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Nathaniel's Nutmeg

Author : Giles Milton
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
ISBN 13 : 1466873477
Total Pages : 238 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

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Book Synopsis Nathaniel's Nutmeg by : Giles Milton

Download or read book Nathaniel's Nutmeg written by Giles Milton and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2014-06-10 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A true tale of high adventure in the South Seas. The tiny island of Run is an insignificant speck in the Indonesian archipelago. Just two miles long and half a mile wide, it is remote, tranquil, and, these days, largely ignored. Yet 370 years ago, Run's harvest of nutmeg (a pound of which yielded a 3,200 percent profit by the time it arrived in England) turned it into the most lucrative of the Spice Islands, precipitating a battle between the all-powerful Dutch East India Company and the British Crown. The outcome of the fighting was one of the most spectacular deals in history: Britain ceded Run to Holland but in return was given Manhattan. This led not only to the birth of New York but also to the beginning of the British Empire. Such a deal was due to the persistence of one man. Nathaniel Courthope and his small band of adventurers were sent to Run in October 1616, and for four years held off the massive Dutch navy. Nathaniel's Nutmeg centers on the remarkable showdown between Courthope and the Dutch Governor General Jan Coen, and the brutal fate of the mariners racing to Run--and the other corners of the globe--to reap the huge profits of the spice trade. Written with the flair of a historical sea novel but based on rigorous research, Giles Milton's Nathaniel's Nutmeg is a brilliant adventure story by Giles Milton, a writer who has been hailed as the "new Bruce Chatwin" (Mail on Sunday).

White Gold

Author : Giles Milton
Publisher : John Murray
ISBN 13 : 1444717723
Total Pages : 277 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (447 download)

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Book Synopsis White Gold by : Giles Milton

Download or read book White Gold written by Giles Milton and published by John Murray. This book was released on 2012-04-12 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the forgotten story of the million white Europeans, snatched from their homes and taken in chains to the great slave markets of North Africa to be sold to the highest bidder. Ignored by their own governments, and forced to endure the harshest of conditions, very few lived to tell the tale. Using the firsthand testimony of a Cornish cabin boy named Thomas Pellow, Giles Milton vividly reconstructs a disturbing, little known chapter of history. Pellow was bought by the tyrannical sultan of Morocco who was constructing an imperial pleasure palace of enormous scale and grandeur, built entirely by Christian slave labour. As his personal slave, he would witness first-hand the barbaric splendour of the imperial court, as well as experience the daily terror of a cruel regime. Gripping, immaculately researched, and brilliantly realised, WHITE GOLD reveals an explosive chapter of popular history, told with all the pace and verve of one of our finest historians.

The Riddle and the Knight

Author : Giles Milton
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
ISBN 13 : 146680713X
Total Pages : 300 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

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Book Synopsis The Riddle and the Knight by : Giles Milton

Download or read book The Riddle and the Knight written by Giles Milton and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2013-10-08 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part travelogue/part historical mystery about the most famous traveler--and chronicler-- in medieval Europe. Giles Milton's first book, The Riddle and the Knight, is a fascinating account of the legend of Sir John Mandeville, a long-forgotten knight who was once the most famous writer in medieval Europe. Mandeville wrote a book about his voyage around the world that became a beacon that lit the way for the great expeditions of the Renaissance, and his exploits and adventures provided inspiration for writers such as Shakespeare, Milton, and Keats. By the nineteenth century however, his claims were largely discredited by academics. Giles Milton set off in the footsteps of Mandeville, in order to test his amazing claims, and to restore Mandeville to his rightful place in the literature of exploration. "Erudite, witty and adventurous" (The Mail on Sunday), The Riddle and the Knight is a brilliant piece of detective work.

Big Chief Elizabeth

Author : Giles Milton
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
ISBN 13 : 0374706034
Total Pages : 373 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (747 download)

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Book Synopsis Big Chief Elizabeth by : Giles Milton

