Search Results for:

Abbot Christopher Jamison from hit TV series THE MONASTERY, turns his attention to the eternal questions of how to be happy, and why we believe it is so important.

Why is ‘being happy’ such an imperative nowadays? What meaning do people give happiness?

In this book Abbot Christopher turns to monastic wisdom to offer answers, and to explain that in essence, happiness is a gift, not an achievement, the fruit of giving and receiving blessings.

Following the same accessible and engaging format of FINDING SANCTUARY, Abbot Christopher takes different aspects of happiness, examines them, tells us what monastic wisdom has to say about them, and offers us steps towards our own journey to finding happiness.

‘The most sensational book on the Royal Family in recent times’ Sunday Telegraph
‘Offers a fascinating insight into not just his life but the social mores of the day’ Evening Standard

How did a photographer who was a relentless playboy, an unashamed womaniser and a leather-clad motorcyclist marry the Queen’s sister and become the Establishment figure Lord Snowdon? The brilliantly talented Antony Armstrong-Jones often humiliated Princess Margaret, yet he was compassionate to the causes he cared about. Since his death in 2017, Snowdon still hasn’t escaped the limelight, as more and more is revealed about his wild and intriguing life.

Written with exclusive access to Snowdon and the people closest to him, this book uncovers the real man and his times. Addressing the facts behind the myths – the secret courtship of Margaret, the love child born just weeks after the royal marriage, the affairs on both sides, the suicide of one mistress and the birth of an illegitimate son to another – this balanced yet no-holds-barred account of Snowdon’s life is essential reading for fans of The Crown and Ma’am Darling.

‘The most sensational book on the Royal Family in recent times’ Sunday Telegraph
‘Offers a fascinating insight into not just his life but the social mores of the day’ Evening Standard

How did a photographer who was a relentless playboy, an unashamed womaniser and a leather-clad motorcyclist marry the Queen’s sister and become the Establishment figure Lord Snowdon? The brilliantly talented Antony Armstrong-Jones often humiliated Princess Margaret, yet he was compassionate to the causes he cared about. Since his death in 2017, Snowdon still hasn’t escaped the limelight, as more and more is revealed about his wild and intriguing life.

Written with exclusive access to Snowdon and the people closest to him, this book uncovers the real man and his times. Addressing the facts behind the myths – the secret courtship of Margaret, the love child born just weeks after the royal marriage, the affairs on both sides, the suicide of one mistress and the birth of an illegitimate son to another – this balanced yet no-holds-barred account of Snowdon’s life is essential reading for fans of The Crown and Ma’am Darling.

The epic story of Jerusalem told through the lives of the men and women who created, ruled and inhabited it.

Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths; it is the prize of empires, the site of Judgement Day and the battlefield of today’s clash of civilizations. From King David to Barack Obama, from the birth of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to the Israel-Palestine conflict, this is the epic history of 3,000 years of faith, slaughter, fanaticism and coexistence.

How did this small, remote town become the Holy City, the ‘centre of the world’ and now the key to peace in the Middle East? In a gripping narrative, Simon Sebag Montefiore reveals this ever-changing city in its many incarnations, bringing every epoch and character blazingly to life. Jerusalem’s biography is told through the wars, love affairs and revelations of the men and women – kings, empresses, prophets, poets, saints, conquerors and whores – who created, destroyed, chronicled and believed in Jerusalem.

Drawing on new archives, current scholarship, his own family papers and a lifetime’s study, Montefiore illuminates the essence of sanctity and mysticism, identity and empire in a unique chronicle of the city that many believe will be the setting for the Apocalypse. This is how Jerusalem became Jerusalem, and the only city that exists twice – in heaven and on earth.

A new, updated, revised edition of JERUSALEM: THE BIOGRAPHY, the wider history of the Middle East through the lens of the Holy City, from King David to today.

The story of Jerusalem is the story of the world.

Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths; it is the site of Judgement Day and the battlefield of today’s clash of civilisations. How did this small, remote town become the Holy City, the ‘centre of the world’ and now the key to peace in the Middle East? Drawing on new archives and a lifetime’s study, Montefiore reveals this ever-changing city through the wars, love affairs and revelations of the kings, empresses, prophets, poets, saints, conquerors and whores who created, destroyed, chronicled and believed in Jerusalem.

