Europe Audiobooks | Travel

Kick Kennedy: The Charmed Life and Tragic Death of the Favorite Kennedy Daughter

Kathleen Kick Kennedy was the incandescent life-force of the fabled Kennedy family, her father's acknowledged favorite of all the children and her brother Jack's psychological twin. She was the Kennedy of Kennedys, sure of her privilege, magnetically charming and somehow not quite like anyone else on whatever stage she happened to grace. The daughter of the American ambassador to the Court of St. James's, Kick swept into Britain's aristocracy like a fresh wind on a sweltering summer day. In a decaying world where everything was based on stultifying sameness and similarity, she was gloriously, exhilaratingly different. Kick was the girl whom all the boys fell in love with, the girl who remained painfully out of reach for most of them. To Kick, everything about this life was fun and amusing--until suddenly it was not. For this is also a story of how a girl like Kick, a girl who had everything, a girl who seemed made for happiness, confronted crushing sadness. Willing to pay the price for choosing the love she wanted, she would have to face the consequences of forsaking much that was dear to her. Bestselling and award-winning biographer Barbara Leaming draws on her unique access to firsthand accounts, extensive conversations with many of the key players, and previously-unseen sources to transport us to another world, one of immense wealth, arcane rituals and rules, glamour and tragedy, that has now disappeared forever. It was a world of dukes and duchesses, of grand houses, of country house weekends, and of wild rich boys. But it was also a world of blood and war, and of immeasurable loss. It was a time of complete upheaval, as reflected in the life of this most unlikely and unforgettable central character. Kick Kennedy reveals her story, that of a young girl learning about love, sex, and death--and doing it all at warp speed as the world races toward war and then reels in the war's chaotic aftermath. This is the coming-of-age story of the female star of the Kennedy family, and ultimately a tragic, romantic story that will break your heart.

Barbara Leaming, Barbara Leaming (Author), Eliza Foss (Narrator)

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Kiev 1941: Hitler's Battle for Supremacy in the East

In just four weeks in the summer of 1941 the German Wehrmacht wrought unprecedented destruction on four Soviet armies, conquering central Ukraine and killing or capturing three quarters of a million men. This was the Battle of Kiev-one of the largest and most decisive battles of World War II and, for Hitler and Stalin, a battle of crucial importance. For the first time, David Stahel charts the battle's dramatic course and aftermath, uncovering the irreplaceable losses suffered by Germany's "panzer groups" despite their battlefield gains, and the implications of these losses for the German war effort. He illuminates the inner workings of the German army as well as the experiences of ordinary soldiers, showing that with the Russian winter looming and Soviet resistance still unbroken, victory came at huge cost and confirmed the turning point in Germany's war in the East.

David Stahel (Author), Matthew Waterson (Narrator)

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Killer Memory: Jeannie Rousseau: A True WWII Female Spy Story

Picture this: A young, bright girl in Paris goes undercover to deliver the crucial intelligence that will single-handedly stop the production of Nazi superweapons and spare the lives of thousands. Jeannie Rousseau appeared to be just a highly educated girl, fluent in five languages, graduating at the top of her class at the elite university, the Paris Institute of Political Sciences. She had no idea she would become one of the most amazing women in WWII. When the German troops invaded France, Rousseau fought back — using nothing other than her gifted mind. If you are moved by true stories of women-empowered espionage full of soul-stirring historical context, then Killer Memory is a story you need to read. Jeannie Rousseau bravely took on the Gestapo, posing as an ally and sympathizer to extract the highly sensitive, secret plans of the Nazi party. Using her exceptional photographic memory and flawless German, Rousseau kept an extraordinary record of classified German operations. Working as an official liaison and translator for the Nazi occupiers, Rousseau gained their trust and evolved into an amateur spy. After a close call with the Gestapo, Rousseau had a chance encounter with an old friend that would change her life forever. Working closely with the Nazi party, Rousseau was bestowed with invaluable information, including details of the V-2 rockets, the Nazis’ new superweapons. Rousseau’s spy work paid off. Through her infiltration, the development of the superweapons was significantly delayed and thousands of lives were spared. Dive deep into a compelling history lesson as you discover the birth of espionage, the moments leading up to the Second World War, and how these elements combined to create one of the best spy stories in history. Killer Memory is part of the greater series, Remarkable Women in War, sharing with you the most moving stories of women's empowerment during times of militarism.

