'I wish Patrick O'Brian was alive to read this' NIKOLAI TOLSTOY'A master historian and storyteller... an extraordinary subject' **MATTHEW PARKER'**Brilliant, pacy and utterly enthralling' **ANTONIA SENIORThe astonishing true story of Thomas Cochrane – naval hero, political radical and inspiration for Patrick O’Brian’s Jack Aubrey – whose audacity at sea, scandals on land and battles across empires make for a tale as thrilling as any novel.**Co...

Brought to you by Penguin.The astonishing true story of Thomas Cochrane – naval hero, political radical and inspiration for Patrick O’Brian’s Jack Aubrey – whose audacity at sea, scandals on land and battles across empires make for a tale as thrilling as any novelCochrane’s life was even more remarkable than the fiction it inspired. A hero of the Napoleonic Wars, known for destroying the French Atlantic fleet in one explosive attack, he was...

In the summer he turned 40, Peter Moore bought a Vespa as old as he was and rode it from Milan to Rome.It was a trip that took him through medieval stone towns, patchworked fields and into the hearts of all the Italians he met.This is an abridged version of Peter's book about the trip, Vroom with a View, published by Random House. It first appeared in the Lonely Planet anthology, Flightless.

The Enlightenment was an age of endeavours. From Johnson’s Dictionary to campaigns for liberty to schemes for measuring the dimensions of the solar system, Britain was consumed by the impulse for grand projects, undertaken at speed. ‘Endeavour’ was also the name given to a Whitby collier bought by the Royal Navy in 1768 for an expedition to the South Seas. A commonplace, coal-carrying vessel, no one could have guessed that Endeavour would go on to become the most signific...

The brutal murder of the Reverend George Parker in the rural village of Oddingley on Midsummer's Day in 1806 - shot and beaten to death, his body set on fire and left smouldering in his own glebe field - gripped everyone from the Home Secretary in London to newspapermen across the country. It was a strange and stubborn case. The investigation lasted twenty-four years and involved inquests, judges and coroners, each more determined than the last to solve Oddingley's most gruesome crime - or...

The summer before his daughter was born Peter returned to Italy to ride through the sunny parts of Italy on a Vespa the same colour as Donatella Versace, a bright orange 1972 Rally 200 with white go-fast stripes.The journey was a last two-stroke fling before fatherhood and took him through Sardinia, Sicily and the Amalfi Coast. If the trip that became Vroom with a View was like an old B&W movie, this one was in Technicolor.Peter christened the Vespa Marcello. He was a hairy...

The Sunday Times bestseller. An astonishing account of the sailors, scientists and inventors who sought to understand the weather.**Book of the Week on Radio 4**'Gripping' The Times'Exhilarating' Sunday TimesIn an age when a storm was evidence of God’s wrath, pioneering meteorologists had to fight against convention and religious dogma to realise their ambitions. B...

Bestselling historian Peter Moore traces how Enlightenment ideas were exported from Britain and put into practice in America - where they became the most successful export of all time, the American Dream'Absorbing... fascinating... eloquent' THE TIMES'Engaging and thoroughly reader-friendly' TELEGRAPH'Wonderfully absorbing and stimulating' SARAH BAKEWELLLife, liberty and the pursuit of hap...

It was a severe case of hippie envy that impelled Peter Moore to travel home from London to Sydney without ever stepping on to an aeroplane. Hippies had the best music, the best drugs, the best sex. But most of all, they had the best trips.With woefully inadequate funds and little hope of actually making it through such notorious hot-spots as the Balkans, Iran and Afghanistan, Peter – never one to err on the side of caution – followed the trail overland to the East over the next ei...

Winter has brought a snowstorm to Adventure Woods!Thick snow and sparkling ice covers everything, making it a Winter Wonderland. Badger and Fox and their families are out looking for food and having a lovely visit.The strong winds have brought down some trees, and in a tree by the pond, an owl hen is trapped! Mr Otter runs to find help to save her before it is too late.With help from Mr Owl and the friends, and the neighbourhood spiders, can the owl hen be saved? Ca...

A retired Sergeant Major builds a cabin for his wife, missing and unwanted dogs become members of loving families, and a Big Brothers Big Sisters volunteer takes a dozen needy children on a fishing trip. Memories of attending family funerals, and the physical and financial pains involved in undergoing jaw surgery. A customer service manager jeopardizes his job and his life all because too many of his personal buttons are pushed. Two young lovers try to enjoy a weekend out of town but inste...

Peter Moore left the city behind in 1952 to become part of a dying breed - a long-distance drover. In My Droving Days we follow his progress through the 1950s as he rubs shoulders with the larger-than-life characters - and their dogs and horses - who trekked along the outback stock routes of western Queensland and New South Wales.Meet the world's worst cattle dog and the station hand, Charlie, who blows an outside toilet (and its contents) sky high; thrill to the high dram...