A classic of modern literature, this is not only the epic story of 3,000 years of faith, slaughter, fanaticism and co-existence, but also a freshly-updated history of the entire Middle East, from King David to the twenty-first century, from the birth of Judaism, Christianity and Islam to the Israel-Palestine conflict and the wars of today. This is how Jerusalem became Jerusalem – the only city that exists twice – in heaven and on earth.

Genuinely new story of the Second World War – the full account of England’s last war against France in 1940-42.

Most people think that England’s last war with France involved point-blank broadsides from sailing ships and breastplated Napoleonic cavalry charging red-coated British infantry. But there was a much more recent conflict than this. Under the terms of its armistice with Nazi Germany, the unoccupied part of France and its substantial colonies were ruled from the spa town of Vichy by the government of Marshal Philip Petain. Between July 1940 and November 1942, while Britain was at war with Germany, Italy and ultimately Japan, it also fought land, sea and air battles with the considerable forces at the disposal of Petain’s Vichy French.

When the Royal Navy sank the French Fleet at Mers El-Kebir almost 1,300 French sailors died in what was the twentieth century’s most one-sided sea battle. British casualties were nil. It is a wound that has still not healed, for undoubtedly these events are better remembered in France than in Britain. An embarrassment at the time, France’s maritime massacre and the bitter, hard-fought campaigns that followed rarely make more than footnotes in accounts of Allied operations against Axis forces. Until now.

Genuinely new story of the Second World War – the full account of England’s last war against France in 1940-42.

Most people think that England’s last war with France involved point-blank broadsides from sailing ships and breastplated Napoleonic cavalry charging red-coated British infantry. But there was a much more recent conflict than this. Under the terms of its armistice with Nazi Germany, the unoccupied part of France and its substantial colonies were ruled from the spa town of Vichy by the government of Marshal Philip Petain. Between July 1940 and November 1942, while Britain was at war with Germany, Italy and ultimately Japan, it also fought land, sea and air battles with the considerable forces at the disposal of Petain’s Vichy French.

When the Royal Navy sank the French Fleet at Mers El-Kebir almost 1,300 French sailors died in what was the twentieth century’s most one-sided sea battle. British casualties were nil. It is a wound that has still not healed, for undoubtedly these events are better remembered in France than in Britain. An embarrassment at the time, France’s maritime massacre and the bitter, hard-fought campaigns that followed rarely make more than footnotes in accounts of Allied operations against Axis forces. Until now.

A shocking insight into the brutalities faced by ordinary soldiers and the atrocities committed in the name of survival.

Dispassionately we stared at the bloody scene. It had become an everyday sight.

The 27th Penal Regiment care nothing for Hitler’s war. They fight only to stay alive. But then they uncover the Soviet Army’s biggest secret. A Russian commissar has hidden 30 million dollars of gold somewhere behind enemy lines.

In a madcap scheme, Porta brokers a deal with the commissar: free passage for the Russians in return for a share of the gold. To find it, Sven and his comrades must be prepared to lie, steal and go behind the lines of the deadly Russian army…

The Russian uses his machine pistol like a scythe. Feldwebel remains standing for a fraction of a second. The rain of bullets pours into him, making him twitch violently. He falls to the floor. The Russian grins. There is no doubt that he is enjoying himself.

Sven Hassel and his comrades are ordered to take O.G.P.U. Prison in any way they can, even if it means killing the Russians with their bare hands.

Armed with flame-throwers and heavy artillery, the 27th Penal Regiment plan their attack.

O.G.P.U. PRISON is one of Sven Hassel’s most compulsively readable novels, full of battle scenes, written in the gritty style that Hassel is renowned for.

‘They beat me,’ whispers the artillery officer, ‘Smashed my teeth in, sent an electric current through me. They want me to confess to something I never did.’

Sven Hassel and his comrades are fighting on the Finnish front, facing an arctic winter more ferocious than anything they’ve ever known.

But if they survive, they face shipment to Torgau Prison – the centre of Hitler’s penal system – where deserters, convicts and anyone showing anti-Nazi sentiments are imprisoned and punished.

This could mean arrest, court-martial and execution. Or it could mean torture and starvation.

COURT MARTIAL is Sven Hassel’s darkest novel and a shocking insight into the cruelty the Nazi regime inflicted on its own people.

THE BLOODY ROAD TO DEATH depicts all the savagery of war punctuated with black humour, as Tiny, Porta and the rest of the men advance across Europe.