Download or read book Big Chief Elizabeth written by Giles Milton and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2011-04-01 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In April 1586, Queen Elizabeth I acquired a new and exotic title. A tribe of Native Americans had made her their weroanza—a word that meant "big chief". The news was received with great joy, both by the Queen and her favorite, Sir Walter Ralegh. His first American expedition had brought back a captive, Manteo, who caused a sensation in Elizabethan London. In 1587, Manteo was returned to his homeland as Lord and Governor, with more than one hundred English men, women, and children, to establish the settlement of Roanoke, Virginia. But in 1590, a supply ship arrived at the colony to discover that the settlers had vanished. For almost twenty years the fate of Ralegh's colonists was to remain a mystery. When a new wave of settlers sailed to America to found Jamestown, their efforts to locate the lost colony of Roanoke were frustrated by the mighty chieftain, Powhatan, father of Pocahontas, who vowed to drive the English out of America. Only when it was too late did the settlers discover the incredible news that Ralegh's colonists had survived in the forests for almost two decades before being slaughtered in cold blood by henchmen. While Manteo, Sir Walter Ralegh's "savage," had played a pivotal role in establishing the first English settlement in America, he had also unwittingly contributed to one of the earliest chapters in the decimation of the Native American population. The mystery of what happened to the Roanoke colonists, who seemed to vanish without a trace, lies at the heart of this well-researched work of narrative history.

Edward Trencom's Nose

Author : Giles Milton
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 142998516X
Total Pages : 325 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (299 download)

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Book Synopsis Edward Trencom's Nose by : Giles Milton

Download or read book Edward Trencom's Nose written by Giles Milton and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-04-17 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Situated on London's Foster Lane, there is a quintessentially Georgian, redbrick house with a green door bearing the sign trencoms, 1662. It's the home of the Trencom family's cheese store, a generational establishment begun by Humphrey Trencom that now, 303 years later, is run by Edward Trencom. Quaint though it may seem, it bears witness to a strange occurrence of "accidents" that seem to befall every generation of the curd-loving family.... Edward Trencom has bumbled through life, relying on his trusty nose to turn the family cheese shop into the most celebrated fromagerie in England. This was no ordinary nose, but one long, aquiline, and furnishing the trademark circular bump over the bridge---the very same nose bestowed on all the Trencom men. It was extraordinary, able to discern the composition, maturity, and quality of cheese---and the Trencom noses had sniffed, whiffed, and judged the very best cheeses of the world. But on an ordinary day, Edward's world is turned upside down when he stumbles across a crate of family papers. To his horror, he discovers that nine previous generations of his family have come to sticky ends because of their noses. When he investigates---despite his grandfather's caveat never to look into the origin of his nose---Edward finds himself caught up in a Byzantine riddle to which there is no obvious answer. And like his ill-fated ancestors, he is hunted down by rival forces whose identity and purpose remain a total mystery. Trapped between the mad, the bad, and a cheese to die for, Edward Trencom's nose must make a choice---and for the last nine generations it has made the catastrophically wrong decision. Giles Milton's deliciously comic debut novel is a mouthwatering blend of Tom Sharpe and P. G. Wodehouse. From the noble Roquefort to the piquant Èpoisses, every page is permeated by the pungent odor of cheese. Praise for Giles Milton "He has a rare ability---a talent for sifting fine pearls from faraway sands and for transmuting the merely arcane into little literary gems." ---Simon Winchester, The Boston Globe "Milton spins a fascinating tale. . . . Exuberantly eccentric characters stride the pages."---Time magazine on Nathaniel's Nutmeg "In an exceptionally pungent, amusing, and accessible historical account, Giles Milton brings readers right into the midst of these colonists and their daunting American adventure."--- Janet Maslin, The New York Times, on Big Chief Elizabeth

Nathaniel's Nutmeg

Author : Giles Milton
Publisher : John Murray
ISBN 13 : 1444717715
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (447 download)

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Book Synopsis Nathaniel's Nutmeg by : Giles Milton

Download or read book Nathaniel's Nutmeg written by Giles Milton and published by John Murray. This book was released on 2012-04-12 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'To write a book that makes the reader sit in a trance, lost in his passionate desire to pack a suitcase and go to the fabulous place - that, in the end, is something one would give a sack of nutmeg for' Philip Hensher, The Spectator In 1616, an English adventurer, Nathaniel Courthope, stepped ashore on a remote island in the East Indies on a secret mission - to persuade the islanders of Run to grant a monopoly to England over their nutmeg, a fabulously valuable spice in Europe. This infuriated the Dutch, who were determined to control the world's nutmeg supply. For five years Courthope and his band of thirty men were besieged by a force one hundred times greater - and his heroism set in motion the events that led to the founding of the greatest city on earth. A beautifully told adventure story and a fascinating depiction of exploration in the seventeenth century, NATHANIEL'S NUTMEG sheds a remarkable light on history

Spice

Author : Jack Turner
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0307491226
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (74 download)

