I've written and been published for the last 15 years and am an award-nominated author. I started with a book seeing the other side of Benedict Arnold that led to a stream of others: Killing the Fuhrer about the plot to assassinate Hitler;In The Way of the Reich, a true account of Hermann Goering’s good brother,Albert who saved thousands of Jews;Bad Hand, on the Bounty Mutiny story to Bligh’s benefit;Scallywag, on WW2’s underground and the real James Bond;Rocket Man; an expose of the famous Werhner von Braun; and Waltzing Dixie—a true story of the Australians who fought in the American Civil War.
The lives of those on the Titanic hinged on the tying of a shoelace and the taking of a nap—two tiny details that made all the difference and dictated the actions of those steamships’ respective captains—Arthur Rostron and Stanley Lord. One rushed to save those drowning, while the other, to his life-long dishonour, appeared to turn his back on the whole disaster. Some said the shame rested with those who accused Captain Lord unfairly in deliberate defiance of the facts. This story gets right to the bottom of the Titanic and beyond.
Astridge has pieced together the careers of these two captains to uncover who was to blame, who was to benefit, and to what depths some were prepared to sink when it came to cover-ups, cowardice, and courage.
The Battle of Thermopylae is the story that first set off my profound interest in history. Nothing surpasses the courage and drama of King Leonidas and his 300 Spartans who stood against Xerxes’ overwhelming force during the Persian Wars of 480BC. As far as I’m concerned, the only author who has done the stirring tale true justice is Pressfield.
I heard this story for the first time when I was a child of five, oddly enough at Sunday School, and was awestruck. It was repeated by chance when I was 13 watching the Hollywood movie, The 300 Spartans with Robert Taylor in the lead as King Leonidas. When the 10,000 Persian Immortals, with their torrent of arrows, finished off the last of the Spartans who’d formed a small circle to protect their wounded king, I was dismayed and inspired for the rest of my life.
In the Sunday Times bestseller Gates of Fire, Steven Pressfield tells the breathtaking story of the legendary Spartans: the men and women who helped shaped our history and have themselves become as immortal as their gods.
'Breathtakingly brilliant . . . this is a work of rare genius. Savour it!' DAVID GEMMELL
'A tale worthy of Homer, a timeless epic of man and war, exquisitely researched and boldy written. Pressfield has created a new classic' STEPHEN COONTS
'A really impressive book - imaginatively framed, historically detailed and a really gripping narrative' ***** Reader review
It’s fair to say that I could not put this book down. I read it in one sitting and when I had to get up and walk around, I took it with me, reading as I went. The movie was brilliant, but hard as it is to believe, the book was even better. It is a major tribute to human endurance, of forgiveness, and the redemptive power of beautiful music.
Apart from being a page-turner, I believe that it’s a very fine work that for ethical and moral reasons should be read and remembered. The strength it took him to survive and to continue on for the rest of his life after what he’d seen and lost is awe-inspiring and a lesson to all of us given that he still persisted, with his exquisite music, to show the post-war world that in the end love and beauty will always win out.
The powerful and bestselling memoir of a young Jewish pianist who survived the war in Warsaw against all odds. Made into a Bafta and Oscar-winning film.
'You can learn more about human nature from this brief account of the survival of one man throughout the war years in the devastated city of Warsaw than from several volumes of the average encyclopaedia' Independent on Sunday
'We are drawn in to share his surprise and then disbelief at the horrifying progress of events, all conveyed with an understated intimacy and dailiness that render them painfully close - riveting' Observer
It’s always good to see a story told from both sides, to look at the tragedy and futility of war from every point of view. This book is a poignant and true psychological insight into the mind of a man who holds tight to his vow to fight against the principles of hate and the farce of young men of one mind, yet in different uniforms, pitting themselves against each other for no real reason at all.
By the time I read this book, I was pretty much set on my path of writing books about various wars and the mistaken, pre-conceived ideas history has given us in regard to the famous people who fought in them. That, and the false, grand and glorious illusion that war is worthwhile. It was so good to know that a fine author such as Remarque was thinking the same way… and long before I did!
The story is told by a young 'unknown soldier' in the trenches of Flanders during the First World War. Through his eyes we see all the realities of war; under fire, on patrol, waiting in the trenches, at home on leave, and in hospitals and dressing stations. Although there are vividly described incidents which remain in mind, there is no sense of adventure here, only the feeling of youth betrayed and a deceptively simple indictment of war - of any war - told for a whole generation of victims.
This book is gripping from first to last page, giving the reader the inside running on what really went on behind the scenes of Nazi Germany. Although it looks like a tome, I read through it at the rate of knots, because who could help being fascinated by what such a man as Speer had to say? It was the book that inspired me to write my own—the story of Speer’s Life.
So here we shift to the Second World War, but the sentiment’s the same. Speer was a highly educated and most interesting man whose point of view counts more than most because he had his finger right on the pulse and knew exactly what made Hitler and his evil tick. The problem was that by the time Speer realized the extent of that evil and how much he’d allowed himself to be drawn in, it was too late to escape. So, presuming that he was, in fact, a decent man at heart, the rest of his life became an altogether different hell.
Another classic… and with good reason. It’s a masterpiece that puts a whole new slant on the American Civil War, its story and hero being far from the wonderful Gone With the Wind epic, but equally as riveting. It may not stir the juices of gallantry, but it makes you think and impels you to read it again and again.
I think it’s easy to see that there’s a prevailing theme in my choices of the best books I’ve read for here again, we have a controversial hero that tests the reader’s way of thinking and willingness to side with what is not the norm. In other words, it’s so refreshing to see any author put a whole new spin on things and turn conventional beliefs upside down.
Here is Stephen Crane's masterpiece, The Red Badge of Courage, together with four of his most famous short stories. Outstanding in their portrayal of violent emotion and quiet tension, these texts led the way for great American writers such as Ernest Hemingway.
The constellation we know as Taurus goes all the way back to cave paintings of aurochs at Lascaux. This book traces the story of the bull in the sky, a journey through the history of what has become known as the sacred bull.
Each of the sections is written from the perspective of the mythical Taurus, from the beginning at Lascaux to Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, and elsewhere. This is not just a history of the bull but also a view of ourselves through the eyes of the bull, illustrating our pre-literate use of myth, how the advent of writing and the urban revolution changed our view of ourselves, and how even bullfighting in Spain is a variation on the ancient sacrifice of the sacred bull.
The constellation we know as Taurus goes all the way back to cave paintings of aurochs at Lascaux. In I Am Taurus, author Stephen Palmer traces the story of the bull in the sky, starting from that point 19,000 years ago - a journey through the history of what has become known as the sacred bull. Each of the eleven sections is written from the perspective of the mythical Taurus, from the beginning at Lascaux to Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Greece, Spain and elsewhere. This is not just a history of the bull but also an attempt to see ourselves through…
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