The Russian Officer falls forward and I sink my teeth into his throat. Blood runs down over my face but I don’t notice it. I am fighting for my life.

The 27th Penal Regiment are veterans of the frontline.

But when Hitler’s war takes them through Greece, Yugoslavia and Albania, they are entirely unprepared for what awaits them. And when the water rations run out, they are willing to commit murder just for a drink.

A sobering portrait of the absurdity of the Nazi regime and the atrocities committed by Hitler’s secret police.

‘Frighteningly vivid, a most strongly felt piece of writing’ IRISH TIMES

After months of fighting a savage war on the Eastern Front, the 27th Penal Regiment – men considered little more than criminals – are joined by German reserves.

A garrison has been attacked and occupied by Russian troops. The German soldiers have been slaughtered. Sven Hassel and his comrades are ordered to get behind Russian lines and massacre those responsible.

But this is only the beginning… Because then the orders change: the regiment are sent to Hamburg, where their next assignment is guard duty for the mercilessly cruel Gestapo…

Danger was forgotten, death was forgotten, the war was forgotten. They only knew they had to kill… The figures in khaki were no longer soldiers, no longer men.

Sven Hassel and his comrades are once more hurled into the ferocity of the frontline.

The Eastern Front is a sight of unprecedented destruction. The soldiers there – the tank battalions of Hitler’s penal regiments – are considered expendable by the German high command.

Treated like animals, they learn to live like animals, to fight like beasts. The only other option is to die a bloody death…

This is a gripping testament to the soldiers sacrificed on the Russian Front.

WIKIPEDIA says: ‘H.P. Lovecraft’s reputation has grown tremendously over the decades, and he is now commonly regarded as one of the most important horror writers of the 20th century, exerting an influence that is widespread, though often indirect.’

H.P. Lovecraft’s tales of the tentacled Elder God Cthulhu and his pantheon of alien deities were initially written for the pulp magazines of the 1920s and ’30s. These astonishing tales blend elements of horror, science fiction and cosmic terror that are as powerful today as they were when they were first published.

This handsome leatherbound tome collects together the very best of Lovecraft’s tales of terror, including the complete Cthulhu Mythos cycle, just the way they were originally published. It will introduce a whole new generation of readers to Lovecraft’s fiction, as well as being a must-buy for those fans who want all his work in a single, definitive, highly attractive volume.

The first biography of the great historian whose career was made and unmade by Hitler.

Hugh Trevor-Roper’s life is a rich subject for a biography – with elements of Greek tragedy, comedy and moments of high farce. Clever, witty and sophisticated, Trevor-Roper was the most brilliant historian of his generation. Until his downfall, he seemed to have everything: wealth and connections, a chair at Oxford, a beautiful country house, an aristocratic wife, and, eventually, a title of his own. Eloquent and versatile, fearless and formidable, he moved easily between Oxford and London, between the dreaming spires of scholarship and the jostling corridors of power. He developed a lucid prose style which he used to deadly effect. He was notorious for his acerbic attacks on other historians, but ultimately tainted his own reputation with a catastrophic error when he authenticated the forged ‘Hitler Diaries’.

Adam Sisman sheds new light on this fascinating and dramatic episode, but also shows that there was much more to Hugh Trevor-Roper’s career than the fiasco of the Hitler Diaries hoax that became his epitaph. From wartime code-breaking to grilling Nazis while the trail was still fresh in 1945 (and finding Hitler’s will buried inside a bottle), to his wide-ranging interests, his snobbery and his malice, his formidable post-war feuds with Evelyn Waugh, Tawney, Toynbee, Taylor and many others, and his secret and passionate affair with an older, married woman. A study in both success and failure, Adam Sisman’s biography is a revealing and personal story of a remarkable life.

The gripping true story of the French Foreign Legion in the Sahara.

Ever since the 1920s the popular legend of the French Foreign Legion has been formed by P.C. Wren’s novel BEAU GESTE – a world of remote forts, warrior tribes, and desperate men of all nationalities enlisting under pseudonyms to fight and die under the desert sun.

As with all clichés, the reality is far richer and more surprising than this. In this book Martin Windrow describes desert battles and famous last stands in gripping detail – but he also shows exactly what the Foreign Legion were doing in North Africa in the first place. He explains how French colonial methods there actually had their roots in the jungles of Vietnam, and how the political pressures that kept the empire expanding can be traced to battles on the streets of Paris itself. His description of the Berber tribesmen of Morocco also reveals some disturbing modern parallels: the formidable guerrillas of the 1920s were inspired by an Islamic fundamentalist who was adept at using the world’s media to further his cause.

