Author: Ben Macintyre Publisher: Delta ISBN: 0385336799 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 290
Book Description
A “remarkable” (The New York Times Book Review) account of four British soldiers forced into hiding in a French village during World War I, and the mystery left behind in their wake—from the bestselling author of The Spy and the Traitor and The Siege. “Gripping, illuminating . . . Everything comes alive . . . the feuds, the village characters [and] the hunger of the winter of 1914.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review In the first terrifying days of World War I, four British soldiers found themselves trapped behind enemy lines on the western front. They were forced to hide in the tiny French village of Villeret, whose inhabitants made the courageous decision to shelter the fugitives until they could pass as Picard peasants. This is the never-before-told story of these extraordinary men, their protectors, and of the haunting love affair between Private Robert Digby and Claire Dessenne, the most beautiful woman in Villeret. Their passion would result in the birth of a child known as “The Englishman’s Daughter,” and in an act of unspeakable betrayal, a tragic legacy that would haunt the village for generations to come. Through the testimonies of the villagers and the last letters of the soldiers, New York Times bestselling author Ben Macintyre has pieced together a harrowing account of how life was lived behind enemy lines during the Great War, and offers a compelling solution to a gripping mystery that reverberates to this day.
Author: Ben Macintyre Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux ISBN: 1466813040 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 344
Book Description
Never before told, Ben Macintyre's The Englishman's Daughter is a harrowing tale of love, duplicity and their tragic consequences, which haunt the people of Villeret eight decades after the Great War. "I have a rendezvous with death, at some disputed barricade." Alan Seeger, 1916 In the first days of World War I four soldiers, left behind as the British army retreated through northern France under the first German onslaught, found themselves trapped on the wrong side of the Western Front, in a tiny village called Villeret. Just a few miles from the Somme, the village would be permanently inundated with German troops for the next four years, yet the villagers conspired to feed, clothe and protect the fugitives under the very noses of the invaders, absorbing the Englishmen into their homes and lives until they could pass for Picardy peasants. The leader of the band, Robert Digby, was a striking young man who fell in love with Claire Dessenne, the prettiest maid in the village. In November 1915, with the guns clearly audible from the battlefront, Claire gave birth to Digby's child, the jealous whispering began, and the conspiracy that had protected the soldiers for half the war started to unravel.
Author: Ben Macintyre Publisher: Macmillan ISBN: 0374129851 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 293
Book Description
This romance flourished under the very eyes of German occupiers, resulted in the birth of a child, and eventually tore a community apart."--BOOK JACKET.
Author: Ben Macintyre Publisher: A&C Black ISBN: 140883815X Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 305
Book Description
From the bestselling author of Agent Zigzag and Double Cross the true story of Friedrich Nietzsche's bigoted, imperious sister who founded a 'racially pure' colony in Paraguay together with a band of blond-haired fellow Germans.
Author: Ben Macintyre Publisher: Macmillan + ORM ISBN: 1466803797 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 490
Book Description
The untold story of the nineteenth-century American Quaker who tried to build a kingdom in Afghanistan: “A thrilling real-life yarn.” —Booklist In the year 1838, a young adventurer, surrounded by his native troops and mounted on an elephant, raised the American flag on the summit of the Hindu Kush in the mountainous wilds of Afghanistan. He declared himself Prince of Ghor, Lord of the Hazarahs, spiritual and military heir to Alexander the Great. The true story of Josiah Harlan, a Pennsylvania Quaker and the first American ever to enter Afghanistan, has never been told before, yet the life and writings of this extraordinary man echo down the centuries. This “riveting, scrupulously researched” book reveals the full history behind the renowned Rudyard Kipling short story and John Huston’s film classic (The New York Times Book Review). “One of the most remarkable discoveries in the history of biography.” —The New York Review of Books “Macintyre recounts Harlan’s travels with dispatch, and draws on unpublished journals to let his subject’s voice seep through.” —The New Yorker “Here is a writer who seems as taken as I am with crackpottery, delusion, grandiosity, chicanery, and impersonation, but who manages to write about it all with amused restraint, without, that is, the air of the ogler.” —The Boston Globe “Macintyre gives readers both Harlan’s story and a thought-provoking perspective on the history of superpower intervention in Afghanistan . . . Harlan’s story alone is fascinating, but its resonance with modern-day struggles—Harlan urging the British to try ‘fiscal diplomacy’ (i.e., gold) instead of ‘invading and subjugating an unoffending people’—makes it compelling.” —Publishers Weekly
Author: Peter Evans Publisher: ISBN: 9780140061734 Category : English fiction Languages : en Pages : 303
Book Description
The Englishman: Why, ten years ago, did the privileged Lord Henry Child suddenly betray country, family and friends to flee to Moscow? In so doing, he not only becomes the most astonishing traitor of the twentieth century but eventually endangers the life of the daughter he adores. Lady Pandora Child: At nineteen the world's top model, at twenty an instant film star, a beautiful, sensuous girl. But beneath her success flickers a shadow cast on the day her father deserted her. Nilus Dollsky: An impish, satanic Russian film director of international stature, a self-proclaimed genius, whose appeal to women is legendary. Why is he encouraged to defect to the West, and are there any grounds for the suspicions about his sexual predilections? Mulder Khor: The ruthless head of Department 12 of the KGB. Why and to what end is he being manipulated by the Englishman? Valentin Buikov: A KGB man whose love affair is indirectly responsible for the violent deaths of several people on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Rufus Gunn: Playboy, paramour of royalty and Pandora's dearest friend, who in crisis reveals an unexpected strength. These are the main characters of a brilliant, subtle novel of international intrigue that switches effortlessly between Moscow and London, Venice and Leningrad, Buckingham Palace and a Russian dacha, Val d'Isere and the Berkshire countryside. Peter Evans's fast-paced thriller, which examines the duplicities of sexual passion, of loyalty to family and comrades, and of political and personal sacrifice, offers spellbinding storytelling at its best.
