History by John Lewis-Stempel

Where Poppies Blow

Author: John Lewis-Stempel

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

ISBN: 0297869272

Category: History

Page: 400

View: 1320

Winner of the 2017 Wainwright Golden Beer Book Prize for nature writing The natural history of the Western Front during the First World War 'If it weren't for the birds, what a hell it would be.' During the Great War, soldiers lived inside the ground, closer to nature than many humans had lived for centuries. Animals provided comfort and interest to fill the blank hours in the trenches - bird-watching, for instance, was probably the single most popular hobby among officers. Soldiers went fishing in flooded shell holes, shot hares in no-man's land for the pot, and planted gardens in their trenches and billets. Nature was also sometimes a curse - rats, spiders and lice abounded, and disease could be biblical. But above all, nature healed, and, despite the bullets and blood, it inspired men to endure. Where Poppies Blow is the unique story of how nature gave the British soldiers of the Great War a reason to fight, and the will to go on.
Fiction by Belinda Bauer

The Beautiful Dead

Author: Belinda Bauer

Publisher: Open Road + Grove/Atlantic

ISBN: 0802189989

Category: Fiction

Page: 354

View: 3543

“Belinda Bauer is a marvel. Her novels are almost indecently gripping and enjoyable.” —Sophie Hannah, New York Times–bestselling author of The Monogram Murders and Woman with a Secret Belinda Bauer is an award-winning British crime writer of the highest caliber, whose smart, stylish novels have captivated readers and reviewers on both sides of the Atlantic and earned her a reputation as “the true heir to the great Ruth Rendell” (Mail on Sunday (UK)). Her latest, The Beautiful Dead, is a riveting narrative centered on a down-on-her-luck journalist and a serial killer desperate for the spotlight. TV crime reporter Eve Singer’s career is flagging, but that starts to change when she covers a spate of bizarre murders—each one committed in public and advertised like an art exhibition. When the killer contacts Eve about her coverage of his crimes, she is suddenly on the inside of the biggest murder investigation of the decade. But as the killer becomes increasingly obsessed with her, Eve realizes there’s a thin line between inside information and becoming an accomplice to murder—possibly her own. A seamlessly-plotted thriller that will keep readers breathless until the very end, The Beautiful Dead cements Belinda Bauer’s reputation as a master of heart-stopping suspense.
by John Lewis-Stempel

Meadowland

The Private Life of an English Field

Author: John Lewis-Stempel

Publisher: Black Swan

ISBN: 9780552778992

Category:

Page: 288

View: 6585

WINNER OF THE THWAITES WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 2015 What really goes on in the long grass? Meadowland gives an unique and intimate account of an English meadowâe(tm)s life from January to December, together with its biography. In exquisite prose, John Lewis-Stempel records the passage of the seasons from cowslips in spring to the hay-cutting of summer and grazing in autumn, and includes the biographies of the animals that inhabit the grass and the soil beneath: the badger clan, the fox family, the rabbit warren,the skylark brood and the curlew pair, among others. Their births, lives, and deaths are stories that thread through the book from first page to last.
History by John Lewis-Stempel

The War Behind the Wire

The Life, Death and Glory of British Prisoners of War, 1914-18

Author: John Lewis-Stempel

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

ISBN: 0297869256

Category: History

Page: 288

View: 2940

The last untold story of the First World War: the fortunes and fates of 170,000 British soldiers captured by the enemy. On capture, British officers and men were routinely told by the Germans 'For you the war is over'. Nothing could be further from the truth. British Prisoners of War merely exchanged one barbed-wire battleground for another. In the camps the war was eternal. There was the war against the German military, fought with everything from taunting humour to outright sabotage, with a literal spanner put in the works of the factories and salt mines prisoners were forced to slave in. British PoWs also fought a valiant war against the conditions in which they were mired. They battled starvation, disease, Prussian cruelties, boredom, and their own inner demons. And, of course, they escaped. Then escaped again. No less than 29 officers at Holzminden camp in 1918 burrowed their way out via a tunnel (dug with a chisel and trowel) in the Great Escape of the Great War. It was war with heart-breaking consequences: more than 12,000 PoWs died, many of them murdered, to be buried in shallow unmarked graves. Using contemporary records - from prisoners' diaries to letters home to poetry - John Lewis-Stempel reveals the death, life and, above all, the glory of Britain's warriors behind the wire. For it was in the PoW camps, far from the blasted trenches, that the true spirit of the Tommy was exemplified.
History by Robert Gaudi

