Book picks similar to
From A Clear Blue Sky by Timothy Knatchbull
non-fiction
ireland
biography
memoir
They Have Their Exits: The Best-Selling Escape Memoir of World War Two
Airey Neave - 1955
Thatcher's Government was tragically assassinated by the IRA, had the most distinguished of war records.Wounded and taken prisoner in the desperate fighting at Calais in 1940, he became a compulsive escaper and the first one of the very few to make a 'home-run' from Colditz Castle. Thereafter he rejoined the fighting serving in France and Holland before becoming a member of the International Military Tribunal at the Nuremburg War Crimes trials. There he was to meet the most notorious members of the Nazi hierarchy as they faced justice and, in many cases, death. For the quality of its writing and the breadth of its author's experiences, They Have Their Exits is arguably the finest memoir to emerge from the Second World War, and one for which the sobriquet 'classic' seems wholly inadequate.
Winston and Clementine: The Personal Letters of the Churchills
Mary Soames - 1998
Their letters provide rare and revealing insights into both the great political and social events of a turbulent century and the intimate world of an extraordinary partnership. Mary Soames, the only surviving child of this remarkable couple, has brought her parents to life as no biographer could. In moving detail we hear of Churchill's dramatic career and his final, deeply felt reflections on the fading of his enormous powers. And we hear Clementine, responding with her love and advice, and her belief in his destiny. Bringing these letters together for the first time, WINSTON AND CLEMENTIME is a surprising portrait of one of history's most significant figures.
Ireland: A History
Robert Kee - 1980
It traces the emergence of each group and their links over the ages, establishing how past facts have bred present myths. Revised to cover the events of recent years, the book provides an insight into the country's current political situation, especially in light of the 1994 ceasefire agreement.
Wild Irish Women
Marian Broderick - 2001
In times when women were expected to be seen and not heard, they spoke out against oppression and used every creative means available to express their ideas and beliefs. Editor and writer Marian Broderick provides us with a series of lively portraits of seventy-five unorthodox Irishwomen. In these pages you will meet women you will never forget: Maria Edworth, Lady Jane Wilde, Lady Augusta Gregory, Peig Sayers, Nora Barnacle, Kitty Kiernan, Anne Bonny, Anne Devlin, Mother Jones, Countess Constance Markievicz, Hanna Sheey Skeffington, Fanny and Anna Parnell, Maud Gonne, St. Brighid, Margaret Leeson, Lady Betty, Queen Maeve of Connacht, Molly Brown, Kathleen Behan, Lola Monez, Daisy Bates, Greer Garson, Lilly and Lolly Yeats, and many more.Co-published with the O'Brien Press, DublinWisconsin edition is for sale only in the U.S.A., it's territories and dependencies, and Canada.
The Real Great Escape
Guy Walters - 2011
Called Stalag Luft III, the camp soon came to contain some of the most inventive escapers ever known. They were led by Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, code-named 'Big X', who masterminded an attempt to smuggle hundreds of POWs down a tunnel built right under the noses of their guards. The escape would come to be immortalised in the famous film "The Great Escape", in which the ingenuity and bravery of the men was rightly celebrated. The plan involved multiple tunnels, hundreds of forged documents, as well as specially made German uniforms and civilian clothing. In this book Guy Walters takes a fresh look at this remarkable event and asks the question, what was the true story, not the movie version? He also examines what the escape really achieved, and the complex nature of the man who led it. The result is an authoritative and ground-breaking re-evaluation of the most iconic escape story of the Second World War.
Heroines of SOE: Britain's Secret Women in France
Beryl E. Escott - 2010
Here, for the first time, Beryl Escott tells the true story of the incredible 40 women who worked for Britain's Special Operations Executive during the Second World War. These women came from a variety of backgrounds, from Gillian Gerson a Chilean actress, to the Irish Mary Herbert, recruited for her linguistic skills, through to the famous Odette Samson—the "darling spy." She explores what made them risk their lives, even those with new-born babies, for a cause greater than themselves. She takes us on a journey through their recruitment and training into their undercover operations, as they diced with death and details their often tragic demise from death by injection to being shot in a prisoner of war camps. This is a far from glamorous picture, but a moving and gripping story that needs to be told.
