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People of Abandoned Character
Box 88
Help Yourself: Three scalding stories from the bestselling author of AMERICAN WIFE
A Nurse's Story: My Life in A&E During the Covid Crisis
Mantel Pieces: Royal Bodies and Other Writing from the London Review of Books
A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and A Vision for the Future
The Thursday Murder Club: The Record-Breaking Sunday Times Number One Bestseller
The Boy from the Woods: New from the #1 bestselling creator of the hit Netflix series The Stranger
Us Three
Grown-Ups
Brought to you by Penguin. It began with an armchair. It began with the surprise discovery of a stash of personal documents covered in swastikas sewn into its cushion. The SS Officer’s Armchair is the story of what happened next, as Daniel Lee follows the trail of cold calls, documents, coincidences and family secrets, to uncover the life of one Dr Robert Griesinger from Stuttgart. Who was he? What had his life been – and how had it ended? Lee reveals the strange life of a man whose ambition propelled him to become part of the Nazi machinery of terror. He discovers his unexpected ancestral roots, untold stories of SS life and family fragmentation. As Lee delves deeper, Griesinger’s responsibility as an active participant in Nazi crimes becomes clearer. Dr Robert Griesinger’s name is not infamous. But to understand the inner workings of the Third Reich, we need to know not just its leaders, but the ordinary Nazis who made up its ranks. Revealing how Griesinger’s choices reverberate into present-day Germany, and among descendants of perpetrators, Lee raises potent questions about blame, manipulation and responsibility. A historical detective story and a gripping account of one historian’s hunt for answers, The SS Officer’s Armchair is at once a unique addition to our understanding of Nazi Germany and a chilling reminder of how such regimes are made not by monsters, but by ordinary people. ©Daniel Lee 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020
Show moreBrought to you by Penguin. The renowned historian of the Third Reich takes on the conspiracy theories surrounding Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, in a vital history book for the 'post-truth' age The idea that nothing happens by chance in history, that nothing is quite what it seems to be at first sight, that everything is the result of the secret machinations of malign groups of people manipulating everything from behind the scenes - these notions are as old as history itself. But conspiracy theories are becoming more popular and more widespread in the twenty-first century. Nowhere have they become more obvious than in revisionist accounts of the history of the Third Reich. Long-discredited conspiracy theories have taken on a new lease of life, given credence by claims of freshly discovered evidence and novel angles of investigation. In The Hitler Conspiracies renowned historian Richard Evans takes five widely discussed claims involving Hitler and the Nazis and subjects them to forensic scrutiny: that the Jews were conspiring to undermine civilization, as outlined in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion; that the German army was 'stabbed in the back' by socialists and Jews in 1918; that the Nazis burned down the Reichstag in order to seize power; that Rudolf Hess' flight to the UK in 1941 was sanctioned by Hitler and conveyed peace terms suppressed by Churchill; and that Hitler escaped the bunker in 1945 and fled to South America. In doing so, it teases out some surprising features that these, and other conspiracy theories, have in common. This is a history book, but it is a history book for the age of 'post-truth' and 'alternative facts': a book for our own troubled times. © Richard J. Evans 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020
Show moreFrom the award-winning, number one bestselling author of The Cow Book. It is summer, the hay and silage have not yet been made on John Connell’s farm, so he has time to indulge his other great passion: running. John sets off on a marathon run of 42.2 kilometres through his native Longford, the scene of his award-winning book The Cow Book. As he runs across woodlands, fields and tiny roads, he tells the story of his life and contemplates Ireland’s history, old and new. He also remembers other great runs he has done, from Australia to Canada, and tells the stories of some of his running heroes, such as Haile Gebrselassie. Part memoir, part essay, The Running Book explores what it is to be alive and what movement can do for a person. It is deeply intimate and wide-ranging, local and global: Connell is as likely to write about colonialism and the effect of British imperialism in Ireland and its former colonies as he is about life on his family farm in Ballinalee, County Longford. Told in 42 chapters, each another kilometre in the 42.2k race, the whole book is 42,000 words long and it captures what it is to undertake a marathon moment by moment, in body and mind. Above all, The Running Book is a book about the nature of happiness and how for one man it came through the feet.
Show moreIn this rich, fascinating history, John Ghazvinian traces the complex story of the relations of these two powers back to the Persian Empire of the eighteenth century--the subject of great admiration of Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams--and an America seen by Iranians as an ideal to emulate for their own government. Drawing on years of archival research both in the US and Iran--including access to Iranian government archives rarely available to western scholars--the Iranian-born, Oxford-educated historian leads us through the four seasons of US-Iran relations: the 'spring' of mutual fascination; the 'summer' of early interactions; the 'autumn' of close strategic ties; and the long, dark 'winter' of mutual hatred. Ghazvinian, with grasp and a storyteller's ability, makes clear where, how, and when it all went wrong. And shows why two countries that once had such heartfelt admiration for each other became such committed enemies; showing us, as well, how it didn't have to turn out this way.
