Историческая литература
Различные книги в жанре Историческая литератураAbandoned Places: 60 stories of places where time stopped
Ghost towns, empty streets, crumbling ruins and lost empires this book reveals these and other deserted places. Many places featured were once populated and now sit unoccupied, modern day ruins, sitting in decay.Stories, facts and photographs of 60 beautiful and eerie abandoned places from throughout the world. Time has stopped and nature is taking resident in these places mainly due to natural disasters, war or economic reasons.Places include:• Severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina, Six Flags Jazzland has been abandoned since. Several of the rides still stand, a testimony to the resilience of New Orleans.• Shicheng in China has been under water for 53 years since the Xin'an River Hydro Plant flooded the area. The city was founded 1,300 years ago.• Chernobyl was totally abandoned after the nearby nuclear disaster in 1986. Due to radiation, it has been left untouched ever since the incident and will be for many thousands of years into the future. Nature now rules the city in what resembles an apocalyptic movie.• Poveglia is an island in the Venetian Lagoon which under the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte became a dumping ground for plague victims and later an asylum for the mentally ill.• Plymouth was the capital of the island of Montserrat. The town was overwhelmed by volcanic eruptions starting in 1995 and was abandoned.• St Kilda a remote Scottish Island may have been permanently inhabited for at least two millennia, the population probably never exceeding 180. The entire population was evacuated in 1930.
Ten Fighter Boys
The extraordinary stories of ten fighter pilots, told in their very own words during the Second World War.First published by Collins in 1942, this utterly compelling collection of first-hand accounts of ten fighter pilots’ experiences at the helm of the Spitfires of 66 Squadron paints one of the most realistic depictions of the battle for the skies over wartime Europe.Offering incredible personal insights into the wartime experience – both in the air and on the ground – the stories are told with unaffected zest, by men who were living in the constant presence of death.Five of the original contributors were killed before the book was originally printed, including the books editors, Wing Commander Athol Forbes and Squadron Leader Hubert Allen. Jimmy Corbin, the last surviving contributor and author of the foreword, passed away in December 2012.Written right in the middle of the war, in the pilots’ own words, Ten Fighter Pilots is a truly original and unique account of a terrifying time.
The Long Ships: A Saga of the Viking Age
This saga brings alive the world of the 10th century AD when the Vikings raided the coasts of England.Acclaimed as one of the best historical novels ever written, this engaging saga of Viking adventure in 10th century northern Europe has a very appealing young hero, Orm Tostesson, whose story we follow from inexperienced youth to adventurous old age, through slavery and adventure to a royal marriage and the search for great treasure. Viking expeditions take him to lands as far apart as England, Moorish Spain, Gaardarike (the country that was to become Russia), and the long road to Miklagard. The salt-sea spray, the swaying deck awash in slippery blood are the backdrop to fascinating stories of King Harald Blue Tooth, the Jomsvikings, attempts to convert the Northmen to Christianity, and much else. Like H. Rider Haggard, Bengtsson is a master of the epic form.
More Than Just a Game: Football v Apartheid
The most important football story ever told.`It is amazing to think that a game that people take for granted all around the world, was the very same game that gave a group of prisoners sanity – and in a way, gave us the resolve to carry on the struggle'. Anthony Suze, Robben Island Prisoner.This is the astonishing story of a unique group of political prisoners and freedom fighters who found a sense of dignity in one of the ugliest hellholes on Earth: South Africa’s infamous Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was famously incarderated. Despite all odds and regular torture, beatings and daily backbreaking hard labour, these extraordinary men turned soccer into an active force in the struggle for freedom.For nearly 20 years, these prisoners found the energy, spirit and resolve to organise a 1400 prisoner-strong, eight club football league which was played with strict adherance to FIFA rules.The prisoners themselves represented a broad array of political beliefs and backgrounds, yet football became an impassioned and unified symbol of resistance against apartheid. They refused to let their own political differences sway their devotion to the sport, which allowed them to organise and maintain leadership right under the noses of their captors.This league not only provided sanctuary and respite from the prisoners’ cruel surroundings, it kept their minds active and many credit it with keeping them alive. More Than Just a Game chronicles their story, the politics of the time, the extraordinary characters, their heroism and the thrilling matches themselves.
