Author: Richard van Emden
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1408810077
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 351
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Book Description
For soldiers in the Great War, going over the top was a comparatively rare event; much more frequently, they were bored and lonely and missing their families at home. Needing an outlet for their affection, many found it in the animal kingdom. Tommy's Ark looks at the war through the eyes of the soldiers who were there, and examines their relationship with a strange and unexpected range of animal life, from horses, dogs and cats to monkeys and birds - even in one case a golden eagle. Animals became mascots - some Welsh battalions had goats as mascots, some of the Scots had donkeys. And then there were the animals and insects that excited curiosity amongst men drawn into the army from the industrial heartlands of Britain, men who had little knowledge of, let alone daily contact with, wildlife. Civilians turned soldiers observed the natural world around them, from the smallest woodlouse to voles, mice and larger animals such as deer and rabbit. Richard van Emden explores his subject far more radically than previous attempts, revealing how, for example, a lemur was taken on combat missions in the air, a lion was allowed to pad down the front line trenches and how a monkey lost its leg during the fighting at Delville Wood on the Somme. Illustrated with more than sixty previously unseen or rarely published photographs, drawn mainly from the author's own extraordinary collection.
Author: Cathleen Schine
Publisher: Sarah Crichton Books
ISBN: 0374712190
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 272
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Book Description
An enchanting, comic love letter to sibling rivalry and the English language. From the author compared to Nora Ephron and Nancy Mitford, not to mention Jane Austen, comes a new novel celebrating the beauty, mischief, and occasional treachery of language. The Grammarians are Laurel and Daphne Wolfe, identical, inseparable redheaded twins who share an obsession with words. They speak a secret “twin” tongue of their own as toddlers; as adults making their way in 1980s Manhattan, their verbal infatuation continues, but this love, which has always bound them together, begins instead to push them apart. Daphne, copy editor and grammar columnist, devotes herself to preserving the dignity and elegance of Standard English. Laurel, who gives up teaching kindergarten to write poetry, is drawn, instead, to the polymorphous, chameleon nature of the written and spoken word. Their fraying twinship finally shreds completely when the sisters go to war, absurdly but passionately, over custody of their most prized family heirloom: Merriam Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition. Cathleen Schine has written a playful and joyful celebration of the interplay of language and life. A dazzling comedy of sisterly and linguistic manners, a revelation of the delights and stresses of intimacy, The Grammarians is the work of one of our great comic novelists at her very best.
Author: Gene Lyons
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 9781451697148
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 456
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Book Description
The true story of a Little Rock beauty whose deadly wiles led to two murders and scandalized an entire state. The true saga of Arkansas beauty Mary Lee Orsini, whose seductive allure had tragic and deadly consequences for those who crossed her path: her husband (shot dead in his bed), the defense lawyer who tried to help her (his wife was murdered), and the prosecutor whose political career she ruined. Widow’s Web is a compelling story of sexual blackmail and murder from an award-winning journalist.
Author: Richard van Emden
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1473821754
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 358
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Book Description
Benjamin Clouting was just sixteen years old when he embarked with the British Expeditionary Force for France in August 1914. The youngest man in the 4th Dragoon Guards, he took part in the BEF's celebrated first action at Casteau on August 22nd, and, two days later, had his horse shot from under him during the famous cavalry charge of the 4th Dragoon Guards and the 9th Lancers at Audregnies. Ben served on the Western front during every major engagement of the war except Loos, was wounded twice, and in 1919 went with the Army of Occupation to Cologne. The son of a stable groom, Ben was brought up in the beautiful Sussex countryside near Lewes and from his earliest years was, as he often said himself, "crazy to be a soldier". He worked briefly as a stable boy before joining up in 1913; his training was barely completed when war broke out. The Regiment, knowing Ben to be under age, tried to stop him embarking for France, but he flatly refused to be left behind. During the next four years, he served under officers immortalized in Great War history, including Major Tom Bridges, Captain Hornby, and Lieutenant-Colonel Adrien Carton de Wiart VC.Teenage Tommy is a detailed account of a trooper's life at the front, vividly recalling, for example, the privations suffered during the retreat from Mons. and later, the desperate fighting to hold back the German onslaught at 2nd Ypres. But this is more than just a memoir about trench warfare. Ben's lively sense of humor and healthy disrespect for petty restrictions make this an entertaining as well as a moving story of life at the front.
