Epicentre

The Trees Are All Young on Garrison Hill: A Personal Memoir Featuring the Battle of KOHIMA , Hörbuch, Digital, ungekürzt, 388min

The Trees Are All Young on Garrison Hill is written and read by a veteran of the Second World War battle of Kohima. This tautly-written autobiography takes the listener on a journey from a quiet respectable Scottish boyhood to the sudden brutality of jungle warfare in Assam and Burma, and afterwards through the twilight of Empire in India, where Gordon Graham lived for 10 years after the war. Now in his mid-90s, Gordon Graham's powerful and at times moving delivery draws on his personal sources as well as on official records including war diaries of his battalion, blending an objective account of great events with a soldier's spontaneous and candid reactions to them. Episodes of drama and intense emotion are punctuated by moments of both poignancy and humour, leavened by mature reflection on the meaning and meaninglessness of war. Garrison Hill was the epicentre of one of the fiercest and most strategically vital battles of World War II. Overlooking Kohima, a town in the Naga hills of North East India, Garrison Hill was until 1944 a tranquil tree-clad enclave surrounding the Commissioner's bungalow and tennis court. Suddenly in April 1994, it became the scene of intensive close-quarter combat between a Japanese force attempting to invade India and a British division thrust into action to repel it. Visiting Japan as part of his business life as a publisher in New York and London, the author sought out and dined cordially with Japanese veterans who had fought at Kohima, and later, as one of a small number of British veterans seeking reconciliation, entertained visiting Japanese veterans at his home. One such party finished with a sing-song, and a rendering of Auld Lang Syne in Japanese. When you can laugh and sing and cry a little with your former enemies, he writes, you know the war is really over. The denouement of the book describes the formation of the Kohima Educational Trust, a charity founded by the author after the ungekürzt. Language: English. Narrator: Gordon Graham. Audio sample: https://samples.audible.de/bk/acx0/024979/bk_acx0_024979_sample.mp3. Digital audiobook in aax.

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Price: 9.95 EUR excl. shipping

China

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER'Bravo; this is a big, complex and utterly involving portrait of 19th-century China' THE TIMESThe internationally bestselling author portrays the great clash of East and West in his new epic: China China in the nineteenth century: a proud and ancient empire forbidden to foreigners. The West desires Chinese tea above all other things but lacks the silver to buy it. Instead, western adventurers resort to smuggling opium in exchange.The Qing Emperor will not allow his people to sink into addiction. Viceroy Lin is sent to the epicentre of the opium trade, Canton, to stop it. The Opium Wars begin - heralding a period of bloody military defeats, reparations, and one-sided treaties which will become known as the Century of Humiliation. From Hong Kong to Beijing to the Great Wall, from the exotic wonders of the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City, to squalid village huts, the dramatic struggle rages across the Celestial Kingdom. This is the story of the Chinese people, high and low, and the Westerners who came to exploit the riches of their ancient land and culture.We meet a young village wife struggling with the rigid traditions of her people, Manchu empresses and warriors, powerful eunuchs, fanatical Taiping and Boxer Rebels, savvy Chinese pirates, artists, concubines, scoundrels and heroes, well-intentioned missionaries and the rapacious merchants, diplomats and soldiers of the West. Fortunes will rise and fall, loves will be gained and lost.This is an unforgettable tale told from both sides of the divide. The clash of worldviews, of culture and heritage, is shown in a kaleidoscope of jaw-dropping set pieces. China is a feat of the imagination that will enthral, instruct and excite, and show us how things once were, and how the turmoil of the nineteenth century led to modern China's revolution and rebirth.

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Price: 9.99 EUR excl. shipping

The Flames

'Fascinating and compelling. I loved all four women' ELODIE HARPER, author of THE WOLF DEN'MAGNIFICENT...It's simply too good' KATIE LOWE, author of THE FURIES'Utterly compelling...four muses who refuse to be remembered as just that' KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE, author of THE MERCIES'Intoxicating and evocative...full of controversy and drama. We loved it' Woman & Home'Thought provoking and illuminating - I so enjoyed discovering the world and the women behind works of art I adore' KATE SAWYER, author of THE STRANDING'An exquisite sense of place and era with a passion and sensuality that transcend time altogether.' ISABEL COSTELLO, author of SCENT'Confident...urgent...illuminating' Sunday Times___________________________________________Every painting tells a story, but what if the women on the canvas could speak? This is the story of the charismatic - and controversial - artist, Egon Schiele, and his four muses, set against the vibrant backdrop of Vienna in the 1900s, a time when the city was at the epicentre of art, music, and ideas.ADELE: passionate, fierce, obstinate. The unconventional daughter of a wealthy bourgeois family.GERTRUDE: spirited, single-minded, possessive. Egon's younger sister who yearns for a life of her own.VALLY: determined, independent, proud. Egon's model, who has carved her way out of poverty.EDITH: Adele's sister. Quiet and conventional. Or was she?Four women, four flames, all longing to be known. In an electrifying, bohemian city like Vienna, anything seems possible. But when they meet the man whose work is sending shockwaves through the establishment, their lives are set on a collision course. Because just as a flame has the power to mesmerize, it can also destroy everything in its path._______________________________'Impressive' The Times'A stunning story of love, art and betrayal' RED magazine'Full of scandal, love, betrayal, and heartache' Cosmopolitan'Mesmerising' Good Housekeeping'A drama of love, loss, rivalry and betrayal. A terrific debut, brilliantly imagined' Saga Debut of the Month'An unforgettable book about wanting more for ourselves than we are told we are allowed' Ericka Waller, author of Dog Days