Author: Ian Mote Publisher: AuthorHouse ISBN: 150490396X Category : Travel Languages : en Pages : 512
Book Description
I have been to every province in China, and the book is made up of travel stories about the places I have been and the experiences I have had. For instance, I have been hosted in first-class establishments in Shanghai, been drunk with miners in Inner Mongolia, wandered out in the Gobi desert, and nearly been sick on the embalmed body of Chairman Mao. This book is about being a Western expat adjusting to life in Asia, first in Hong Kong and then in Shanghai. It is about negotiating with local people on whether prostitutes are required after dinner, singing Chinese songs in the middle of meetings, and finding the only spot in the country without an army of tourists spoiling the photos. I wish to share travel and living stories from Hong Kong and every province in China, through the eyes of one fascinated, curious, worried, reckless, adventurous, queasy, stunned, and quite tired English expat.
Author: Ben Macintyre Publisher: Wheeler Publishing ISBN: 9781587242328 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 372
Book Description
In the first terrifying days of World War I, four British soldiers found themselves trapped behind enemy lines on the western front. They were forced to hide in the tiny French village of Villeret, whose inhabitants made the courageous decision to shelter the fugitives until they could pass as Picard peasants. The Englishman's Daughter is the never-before-told story of these extraordinary men, their protectors, and of the haunting love affair between Private Robert Digby and Claire Dessenne, the most beautiful woman in Villeret. Their passion would result in the birth of a child known as "The Englishman's Daughter," and in an act of unspeakable betrayal, a tragic legacy that would haunt the village for generations to come. Through the testimonies of the villagers and the last letters of the soldiers, acclaimed journalist Ben Macintyre has pieced together a harrowing account of how life was lived behind enemy lines during the Great War, and offers a compelling solution to a gripping mystery that reverberates to this day.
Author: Elizabeth Nunez Publisher: Akashic Books ISBN: 1617755427 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 341
Book Description
Set on a Caribbean island in the grip of colonialism, this novel is “masterful . . . simply wonderful . . . [an] exquisite retelling of The Tempest” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). When Peter Gardner’s ruthless medical genius leads him to experiment on his unwitting patients—often at the expense of their lives—he flees England, seeking an environ where his experiments might continue without scrutiny. He arrives with his three-year-old-daughter, Virginia, in Chacachacare, an isolated island off the coast of Trinidad, in the early 1960s. Gardner considers the locals to be nothing more than savages. He assumes ownership of the home of a servant boy named Carlos, seeing in him a suitable subject for his amoral medical work. Nonetheless, he educates the boy alongside Virginia. As Virginia and Carlos come of age together, they form a covert relationship that violates the outdated mores of colonial rule. When Gardner unveils the pair’s relationship and accuses Carlos of a monstrous act, the investigation into the truth is left up to a curt, stonehearted British inspector, whose inquiries bring to light a horrendous secret. At turns epic and intimate, Prospero's Daughter, from American Book Award winner Elizabeth Nunez, uses Shakespeare’s play as a template to address questions of race, class, and power, in the story of an unlikely bond between a boy and a girl of disparate backgrounds on a verdant Caribbean island during the height of tensions between the native population and British colonists. “Gripping and richly imagined . . . a master at pacing and plotting . . . an entirely new story that is inspired by Shakespeare, but not beholden to him.” —The New York Times Book Review “Absorbing . . . [Nunez] writes novels that resound with thunder and fury.” —Essence “A story about the transformative power of love . . . Readers are sure to enjoy the journey.” —Black Issues Book Review (Novel of the Year)
Author: Ben Macintyre
Author: Ben Macintyre
Author: Ben Macintyre
Author: Ben Macintyre
Author: Ben Macintyre
Author: Peter Evans
Author: Ian Mote
Author: Ben Macintyre
Author: Elizabeth Nunez
Author: Ben Macintyre