Churchill and the King: The Wartime Alliance of Winston Churchill and George VI
Kenneth Weisbrode - 2013
The king’s shy nature was offset by Churchill’s willingness to cast himself as the nation’s savior. Meanwhile, Churchill’s complicated political past was given credibility by the king’s embrace and counsel. Together as foils, confidants, conspirators, and comrades, the duo guided Britain through war while reinspiring hope in the monarchy, Parliament, and the nation itself.Books about these men as individuals could fill a library, but Kenneth Weisbrode’s study of the unique bond between them is the first of its kind.
Upstairs & Downstairs: The Illustrated Guide to the Real Life of Masters and Their Servants from the Victorian Era to the Second World War
Sarah Warwick - 2011
Starting with the servants hard at work while the family is still abed, and culminating in a lavish dinner party, Upstairs & Downstairs lifts the curtain on this fascinating period, as well as its historical bookends, the Victorian and post-World War I eras. Includes accounts from actual masters and servants, along with feature spreads on famous figures like Winston Churchill and Virginia Woolf.
Judy: The Unforgettable Story of the Dog Who Went to War and Became a True Hero
Damien Lewis - 2014
Now Lewis brings his first-rate narrative skills to bear on the inspiriting tale of Judy--an English pointer who perhaps was the only canine prisoner of war. After being bombed and shipwrecked repeatedly while serving for several wild and war-torn years as a mascot of the World War II Royal Navy Yangtze river gunboats the Gnat and the Grasshopper, Judy ended up in Japanese prisoner of war camps in North Sumatra. Along with locals as slave labor, the American, Australian, and British POWs were forced to build a 1,200-mile single-track railroad through the most horrifying jungles and treacherous mountain passes. Like the one immortalized in the film The Bridge on the River Kwai, this was the other death-railroad building project where POWs slaved under subhuman conditions. In the midst of this living hell was a beautiful and regal-looking liver and white English pointer named Judy. Whether she was scavenging food to help feed the starving inmates of a hellish Japanese POW camp, or by her presence alone bringing inspiration and hope to men, she was cherished and adored by the Allied servicemen who fought to survive alongside her. Judy's uncanny ability to sense danger, matched with her quick thinking and impossible daring saved countless lives. More than a close companion she shared in both the men's tragedies and joys. It was in recognition of the extraordinary friendship and protection she offered amidst the unforgiving and savage environment of a Japanese prison camp in Indonesia that she gained her formal status as a POW. From the author of The Dog Who Could Fly and the co-author of Sergeant Rex and It's All About Treo comes one of the most heartwarming and inspiring tales you will ever read.
The Good Old Days: Poverty, Crime and Terror in Victorian London
Gilda O'Neill - 2006
The Victorian era is often thought of as an age of propriety, inventions and the British stiff upper lip. However, in a world of extremes between the rich and poor, for most people it was often hellish, violent and filled with death. In The Good Old Days she reveals exactly what it was like for those on the streets that history has forgotten. Meet: The madame whose mysterious East End chambers were visited nightly by the aristocracy. The psychic who ‘solved’ the Jack the Ripper murders. The conwoman, bigamist and murderer who left twenty-one bodies in her wake. The Lambeth Poisoner, sewer-hunters, oyster sellers and many other colourful characters. O’Neill leads us through fog-bound streets into rat-infested slums, boozers, penny gaffs and brothels to expose the teeming underbelly of London in the reign of Queen Victoria. Praise for The Good Old Days ‘A world of hunger, squalor, disease and pain’ –
Daily Telegraph
‘Terrific. A delightful foray through nineteenth century murder and mayhem’ –
Spectator
‘Packed with shocking and tragic tales’ –
Big Issue
Praise for Gilda O’Neill ‘[Gives a] voice to memories of a changing East End’ –
The Guardian
'A shocking book which, for once, should dispel the myth that life in the East End was one long knees-up' –
Daily Express
'O'Neill chronicles the filth and poverty with leery aplomb, then sobers things up with sharp social commentary' –
The Scotsman
Gilda O’Neill (1951-2010) took three university degrees and was awarded an honorary doctorate for her work on the East End. In 1990 O’Neill began writing full-time. She published thirteen novels and six works of non-fiction, including East End Tales. She also broadcasted, gave talks and wrote articles about east London history. She tragically died in 2010 from a sudden illness.