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Book Synopsis Spice by : Jack Turner

Download or read book Spice written by Jack Turner and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2008-12-10 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this brilliant, engrossing work, Jack Turner explores an era—from ancient times through the Renaissance—when what we now consider common condiments were valued in gold and blood. Spices made sour medieval wines palatable, camouflaged the smell of corpses, and served as wedding night aphrodisiacs. Indispensible for cooking, medicine, worship, and the arts of love, they were thought to have magical properties and were so valuable that they were often kept under lock and key. For some, spices represented Paradise, for others, the road to perdition, but they were potent symbols of wealth and power, and the wish to possess them drove explorers to circumnavigate the globe—and even to savagery. Following spices across continents and through literature and mythology, Spice is a beguiling narrative about the surprisingly vast influence spices have had on human desire. Includes eight pages of color photographs. One of the Best Books of the Year: Discover Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, San Francisco Chronicle

The Nutmeg of Consolation (Vol. Book 14) (Aubrey/Maturin Novels)

Author : Patrick O'Brian
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393088472
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis The Nutmeg of Consolation (Vol. Book 14) (Aubrey/Maturin Novels) by : Patrick O'Brian

Download or read book The Nutmeg of Consolation (Vol. Book 14) (Aubrey/Maturin Novels) written by Patrick O'Brian and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2011-12-05 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[The series shows] a joy in language that jumps from every page....You're in for a wonderful voyage."—Cutler Durkee, People Shipwrecked on a remote island in the Dutch East Indies, Captain Aubrey, surgeon and secret intelligence agent Stephen Maturin, and the crew of the Diane fashion a schooner from the wreck. A vicious attack by Malay pirates is repulsed, but the makeshift vessel burns, and they are truly marooned. Their escape from this predicament is one that only the whimsy and ingenuity of Patrick O'Brian—or Stephen Maturin—could devise. In command now of a new ship, the Nutmeg, Aubrey pursues his interrupted mission. The dreadful penal colony in New South Wales, harrowingly described, is the backdrop to a diplomatic crisis provoked by Maturin's Irish temper, and to a near-fatal encounter with the wildlife of the Australian outback.

Checkmate in Berlin

Author : Giles Milton
Publisher : Henry Holt and Company
ISBN 13 : 1250247551
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (52 download)

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Book Synopsis Checkmate in Berlin by : Giles Milton

Download or read book Checkmate in Berlin written by Giles Milton and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2021-07-13 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From a master of popular history, the lively, immersive story of the race to seize Berlin in the aftermath of World War II as it’s never been told before BERLIN’S FATE WAS SEALED AT THE 1945 YALTA CONFERENCE: the city, along with the rest of Germany, was to be carved up among the victorious powers— the United States, Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. On paper, it seemed a pragmatic solution. In reality, once the four powers were no longer united by the common purpose of defeating Germany, they wasted little time reverting to their prewar hostility toward—and suspicion of—one another. The veneer of civility between the Western allies and the Soviets was to break down in spectacular fashion in Berlin. Rival systems, rival ideologies, and rival personalities ensured that the German capital became an explosive battleground. The warring leaders who ran Berlin’s four sectors were charismatic, mercurial men, and Giles Milton brings them all to rich and thrilling life here. We meet unforgettable individuals like America’s explosive Frank “Howlin’ Mad” Howley, a brusque sharp-tongued colonel with a relish for mischief and a loathing for all Russians. Appointed commandant of the city’s American sector, Howley fought an intensely personal battle against his wily nemesis, General Alexander Kotikov, commandant of the Soviet sector. Kotikov oozed charm as he proposed vodka toasts at his alcohol-fueled parties, but Howley correctly suspected his Soviet rival was Stalin’s agent, appointed to evict the Western allies from Berlin and ultimately from Germany as well. Throughout, Checkmate in Berlin recounts the first battle of the Cold War as we’ve never before seen it. An exhilarating tale of intense rivalry and raw power, it is above all a story of flawed individuals who were determined to win, and Milton does a masterful job of weaving between all the key players’ motivations and thinking at every turn. A story of unprecedented human drama, it’s one that had a profound, and often underestimated, shaping force on the modern world – one that’s still felt today.