African Kaiser

General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and the Great War in Africa, 1914-1918

Author: Robert Gaudi

Publisher: Penguin

ISBN: 0698411528

Category: History

Page: 448

View: 6061

The incredible true account of General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and his exploits in World War I Africa with the legendary "Schutztruppe." As World War I ravaged the European continent, a completely different theater of war was being contested in Africa. And from this very different kind of war, there emerged a very different kind of military leader... At the beginning of the twentieth century, the continent of Africa was a hotbed of international trade, colonialism, and political gamesmanship. So when World War I broke out, the European powers were forced to contend with each other not just in the bloody trenches—but in the treacherous jungle. And it was in that unforgiving land that General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck would make history. With the now legendary "Schutztruppe" (Defensive Force), von Lettow-Vorbeck and a small cadre of hardened German officers fought alongside their fanatically devoted native African allies as equals, creating the first truly integrated army of the modern age The Lion of Africa is the almost-forgotten true account of Wiemar Germany’s military escapades on the dark continent. A story of thousand-mile marches through the harshest landscapes; of German officers riding bicycles into battle through the bush; of battleships hidden in jungle rivers teeming with crocodiles; of improbable Zeppelin voyages; of desperate men living off hippo lard and facing dangers in both man and nature. But mostly it is the story of von Lettow-Vorbeck—the only undefeated German commmander in the field during World War I, and the last to surrender his arms in final defeat.
Guerre mondiale, 1914-1918 / Ouvrages pour la jeunesse by Linda Granfield

Remembering John McCrae

Soldier, Doctor, Poet

Author: Linda Granfield

Publisher: Scholastic Canada

ISBN: 0439935601

Category: Guerre mondiale, 1914-1918 / Ouvrages pour la jeunesse

Page: 38

View: 8535

This award-winning tribute to the author of "In Flanders Fields" is now available in paperback. "In Flanders Fields the poppies blow/Between the crosses, row on row..." Every Canadian student, teacher, and parent can recite these powerful words. But behind every poem is a poet who lived, breathed, and in this case, led an extraordinary life. Despite John McCrae reaching Canadian icon status, his life story has been largely unknown. In Remembering John McCrae, Linda Granfield, one of Canada's finest historians and celebrated authors of non-fiction for young readers, has compiled a beautiful tribute. In an accessible "scrapbook" style, more than one hundred photos, paintings, and documents are displayed to help create an intimate portrait of a true hero. Readers will learn about his life as a doctor and teacher of medicine, about his tour of duty in the Boer War, and of course, about his service in WWI, where he experienced a loss so profound it moved him to write "In Flanders Fields."
Fiction by Janet Woods

Tall Poppies

Author: Janet Woods

Publisher: Severn House Publishers Ltd

ISBN: 1780102194

Category: Fiction

Page: 240

View: 9846

One woman – two loves . . . - Dorset, 1917. If it's not enough that a girl from a good background is forced to work as a maid, Livia Carr is then violated by her master and falls pregnant. But help unexpectedly comes from her attacker’s son, Richard, a WWI hero who is not expected to live much longer. He marries her, and his death, though expected, comes as a great blow. Into the breach steps Livia's first love, Denton Elliott - but he does not know the truth about her child's parentage . . .
Fiction by Amitav Ghosh

Sea of Poppies

A Novel

Author: Amitav Ghosh

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

ISBN: 9781429930819

Category: Fiction

Page: 528

View: 2979

At the heart of this vibrant saga is a vast ship, the Ibis. Its destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean; its purpose, to fight China's vicious nineteenth-century Opium Wars. As for the crew, they are a motley array of sailors and stowaways, coolies and convicts. In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a diverse cast of Indians and Westerners, from a bankrupt raja to a widowed tribeswoman, from a mulatto American freedman to a freespirited French orphan. As their old family ties are washed away, they, like their historical counterparts, come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais, or ship-brothers. An unlikely dynasty is born, which will span continents, races, and generations. The vast sweep of this historical adventure spans the lush poppy fields of the Ganges, the rolling high seas, the exotic backstreets of Canton. But it is the panorama of characters, whose diaspora encapsulates the vexed colonial history of the East itself, that makes Sea of Poppies so breathtakingly alive—a masterpiece from one of the world's finest novelists.
by John Lewis-Stempel

