Europe Audiobooks | Travel

The First Battle of Heligoland Bight: The History and Legacy of the Royal Navy's Greatest Victory in

On August 28, 1914, a British naval force of 31 destroyers, two light cruisers, and a submarine force emerged from the early morning mist on a mission deep into German home waters. Their target was Heligoland Bight, a bay on the German North Sea coastline located at the mouth of the Elbe River. Their objective was aggressive and daring: to ambush and destroy the daily German destroyer patrols defending Heligoland Bight. The raid was an aggressive departure from British strategy up to that point in the war, which had consisted of the British Navy utilizing a distant blockade to cut Germany off from their oceanic supply chains. As such, the raid took the Germans by complete surprise. The Heligoland Operation was the brainchild of British Commodores Roger Keyes and Reginald Tyrwhitt, and their goal for the raid was different from the pre-war British naval strategy against Germany. The raid was not designed to produce a decisive naval engagement between dueling heavy capital ships, but instead centered on light cruisers and destroyers, small and fast ships combining their speed and fast-firing guns to attack the Germans in their home waters to limit German incursion into the North Sea. The British wanted the attack to send a clear message to the German Navy that any German operation in the North Sea, whether large or small, was in perpetual danger of a British attack. Heligoland Bight was not an easy target. The area is located deep in German home waters and was heavily defended at the outset of the war by several large caliber shore cannons, a zeppelin hanger, and large patrols of destroyers and submarines. It was also a strategic position as it guarded the entrance to Kiel, the major naval anchorage of the German High Seas Fleet. To complicate matters, the British raid force was within striking distance of several powerful German battlecruisers, docked nearby and ready to reinforce German destroyer patrols.

Charles River Editors (Author), Bill Hare (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Final Year of Anne Boleyn

There are few women in English history more famous or controversial than Queen Anne Boleyn. In this vivid and engaging account of the triumphant and harrowing final year of Queen Anne Boleyn's life, the author reveals a very human portrait of a brilliant, passionate, and complex woman. The last year of Anne's life contained both joy and heartbreak. This telling period bore witness to one of the longest and most politically significant progresses of Henry VIII's reign, improved relations between the royal couple, and Anne's longed-for pregnancy. With the dawning of the new year, the pendulum swung. In late January 1536, Anne received news that her husband had been thrown from his horse in his tiltyard at Greenwich. Just days later, tragedy struck. As the body of Anne's predecessor, Katherine of Aragon, was being prepared for burial, Anne miscarried her son. The promise of a new beginning dashed, the months that followed were a roller coaster of anguish and hope, marked by betrayal, brutality, and rumor. What began with so much promise, ended in silent dignity, amid a whirlwind of scandal, on a scaffold at the Tower of London. Through close examination of these intriguing events considered in their social and historical context, listeners will gain a fresh perspective into the life and death of the woman behind the tantalizing tale.

Natalie Grueninger (Author), Polly Lee (Narrator)

Audiobook

The fight at the pass of Thermopylae: Great Battles of History

The Battle of Thermopylae is without doubt the most famous battle in European ancient history. It has inspired many poems, stories, and movies, most recently Frank Miller's 300. Vastly outnumbered Greek soldiers fought with all their might and held off the Persian army for seven days, before the rear-guard was annihilated in one of history's most famous last stands. This battle is a perfect example of tactical optimization and a stunning demonstration of the advantages of training and equipment to maximize an army's potential. Discover the epic story of the Spartan soldiers who became a symbol of courage against overwhelming odds; relive the tale of treachery that lies behind the military feat, and understand the advantage freedom gives to an army when it is forced to become legendary.

Anonymous (Author), Jonathan Waite (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Feud That Sparked the Renaissance: How Brunelleschi and Ghiberti Changed the Art World

Joining the bestsellers Longitude and Galileo’s Daughter, a lively and intriguing tale of two artists whose competitive spirit brought to life one of the world’s most magnificent structures and ignited the Renaissance The dome of the Santa Maria del Fiore, the great cathedral of Florence, is among the most enduring symbols of the Renaissance, an equal to the works of Leonardo and Michelangelo. Its designer was Filippo Brunelleschi, a temperamental architect and inventor who rediscovered the techniques of mathematical perspective. Yet the completion of the dome was not Brunelleschi’s glory alone. He was forced to share the commission with his archrival, the canny and gifted sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti. In this lush, imaginative history—a fascinating true story of artistic genius and personal triumph—Paul Robert Walker breathes life into these two talented, passionate artists and the competitive drive that united and dived them. As it illuminates fascinating individuals from Donatello and Masaccio to Cosimo de’Medici and Leon Battista Alberti, The Feud That Sparked the Renaissance offers a glorious tour of 15th-century Florence, a bustling city on the verge of greatness in a time of flourishing creativity, rivalry, and genius.

