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An acclaimed writer describes his spellbinding trek through the mountains of Norway--a grand but harsh landscape where myth and reality meet.
In early 2017 Paul Watkins, a nerdy, bespectacled, father of two from a country town, took on one of the toughest races on the planet, the 6633 Arctic Ultra - a 583-kilometre unsupported solo race deep into the Arctic Circle. Four days in - frozen, hallucinating, broken and bewildered - Paul withdrew from the race, barely half way to the finish line. Two years later Paul returned to the Arctic. To face some demons and resolve unfinished business. Beyond the story of how this gruelling race unfolded - of pushing virtually non-stop for eight days in temperatures of -40c under the magnificent northern lights - this book details the lessons learnt along the way. How we deal with 'failure', why motivation doesn't equal discipline and how we let society undervalue us. Come on a wild adventure and discover how to find your own.
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.
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.
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
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.
This autobiography follows Paul Watkins's early life and schooling at the Dragon School, Eton and Yale. Born in 1963, Watkins is the author of The Promise of Light and Night Over Day Over Night, which were both nominated for the Booker Prize.
The stories in Battleborn all unfold in Watkins's home state of Nevada, from down south in Nye County and Las Vegas, to Reno, Lake Tahoe, and the Blackrock Desert, the site of Burning Man. We are introduced to a very specific small town America, to those homes and lives off the highway - the ones travellers and writers usually drive past on their way to somewhere else. While the locations are ordinary, the characters and Watkins' telling of their lives are anything but. There is the man who finds a cache of letters, pills and a photograph abandoned by the side of the road and as he writes to the man he imagines left them behind, reveals moving truths about himself ('The Last Thing We Need'); the man in late middle age who finds a troubled, pregnant teen dying in the desert and, through her, begins to dream of regaining the family he lost ('Man-O-War'); the brothers caught in the early days of the gold rush ('The Diggings'); and the sisters unable to comfort each other following their mother's suicide ('Graceland'). And there is the first story ('Ghosts, Cowboys'), a semi-autobiographical account of a troubled - and famous - family history.
The year is 1921. Ben Sheridan, a young American, sets out for Ireland to track down his true family, and walks straight into the savagery of the Black-and-Tan war. The Promise of Light is an unforgettable novel of action, a remarkable study of youth, and a work of immense literary distinction by one of Britain's finest young writers. 'His prose is terse and direct, reminiscent of Hemingway, and like the great master he explores the clash of the masculine virtues of courage, loyalty and endurance with treachery and fear.' Daily Telegraph
While the eyes of the world are focused upon attempts to scale Mount Everest, two young men - once members of the world's climbing elite, subsequently forced into premature retirement after the failure of a secret military operation in the Alps during World War II - have become outcasts of mountaineering society. Until, that is, a peculiar and dangerous request is made of them, drawing them back to the mountains on an exploit that will prove treacherous in more ways than one, as they confront not only the pitiless cruelty of nature but also the ghosts of their former selves.