The Running Hare

The Secret Life of Farmland

Author: John Lewis-Stempel

Publisher: Black Swan

ISBN: 9781784160746

Category:

Page: 304

View: 4055

The Sunday Times Bestseller. Winner of the Thwaites Wainwright Prize 2015. BBC Radio 4's 'Book of the Week' Traditional ploughland is disappearing. Seven cornfield flowers have become extinct in the last twenty years. Once abundant, the corn bunting and the lapwing are on the Red List. The corncrake is all but extinct in England. And the hare is running for its life. Written in exquisite prose, The Running Hare tells the story of the wild animals and plants that live in and under our ploughland, from the labouring microbes to the patrolling kestrel above the corn, from the linnet pecking at seeds to the seven-spot ladybird that eats the aphids that eat the crop. It recalls an era before open-roofed factories and silent, empty fields, recording the ongoing destruction of the unique, fragile, glorious ploughland that exists just down the village lane. But it is also the story of ploughland through the eyes of man who took on a field and husbanded it in a natural, traditional way, restoring its fertility and wildlife, bringing back the old farmland flowers and animals. John Lewis Stempel demonstrates that it is still possible to create a place where the hare can rest safe.
History by Linda Granfield

Where Poppies Grow

A World War I Companion

Author: Linda Granfield

Publisher: Markham, Ont. : Fitzhenry & Whiteside

ISBN: 9781550051469

Category: History

Page: 48

View: 5134

Collects photographs, memorabilia, and anecdotes offering a glimpse of the human costs of World War I.
Fiction by Jonathan Falla

Blue Poppies

Author: Jonathan Falla

Publisher: Delta

ISBN: 0307422801

Category: Fiction

Page: 240

View: 4275

Jonathan Falla weaves a powerful tale of love and war, exile and homecoming...and of one man’s desire to lose himself in a foreign land, only to find himself caught in a time of chaos and change. Blue Poppies The year is 1950 and, as the world recovers from the ravages of World War II, the Chinese army is perched on the border of a fragile land awaiting its destiny. Jamie Wilson, a young Scottish wireless operator and veteran of the war, has just arrived in the remote Tibetan village of Jyeko. He has come on business--to establish a radio outpost--but his journey will resonate much more deeply. Like those who have traveled to this place before him, Jamie, the Ying-gi-li, is mesmerized by the majestic mountain ranges and enigmatic people, but he will also find an uncommon refuge in its unyielding beauty and in the arms of the willful Puton, a young widow cast out by the people of Jyeko. Inexorably drawn together by a shared loneliness, Jamie and Puton discover a rare passion and the promise of reconnection and belonging--until the voice of Radio Peking crackles over the airwaves, announcing the imminent advance of the Chinese army. Amid the ensuing violence and tumult, Jamie and Puton must embrace their fate and that of the remarkable land that has brought them together. What lies before them and the people of Jyeko is a harrowing journey across a breathtaking landscape...and an extraordinary tale of pride and loyalty, survival and awakening. From the Trade Paperback edition.
History by Nicholas J. Saunders

The Poppy

A History of Conflict, Loss, Remembrance, and Redemption

Author: Nicholas J. Saunders

Publisher: Oneworld Publications

ISBN: 1780741855

Category: History

Page: 320

View: 910

In the aftermath of the horrific trench warfare of the First World War, the poppy — sprouting across the killing fields of France and Belgium, then immortalized in John McCrae’s moving poem — became a worldwide icon. Yet the poppy has a longer history: as the tell-tale sign of human cultivation of the land, of the ravages of war, and of the desire to escape the earthly realm through Romantic opium dreams or the grim reality of morphine drips. This is a story spanning 3,000 summers, from the Ancient Egyptian fights over prized medicinal potions to the addicted veterans turning home from the American Civil War, from the British political machinations during the Opium Wars with China to the struggle to end Afghanistan’s tribal narcotics trade. Through it all, there is the transformative poppy. Now, Nicholas J. Saunders shares the definitive history of this ever-enduring symbolic flower.
History by John Lewis-Stempel

