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‘An important contribution to our recent history’ ANDREW MARR ‘Absorbing and important’ JOAN BAKEWELL ‘One of my favourite reads of 2021’ GARETH RUSSELL Poignant and inspiring, Women in the War tells the first-hand stories of ten of the last surviving female members of Britain's 'Greatest Generation'. Whether flying Spitfires to the frontline, aiding code breaking at Bletchley Park, plotting the Battle of the Atlantic or working with Churchill in the Cabinet War Rooms, each of these women made a crucial contribution to the conflict overseas and helped to buttress the home front. Here they recount their remarkable experiences during the Second World War, recalling how their formative years were shaped by danger and trauma, and how friendship and romance fortified their spirits. Drawing on the insight that comes with age, they contemplate how the conflict helped women prove their worth, transforming society and sparking the later battles for equal rights. With a reporter’s eye for detail, Lucy Fisher artfully weaves together moving contemporary interviews with gripping wartime diaries and letters. This is a vivid oral history that will stay with you long after you've put it down.
Lucy Fisher (Author), Helen Lloyd (Narrator)
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The first volume in a pioneering account of Oliver Cromwell-providing a major new interpretation of one of the greatest figures in history Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)-the only English commoner to become the overall head of state-is one of the great figures of history, but his character was very complex. He was at once courageous and devout, devious and self-serving; as a parliamentarian, he was devoted to his cause; as a soldier, he was ruthless. Cromwell's speeches and writings surpass in quantity those of any other ruler of England before Victoria and, for those seeking to understand him, he has usually been taken at his word. In this remarkable new work, Ronald Hutton untangles the facts from the fiction. Cromwell, pursuing his devotion to God and cementing his Puritan support base, quickly transformed from obscure provincial to military victor. At the end of the first English Civil War, he was poised to take power. Hutton reveals a man who was both genuine in his faith and deliberate in his dishonesty-and uncovers the inner workings of the man who has puzzled biographers for centuries.
Ronald Hutton (Author), Michael Page (Narrator)
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The Turning Point: A Year that Changed Dickens and the World
Brought to you by Penguin. A major new biography of Charles Dickens, tracing the year that would transform his life and times *BY THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF BECOMING DICKENS AND THE STORY OF ALICE* The year is 1851. It's a time of radical change in Britain, when industrial miracles and artistic innovations rub shoulders with political unrest, poverty and disease. It's also a turbulent time in the private life of Charles Dickens, as he copes with a double bereavement and early signs that his marriage is falling apart. But this formative year will become perhaps the greatest turning point in Dickens's career, as he embraces his calling as a chronicler of ordinary people's lives, and develops a new form of writing that will reveal just how interconnected the world is becoming. The Turning Point transports us into the foggy streets of Dickens's London, closely following the twists and turns of a year that would come to define him, and forever alter Britain's relationship with the world. Fully illustrated, and brimming with fascinating details about the larger-than-life man who wrote Bleak House, this is the closest look yet at one of the greatest literary personalities ever to have lived. 'It is hard to imagine a better book on Dickens' NEW STATESMAN 'A startling and exciting writer' A. S. BYATT, SPECTATOR © Robert Douglas-Fairhurst 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021
Robert Douglas-Fairhurst (Author), Philip Stevens (Narrator)
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The Book Burners: Salman Rushdie, the fatwa, and the consequences for us all
In 1989, the literary world was rocked by an unprecedented event: Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of Revolutionary Iran, issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie, the author of The Satanic Verses. Rushdie's book was considered by many Muslims to be blasphemy for its depiction of Mohammed, and Khomeini had just ordered Rushdie's death. The book was banned in several countries and led to attacks against those involved in its publication. Hanif Kureishi called the fatwa 'one of the most significant events in postwar literary history'. In Fatwa, Chloe Hadjimatheou and Mobeen Azhar tell the hidden story of the fatwa - the forces which led to the death sentence and the consequences for all of us. Covers a 20-year period from 1979 to 1999, they speak to extraordinary voices from often overlooked British communities to explore race relations in Britain, identity, free speech and the connection between the fatwa and contemporary violent jihad. Also included is an interview with Salman Rushdie three years after the fatwa, Life after The Satanic Verses, in which the author talks about his life and work with Christopher Bigsby. Finally in The Book Burners: Salman Rushdie, Mike Wooldridge hears from Muslims who protested against The Satanic Verses twenty years after the fatwa - what do they think it achieved? ©2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (P)2021 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd
Chloe Hadjimatheou, Mobeen Azhar (Author), Chloe Hadjimatheou, Christopher Bigsby, Mobeen Azhar, Salman Rushdie (Narrator)
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50 Things About Us: What We Really Need to Know About Britain
50 THINGS ABOUT US is a fast and furiously funny journey through our national memory. It's about money, history, songs, gongs, wigs, unicorns, guns, bungs, sods of soil and rich fuckers. 'Patriotism is often the point where history and advertising intersect, and it was that brand of nationalism that Rees-Mogg and Johnson attempted to sell. It is a brand that can only hark backwards; a nostalgic nationalism built on half histories and wishes … The kind of patriotism where the poetry of John Betjeman sits alongside blaming migrants for TB.'But that is not our story. In fact, it is far from the narrative so many of us are a part of.' From self-deceptions on size, stature and space (clue: there's more than enough for everyone if we lose the golf courses) to the living links between empire, slavery, money and power, this is Mark Thomas' quest to remind us of the true and shared greatness of modern Britain. Structured as a list of fifty crucial 'Things', and fresh from a lock-down spent interviewing hundreds of NHS workers for the Wellcome Collection permanent archive, this is Mark Thomas at his provocative, passionate best.
