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A war novel of breathtaking power, this finalist for the Booker Prize presents "an astonishing triumph of the imagination" ("The New Yorker"). In the summer of 1944, fifteen-year-old Sebastian Westland joins the SS, knowing that he and his cohorts will probably be destroyed in the last stages of a war they neither welcome nor comprehend. At the Battle of the Bulge, this army of boys makes its last stand--and Sebastian is transfigured by his fear.
In this enthralling and sometimes harrowing memoir, the acclaimed author of The Promise of Light gives us a masterly companion to such classics as Brideshead Revisited and A Separate Peace. At the age of seven, Paul Watkins was roughly transplanted from his home in Rhode Island to England's Dragon School. He was greeted by a delegation of bullies who, in time, would become his friends and whose rules would become his own. For at Dragon, and later at Eton, "there was no middle ground. You could not go here and come out not caring one way or the other. You had to stand before your God and commit." Here are the masters who paddle boys for small infractions and then offer them sweets; the seniors who pamper pretty favorites and subject all others to humiliating servitude; the deep friendships and sudden, devastating betrayals. Above all, here is the exhilaration of a boy discovering own capacities for learning and creativity, in a book that conveys with astonishing insight the pangs of growing up.
An acclaimed writer describes his spellbinding trek through the mountains of Norway--a grand but harsh landscape where myth and reality meet.
A gripping, acclaimed action-packed Viking epic.Set in the 10th century, when Viking raids were at their peak, Paul Watkins spins a tale that covers three continents. After centuries of ranging unchecked across the northern world, the fortunes of the Vikings have begun to turn. In this time of violent change, a young man, struck by lightning, is believed to be marked by the gods as a keeper of the Norse religion's greatest secret. To save the Norse faith and himself, he embarks upon a journey that takes him far beyond the boundaries of the known world, where he must confront not only his own gods but the gods of a people yet more savage.'Few contemporary novelists have the ability to grab readers by the throat with such intense story-telling power and not release them until the final page has been turned.' Sunday Times
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Paris, 1939. Europe is on the brink of a second World War. David Halifax, a young American art student, is arrested for forgery. Unbeknownst to Halifax, an unscrupulous art dealer has put some of his paintings on the market, attempting to pass them off as Old Masters. When the ruse is uncovered, it is Halifax who is arrested, and charged with forgery. Then, as the Nazis converge upon Paris, Halifax is press-ganged into service by the Resistance: he must forge a number of great paintings, so that the originals don't fall into the hands of the invaders. Halifax is painfully aware that this unwanted commission could cost him his life.
When celebrating his 106th birthday, Dr Bill Frankland was asked why he had lived to such an age. His reply was quite straightforward, 'Because I have been so near to death so many times.This is the biography of a truly remarkable man. Growing up in the Lake District, he qualified as a doctor in 1938. A year later he joined the Army, and served his country throughout World War 2. It was only the toss of a coin which saved him from certain death in Singapore in February 1942. Imprisoned on Hell Island he suffered terribly under his Japanese captors. After the war he decided not to talk about his experiences. Instead, focussing on his career in medicine, he worked for Sir Alexander Fleming, developed the pollen count and helped thousands of patients suffering from hay fever. An internationally acclaimed expert, he has treated presidents and paupers around the world.Using his own words, this book tells the story of an outstanding doctor, one who has lived through two world wars, served his King and Country and made major contributions to medicine.