Martin Windrow’s previous book THE LAST VALLEY received fabulous reviews across the English-speaking world. This unique book, which is the first to examine the ‘golden age’ of the Foreign Legion has followed suit.

The gripping true story of the French Foreign Legion in the Sahara.

Ever since the 1920s the popular legend of the French Foreign Legion has been formed by P.C. Wren’s novel BEAU GESTE – a world of remote forts, warrior tribes, and desperate men of all nationalities enlisting under pseudonyms to fight and die under the desert sun.

As with all clichés, the reality is far richer and more surprising than this. In this book Martin Windrow describes desert battles and famous last stands in gripping detail – but he also shows exactly what the Foreign Legion were doing in North Africa in the first place. He explains how French colonial methods there actually had their roots in the jungles of Vietnam, and how the political pressures that kept the empire expanding can be traced to battles on the streets of Paris itself. His description of the Berber tribesmen of Morocco also reveals some disturbing modern parallels: the formidable guerrillas of the 1920s were inspired by an Islamic fundamentalist who was adept at using the world’s media to further his cause.

Martin Windrow’s previous book THE LAST VALLEY received fabulous reviews across the English-speaking world. This unique book, which is the first to examine the ‘golden age’ of the Foreign Legion has followed suit.

The number-one Sunday Times bestseller

‘Walters’s book – also well written – has moments of Alan Bennett warmth’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘This is a humorous and, at times, moving read from this much-loved actress’ WOMAN AND HOME

‘I was enthralled by her memoirs … a celebrity memoir which is actually worth reading as a work of literature’ AN Wilson, READER’S DIGEST

Her mum wanted her to be a nurse so that is what Julie did.

But in her heart she had always wanted to be an actress and soon she was on stage at the local theatre in Liverpool. Her career snowballed with highlights that include Educating Rita, Billy Elliot, Harry Potter, Acorn Antiques, Dinner Ladies and Mamma Mia! She has been nominated for two Oscars, been awarded multiple BAFTAs and a Golden Globe, plus been honoured with a DBE. This is the heart-warming and funny story of that journey.

The number-one Sunday Times bestseller

‘Walters’s book – also well written – has moments of Alan Bennett warmth’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘This is a humorous and, at times, moving read from this much-loved actress’ WOMAN AND HOME

‘I was enthralled by her memoirs … a celebrity memoir which is actually worth reading as a work of literature’ AN Wilson, READER’S DIGEST

Her mum wanted her to be a nurse so that is what Julie did.

But in her heart she had always wanted to be an actress and soon she was on stage at the local theatre in Liverpool. Her career snowballed with highlights that include Educating Rita, Billy Elliot, Harry Potter, Acorn Antiques, Dinner Ladies and Mamma Mia! She has been nominated for two Oscars, been awarded multiple BAFTAs and a Golden Globe, plus been honoured with a DBE. This is the heart-warming and funny story of that journey.

Diaries celebrating a dog’s joy at owning a human, by the most famous dog in Britain.

Buster has written these diaries himself – whenever he could remember where he hid the manuscript in his garden. In it he lays bear the truth of how The Man has held Buster back, pretending to protect fur and feathers. Buster’s last book was an instant bestseller and, outrageously, The Man took all the credit. To add insult to injury, there were no extra biscuits. Worse, The Man forced Buster to eat low-fat ones, while he himself continued to eat lots of chocolate ginger nuts.

Despite The Man’s best efforts, Buster still gets into lots of scrapes, and, although his sight and hearing are failing somewhat, he still wants to ‘go courting’ – especially in springtime. Buster remains unaware of what happened that day at the vet’s, and no one will explain it to him, but they continue to allude to something.

On a visit to Ireland a gentleman tapped his nose and said to The Man, ‘You can’t fool me. I’ve worked it out. You wrote the book.’ Buster was so upset by this vile calumny that he wanted to give the gentleman a good nip. Then he remembered the words of someone called Robert Kennedy who The Man goes on about: ‘Don’t get angry. Get even.’ And he has. And this time it’s personal.

As Buster says, ‘No more Mr Nice Dog.’

Welcome on board – holidays the Grumpy way!