Mark Thomas (Author), Mark Thomas (Narrator)
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Conquering the Pacific: An Unknown Mariner and the Final Great Voyage of the Age of Discovery
The story of an uncovered voyage as colorful and momentous as any on record for the Age of Discovery-and of the Black mariner whose stunning accomplishment has been until now lost to history It began with a secret mission, no expenses spared. Spain, plotting to break Portugal's monopoly trade with the fabled Orient, set sail from a hidden Mexican port to cross the Pacific-and then, critically, to attempt the never-before-accomplished return, the vuelta. Four ships set out from Navidad, each one carrying a dream team of navigators. The smallest ship, guided by seaman Lope Martín, a mulatto who had risen through the ranks to become one of the most qualified pilots of the era, soon pulled far ahead and became mysteriously lost from the fleet. It was the beginning of a voyage of epic scope, featuring mutiny, murderous encounters with Pacific islanders, astonishing physical hardships-and at last a triumphant return to the New World. But the pilot of the fleet's flagship, the Augustine friar mariner Andrés de Urdaneta, later caught up with Martín to achieve the vuelta as well. It was he who now basked in glory, while Lope Martín was secretly sentenced to be hanged by the Spanish crown as repayment for his services. Acclaimed historian Andrés Reséndez, through brilliant scholarship and riveting storytelling-including an astonishing outcome for the resilient Lope Martín--sets the record straight.
Andrés Reséndez (Author), Phil Morris (Narrator)
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Renegades: Hitler's Englishmen
Who were the Brits that tried to help the Nazis? At the end of the Second World War, nearly 200 British nationals were under investigation for assisting Hitler's Germany. Many have remained infamous such as William Joyce, known as Lord Haw-Haw, and John Amery, who were both executed for High Treason. But in this study Adrian Weale unearths others who plotted to undermine the Allies. Weale begins with Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists, through the war years and the following trials from investigations by MI5. This is a complex history of betrayal, double-crossing and treachery, with the revelation that a British Fascist turned double agent was working at the heart of the Third Reich to undermine the Nazi propaganda effort in Britain. Renegades: Hitler's Englishmen is a revealing history of allies and enemies.
Adrian Weale (Author), Dennis Kleinman (Narrator)
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Palaces of Revolution: Life, Death and Art at the Stuart Court
The story of the Stuart dynasty is a breathless soap opera played out in just a hundred years in an array of buildings that span Europe from Scotland, via Denmark, Holland and Spain to England. Life in the court of the House of Stuart has been shrouded in mystery: the first half of the century overshadowed by the fall and execution of Charles I, the second half in the complete collapse of the House itself. Lost to time is the extraordinary contribution the Stuarts made to the fabric of sovereignty. Every palace they built, painting they commissioned, or artwork they acquired was a direct reflection of the lives that they led and the way that they thought. Palaces of Revolution explores this rich history in graphic detail, giving a unique insight into the lives of this famous dynasty. It takes us from Royston and Newmarket, where James I appropriated most of the town centre as a sort of rough-and-ready royal housing estate, to the steamy Turkish baths at Whitehall where Charles II seduced his mistresses. We see the intimate private lives of the monarchs, presented through the buildings in which they lived and the objects they commissioned, creating an entirely new narrative of the Stuart century. Palaces of Revolution traces this extraordinary period across the places and palaces on which the action played out, giving us a thrilling new history of this remarkable dynasty.