David Lean
Kevin Brownlow - 1996
Furthermore, Lean's family and friends - from the son from whom he was estranged, to the women who loved him - talk frankly about his complex personality: a man who was charming, self-deprecating, autocratic and ruthless, and yet surprisingly generous. Brownlow's definitive biography of Lean leaves the reader with an understanding of the man and an appreciation of his cinematic achievement.
The Lion in the North
John Prebble - 1981
This work looks at the Scotland's turbulent history.
Surviving the Sword: Prisoners of the Japanese in the Far East, 1942-45
Brian MacArthur - 2005
To this day, many survivors–most of whom are in their eighties–still cannot talk about their experiences without unearthing terrible memories. Surviving the Sword gives voice to these tens of thousands of Allied POWs and offers us a powerful reminder of the terror and depravations of war and the resilience of the human spirit. In this important book, Brian MacArthur draws on the diaries of American, British, Dutch, and Australian Fepows (Far Eastern prisoners of war), some of whose recollections are published here for the first time. These soldiers wrote and kept their diaries, in secret, because they were determined that to record for posterity how they were starved and beaten, marched almost to death, or transported on “hellships”; how their fellows were summarily executed by guards or felled by the thousands by tropical diseases; and how they were used as slave labor–most notoriously on the Burma-Thailand railway, as depicted in The Bridge on the River Kwai. The diaries excerpted in this book make plain why the Fepows believed that their brutal treatment by Japanese and Korean guards was, literally, incomprehensible to those who did not live it. The prisoners whose stories appear here risked torture and execution to keep diaries and make sketches and drawings that they hid from the guards wherever they could, sometimes burying them in the graves of lost comrades. The survivors’ narratives reveal not just a litany of horrors, but are a moving testament to the nobler instincts of humanity as well, detailing how the POWs prevailed over horrible conditions, even finding or creating a precious few creature comforts and sustaining the rudiments of culture, learning, and play. Forced into solidarity by inhuman conditions, the soldiers showed incredible compassion for one another, improvising ingenious ways to care for the sick, boost morale by subtly mocking their jailers’ authority, or even turn meager rations into the occasional feast. Countless thousands died in Japanese prison camps during World War II. Those fortunate enough to emerge from their ordeal were never the same again. Surviving the Sword at last fills a notable historical gap in our understanding, while also commemorating and memorializing the Fepows’ struggle and sacrifice.
King's Counsellor Abdication and War: The Diaries of Sir Alan Lascelles
Alan Lascelles - 2006
In between lies an enormous range of events, including World War II as seen from Lascelles' point of view as private secretary to the Royal Family, the Princess Margaret-Peter Townsend affair, and the fascinating relationship between Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the King. These detailed journals are a delight to read as well as being invaluable historic record.
Tomb Raider Omnibus: Volume 1
Gail Simone - 2018
Follow Lara's story after the events of the 2013 Tomb Raider game. Collected in a TPB omnibus for the very first time and with over 450 pages of material, this is a must-have for all Tomb Raider fans!This collection fully compiles issues #1-#18 of Dark Horse's 2014 Tomb Raider series, as well as a bonus prequel issue to Crystal Dynamics' highly successful 2013 reboot of the franchise, Tomb Raider: The Beginning.