Jo Duval (Author), Anabel Moda (Narrator)

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Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence

This program features an introduction read by Bill O'Reilly. The Revolutionary War as never told before. The breathtaking latest installment in Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard's mega-bestselling Killing series transports listeners to the most important era in our nation's history, the Revolutionary War. Told through the eyes of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Great Britain's King George III, Killing England chronicles the path to independence in gripping detail, taking the listener from the battlefields of America to the royal courts of Europe. What started as protest and unrest in the colonies soon escalated to a world war with devastating casualties. O'Reilly and Dugard recreate the war's landmark battles, including Bunker Hill, Long Island, Saratoga, and Yorktown, revealing the savagery of hand-to-hand combat and the often brutal conditions under which these brave American soldiers lived and fought. Also here is the reckless treachery of Benedict Arnold and the daring guerilla tactics of the "Swamp Fox" Frances Marion. A must listen, Killing England reminds one and all how the course of history can be changed through the courage and determination of those intent on doing the impossible.

Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard (Author), Robert Petkoff (Narrator)

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Killing Thatcher: The IRA, the Manhunt and the Long War on the Crown

A New Statesman ‘Best Book of 2023 so far’ ‘As taut as a fictional thriller’ Mail on Sunday ‘Gripping, detailed and richly layered’ Guardian The gripping account of how the IRA came astonishingly close to killing Margaret Thatcher KILLING THATCHER is the gripping account of how the IRA came astonishingly close to killing Margaret Thatcher and to wiping out the British Cabinet – an extraordinary assassination attempt linked to the Northern Ireland Troubles and the most daring conspiracy against the Crown since the Gunpowder Plot. In this fascinating and compelling book, veteran journalist Rory Carroll retraces the road to the infamous Brighton bombing in 1984 – an incident that shaped the political landscape in the UK for decades to come. He begins with the infamous execution of Lord Mountbatten in 1979 – for which the IRA took full responsibility – before tracing the rise of Margaret Thatcher, her response to the ‘Troubles’ in Ireland and the chain of events that culminated in the hunger strikes of 1981 and the death of 10 republican prisoners, including Bobby Sands. From that moment on Thatcher became an enemy of the IRA – and the organisation swore revenge. Opening with a brilliantly-paced prologue that introduces bomber Patrick Magee in the build up to the incident, Carroll sets out to deftly explore the intrigue before and after the assassination attempt – with the story spanning three continents, from pubs and palaces, safe houses and interrogation rooms, hotels and barracks. On one side, an elite IRA team aided by a renegade priest, US-raised funds and Libya’s Qaddafi and on the other, intelligence officers, police detectives, informers and bomb disposal officers. An exciting narrative that blends true crime with political history, this is the first major book to investigate the Brighton attack.

Rory Carroll (Author), Gary Trainor (Narrator)

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Killing the Bismarck: Destroying the Pride of Hitler's Fleet