Simon Thurley (Author), Simon Thurley (Narrator)
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Noble Ambitions: The Fall and Rise of the English Country House After World War II
A rollicking tour of the English country home after World War II, when swinging London collided with aristocratic values As the sun set slowly on the British Empire, its mansions fell and rose. Ancient families were reduced to demolishing the parts of their stately homes they could no longer afford, dukes and duchesses desperately clung to their ancestral seats, and a new class of homeowners bought their way into country life. A delicious romp, Noble Ambitions pulls us into these crumbling halls of power, leading us through the juiciest bits of postwar aristocratic history-from Mick Jagger dancing at deb balls to the scandals of Princess Margaret. Capturing the spirit of the age, historian Adrian Tinniswood proves that the country house is not only an iconic symbol, but a lens through which to understand the shifting fortunes of the British elite in an era of monumental social change.
Adrian Tinniswood (Author), Roger May (Narrator)
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Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man
A classic, controversial book exploring German culture and identity by the author of Death in Venice and The Magic Mountain, now back in print. When the Great War broke out in August 1914, Thomas Mann, like so many people on both sides of the conflict, was exhilarated. Finally, the era of decadence that he had anatomized in Death in Venice had come to an end; finally, there was a cause worth fighting and even dying for, or, at least when it came to Mann himself, writing about. Mann immediately picked up his pen to compose a paean to the German cause. Soon after, his elder brother and lifelong rival, the novelist Heinrich Mann, responded with a no less determined denunciation. Thomas took it as an unforgivable stab in the back. The bitter dispute between the brothers would swell into the strange, tortured, brilliant, sometimes perverse literary performance that is Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man, a book that Mann worked on and added to throughout the war and that bears an intimate relation to his postwar masterpiece The Magic Mountain. Wild and ungainly though Mann's reflections can be, they nonetheless constitute, as Mark Lilla demonstrates in a new introduction, a key meditation on the freedom of the artist and the distance between literature and politics.
Thomas Mann (Author), Graham Rowat (Narrator)
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The Story We Carry in Our Bones: Irish History for Americans
More than forty million people consider themselves Irish-American, and yet most of them do not truly understand the rich cultural history of their ancestors. From prehistoric times to the emigration of the Irish to Amerikay, this broad, yet comprehensive, history gives a general overview of the deep history of Irish-Americans. The book includes such interesting topics as the four cycles of Irish storytelling, ancient Celtic legends of shapeshifting and Fair Folk, the six Gaelic languages and their relation to one another, the Gallic Wars with Julius Caesar, the Anglo-Norman invasion, the sacred ceremonies and religious beliefs of the Druids, the real story of St. Patrick, the Great Famine brought on by British involvement, the mass exodus of Irish to America, and the struggle for Irish-Americans to rebuild their lives upon new soil, in an unwelcome land.
Juilene Osborne-Mcknight (Author), Juilene Osborne-Mcknight (Narrator)
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A Hidden History of The Tower Of London: England's Most Notorious Prisoners
Famed as the ultimate penalty for traitors, heretics and royalty alike, being sent to the Tower is known to have been experienced by no less than 8,000 unfortunate souls. Many of those who were imprisoned in the Tower never returned to civilization and those who did, often did so without their head! It is hardly surprising that the Tower has earned itself a reputation among the most infamous buildings on the planet. Beginning with the early tales surrounding its creation, this book investigates the private life of an English icon. Concentrating on the Tower's developing role throughout the centuries, not in terms of its physical expansion into a site of unique architectural majesty or many purposes but through the eyes of those who experienced its darker side, it pieces together the, often seldom-told, human story and how the fates of many of those who stayed within its walls contributed to its lasting effect on England's-and later the UK's-destiny. From ruthless traitors to unjustly killed Jesuits, vanished treasures to disappeared princes, and jaded wives to star-crossed lovers, this book provides a raw and at times unsettling insight into its unsolved mysteries and the lot of its unfortunate victims, thus explaining how this once typical castle came to be the place we will always remember as THE TOWER.
John Paul Davis (Author), Julian Elfer (Narrator)
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