Author: Antonio F. Vianna
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 1504905253
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 197
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Book Description
Tommy Martin enters the U. S. Army as an infantryman. He and 15,000 US troops land in Marseille under hectic and nerve-racking conditions. Those who survive begin the long walk to Munich, experiencing battle victories along the way, as well as further loss of fellow soldiers that total close to half of those that set foot in Marseille. During the last few months before discharge Tommy is assigned to Munich, the location of Hitlers Fhrerbau. There he is ordered to protect priceless works of art that Hitler had stolen until the items can be turned over to the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives personnel. During that time a Sergeant in Tommys platoon finds in the basement many personal items that belonged to Hitler; for example, two gold plated luger pistols inscribed to Hitler, a gold/ruby ring with a swastika and an ordinary looking desk with Hitlers initials and a swastika. Tommy takes an interest in the desk set and is given authorization to send the object to his parents as a War memento. In partial retirement, 40 years after World War II ends, Tommy Martin watches on television a RKO newsreel documentary that draws attention to Hitlers missing desk set, the far from ordinary item that was used to sign the 1938 Munich Pact. The narrator indicates the item has probably been destroyed, but if it still exists it is priceless. Tommy realizes he owns the lost item. Against the wishes of his wife he decides to find the value of the item. He teams up with his son and then later on meets a man who completes his inner circle. Disappointing leads and a trail of tears lead them nowhere as the trio runs into people who attempt to take advantage of them.
Author: Gabrielle Emilie Jackson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 244
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Book Description
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1556
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Book Description
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. Subcommittee on National Parks and Recreation
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Buffalo National River (Ark.)
Languages : en
Pages : 224
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Book Description
Author: Alice Oseman
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
ISBN: 1338830953
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 307
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Book Description
From the bestselling creator of HEARTSTOPPER and LOVELESS, a deeply funny and deeply moving exploration of identity, friendship, and fame. For Angel Rahimi life is about one thing: The Ark -- a boy band that's taking the world by storm. Being part of The Ark's fandom has given her everything she loves -- her friend Juliet, her dreams, her place in the world. Her Muslim family doesn't understand the band's allure -- but Angel feels there are things about her they'll never understand. Jimmy Kaga-Ricci owes everything to The Ark. He's their frontman -- and playing in a band with his mates is all he ever dreamed of doing, even it only amplifies his anxiety. The fans are very accepting that he's trans -- but they also keep shipping with him with his longtime friend and bandmate, Rowan. But Jimmy and Rowan are just friends -- and Rowan has a secret girlfriend the fans can never know about. Dreams don't always turn out the way you think and when Jimmy and Angel are unexpectedly thrust together, they find out how strange and surprising facing up to reality can be. A funny, wise, and heartbreakingly true coming of age novel. I Was Born for This is a stunning reflection of modern teenage life, and the power of believing in something -- especially yourself.
Author: Richard van Emden
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408844370
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 388
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Book Description
Conventional histories of the Great War have tended to focus on the terrible attritional battles of Ypres, of Arras and of the Somme. What they do not tell us is what life was like for the ordinary soldier, what mattered to him, and how he survived, both physically and mentally. Now for the first time, one of Britain's leading military historians, Richard van Emden tells the story of the Great War exclusively through the words and images of soldiers on the ground. In Tommy's War, he gathers some of the very best first-hand material written about the War, some of it published at the time and forgotten, some of it previously unpublished, but all of it wonderfully descriptive and immediate, and often wickedly funny. Tommy humour, frequently very dark, played a vital part in men's mental survival, particularly in times of great stress. Until now its critical role in victory has been overlooked. Richard van Emden restores the balance, giving weight to the soldiers' natural inclination to laugh during their darkest moments. Illustrating these eyewitness accounts with soldiers' own photographs taken on privately owned cameras, often tiny Vest Pocket Kodaks – the smart phones of their day – van Emden has created an entirely new and fresh history of the Great War, giving us a glimpse of 'Tommy Atkins' as he has never been seen before.