Samurai William

Author : Giles Milton
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 0374706239
Total Pages : 370 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (747 download)

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Book Synopsis Samurai William by : Giles Milton

Download or read book Samurai William written by Giles Milton and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2003-01-18 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An eye-opening account of the first encounter between England and Japan, by the acclaimed author of Nathaniel's Nutmeg In 1611, the merchants of London's East India Company received a mysterious letter from Japan, written several years previously by a marooned English mariner named William Adams. Foreigners had been denied access to Japan for centuries, yet Adams had been living in this unknown land for years. He had risen to the highest levels in the ruling shogun's court, taken a Japanese name, and was now offering his services as adviser and interpreter. Seven adventurers were sent to Japan with orders to find and befriend Adams, in the belief that he held the key to exploiting the opulent riches of this forbidden land. Their arrival was to prove a momentous event in the history of Japan and the shogun suddenly found himself facing a stark choice: to expel the foreigners and continue with his policy of isolation, or to open his country to the world. For more than a decade the English, helped by Adams, were to attempt trade with the shogun, but confounded by a culture so different from their own, and hounded by scheming Jesuit monks and fearsome Dutch assassins, they found themselves in a desperate battle for their lives. Samurai William is the fascinating story of a clash of two cultures, and of the enormous impact one Westerner had on the opening of the East.

Nathaniel's Nutmeg

Author : Giles Milton
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780340696750
Total Pages : 388 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (967 download)

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Book Synopsis Nathaniel's Nutmeg by : Giles Milton

Download or read book Nathaniel's Nutmeg written by Giles Milton and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1616, an English adventurer, Nathaniel Courthope, stepped ashore on a remote island in the East Indies on a secret mission - to persuade the islanders of Run to grant a monopoly to England over their nutmeg, a fabulously valuable spice in Europe. This infuriated the Dutch, who were determined to control the world's nutmeg supply. For five years Courthope and his band of thirty men were besieged by a force one hundred times greater - and his heroism set in motion the events that led to the founding of the greatest city on earth. A beautifully told adventure story and a fascinating depiction of exploration in the seventeenth century, NATHANIEL'S NUTMEG sheds a remarkable light on history.

Soldier, Sailor, Frogman, Spy, Airman, Gangster, Kill or Die

Author : Giles Milton
Publisher : Henry Holt and Company
ISBN 13 : 1250134927
Total Pages : 512 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (51 download)

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Book Synopsis Soldier, Sailor, Frogman, Spy, Airman, Gangster, Kill or Die by : Giles Milton

Download or read book Soldier, Sailor, Frogman, Spy, Airman, Gangster, Kill or Die written by Giles Milton and published by Henry Holt and Company. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A ground-breaking account of the first 24 hours of the D-Day invasion told by a symphony of incredible accounts of unknown and unheralded members of the Allied – and Axis – forces. Seventy-five years have passed since D-Day, the greatest seaborne invasion in history. The outcome of the Second World War hung in the balance on that chill June morning. If Allied forces succeeded in gaining a foothold in northern France, the road to victory would be open. But if the Allies could be driven back into the sea, the invasion would be stalled for years, perhaps forever. An epic battle that involved 156,000 men, 7,000 ships and 20,000 armoured vehicles, the desperate struggle that unfolded on 6 June 1944 was, above all, a story of individual heroics – of men who were driven to keep fighting until the German defences were smashed and the precarious beachheads secured. This authentic human story – Allied, German, French – has never fully been told. Giles Milton’s bold new history narrates the day’s events through the tales of survivors from all sides: the teenage Allied conscript, the crack German defender, the French resistance fighter. From the military architects at Supreme Headquarters to the young schoolboy in the Wehrmacht’s bunkers, Soldier, Sailor, Frogman, Spy, Airman, Gangster, Kill or Die lays bare the absolute terror of those trapped in the front line of Operation Overlord. It also gives voice to those who have hitherto remained unheard – the French butcher’s daughter, the Panzer Commander’s wife, the chauffeur to the General Staff. This vast canvas of human bravado reveals ‘the longest day’ as never before – less as a masterpiece of strategic planning than a day on which thousands of scared young men found themselves staring death in the face. It is drawn in its entirety from the raw, unvarnished experiences of those who were there.

Nathaniel's Nutmeg, Or, The True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader who Changed the Course of History

Author : Giles Milton
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 0374219362
Total Pages : 401 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (742 download)

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Book Synopsis Nathaniel's Nutmeg, Or, The True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader who Changed the Course of History by : Giles Milton

Download or read book Nathaniel's Nutmeg, Or, The True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader who Changed the Course of History written by Giles Milton and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1999 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1616, Nathaniel Courthope was dispatched to Run, the most lucrative of the Spice Islands to hold off the massive Dutch Navy. But after a four-year siege, Britain ceded the island and its lucrative spice trade to Holland--in exchange for Manhattan.

Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare

Author : Giles Milton
Publisher : Picador
ISBN 13 : 1250119049
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (51 download)

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Book Synopsis Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare by : Giles Milton

Download or read book Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare written by Giles Milton and published by Picador. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Six gentlemen, one goal: the destruction of Hitler's war machine In the spring of 1939, a top-secret organization was founded in London: its purpose was to plot the destruction of Hitler's war machine through spectacular acts of sabotage. The guerrilla campaign that followed was every bit as extraordinary as the six men who directed it. One of them, Cecil Clarke, was a maverick engineer who had spent the 1930s inventing futuristic caravans. Now, his talents were put to more devious use: he built the dirty bomb used to assassinate Hitler's favorite, Reinhard Heydrich. Another, William Fairbairn, was a portly pensioner with an unusual passion: he was the world's leading expert in silent killing, hired to train the guerrillas being parachuted behind enemy lines. Led by dapper Scotsman Colin Gubbins, these men—along with three others—formed a secret inner circle that, aided by a group of formidable ladies, single-handedly changed the course Second World War: a cohort hand-picked by Winston Churchill, whom he called his Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare. Giles Milton's Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is a gripping and vivid narrative of adventure and derring-do that is also, perhaps, the last great untold story of the Second World War.

Wolfram

Author : Giles Milton
Publisher : John Murray
ISBN 13 : 144471628X
Total Pages : 431 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (447 download)

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Book Synopsis Wolfram by : Giles Milton

Download or read book Wolfram written by Giles Milton and published by John Murray. This book was released on 2011-02-17 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wolfram Aïchele was nine years old when Hitler came to power: his formative years were spent in the shadow of the Third Reich. He and his parents - free-thinking artists - were to have first hand experience of living under one of the most brutal regimes in history. Wolfram: The Boy Who Went to War overturns all the clichés about life under Hitler. It is a powerful story of warfare and human survival and a reminder that civilians on all sides suffered the consequences of Hitler's war. It is also an eloquent testimony to the fact that even in times of exceptional darkness there remains a brilliant spark of humanity that can never be totally extinguished.

The Un-Discovered Islands

Author : Malachy Tallack
Publisher : Picador
ISBN 13 : 1250148456
Total Pages : 150 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (51 download)

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Book Synopsis The Un-Discovered Islands by : Malachy Tallack

Download or read book The Un-Discovered Islands written by Malachy Tallack and published by Picador. This book was released on 2017-11-07 with total page 150 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Un-Discovered Islands, critically acclaimed author Malachy Tallack takes the reader on fascinating adventures to the mysterious and forgotten corners of the map. Be prepared to be captivated by the astounding tales of two dozen islands once believed to be real but no longer on the map. These are the products of the imagination, deception, and human error: an archipelago of ex-islands and forgotten lands. From the well-known story of Atlantis and the mysteries of frozen Thule to more obscure tales from around the globe, and from ancient history right up to the present day, this is an atlas of legend and wonder, with glorious illustrations by Katie Scott.

The Boy Who Went to War

Author : Giles Milton
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 1429990589
Total Pages : 422 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (299 download)

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Book Synopsis The Boy Who Went to War by : Giles Milton

Download or read book The Boy Who Went to War written by Giles Milton and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2011-10-11 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A powerful and true story of warfare and human survival that exposes a side of World War II that is unknown by many— this is the story of Wolfram Aïchele, a boy whose childhood was stolen by a war in which he had no choice but to fight. Giles Milton has been a writer and historian for many years, writing about people and places that history has forgotten. But it took his young daughter's depiction of a swastika on an imaginary family shield - the swastika representing Germany - for Giles to uncover the incredible, dark story of his own family and his father-in-law's life under Hitler's regime. As German citizens during World War II, Wolfram and his Bohemian, artist parents survived one of the most brutal eras of history. Wolfram, who was only nine years old when Hitler came to power, lived through the rise and fall of the Third Reich, from the earliest street marches to the final defeat of the Nazi regime. Conscripted into Hitler's army, he witnessed the brutality of war - first on the Russian front and then on the Normandy beaches. Seen through German eyes and written with remarkable sensitivity, The Boy Who Went to War is a powerful story of warfare and human survival and a reminder to us all that civilians on both sides suffered the consequences of Hitler's war.