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Price: 11.99 EUR excl. shipping

The Greatest Polar Expedition of All Time: The Arctic Mission to the Epicenter of Climate Change

"Show-stopping … This is required reading for anyone interested in seeing science in action." -Publishers Weekly, STARRED review A captain's tell-all about the world's largest Arctic expedition-an illuminating account of seafaring adventure, Arctic natural history, and cutting-edge climate science. Atmospheric scientist Markus Rex recounts the monumental Arctic expedition he captained for one year in this gripping and authoritative book. A groundbreaking step towards understanding the climate crisis, the MOSAiC expedition-launched in 2019 by the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research-was the first of its kind, journeying deep into the epicentre of climate change, the Arctic, to seek hard-to-find and potentially world-changing scientific data. Rex begins with life aboard the Polarstern, a powerful icebreaker ship that is frozen into fragile ice and carried across the Arctic by the Transpolar Drift. Away from the rest of the world, the team prepares for life under brutal conditions, constructing "cities" and "towns" on the ice where they will study the Arctic ecosystem, its atmosphere, ocean, sea ice, and more. A terrifying feat that had never been attempted before, the team of hundreds of scientists perform their research during terrifying storms, cracking ice floes, frost-bite, and even quarantines as Covid-19 sweeps the globe. But there are heartwarming moments, too, as Markus Rex describes Christmas parties on the ice and polar bears playing with scientific equipment like puppies. He muses on expeditions past, such as the ill-fated Franklin Expedition, and Fridtjof Nansen's Fram expedition, which he follows as a guide. And he explores answers to the pressing questions facing the Arctic today: How will climate change impact this precious ecosystem-and therefore the rest of the world? What is the best way to protect the Arctic? Interweaving history, science, and memoir, The Greatest Polar Expedition of All Time is a page-turner about the teamwork it takes to complete a risky goal, all in the name of understanding-and responding to-the climate crisis.

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Price: 25.99 EUR excl. shipping

The Greatest Polar Expedition of All Time (eBook, ePUB)

"Show-stopping … This is required reading for anyone interested in seeing science in action." -Publishers Weekly, STARRED reviewA captain's tell-all about the world's largest Arctic expedition-an illuminating account of seafaring adventure, Arctic natural history, and cutting-edge climate science.Atmospheric scientist Markus Rex recounts the monumental Arctic expedition he captained for one year in this gripping and authoritative book. A groundbreaking step towards understanding the climate crisis, the MOSAiC expedition-launched in 2019 by the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research-was the first of its kind, journeying deep into the epicentre of climate change, the Arctic, to seek hard-to-find and potentially world-changing scientific data.Rex begins with life aboard the Polarstern, a powerful icebreaker ship that is frozen into fragile ice and carried across the Arctic by the Transpolar Drift. Away from the rest of the world, the team prepares for life under brutal conditions, constructing "cities" and "towns" on the ice where they will study the Arctic ecosystem, its atmosphere, ocean, sea ice, and more. A terrifying feat that had never been attempted before, the team of hundreds of scientists perform their research during terrifying storms, cracking ice floes, frost-bite, and even quarantines as Covid-19 sweeps the globe.But there are heartwarming moments, too, as Markus Rex describes Christmas parties on the ice and polar bears playing with scientific equipment like puppies. He muses on expeditions past, such as the ill-fated Franklin Expedition, and Fridtjof Nansen's Fram expedition, which he follows as a guide. And he explores answers to the pressing questions facing the Arctic today: How will climate change impact this precious ecosystem-and therefore the rest of the world? What is the best way to protect the Arctic? Interweaving history, science, and memoir, The Greatest Polar Expedition of All Time is a page-turner about the teamwork it takes to complete a risky goal, all in the name of understanding-and responding to-the climate crisis.

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Price: 16.95 EUR excl. shipping