Show moreMeet The Secret Explorers! Children will be inspired to discover the world with these brand new character-driven adventure stories for children. Travel back in time and discover facts you never knew about dinosaurs and prehistoric life in this fourth instalment of The Secret Explorers. This group of brilliant kids come together from all four corners of the globe to fix problems, solve mysteries and gather knowledge all over the planet - and beyond. Whenever their help is needed, a special sign will appear on a door. They step through to the Exploration Station, and receive their mission... In The Secret Explorers and the Jurassic Rescue, dinosaur expert Tamiko and geology expert Cheng travel back to the age of the dinosaurs in an effort to rescue a dinosaur egg from destruction. However, to save the egg, the Secret Explorers first have to use all their courage and skills to outsmart a fierce Allosaurus, rescue a baby Stegosaurus, and find a way to attract an Archaeopteryx. Tamiko and Cheng soon find that, to succeed, they need to come up with some unusual solutions... Packed with fun facts about dinosaurs, fossils, and why modern birds are dinosaurs, this thrilling adventure is perfect for young readers. Narrator bio Alfred Enoch began acting as a child. His first role in film was 'Dean Thomas' in the Harry Potter series. More recently he has starred in Brazilian feature Medida Provisoria, and Tigers. Enoch's work in Television includes ABC's How To Get Away With Murder, which starred Viola Davis. He has also appeared in Sherlock and Troy: Fall of a City. Last year he starred in the second season of Trust Me on the BBC, and will next be seen in upcoming Apple TV series Foundation. Alfred also has an impressive body of theatre work including Kwame Kwei-Armah's Tree at The Young Vic and MIF; Red, at the Wyndhams Theatre alongside Alfred Molina; King Lear at the Manchester Royal Exchange (as Edgar); Coriolanus at the Donmar Warehouse; Timon Of Athens and Antigone at the National Theatre; and The Ballad Of Salomon Pavey at Shakespeare's Globe. Before the lockdown he was in rehearsals to play Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, also at Shakespeare's Globe. © 2020 SJ King © 2020 DK Audio
Show moreWho made modern Britain the country it is today? What does it mean to be the new Elizabethans? Back in 1953 when the Queen ascended her throne, Britain was a very different nation. People wore more hats and uniforms, went regularly to church and were deeply class conscious. The Windrush generation had arrived just five years earlier, and many African-Caribbean and Indian people new to the UK were being denied housing, work, and entry to pubs, clubs and places of worship. There was division over immigration, food rationing and debate about what a late twentieth century Britain should look like. How did we get from there to here? Bestselling author and broadcaster Andrew Marr offers up an answer: change came from the people. Telling Britain’s modern history through a diverse cast of individuals from all walks of life, Marr shows how women started owning their sexuality; how black activists changed the way we talked about race; how attitudes changed towards everything from social inequality to immigration, music, sexuality and freedom of expression. Celebrating activists and artists, sports heroes and business leaders, this book moves from Sylvia Plath to Elvis Costello, Frank Crichlow to Bob Geldof, Winston Churchill to Marcus Rashford, Zaha Hadid to James Dyson, Dusty Springfield to David Attenborough. Through these sung and unsung titans of the modern Elizabethan era, this is a history that gets to the heart of how 1950s Britain evolved into the diverse, contradictory and divided country it is today.
Show moreCanada is not one nation, but three: English Canada, Quebec, and First Nations. Yet as a country Canada is very successful, in part because it maintains national diversity through bilingualism, multiculturalism, and federalism. Alongside this contemporary openness Canada also has its own history to contend with; with a legacy of broken treaties and residential schools for its Indigenous peoples, making reconciliation between Canada and First Nations an ongoing journey, not a destination. Drawing on history, politics, and literature, this Very Short Introduction starts at the end of the last ice age, when the melting of the ice sheets opened the northern half of North America to Indigenous peoples, and covers up to today's anthropogenic climate change, and Canada's climate politics. Donald Wright emphasizes Canada's complexity and diversity as well as its different identities and its commitment to rights, and explores its historical relationship to Great Britain, and its ongoing relationship with the United States. Finally, he examines Canada's northern realities and its northern identities.
