Welcome to our book review site go-pdf.online!

You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.

Sign up

The Great Siege, Malta 1565
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 278

The Great Siege, Malta 1565

The indispensable account of the Ottoman Empire’s Siege of Malta from the author of Hannibal and Gibraltar. In the first half of the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire was thought to be invincible. Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman sultan, had expanded his empire from western Asia to southeastern Europe and North Africa. To secure control of the Mediterranean between these territories and launch an offensive into western Europe, Suleiman needed the small but strategically crucial island of Malta. But Suleiman’s attempt to take the island from the Holy Roman Empire’s Knights of St. John would emerge as one of the most famous and brutal military defeats in history. Forty-two years...

Hannibal
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 236

Hannibal

Bradford recreates with historical accuracy the life of one of the greatest generals since Alexander the Great.

The Wind Off the Island
  • Language: en

The Wind Off the Island

The bestselling author of The Journeying Moon explores the history and culture of Sicily in this colorful travel memoir. In his memoir The Journeying Moon, historian Ernle Bradford recounts the call to adventure that brought him and his wife, Janet, to a life on the sea. Continuing their adventures aboard the Mother Goose, Bradford and Janet now voyage around the island of Sicily, where the couple explores the land and learns its captivating history. Home to ancient temple ruins, charming villages, and Mount Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe, Sicily provides the perfect backdrop for this tale of exploration and wonder. In a model travel narrative, Bradford captures the sights, sounds, and flavors of Sicily in his lively portrayal of an excursion across an ancient and extraordinary island, a part of Italy and yet a world unto itself.

Drake
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 125

Drake

The authoritative biography of British explorer Sir Francis Drake, from the bestselling author of The Great Siege. Long considered one of the great heroes of British history, Sir Francis Drake was a brilliant navigator, intrepid explorer, and fearsome warrior in Queen Elizabeth’s Royal Navy. He was also a pirate and profiteer who made a small fortune trading slaves. In this compelling biography, Ernle Brandford offers an unvarnished and finely detailed portrait of this complex and influential man. Born to impoverished parents in Devon, Drake rose to power by his own efforts. In his most famous expedition, he sailed around South America through the Strait of Magellan, opening new trade rout...

Ulysses Found
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 238

Ulysses Found

Having settled in Malta after the end of World War 2, Ernle Bradford decided to trace the route of Ulysses. This book is a journal of his travels, describing both the amazing sights and the pitfalls that befell Homer's character.

Siege Malta 1940-1943
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 263

Siege Malta 1940-1943

Situated midway between Europe and Africa, Malta played a central role in the battles for the mastery of North Africa. The island was the vital supply base for British and Imperial troops in the to-and-fro desert campaigns against, first, Italy and then Germany and Rommel’s Afrika Korps. The three-year siege of Malta was one of the longest in history. In this thrilling account the author, who first came to know and love Malta whilst serving with the Royal Navy during the Second World War, paints a vivid picture of the suffering of the island and its population. He draws on personal accounts and reminiscences of the participants; he tells of the occasional despair that turned to joy when the...

The Journeying Moon
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 109

The Journeying Moon

A memoir of life as an adventurer and sailor in the Mediterranean, by the noted naval historian. Ernle Bradford spent his twenty-first birthday in Egypt, serving in the Royal Navy during World War II. It was there that he came across the profoundly affecting words of Anton Chekhov: “Life does not come again; if you have not lived during the days that were given to you, once only, then write it down as lost.” After the war, Bradford married and settled in London, but the mandate of those words inspired him and his wife to quit their jobs, sell their home, and sail to France in their small ship Mother Goose. The Journeying Moon chronicles their adventures as they travel through Europe and the Mediterranean. From the people of Malta who believed Bradford was a spy from MI5, to his interactions with the Sicilian Mafia, Bradford tells the charming and vivid tale of his days as a true adventurer.

The Shield and the Sword
  • Language: en

The Shield and the Sword

The order of the Knights Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem is the most long-lived of the great military orders of knighthood. Originating in a hospice on the road to Jerusalem and officially founded in 1099 during the First Crusade, the Knights of St. John continued to grow in wealth, power, and territory long after they were run out of Jerusalem by victorious Muslim forces. In The Shield and the Sword, Ernle Bradford displays his talents as a master storyteller and great scholar of the Mediterranean, charting the intriguing history of the Knights-from their origins in the Holy Land to their subsequent relocations to Rhodes, the island of Malta, and eventually England.

The Sultan's Admiral
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 248

The Sultan's Admiral

In this definitive biography, Ernle Bradford has brilliantly recreated Barbarossa’s remarkable life alongside a vivid portrayal of the Ottoman and Mediterranean worlds at this thrilling moment in history. Admiral, naval hero, pirate, warrior and empire-builder, Kheir ed-Din or Barbarossa, as he was known in the West, was a legendary figure. Born on Lesbos in Greece he rose to become High Admiral of the Ottoman Navy, Sultan of Algiers and friend and advisor to Suleiman the Magnificent. His life dominated the history of the Mediterranean in the 16th century. From the moment that he and his brother, Aruj, established themselves on the North African coast, the pattern of life and trade in the Mediterranean changed forever and for nearly 300 years after it was affected by the activities of raiders from what came to be called the Barbary Coast. His achievements in reorganizing the Ottoman Navy and his command of it helped the expansion of the Turkish Empire that threatened all of Europe.

The Great Betrayal
  • Language: en
  • Pages: 95

The Great Betrayal

An engrossing chronicle of the Fourth Crusade and the fall of the Holy Roman Empire, from the bestselling author of Thermopylae. At the dawn of the thirteenth century, Constantinople stood as the bastion of Christianity in Eastern Europe. The capital city of the Byzantine Empire, it was a center of art, culture, and commerce that had commanded trading routes between Asia, Russia, and Europe for hundreds of years. But in 1204, the city suffered a devastating attack that would spell the end of the Holy Roman Empire. The army of the Fourth Crusade had set out to reclaim Jerusalem, but under the sway of their Venetian patrons, the crusaders diverted from their path in order to lay siege to Constantinople. With longstanding tensions between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, the crusaders set arms against their Christian neighbors, destroying a vital alliance between Eastern and Western Rome. In The Great Betrayal, historian Ernle Bradford brings to life this powerful tale of envy and greed, demonstrating the far-reaching consequences this siege would have across Europe for centuries to come.