Wilfred Thesiger: The Life of the Great Explorer

Wilfred Thesiger: The Life of the Great Explorer

Wilfred Thesiger: the life of the great explorer

MAITLAND, Alexander

Harper Press

Consuming Passions

History

Flanders, Judith

Europe

Ophelia Field’s ‘Kit-Cat Club’ is a story of a changing time in 17th-century Britain, during the reigns of Queen Anne and George I, when a group of men and their enterprising initiatives paved the way for new literary and political viewpoints, born out of the most unexpected circumstances.The Kit-Cat Club was founded in the late 1690s when Jacob Tonson, a bookseller of lowly birth, forged a partnership with the pie-maker Christopher (Kit) Cat. What began as an eccentric publishing rights deal – Tonson paying to feed hungry young writers and so receiving first option on their works – developed into a unique gathering of intellects and interests, then into the unofficial centre of Whig power during the reigns of William & Mary, Anne and George I.With consummate skill, Ophelia Field, author of the acclaimed biography of the first Duchess of Marlborough, ‘The Favourite’, portrays this formative period in British history through the club’s intimate lens. She describes the vicious Tory-Whig ‘paper wars’, the mechanics of aristocratic patronage, the London theatre world and its battles over sexual morality, England’s union with Scotland, Dublin society governed by a Kit-Cat and the hurly-burly of Westminster politics.Field expertly unravels the deceit, rivalry, friendships and fortunes lost and found through the club, along with wonderful descriptions of how its alcohol-fuelled, all-male meetings were conducted. Tracing the Kit-Cat Club’s far-reaching influence for the first time, this group biography illuminates a time when Britain was searching for its own identity.

The Kit-Cat Club: Friends Who Imagined a Nation

Field, Ophelia

Re-evaluation of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Dan Jones brings to life the squalor, drama and complex hierarchies of life in the 14th century. He examines village life and the failings of government from the perspective of the revolt's key players.

Summer of Blood: The Peasants' Revolt of 1381 (AUTHOR SIGNED)

Jones, Dan

HOUSE OF STONE is based on a remarkable series of interviews with a white farmer and black nanny, set against the backdrop of the last of Britain's colonies in Africa to become independent, and the descent into madness of one of Africa's most respected nationalist leaders. "...One bright morning, Nigel Hough, one of the few remaining white farmers, received the news he had been dreading. There was a crowd of war veterans at his gates demanding he hand over his homestead. When he returned, the mob started a fire and dragged him to an outhouse. To his shock, the leader of the invaders was the family's much-loved, nanny Aqui. "Get out or we'll kill you," she spat. "There is no place for whites in our country." Christina Lamb uncovered the astonishing human saga told in HOUSE OF STONE while traveling back and forth to report clandestinely on Zimbabwe. Her powerful narrative traces the history of the brutal Rhodesia civil war, independence, the hope then despair of the Mugabe years, through the lives of two people she met who find themselves on opposing sides. Although born within a few miles of each other, their experience growing up could not have been more different. While Nigel played cricket for his country and piloted his own plane under Victoria Falls Bridge, Aqui grew up in a mud-and-dpole hut, sleeping on the floor with her brothers and sisters. "They had cars and went shopping in South Africa. We didn't have food and had to walk an hour each day to fetch water," she remembers.

House of Stone: The True Story of a Family Divided In WarTorn Z

CHRISTINA LAMB

Biographies & Memoirs

Many nations define themselves in terms of territory or people; China defines itself in terms of history. With the world’s longest tradition of history-writing, its extraordinary past ought to be common knowledge. China, by the eminent historian John Keay, should make it so.Informed by the latest research and enlivened by wit and anecdote, Keay’s narrative spans 5,000 years, from the Three Dynasties (2000220 BC) to Deng Xiaoping’s opening of China and the past three decades of economic growth. Broadly chronological, the book presents a history of all the Chinasincluding regions (Yunnan, Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Manchuria) that account for two-thirds of the People’s Republic of China land mass but which barely feature in its conventional history.Crisp, judicious, and engaging, China is destined to become the classic single-volume history for anyone seeking to understand the past, present, and future of this immensely powerful nation.

China; a history.

JOHN KEAY

This narrative history of China takes in everything from the earliest times to the present day. The book is informed by a wide knowledge of the Asian context and an approach devoid of Euro-centric bias. The book also examines the many non-Chinese elements in China's history, such as the impact of Buddhism, foreign trade, etc.

China

KEAY, John

Asia

“Matching gorgeous prose to gorgeous artworks, Prose responds to each image as a moment of theatrical revelation, sensual or spiritual, and frequently both.” — Boston Sunday Globe In Caravaggio, New York Times bestselling author Francine Prose (Goldengrove, Reading like a Writer) offers an enthralling account of the life and work of one of the greatest painters of all time. —“Called “racy, intensely imagined, and highly readable” by the New York Times Book Review, Caravaggio includes eight pages of color illustrations, and is sure to appeal to art enthusiasts interested in one of history’s true innovators. Caravaggio is another engaging entry in the HarperCollins’ “Eminent Lives” series of biographies by distinguished authors on canonical figures.

Caravaggio: Painter of Miracles (Eminent Lives)

Francine Prose

FORGIVE ME PB

Forgive Me

From the acclaimed author of 'How to Be Lost' comes a powerful new novel about love, memory, and motherhood. Restless and driven, journalist Nadine Morgan is always on the move, chasing the next big story, following risky leads and running from anything that might weigh her down. Ten years after an assignment in South Africa ended in tragedy, she has not been back to the beautiful, troubled country that launched her career -- and broke her heart. But when a young man from her hometown is beaten to death by an angry mob in Cape Town, she is flooded with memories of a time when the pull toward adventure left her grief-stricken and haunted. When the boy's murderers apply for amnesty under Nelson Mandela's new regime, his parents pack their bags, determined to fight the killers' plea for forgiveness. Desperate to escape the bonds of affection and guilt that threaten to tie her to her hometown, Nadine heads after them to cover the trial. In a land struggling to heal scars left by years of hatred, Nadine grows close to the mothers of both the dead boy and his killer, with profound consequences. Alone in a country both foreign and familiar, and surrounded by ghosts from her past, Nadine must face the demons she has tried so desperately to bury and learn what it means to love -- and to forgive. Gripping, darkly humorous and luminously written, 'Forgive Me' is an unforgettable story of ambition and longing, regret and redemption

Literature & Fiction

Amanda Eyre Ward

Contemporary

With the onslaught on Britain's major cities which began in September 1940, the Nazis aimed to break morale and to destroy the country's capacity to wage war. Using evidence from a range of public and private documents, Juliet Gardiner shows how the attacks instead engendered a stubborn resolve in the British populace and prompted them to develop innovative survival strategies. But her history does not ignore the darker underside of the Blitz, from official incompetence and mismanagement to outright profiteering and crime.

The Blitz: The British Under Attack

GARDINER, Juliet

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