Deconstructs the French woman's views on culture, fashion and attitude. Including 80 black and white and colour pictures, many taken by the authors, this book explains those confusing subjects of clothes, makeup, men, culture and lifestyle as only a true Parisienne can.
________________ 'A superb account of the invasion that deserves immense praise. To convey the human drama of Normandy requires great knowledge and sensitivity. Holland has both in spades' THE TIMES 'A devastating new account..Holland knows his stuff when it comes to military matters. The reader is in safe hands navigating each aspect of this complex campaign' DAILY MAIL Book of the Week Renowned World War Two historian James Holland presents an entirely new perspective on one of the most important moments in recent history, unflinchingly examining the brutality and violence that characterised the campaign.
______________ D-Day and the 76 days of bitter fighting in Normandy that followed have come to be seen as a defining episode in the Second World War. Its story has been endlessly retold, and yet it remains a narrative burdened by both myth and assumed knowledge.
In this reexamined history, James Holland presents a broader overview, one that challenges much of what we think we know about D-Day and the Normandy campaign. The sheer size and scale of the Allies' war machine ultimately dominates the strategic, operational and tactical limitations of the German forces.
This was a brutal campaign. In terms of daily casualties, the numbers were worse than for any one battle during the First World War.
_________________ Drawing on unseen archives and testimonies from around the world Introducing a cast of eye-witnesses that includes foot soldiers, tank men, fighter pilots and bomber crews, sailors, civilians, resistance fighters and those directing the action An epic telling that will profoundly recalibrate our understanding of its true place in the tide of human history
La légende dit que, en quelques semaines agitées de juillet 1789, un roi despotique, sa femme aux moeurs légères et une horde d'artistocrates cupides ont été remplacés par des humanistes éclairés. Avec l'humour grinçant qui le caractérise, Stephen Clarke, l'auteur à succès de A Year in the Merde, remet toute cette jolie légende en perspective dans ce livre, et continue de faire rire le monde entier sur les manies des français hier et aujourdhui.
Sometime late in 1664, the musketeer D'Artagnan rode beside a heavily-armoured carriage as it rumbled slowly southwards from Paris, carrying his great friend Nicolas Fouquet to internal exile and life imprisonment in the fortress of Pignerol. There he would be incarcerated in a cell next door to the Man with the Iron Mask...
From a glittering zenith as the King's first minister, builder of the breathtaking chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte, collector of books, patron of the arts and lover of beautiful women, Fouquet had fallen like Icarus. Charged with embezzlement, he was convicted and sentenced to banishment until the King intervened to change his sentence to life imprisonment.
Charles Drazin's riveting account brings to life the rich and hazardous world in which Foucquet lived. As a child he learned from his devout mother how to mix herbal remedies for the patients at the Hotel-Dieu and from his father, a creature of Cardinal Richelieu, the demands of political life. Drazin tells of the young man's first adventures as a tax-collector, caught up in rebellion in the Dauphiné , of the loyalty and service that he gave to Cardinal Mazarin and of the financial wizardry that somehow kept France's finances together. The cunning, charisma and charm of Fouquet enchant and beguile while they reveal the seeds of his destruction.
But it is in his downfall and incarceration, which he bore with great fortitude, courage and humour, that Fouquet's strength of character and grace emerge, as he somehow survives both solitary confinement and absence of books, pen and ink. The richness and contrasts of his remarkable story are done full justice in this compelling book.
Louis XIV was during his reign the most powerful king in Europe. He presided over a golden age of military and artistic achievement in France, and deployed his charm and talents for spin and intrigue to hold his court and country within his absolute control. The Sun King's universe centred at Versailles, a glittering palace from whence Louis conducted his government and complex love affairs. Nancy Mitford describes the daily life of this splendid court in sumptuous detail, bringing the distant past to vibrant life.
Published in the 200th Anniversary year of the Battle of Waterloo a witty look at how the French still think they won, by Stephen Clarke, author of 1000 Years of Annoying the French and A Year in the Merde.
HMS Erebus was one of the great exploring ships, a veteran of groundbreaking expeditions to the ends of the Earth.
In 1848, it disappeared in the Arctic, its fate a mystery. In 2014, it was found.
This is its story.
____________________________________ 'Beyond terrific. I didn't want it to end.' - Bill Bryson ____________________________________ Michael Palin - Monty Python star and television globetrotter - brings the remarkable Erebus back to life, following it from its launch in 1826 to the epic voyages of discovery that led to glory in the Antarctic and to ultimate catastrophe in the Arctic.
The ship was filled with fascinating people: the dashing and popular James Clark Ross, who charted much of the 'Great Southern Barrier'; the troubled John Franklin, whose chequered career culminated in the Erebus's final, disastrous expedition; and the eager Joseph Dalton Hooker, a brilliant naturalist - when he wasn't shooting the local wildlife dead.
Vividly recounting the experiences of the men who first set foot on Antarctica's Victoria Land, and those who, just a few years later, froze to death one by one in the Arctic ice, beyond the reach of desperate rescue missions, Erebus is a wonderfully evocative account of a truly extraordinary adventure, brought to life by a master explorer and storyteller.
