At dawn on April 28, 1789, Captain William Bligh and eighteen men from HMS Bounty were herded onto a twenty-three-foot launch and abandoned in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Thus began their extraordinary journey to Java. Covering 4,162 miles, the small boat was battered by continuous storms, and the men on board suffered crippling illness, near starvation, and attacks by islanders. The journey was one of the greatest achievements in the history of European seafaring and a perso...

A boy faces the randomness of life, a soldier makes a difficult choice, a migrant seeks new chances, an academic loses something precious, an ageing monk can't escape his past. These are some of the stories of the boys and men of Blokeland. From their first decade to their eighties, these males chart passages through this land of curiosity and hope and loss and sometimes death. Blokeland needs no passport. Vaccination is unnecessary. You map your journey in your mind.At his fir...

When Leonardo da Vinci is commissioned to paint 'The Last Supper' , he believes it will seal his reputation as the finest artist in Italy.Yet all does not go as planned. The notorious Papal emissary, Father Rodrigo of Salamanca accuses him of blasphemy over his decision to choose a lowly peasant, Alessandro, to be his model for Jesus.To Leonardo's horror, Alessandro takes on quasi-religious significance for the populace of Milan, dragging both into a journey of pol...

The author of Storm Clouds Over the Pacific, 1931–1941 chronicles Japan's dramatic reversal of fortune as Allied forces gained advantage during WWII.In early 1942, the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy were advancing on all fronts, humiliating Allied forces throughout the Pacific. In a matter of months, Japan had conquered an area larger than Hitler's empire at its apex. Hawaiians and Australians feared a future under Hirohito. The fate of half of mankind wa...

A detailed history and analysis of the most controversial amphibious operation in the Pacific during WWII: the Battle for Peleliu.On September 15, 1944, the United States invaded the tiny Pacific island of Peleliu, located at the southern end of the Palau Islands. Boasting a large airfield from which the Americans could mount bomber campaigns, Peleliu was a strategically essential part of Gen. MacArthur's long-awaited liberation of the Philippines. With the famed 1...

"Bust[s] some commonly held myths that have built up about Richard III over the centuries, most coming from Shakespeare's famous play . . . eye-opening." —Sarah Bryson, author of La Reine Blanche: Mary Tudor, a Life in LettersKing Richard III remains one of the most infamous and recognizable monarchs in English or British history, despite only sitting on the throne for two years and fifty-eight days. His hold on the popular imagination is largely due to the...

The airborne battle for the bridges across the Rhine at Arnhem ranks amongst the Second World Wars most famous actions inspiring innumerable books and the star-studded 1977 movie. This book, however, is unique: deeply moved, the author provides a fresh narrative and approach concentrating on the tragic stories of individual casualties.These men were killed at different junctures in the fighting, often requiring forensic analysis to ascertain their fates. Wider events contextualize the auth...

An antique trophy inspires a quest to uncover the history of an outstanding crew of WWII airmen who first flew into combat on D-Day.After discovering a discarded trophy in an Edinburgh antique shop, author David Price endeavored to tell the stories of the men whose names had been engraved upon it. Praised as 'Outstanding Crew of the Month', the members of 388th Bombardment Group set out on their very first mission on June 6, 1944—D-Day.This baptism of fire ...

Shortlisted for the 2018 RBC Taylor prize for literary nonfiction“A riveting tale of the previously unknown and fascinating story of the unsung angels who strove to foil the Final Solution.”—Kirkus starred reviewOn November 25, 1944, prisoners at Auschwitz heard a deafening explosion. Emerging from their barracks, they witnessed the crematoria and gas chambers--part of the largest killing machine in human history--come crashing down...

"The expertly researched biography of the man who created and led the British intelligence organization best known for cracking the Nazi's codes." — Midwest Book ReviewSome of the individuals who played key roles in the success of Bletchley Park in reading the secret communications of Britain's enemies during the Second World War have become well-known figures. However, the man who created and led the organization based there, from its inception in 1919 un...

The essential history of the extraordinary year in which American democracy and American slavery emerged hand in hand in Virginia“If anyone today knows colonial Virginia, it is James Horn.” —Wall Street JournalAlong the banks of the James River, during an oppressively hot spell in the middle of summer 1619, two events occurred within a month of one another that would profoundly shape the course of history. At the end of July, the G...

The true story behind "one of history's great manhunts" and the film Operation Finale by the Mossad legend who caught the most wanted Nazi in the world ( The New York Times).1n 1960 Argentina, a covert team of Israeli agents hunted down the most elusive war criminal alive: Adolf Eichmann, chief architect of the Holocaust. The young spy who tackled Eichmann on a Buenos Aires street—and fought every compulsion to strangle the Obersturmführer