This book presents twenty-two eyewitness accounts of the battles, the hardships, and the excitement of naval service during the French Revolutionary War, the Napoleonic War, and the War of 1812.
The ultimate guide to the history, background and meaning of whether UFOs really exist, plus associated phenomena such as alien abduction, crop circles and cattle mutilations. There is also a comprehensive overview of the many conspiracy theories which surround UFOs and abductions - from the craft as secret Nazi technology to weird CIA plots. Written by a ufologist with many years in the field, this exciting and highly provocative book at times reads like a thriller. What messages do UFOs hold for us and for the future of life on earth?
A rollicking tour of the history of the high seas with Blackbeard, Captain Kidd, 'Calico Jack' Rackham, Anne Bonney and other figures of maritime legend. Includes Francis 'The Scourge of Spain' Drake's audacious night-time treasure raid on Nombre de Dios; Alexander Exquemelin's fly-on-the-wall account of the 'wicked order of pirates, or robbers of the sea'; the journal of William Dampier, found stashed in a hollow bamboo tube, and much more. Witness skulduggery and malice, terror and excitement -- a colourful and always entertaining collection.
Hear the cannon roar at Valley Forge with George Washington, dance the night away at a Chicago Speakeasy during Prohibition, take a ringside seat for the gunfight at the OK Corral, ride Apollo 11 to the moon, hear Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech, join with Harry S. Truman on the A-bomb deliberations, land with John Smith at Virginia, ride against Custer at Little Horn, get on down to Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock, march to 'The Grapes of Wrath' at Shiloh, work your fingers to the bone at Henry Ford's car plant . . . this is America - the beautiful, the powerful, the tragic, the glorious. The Mammoth Book of How It Happened: America is the story of the making of America in the very words of those who were there, from its 'discovery' by Christopher Columbus to George W. Bush's War Against Terrorism. Composed of firsthand eye-witness accounts of the seminal moments in US history, this is an intimate, revealing, insightful guide to the greatest nation on earth. In five chronological sections, this volume tracks the main phases of American history: Discovery, including the exploration and settlement of America; Independence, the Revolution and wars against British rule; Destiny, covering expansion into the West and the split between North and South; Frontier, including the settlement of the American West and the Indian Wars; and finally Century, the 100 years that saw America becoming a superpower on the world's political stage.
Now available in one tremendous volume is a compelling and remarkable history spanning over two thousand years of the greatest unsolved mysteries known to mankind, including: Atlantis the Bermuda Triangle Bigfoot crop circles crystal skulls the Holy Shroud of Turin the Hope Diamond and other cursed jewels the mystery of the Mary Celeste mummies and their curses poltergeists sea monsters spontaneous human combustion Tunguska and other falling meteors vampires zombies Includes a mystery never examined before - the missing maps of Atlantis Colin Wilson is an acknowledged expert in the field of the unexplained and is in constant demand by the media Colin has a track record of proven successes with the Mammoth series, including, most recently, The Mammoth Book of Murder
Mystery and murder from the Sands of Time; This anthology covers two periods in history - the time of 'Ancient Egypt' which stretches from the First Dynasty in 4000 BC to the time of the Roman Empire, and the time of the Discoveries, which covers the Napoleonic and Victorian periods of excavation. The anthology will be a collection of new stories and rare reprints, including contributions from Lynda Robinson, featuring Lord Meren, Lauren Haney and a Lieutenant Bak mystery, plus stories from Gillian Linscott, Kate Ellis, Marilyn Todd, Paul Doherty, Suzanne Franke, Amy Myers, Michael Pearce, Elizabeth Peters and many more. So from the famed Cleopatra to Howard Carter and the Curse of the Pharaohs, here are 25 stories to enthral and enchant devotees of the genre.
Twenty tales of intrigue, murder and mayhem from this most bloodthirsty and exciting of times. With dramatic settings ranging form the Eternal City of Rome to the most remote outposts of her Empire, here are new tales form the masters of the historical detective story, with classic gems and rare reprints - plus a special introduction, and a new Gordianus the Finder novella from Steven Saylor. A Gladiator Dies Only Once, Steven Saylor: set just before the rebellion of Spartacus, Gordianus is sent to investigate, not a murder but a resurrection. Heads You Lose, Simon Scarrow: someone is beheading soldiers during the siege of Jerusalem, but could the assassin be within the Roman camp? Never Forget, Tom HOlt: having defeated Hannibal, Scipio Africanus has a murder to solve and consults a wily Greek philosopher to help him. The Hostage to Fortune, Michael Jecks: during Caesar's invasion of Britain, the murder of one of the hostages causes a real problem for the guards. The Finger of Aphrodite, Mary Reed and Eric Mayer: with Rome under siege by the Ostrogoths, John the Eunuch is faced with a locked room murder. Edited by Edgar Award winner Mike Ashley
From yesteryear's flying aces to today's top guns... Veteran anthologist Jon E. Lewis has assembled firsthand accounts from all the great military campaigns of aerial warfare, including World Wars I and II, the Spanish Civil War, Korea, Vietnam, the Falklands, the Gulf, and Bosnia. Page after exciting page of this singular collection brings into vivid play the exploits of such legendary pilots as Manfred von Richtofen, Eddie Rickenbacker, Douglas Bader, and Johnnie Johnson; the Luftwaffe World War II aces Heinz Knoke, Gerd Barkhorn, and Johannes Steinhoff; and forty other brave airmen from America, Britain, France, Japan, Russia, and North Korea. Here, too, are the planes in which these pilots flew into modern historythe Spitfire, the Mustang, the Me 109, the Zero, the F-16, the MiG, and the Harrier. Together with the death-defying drama of combat, this volume vividly captures other facets of the fighter pilot's life, including the perils of bailing out in enemy territory, the daily horrors of internment in a Japanese POW camp, and a harrowing account of being shot down in a blazing Spitfire. The true-life aerial combat adventures in this stirring collection provide a vicarious, adrenaline-fueled expedition into the shell-blasted skies of war in the twentieth century.
Begining with the 1921 attempt on the summit of Everest through to the disasters of the 1990s, this work features 30 white-knuckle accounts of climbing endeavour on the world's highest mountain, with all the tragedy and triumph of humankind's striving for the top of the world, by those who know the "Death Zone" best - the climbers of Everest themselves. Yet this is more than a cherry-picking of great true and exhilarating memoirs of Everest. Included are the history of the conquest of Everest, and all the natural and cruel beauty of Chomolungma "The Mother Goddess of the World".
Don't go into the woods today. . . If you're on a cruise, tramping through a forest or holidaying in an exotic location, you are constantly being watched - somewhere close by a creature is lurking, stalking and eyeing your every move. The variety and range of these potential predators is truly astonishing, from Asiatic wolves to rogue elephants, fire ants to sharks, snakes, crocodiles and grizzlies. In this definitive anthology survivors recall their terrifying ordeals, while hunters and other witnesses describe the final bloody moments of victims and their killers. Including: The British climber alone in the mountain wilderness pursued for days by a vengeful bear The African traveller's unhappy encounter with a crocodile A member of the Royal Family's gory meeting with a shark in the Caribbean A tiger breaking out of the jungle to grab a woman from her village