Killing Cupid
He is watching her…The chillingly brilliant read from Mark Edwards and Louise Voss, the bestselling authors of Catch Your Death.Doesn’t love always feel this way?Alex Parkinson is in love with his writing tutor, Siobhan. He has never loved anyone like this, but how can he convince Siobhan that they are meant to be together?So Alex stalks her on Facebook and finds out where she lives, buys her presents using her own credit card and sends her messages telling her exactly what he wants to do to her. He breaks into her house, reads her diary and secretly listens to her while she takes a bath.Isn’t that what all lovers do?But when a love rival appears on the scene, Alex has to take drastic action, and soon a young woman lies dead after tumbling from the roof of her house. Now there is no-one standing in the way of Alex and his true love. But someone is watching Alex too and he is about to discover that there is a thin line between love – and hate…
Battle for the Falklands: The Winter War
‘Boldly planned, bravely executed and brilliantly accomplished’ was Margaret Thatcher’s assessment of the Falklands campaign. But what did the war mean to the men in the trenches and below decks?This gripping first-hand account of the Falklands War, written by bestselling military historian Patrick Bishop and Sunday Times Editor John Witherow, reveals the true experiences of the British soldiers and seamen on the front line. The authors, then rookie reporters, lived alongside the fighting men, experiencing the daily realities of a British task force that was hugely outnumbered on a barren island 8,000 miles from home. The Falklands: The Winter War looks at the covert role of the SAS and the heroic death of Colonel ‘H’ Jones at Goose Green, and considers just how close Britain came to defeat.This is an extraordinarily frank and unsparing account of a military campaign that has held a defining place within the British national conscience since victory in 1982.
Finding Longitude: How ships, clocks and stars helped solve the longitude problem
Recommended for viewing on colour device.Official publication of the National Maritime Museum's “Ships, Clocks and Stars” exhibition.300 years ago, amidst growing frustration from the naval community and pressure from the increasing importance of international trade, the British government passed the 1714 Longitude Act. It was an attempt to solve one of the most pressing problems of the age: how to determine a ship’s longitude (east-west position) at sea.With life-changing rewards on offer, the challenge captured the imaginations and talents of astronomers, skilled craftsmen, politicians, seamen and satirists. This beautifully illustrated book is a detailed account of these stories, and how the longitude problem was solved.Highlights of the book include:• Foreword by the fifteenth Astronomer Royal, Martin Rees.• Specially commissioned photographs from the National Maritime Museum’s archive.• A new description of the collaborations and conflicts in a tale of technical creativity, scientific innovation and hard commercialism.From the same publisher as Dava Sobel’s Longitude, Finding Longitude tells a new story of one of the great achievements of the Georgian age, and how it changed our understanding of the world.
Этюды о III Рейхе
«Тысячелетний» Рейх немецкой расы просуществовал всего 12 лет. Однако до сих пор можно выразить собственный взгляд на какие-то детали его истории.© Виктор Улин 2018 г. – дизайн обложки.
GI BRIDES – June’s Story: Exclusive Bonus Ebook
This short bonus ebook tells June’s story, a true account of a woman who crossed the Atlantic for love after the Second World War.June noticed an American soldier walking towards her … In the drab setting of the churchyard he looked utterly out of place, as if a movie star had just dropped out of the sky.Raised in Birmingham, June marries a handsome GI called Borgy and looks forward to a new life in America. But when war ends, June is horrified to receive a letter from her husband telling her they are moving to Germany instead. June’s life soon takes a shocking turn.June’s story is an additional extra to the four tales in GI Brides, written by the bestselling authors of The Sugar Girls. It tells the true story of one of the 70,000 British women who crossed the Atlantic for love after the Second World War.
GI Brides: The wartime girls who crossed the Atlantic for love
The Sunday Times bestsellerFrom the bestselling authors of The Sugar Girls, G.I. Brides weaves together the real-life stories of four women who crossed the ocean for love.The ‘friendly invasion’ of Britain by over a million American G.I.s caused a sensation amongst a generation of young women deprived of male company during the Second World War. With their exotic accents, smart uniforms and aura of Hollywood glamour, the G.I.s soon had the local girls queuing up for a date, and the British boys off fighting abroad turning green with envy.But American soldiers offered something even more tantalising than a ready supply of chocolate, chewing gum and nylon stockings. Becoming a G.I. bride provided an escape route from Blitz-ravaged Britain, an opportunity for a whole new life in America – a country that was more affluent, more modern and less class-ridden than home.Some 70,000 G.I. brides crossed the Atlantic at the end of the war to join the men who had captured their hearts – but the long voyage was just the beginning of a much bigger journey.Once there, the women would have to adapt to a foreign culture and a new way of life thousands of miles away from family and friends, with a man they hardly knew out of uniform. Some struggled with the isolation of life in rural America, or found their heroic soldier was less appealing once he returned to Civvy Street. But most persevered, determined to turn their wartime romance into a lifelong love affair, and prove to those back home that it really was possible to have a Hollywood ending.www.gibrides.com