Show moreBrought to you by Penguin. 'With reason, evidence, common sense, uncompromising candour and disciplined imagination Fernando Cervantes makes the conquistadores believable' Felipe Fernández-Armesto The 'conquistadores', the early explorers and settlers of Spanish America, have become the stuff of legends and nightmares. In their own time, they were glorified as heroic adventurers, spreading Christian culture and helping to build an empire unlike any the world had ever seen. Today, they stand condemned for their cruelty and exploitation, as men who decimated the ancient civilizations of the Aztecs and the Incas, and carried out horrific atrocities in their pursuit of gold and glory. In Conquistadores, Mexican historian Fernando Cervantes cuts through the layers of myth and fiction to immerse the reader in the world of the late-medieval imperialist. It is a world as unfamiliar to us as the Indigenous peoples of the New World were to the conquistadores themselves. Drawing upon a wide range of sources including diaries, letters, chronicles and treatises, Cervantes reframes the story of the Spanish conquest of the New World, set against the political and intellectual landscape from which its main actors emerged. At the heart of the story are the conquistadores, whose epic ambitions and moral contradictions defined an era. From Columbus to Cortés, Pizarro and beyond, the explorers we think we know come alive in this thought-provoking and illuminating account of a period that irrevocably altered the course of world history. © Fernando Cervantes 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020
Show moreBrought to you by Penguin. WITH AN INTRODUCTION FROM TA-NEHISI COATES, AUTHOR OF THE WATER DANCER A riveting collection of the hardships, hairbreadth escapes, and mortal struggles of enslaved people seeking freedom: These are the true stories of the Underground Railroad. A secret network of safe houses, committees and guides that stretched well below the Mason-Dixon Line into the brutal slave states of the American South, the Underground Railroad remains one of the most impressive and well-organised resistance movements in modern history. It facilitated the escape of over 30,000 slave 'passengers' through America and into Canada during its peak years of 1850-60, and, in total, an estimated 100,000 slaves found their freedom through the network. Abridged from William Still's The Underground Railroad Records - an epic historical document that chronicles the first-hand stories of American slaves who escaped to freedom via the Underground Railroad - Passengers tells of the secret methods, risks and covert sacrifices that were made to liberate so many from slavery. From tales of men murdered in cold blood for their part in helping assist runaways and terrifyingly tense descriptions of stowaways and dramatic escape plans, to stories of families reunited and the moments of absurdity that the Underground Railroad forced its 'passengers' to sometimes endure, Still's narratives testify to the humanity of this vast enterprise. ABRIDGED FROM WILLIAM STILL'S THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD RECORDS © William Still 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020
Show moreBestselling travel writer Richard Grant offers an entertaining and profound look at a city like no other. Natchez, Mississippi, once had more millionaires per capita than anywhere else in America, and its wealth was built on slavery and cotton. Today it has the greatest concentration of antebellum mansions in the South, and a culture full of unexpected contradictions. Prominent white families dress up in hoopskirts and Confederate uniforms for ritual celebrations of the Old South, yet Natchez is also progressive enough to elect a gay black man for mayor with 91% of the vote. Much as John Berendt did for Savannah in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and the hit podcast S-Town did for Woodstock, Alabama, so Richard Grant does for Natchez in The Deepest South of All. With humor and insight, he depicts a strange, eccentric town with an unforgettable cast of characters. There's Buzz Harper, a six-foot-five gay antique dealer famous for swanning around in a mink coat with a uniformed manservant and a very short German bodybuilder. There's Ginger Hyland, "The Lioness," who owns 500 antique eyewash cups and decorates 168 Christmas trees with her jewelry collection. And there's Nellie Jackson, a Cadillac-driving brothel madam who became an FBI informant about the KKK before being burned alive by one of her customers. Interwoven through these stories is the more somber and largely forgotten account of Abd al Rahman Ibrahima, a West African prince who was enslaved in Natchez and became a cause célèbre in the 1820s, eventually gaining his freedom and returning to Africa. Part history and part travelogue, The Deepest South of All offers a gripping portrait of a complex American place, as it struggles to break free from the past and confront the legacy of slavery.
Show moreThis program includes a prologue read by Bill O'Reilly The latest installment of the multimillion-selling Killing series is a gripping journey through the American West and the historic clashes between Native Americans and settlers. The bloody Battle of Tippecanoe was only the beginning. It’s 1811 and President James Madison has ordered the destruction of Shawnee warrior chief Tecumseh’s alliance of tribes in the Great Lakes region. But while General William Henry Harrison would win this fight, the armed conflict between Native Americans and the newly formed United States would rage on for decades. In Killing Crazy Horse bestselling authors Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard venture through the fraught history of our country’s founding on already occupied lands, from General Andrew Jackson’s brutal battles with the Creek Nation to President James Monroe’s epic “sea to shining sea” policy, to President Martin Van Buren’s cruel enforcement of a “treaty” that forced the Cherokee Nation out of their homelands along what would be called the Trail of Tears. O’Reilly and Dugard take listeners behind the legends to reveal never-before-told historical moments in the fascinating creation story of America. This fast-paced, wild ride through the American frontier will shock listeners and impart unexpected lessons that reverberate to this day. A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company
Show moreIn the tradition of THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ, a heartbreaking true story of love, loss and survival against all odds during the Second World war. Conscripted into the Polish army as Hitler's forces draw closer, Jewish soldier Tolek Klings vows to return to his wife, Klara, and son, Juliusz. However, the army is rife with anti-Semitism and Tolek is relentlessly tormented. As the Germans invade Poland, he is faced with a terrible dilemma: flee home to protect his family – and risk being shot as a deserter – or remain a soldier, hoping reports of women and children being spared by the occupying forces are true. What follows is an extraordinary odyssey that will take Tolek – via a daring escape from a Hungarian internment camp – to Palestine, where his ability to type earns him the title of 'The Miracle Typist', then on to fight in Egypt, Tobruk and Italy. A broken telegram from Klara, ending with the haunting words, 'We trouble', makes Tolek even more determined to find his way home and fulfil his promise. This heartbreakingly inspiring true story is brought vividly to life by Tolek's son-in-law, Melbourne writer Leon Silver.
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