____________________________________ 'This is an incredible book. I couldn't put it down. The Erebus story is the Arctic epic we've all been waiting for.' - Nicholas Crane 'One robust little tub of a boat, two death-defying voyages to the ends of the earth. Palin has given us a fascinating account of extraordinary courage' - Charlotte Gray, author of The Promise of Canada: People and Ideas that Shaped Our Country 'What more could a reader ask for? Fascinating mystery, chilling adventure, compelling characters ... simply terrific writing by Michael Palin.' - Roy MacGregor, author of Original Highways: Travelling the Great Rivers of Canada 'Michael Palin is a cracking good companion on this journey of ambition, longing, triumph and tragedy... the age of adventure lives on' - Alanna Mitchell, author of The Spinning Magnet: The Force that Created the Modern World and Could Destroy It
The Allied assault on Normandy beaches was an almost flawless success, but it was to take three months of bitter fighting before the German defence of Normandy finally collapsed and Paris was liberated.
In this masterly and highly individual account of that struggle, the reader is subjected to the gruelling ordeals confronted by the combatants - each encounter related from the point of view of a different nationality. While transcending conventional military history, it provides an intensely vivid picture of one of the Second World War's most crucial campaigns.
Danton: Gentle Giant of Terror In this new biography, David Lawday, author of the acclaimed Napoleon's Master, a life of Talleyrand, turns his focus to the life of Georges-Jacques Danton, tragic hero incarnate.
A beefy six-foot bull of a man, with a rude farmyard face to match, Danton was destined to bring a violent end to an absolute monarchy that had ruled for a thousand years.But it was not his alarming physique that placed him at the head of the Revolution.His weapon of revolt was his voice - a perpetual roll of thunder that spurred men to action without his quite knowing where he intended to drive them.To hear Danton was to hear the heartbeat of revolution.Together with the puritanical Robespierre - his rival to death and in most every way his opposite - Danton brought about something rare in history:a change in the human social order.The reckless ride from monarchy to republic was a mass social revolution that upended the most populous country in Europe - an upheaval so uniquely radical in spirit that formed the root - if not quite of that liberty and equality its makers dreamed of - at least of the liberal, democratic society in which a good part of the world is fairly content to live today.What manner of man makes such stupendous things happen?
With prose that is immediate and engaging, Lawday examines the personalities and the associations that inspired and fuelled te Revolution.The power of Danton's oratory, and his charismatic appeal, led him to the centre of power at the height of a period of turbulent change.But he was to become a victim of Revolution himself, facing the guillotine - defiant to the end - at the age of thirty-four.
David Gates writes a neutral and encompassing book on the Napoleonic Wars in this volume. These modern war series are not mean to be all encompassing but rather as introductions that cover every aspect of the war. Therefore Gates covers the causes, the campaigns, the economic and social impacts, and the future effects of the war. If you are looking for an in depth analysis of the war's campaigns I would not suggest this book. It basically scratched the surface of all the different topics dealing with the wars of Napoleon. Nevertheless it is informative and interesting and includes a great bibliography if you want to know more information.
The vivid scenes on the Bayeux Tapestry depict the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It is one of Europe's greatest treasures and its own story is full of drama and surprise.
Who commissioned the tapestry? Was it Bishop Odo, William's ruthless half-brother? Or Harold's dynamic sister Edith, juggling for a place in the new court? Hicks shows us this world and the miracle of the tapestry's making: the stitches, dyes and strange details in the margins. For centuries it lay ignored in Bayeux cathedral until its 'discovery' in the eighteenth century. It became a symbol of power as well as art: townsfolk saved it during the French Revolution; Napoleon displayed it to promote his own conquest; the Nazis strove to make it their own; and its influence endures today.
This marvellous book, packed with thrilling stories, shows how we remake history in every age and how a great work of art has a life of its own.
It was the biggest leak in history. WikiLeaks infuriated the world's greatest superpower, embarrassed the British royal family and helped cause a revolution in Africa. The man behind it was Julian Assange, one of the strangest figures ever to become a worldwide celebrity.
From UFOs to the New World Order, the inside story of how conspiracy theories won over America.
When Donald Trump entered the White House in January 2017, America's sprawling network of conspiracy theorists suddenly gained a powerful ally. Over the years, Trump had schmoozed with everyone from climate change deniers to anti-vax campaigners. Suddenly, to understand the USA, you needed to understand conspiracies.
In Republic of Lies, investigative journalist Anna Merlan goes deep inside this secretive world and unearths its most bizarre, enthralling and disconcerting stories. She heads over to America's top UFO conference, where she encounters the man who says he once went to Mars with a young Barack Obama. She speaks with the 'pizzagate' truthers who believe that Washington D.C.'s favourite pizzeria is run by a satanic paedophile ring. And she has a run-in with the controversial YouTuber and media impresario Alex Jones, who has said the state is using chemical warfare to turn the population gay - and who happens to be on first-name terms with the president of the United States.
Merlan's discoveries raise timely and troubling questions for us all. What happens when conspiracy theories go mainstream - and what impact does it have on the news that is actually true? Why are so many of us prepared to believe half-truths and outright lies? And might understanding conspiracy theories be the key to explaining the political upheavals of our age?
How do you keep fighting in the face of unimaginable horror? Witold Pilecki was anÿincredible Second World War heroÿwhoÿinfiltratedÿAuschwitz,ÿassassinatedÿNazi guards, escaped and spread newsÿof the Holocaust to the Allied Powers. This is the untold story of one of the greatest heroes of the Second World War, and a gripping story of defiance, rebellion and escape from a Nazi death camp.