Paul Robert Walker (Author), Simon Vance (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Fatal Englishman: Three Short Lives

Brought to you by Penguin. Christopher Wood, a beautiful young Englishman, decided to be the greatest painter the world had seen. He went to Paris in 1921. By day he studied, by night he attended the parties of the beau monde. He knew Picasso, worked for Diaghilev and was a friend of Cocteau. In the last months of his 29-year life, he fought a ravening opium addiction to succeed in claiming a place in history of English painting. Richard Hilary, confident, handsome and unprincipled, flew Spitfires in the Battle of Britain before being shot down and horribly burned. He underwent several operations by the legendary plastic surgeon, A H McIndoe. His account of his experiences, The Last Enemy, made him famous, but not happy. He begged to be allowed to return to flying, and died mysteriously in a night training operation, aged 23. Jeremy Wolfenden was born in 1936, the son of Jack, later Lord Wolfenden. Charming, generous and witty, he was the cleverest Englishman of his generation, but left All Souls to become a hack reporter. At the height of the Cold War, he was sent to Moscow where his louche private life made him the plaything of the intelligence services. A terrifying sequence of events ended in Washington where he died at the age of 31. © Sebastian Faulks 1996 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Sebastian Faulks (Author), James Wilby (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman

Five hundred years before Columbus, a Viking woman named Gudrid sailed off the edge of the known world. She landed in the New World and lived there for three years, giving birth to a baby before sailing home. Or so the Icelandic sagas say. Even after archaeologists found a Viking longhouse in Newfoundland, no one believed that the details of Gudrid’s story were true. Then, in 2001, a team of scientists discovered what may have been this pioneering woman’s last house, buried under a hay field in Iceland, just where the sagas suggested it could be. Joining scientists experimenting with cutting-edge technology and the latest archaeological techniques, and tracing Gudrid’s steps on land and in the sagas, Nancy Marie Brown reconstructs a life that spanned—and expanded—the bounds of the then-known world. She also sheds new light on the society that gave rise to a woman even more extraordinary than legend has painted her and illuminates the reasons for its collapse. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Nancy Marie Brown (Author), Eva Kaminsky (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Famine Plot: England's Role in Ireland's Greatest Tragedy

During a Biblical seven years in the middle of the nineteenth century, Ireland experienced the worst disaster a nation could suffer. Fully a quarter of its citizens either perished from starvation or emigrated in what came to be known as Gorta Mor, the Great Hunger. Waves of hungry peasants fled across the Atlantic to the United States, with so many dying en route that it was said, "you could walk dry shod to America on their bodies." In this sweeping history, Ireland's best-known historian, Tim Pat Coogan, tackles the dark history of the Irish Famine and argues that it constituted one of the first acts of genocide. In what the Boston Globe calls "his greatest achievement," Coogan shows how the British government hid behind the smoke screen of laissez faire economics, the invocation of Divine Providence, and a carefully orchestrated publicity campaign, allowing more than a million people to die agonizing deaths and driving a further million into emigration. Unflinching in depicting the evidence, Coogan presents a vivid and horrifying picture of a catastrophe that shook the nineteenth century and finally calls to account those responsible.

Tim Pat Coogan (Author), Roger Clark (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Family Medici: The Hidden History of the Medici Dynasty

Having founded the bank that became the most powerful in Europe in the fifteenth century, the Medici gained massive political power in Florence, raising the city to a peak of cultural achievement and becoming its hereditary dukes. Among their number were no fewer than three popes and a powerful and influential queen of France. Their influence brought about an explosion of Florentine art and architecture. Michelangelo, Donatello, Fra Angelico, and Leonardo were among the artists with whom they were socialized and patronized. Thus runs the "accepted view" of the Medici. However, Mary Hollingsworth argues that the idea that the Medici were enlightened rulers of the Renaissance is a fiction that has now acquired the status of historical fact. In truth, the Medici were as devious and immoral as the Borgias-tyrants loathed in the city they illegally made their own. In this dynamic new history, Hollingsworth argues that past narratives have focused on a sanitized and fictitious view of the Medici-wise rulers, enlightened patrons of the arts, and fathers of the Renaissance-but that in fact their past was reinvented in the sixteenth century, mythologized by later generations of Medici who used this as a central prop for their legacy.

