rate military commander who brilliantly exploited the strengths and weaknesses of the Roman empire. We ride with Attila and the Huns from the windswept steppes of Kazakhstan to the opulent city of Constantinople, from the Great Hungarian Plain to the fertile fields of Champagne in France. Christopher Kelly utilises a wealth of original texts - including the only surviving account of the historian who met Attila during a top-secret assassination attempt. This tale of espionage and counter-intelligence is one of the most thrilling in the whole of Roman history.Challenging our own ideas about barbarians and Romans, imperialism and civilisation, terrorists and superpowers, this is the absorbing story of an extraordinary and complex individual who helped to bring down an empire and forced the map of Europe to be redrawn forever.

Attila The Hun

Vintage

Americans have invaded nearly half the world's countries and been militarily involved with all the rest, except Andorra, Bhutan and Liechtenstein. Christopher Kelly and Stuart Laycock take you on a global tour of America's military activity around the world from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli and everywhere in-between. Whatever your political views this is an extraordinary and often surprising story. With personal photos, maps and an index to assist America Invades: How We've Invaded or Been Militarily Involved with Almost Every Country on Earth gives us history as it should be taught--calling out for more!

America Invades: How We've Invaded or been Militarily Involved with almost Every Country on Earth

Military

Book Publishers Network

Italy Invades, full of restless adventurers, canny generals, and the occasional scoundrel, is a fast-paced and compelling read, the perfect sequel to America Invades. Recreating their success with America Invades, Christopher Kelly and Stuart Laycock take another global tour, this time starting from Italy and exploring that country's military involvements throughout the ancient and modern worlds. From the empire building of the Romans, through the globe-spanning Age of Exploration, to the multinational cooperation of NATO, Italy has conquered and explored countries as diverse and far-ranging as Cape Verde and Mongolia and Uruguay. With the additional guide of maps and photographs, the reader can visually follow the Italians as they conquer the world. 
 The book also contains an excerpt from the never before published An Adventure in 1914, written by Christopher Kelly's maternal great-grandfather, Thomas Tileston Wells. Wells served as the American consul general to Romania each summer; and in the summer of 1914, as war exploded across Europe, he was there with his wife and two children.

Italy Invades

Europe

Italy Invades, full of restless adventurers, canny generals, and the occasional scoundrel, is a fast-paced and compelling read, the perfect sequel to America Invades. Recreating their success with America Invades, Christopher Kelly and Stuart Laycock take another global tour, this time starting from Italy and exploring that country's military involvements throughout the ancient and modern worlds. From the empire building of the Romans, through the globe-spanning Age of Exploration, to the multinational cooperation of NATO, Italy has conquered and explored countries as diverse and far-ranging as Cape Verde and Mongolia and Uruguay. With the additional guide of maps and photographs, the reader can visually follow the Italians as they conquer the world. The book also contains an excerpt from the never before published An Adventure in 1914, written by Christopher Kelly's maternal great-grandfather, Thomas Tileston Wells. Wells served as the American consul general to Romania each summer; and in the summer of 1914, as war exploded across Europe, he was there with his wife and two children.

Italy Invades (paperback)

The End of Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall of Rome (Chinese Edition)

Chongqing Press

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Books by Christopher Kelly