"In May 1941, the German battleship Bismarck, accompanied by heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, broke out into the Atlantic to attack Allied shipping. The Royal Navy's pursuit and subsequent destruction of the Bismarck was an epic of naval warfare. In this new account of those dramatic events at the height of the Second World War, Iain Ballantyne draws extensively on the graphic eye-witness testimony of veterans to construct a thrilling story, mainly from the point of view of the British battleships, cruisers, and destroyers involved. He describes the tense atmosphere as cruisers play a lethal cat-and-mouse game as they shadow Bismarck in the icy Denmark Strait. We witness the shocking destruction of the British battle cruiser HMS Hood, in which all but three of her ship's complement were killed, an event that fueled pursuing Royal Navy warships, including the battered battleship Prince of Wales, with a thirst for revenge. While Swordfish torpedo-bombers try desperately to cripple the Bismarck, we sail in destroyers on their own daring torpedo attacks, battling mountainous seas. Finally, the author takes us into the last showdown, as battleships Rodney and King George V, supported by cruisers Norfolk and Dorsetshire, destroy the pride of Hitler's fleet. This vivid, superbly researched account portrays this epic saga through the eyes of so-called "ordinary sailors" caught up in extraordinary events. Killing the Bismarck is an outstanding book, conveying the horror and majesty of war at sea in all its cold brutality and awesome power."

Iain Ballantyne (Author), Traber Burns (Narrator)

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Kim Philby du MI6 au KGB les Cinq de Cambridge: Les plus grandes affaires d'espionnage

Kim Philby est un important officier du Secret Intelligence Service (SIS ou MI6) britannique. Il devient célèbre lorsqu'est révélé qu'il a été un agent des services de renseignement soviétiques, tout le long de sa carrière. Philby est affecté au poste de Premier Secrétaire à Washington en 1949. Les Américains le soupçonne d'avoir transmis aux Soviétiques des informations confidentielles sur le programme nucléaire militaire et de leur avoir dénoncé différentes opérations de déstabilisation de l'URSS. Depuis Washington, Philby a accès à des informations de premier plan sur la guerre de Corée. Il informe la Chine que les États-Unis ne procéderont ni à un bombardement nucléaire ni à des bombardements massifs en cas d'intervention chinoise dans le conflit. Forte de ces renseignements, la Chine intervient en masse et arrête la progression américaine en Corée.Voici l'histoire de cet agent secret anglais qui trahit son pays pour le compte de l'URSS.

Frédéric Garnier (Author), Patrick Blandin (Narrator)

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King Arthur's Wars: The Anglo-Saxon Conquest of England

The story of an era shrouded in mystery, and the gradual changing of a nation's cultural identity. We speak English today, because the Anglo-Saxons took over most of post-Roman Britain. How did that happen? There is little evidence: not much archaeology, and even less written history. There is, however, a huge amount of speculation. King Arthur's Wars brings an entirely new approach to the subject-the answers are out there, in the British countryside, waiting to be found. Months of field work and map study allow us to understand, for the first time, how the Anglo-Saxons conquered England, county by county and decade by decade. King Arthur's Wars exposes what the landscape and the place names tell us. As a result, we can now know far more about this 'Dark Age.' What is so special about Essex? Why is Buckinghamshire an odd shape? Why is the legend of King Arthur so special to us? Why don't Cumbrian farmers use English numbers when they count sheep? Why don't we know where Camelot was? Why did the Romano-British stop eating oysters? This book provides a new level of understanding of the centuries preceding the Norman Conquest.

Jim Storr (Author), Julian Elfer (Narrator)

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King Leopold's Ghost

In the late 1890s, Edmund Dene Morel, a young British shipping company agent, noticed something strange about the cargoes of his company's ships as they arrived from and departed for the Congo, Leopold II's vast new African colony. Incoming ships were crammed with valuable ivory and rubber. Outbound ships carried little more than soldiers and firearms. Correctly concluding that only slave labor on a vast scale could account for these cargoes, Morel resigned from his company and almost singlehandedly made Leopold's slavelabor regime the premier humanrights story in the world. Thousands of people packed hundreds of meetings throughout the United States and Europe to learn about Congo atrocities. Two courageous black Americans-George Washington Williams and William Sheppard-risked much to bring evidence to the outside world. Roger Casement, later hanged by Britain as a traitor, conducted an eyeopening investigation of the Congo River stations. Sailing into the middle of the story was a young steamboat officer named Joseph Conrad. And looming over all was Leopold II, King of the Belgians, sole owner of the only private colony in the world.