As every Grumpy Old Man and Woman knows, holidays are another way of keeping you all house-trained. They are civilised society’s reminder to you that the tedium of everyday life is actually preferable to a fortnight spent in the company of nagging partners, other people’s brats, bombastic in-laws; and – worse still – people who can’t speak English. As soon as you check in at the airport you are marooned in a sea of screaming babies, dull-faced reps and bland airport food.

Count yourself lucky if your optimistic expectation of a good holiday is even remotely fulfilled. Don’t be fooled by the glamorous air-brushed photos of American models with tippexed teeth sitting by laguna pools, cocktail in hand. There may be beautiful sunsets by the beach in the brochure, but you’ll inevitably find that a) you should have booked the neighbouring hotel (and if you’re lucky she’ll tell you so, ‘ad nauseam’) b) you picked the rainy/religious holiday/mosquito/plague infestation season – and wonder why it was so cheap and c) you’ll have had too much sex or food by the third or fourth day and be bored of each other, but there’s no-one else to talk to, apart from monosyllabic waiting staff and the ubiquitous Russians.

A holiday is supposed to be a lovely break, isn’t it? This book proves that it is the stay-at-homes who have all the fun.

Explosively personal account by a British lawyer who defends Death Row prisoners and Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Clive Stafford Smith is the 46-year-old human-rights lawyer who has famously – some would say notoriously – spent more than twenty years in the United States representing prisoners on Death Row. His clients include many detainees in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, and he established the London-based charity Reprieve, developed to defending human rights in 1999. His book is quite simply, devastating, and many will laugh and cry reading it: laugh in disbelief, and cry in despair at the utter inhumanity and lack of imagination wrapped up in hypocrisy so enormous that it beggars understanding.

Yet even in the face of insurmountable odds, Clive Stafford Smith remains an optimist. Few could maintain his capacity for work and his commitment to his clients if he allowed frustration or despair to divert him. His experiences, graphically recounted in this book, have enabled him to shine a bright, unblinking light into the darkest corners of illegality that are being justified by governments in the name of the War on Terror.

‘A compelling and illuminating account of a great drama in the history of our times which showed once again that ordinary men and women really can change the world’ Jonathan Dimbleby, MAIL ON SUNDAY

For more than 40 years after the Second World War the Iron Curtain divided Europe physically, with 300 km of walls and barbed wire fences; ideologically, between communism and capitalism; psychologically, between people imprisoned under totalitarian dictatorships and their neighbours enjoying democratic freedoms; and militarily, by two mighty, distrustful power blocs, still fighting the cold war. At the start of 1989, ten European nations were still Soviet vassal states. By the end of the year, one after another, they had thrown off communism, declared national independence, and embarked on the road to democracy.

One of history’s most brutal empires was on its knees. Poets who had been languishing in jails became vice presidents. When the Berlin Wall fell on a chilly November night it seemed as though the open wounds of the cruel twentieth century would at last begin to heal. The Year of Revolutions appeared as a beacon of hope for oppressed people elsewhere who dared to dream that they too could free themselves.

In a dizzying few months of almost entirely peaceful revolutions the people’s will triumphed over tyranny. An entire way of life was swept away. Now, twenty years on, Victor Sebestyen reassesses this decisive moment in modern history.

‘A compelling and illuminating account of a great drama in the history of our times which showed once again that ordinary men and women really can change the world’ Jonathan Dimbleby, MAIL ON SUNDAY

For more than 40 years after the Second World War the Iron Curtain divided Europe physically, with 300 km of walls and barbed wire fences; ideologically, between communism and capitalism; psychologically, between people imprisoned under totalitarian dictatorships and their neighbours enjoying democratic freedoms; and militarily, by two mighty, distrustful power blocs, still fighting the cold war. At the start of 1989, ten European nations were still Soviet vassal states. By the end of the year, one after another, they had thrown off communism, declared national independence, and embarked on the road to democracy.

One of history’s most brutal empires was on its knees. Poets who had been languishing in jails became vice presidents. When the Berlin Wall fell on a chilly November night it seemed as though the open wounds of the cruel twentieth century would at last begin to heal. The Year of Revolutions appeared as a beacon of hope for oppressed people elsewhere who dared to dream that they too could free themselves.

In a dizzying few months of almost entirely peaceful revolutions the people’s will triumphed over tyranny. An entire way of life was swept away. Now, twenty years on, Victor Sebestyen reassesses this decisive moment in modern history.