Mary Hollingsworth (Author), Anne Flosnik (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Families of Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Female Network of Power in the Middle Ages

The lives of the sons of Eleanor of Aquitaine are the stuff of legend. Her daughters, however, are less well known, and the fascinating personalities of her daughters-in-law have been almost entirely overlooked, as have those of the daughters she bore Louis VII of France. The Families of Eleanor of Aquitaine redresses this balance and showcases the lives, travels, and careers of these ten very different women, who formed a great international network of political alliances that linked their parents, siblings, husbands, and children all across Europe and the Holy Land. Some of these women found happiness; others endured lives of turmoil and conflict. Some of them were close; others never met. But two things linked them all: their connection to Eleanor and to the kingdoms over which she reigned-and their determination to exert authority on their own terms in a male-dominated world.

J.F. Andrews (Author), Jennifer M. Dixon (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Fall of the Third Reich: The Decisions and Battles that Spelled Doom for Nazi Germany

Few events have had a greater impact on human history than the ascension to power of the Nazi Party in Germany in January 1933. This was no coup: the party gained some power via democratic elections, although once it was established, it quickly took absolute control over all aspects of the state. Other parties were outlawed, and further elections were deemed “unnecessary.” However, Germany’s image as a nation united under one man and committed to expansion through the application of science and technology was in reality an illusion. Nazi Germany was wracked by internal dissent, a chaotic system of rule and a leader who was willing to ignore the economic and resource needs of his nation. By the end of 1941, Germany appeared to be unassailable. Most of its European enemies had either been defeated or seemed to be on the point of defeat. The almost unbroken string of spectacular successes enjoyed by the German Army and air force suggested to many that these were simply unbeatable. Within less than four years, Germany had been utterly defeated, Hitler was dead and Germany itself was occupied by foreign armies. The factors that led to this sudden and complete collapse had been present from the very beginning of the Nazi regime, but they had been hidden by early success in the face of uncertain and vacillating adversaries. In retrospect, we can clearly see that the fall of the Third Reich was probably inevitable, though it would shake Europe to its foundations, bring about an entirely new world order, and involve the deaths of tens of millions of people.

Phaistos Publishers (Author), Colin Fluxman (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Fall of the Russian Empire: The Russian Revolution and Civil War, Lenin the Bolsheviks, and Stal

Are you ready to embark on an exciting journey through some of the most dramatic events in Russian history? In this book, readers will gain an understanding of the Russian Revolution, the Civil War, World War I, the decline of the Russian Empire, and how these events shaped Russia's future. From learning about Lenin and the Red Army to discovering how and why Stalin rose to power and his eventual leadership during World War II and beyond. This book provides an essential look at one of the most important periods in Russian history. Readers will be enthralled by this fascinating tale that delves into every aspect of Russia's struggles and successes. Here are some of the topics included in this book: · The Bolsheviks and their role in the Russian Revolution · The Russian Civil War · The rise of the Communist Party · Russia's struggles during World War II For those interested in exploring one of the most significant periods in Russian history this book is for you. Get your copy today and start exploring!

Secrets Of History, Will Forrest (Author), Andrew Cooper (Narrator)

Audiobook

The Fall of the House of Borgia

An enthralling history of the most notorious family of Renaissance Italy. Perfect for fans of Paul Strathern, Alexander Lee, and Ross King. Did Rodrigo corruptly bribe his way to the papal throne to become Pope Alexander VI? Was Juan murdered by his brother Cesare in his pursuit for power? And was Lucrezia really involved in incestuous relationships? Legends surround the Borgia family, but what was the truth behind it all? E. R. Chamberlin's masterful portrait of these extraordinary people separates fact from fiction and shines a dazzling light on Renaissance Italy. Beginning with Rodrigo Borgia, Chamberlin charts this intelligent but ruthless man's passage to the top. He uncovers how, as Pope Alexander VI, he directed his family to carve out a Borgia kingdom in the heart of Italy. The chaotic intrigues, alliances, and wars that Cesare and Lucrezia became embroiled with are exposed in fascinating detail as competing dynasties and cities struggled for survival before the family's fortunes crumbled.

E.R. Chamberlin (Author), Tim Campbell (Narrator)

Audiobook

Europe Audiobooks in Travel