Adam Hochschild (Author), Geoffrey Howard (Narrator)

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King of the North Wind: The Life of Henry II in Five Acts

Henry II conquered the largest empire of any English medieval king. Yet it is the people around him we remember: his wife Eleanor, whom he seduced from the French king; his son Richard the Lionheart; Thomas Becket, murdered in his cathedral. Who was this great, yet tragic king? For fans of Dan Jones, George RR Martin and Bernard Cornwell. The only thing that could have stopped Henry was himself. Henry II had all the gifts of the gods. He was charismatic, clever, learned, empathetic, a brilliant tactician, with great physical strength and an astonishing self-belief. Henry was the creator of the Plantagenet dynasty of kings, who ruled through eight generations in command of vast lands in Britain and Europe. Virtually unbeaten in battle, and engaged in a ceaseless round of conquest and diplomacy, Henry forged an empire that matched Charlemagne's. It was not just on the battlefield that Henry excelled; he presided over a blossoming of culture and learning termed 'the twelfth century Renaissance', pursued the tenets of reason over religious faith, and did more to advance the cause of justice and enforce the rule of law than any other English monarch before or since. Contemporaries lauded his greatness and described him as their 'Alexander of the West'. And yet it is the people around him who are remembered: his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, whom he seduced away from the French king; his sons Richard the Lionheart and John; Thomas Becket, murdered in his cathedral. Henry - so famed during his lifetime - has slipped into the shadows of history. King of the North Wind offers a fresh evaluation of this great yet tragic ruler. Written as a historical tragedy, it tells how this most talented of kings came into conflict with those closest to him, to become the most haunted.

Claudia Gold (Author), Jonathan Oliver (Narrator)

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Kingdom of Alashiya, The: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Trading Kingdom on Cyprus during the

International trade in the ancient world was a more intricate and far-reaching system than many have been led to believe. The Silk Road and the Incense Trade Route have been heavily researched in recent decades, and the Amber Road trade network dominating northern Europe has become a more prominent area of focus for historians as well. Trade was at the forefront of the Late Bronze Age (c. 1500-1200 BCE), especially in the Near East, where great kingdoms developed a network of trade and diplomacy stretching from Persia to Egypt and from Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) down to Arabia. The system these kingdoms built is well-documented in texts from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and other places, and archaeological excavations have uncovered more. Studies of the Late Bronze Age system have revealed that although it may have lacked the technology of later eras, it was just as sophisticated as any other geopolitical system in terms of the manner in which the kingdoms interacted and conducted business with each other. Most importantly, alliances were formed and dissolved and trade was carefully negotiated and documented by its members. Most major powers in the system are quite well-known, including Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Hatti, and Mittani, but one of the members remains fairly enigmatic: the Kingdom of Alashiya. The primary mystery concerning the Kingdom of Alashiya was its precise location, because the known Egyptian, Akkadian, and Hittite texts mentioning Alashiya fail to properly place the kingdom geographically. For years scholars were torn between its possible location, with most believing it was either in Cyprus, Cilicia, or somewhere in Syria, but today, most accept that Alashiya was in Cyprus. The Kingdom of Alashiya: The History and Legacy of the Ancient Trading Kingdom on Cyprus during the Bronze Age examines the mysterious kingdom and its relationships with various other kingdoms nearby.

Charles River Editors (Author), Colin Fluxman (Narrator)

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Kings and Queens of England

Which king liked to bathe while the band played Rule Britannia? Which queen was so fat she needed a hoist to get on the throne? Which prince shut his wife out of Westminster Abbey to prevent her from being crowned? Who was the blood-thirstiest monarch of them all? Kings and Queens of England is a no-holds-barred account of the British monarchy with the gossip and gore left in, and nothing left out! It leaves no stone unturned in its mission to portray kings and queens as they really were, warts and all.

Jen Green (Author), Benjamin Soames (Narrator)

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Europe Audiobooks in Travel