Six weeks

the short and gallant life of the British officer in the First World War

Author: John Lewis-Stempel

Publisher: N.A

ISBN: N.A

Category: History

Page: 358

View: 4702

With their Latin lessons still resounding in their minds, many boys during the Great War went straight from the classroom to the most dangerous job in the world - that of junior officer on the Western Front. Although desperately aware of how many of their predecessors had fallen before them, nearly all stepped forward, unflinchingly, to do their duty. The average the life expectancy of a subaltern in the trenches was a mere six weeks. In this remarkable book, John Lewis-Stempel focuses on the forgotten men who truly won Britain's victory in the First World War - the subalterns, lieutenants and captains of the Army, the leaders in the trenches, the first 'over the top,' the last to retreat. Basing his narrative on a huge range of first-person accounts, including the poignant letters and diaries sent home or to their old schools, the author reveals what motivated these boy-men to act in such an extraordinary, heroic way. He describes their brief, brilliant lives in and out of the earth world of the trenches, the tireless ways they cared for their men, and how they tried to behave with honour in a world where their values and codes were quite literally being shot to pieces.
Juvenile Fiction by Fiona Woodcock

Poppy and the Blooms

Author: Fiona Woodcock

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

ISBN: 1471147797

Category: Juvenile Fiction

Page: 32

View: 2809

When a group of zesty wildflower characters discover that the last green space in the city is about to be paved over, they decide they have to act! A positive, uplifting story about how the actions of even the smallest can have a big impact.
Juvenile Nonfiction by Barbara Elizabeth Walsh

The Poppy Lady

Moina Belle Michael and Her Tribute to Veterans

Author: Barbara Elizabeth Walsh

Publisher: Calkins Creek

ISBN: 9781590787540

Category: Juvenile Nonfiction

Page: 40

View: 8772

Recounts the efforts of Moina Belle Michael to launch a national campaign establishing the red poppy of Flanders Fields as a reminder of the sacrifice and courage of America's soldiers.
History by Chris McNab

The Book of the Poppy

Author: Chris McNab

Publisher: The History Press

ISBN: 0750989556

Category: History

Page: 168

View: 3043

The Remembrance Poppy is a haunting reminder of the ultimate cost of war. Worn by millions around the world every year, the Poppy compels us to remember war’s dead, wounded and bereaved, regardless of nationality or conflict. As we reflect on the centenary of the First World War, this book charts the history of the Remembrance Poppy, from its origins in the battle-tortured landscape of Flanders in 1915 to its enduring relevance in the present day. It sets the Poppy in its context of tragedy and sacrifice, always acknowledging that our war dead are gone, but not forgotten.
Fiction by Ping Wang

The Last Communist Virgin

Stories

Author: Ping Wang

Publisher: N.A

ISBN: N.A

Category: Fiction

Page: 204

View: 6444

From the restaurants of New York's Chinatown to the retail emporium of Bergdorf Goodman, and from remote Chinese military outposts to the streets of Beijing, these stories open a window into the rapid transformations of an ancient culture. As the characters struggle to find their way, a young girl discovers love amidst a sea of angry Red Guards, emigres navigate New York's relentless rat race, and an old man returns to a Beijing he doesn't recognize on a mission to restore his son-in-law's flagging honor. In the finale, the origins of humanity and its reckless dash toward an apocalyptic future are distilled into a love story with far-reaching implications.
English poetry by John McCrae,Sir Andrew Macphail

In Flanders Fields

And Other Poems

Author: John McCrae,Sir Andrew Macphail

Publisher: N.A

ISBN: N.A

Category: English poetry

Page: 141

View: 9051

Poetry by Candace Ward

World War One British Poets

Brooke, Owen, Sassoon, Rosenberg and Others

Author: Candace Ward

Publisher: Courier Corporation

ISBN: 048611323X

Category: Poetry

Page: 80

View: 4965

DIVRich selection of powerful, moving verse includes Brooke's "The Soldier," Owen's "Anthem for Doomed Youth," "In Flanders Fields," by Lieut. Col. McCrae, more by Hardy, Kipling, many others. /div
by N.A

Opium Season

A Year on the Afghan Frontier

Author: N.A

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

ISBN: 9781599215952

Category:

Page: N.A

View: 4717