Download or read book True Soldier Gentlemen written by Adrian Goldsworthy and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2011-01-27 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: '[A] Jane Austen-meets-Bernard Cornwell novel' Daily Mail Raw recruits march under the summer sun. But on distant shores a terrible event is about to sing its siren's song to the true soldier gentlemen of Britain. For it is 1808, and the Peninsular War is about to erupt . . . Meet the men of the 106th Foot, a new regiment staffed by young gentlemen who know nothing of war. William Hanley is in the army because he has no other livelihood. Hamish Williams, a man without money or influence, is hoping war will make his name. Their friend Billy Pringle believes the rigours of combat will keep him from the drinking and womanising that are his undoing. And for George Wickham, battle is simply another means of social climbing. When the band of four are plunged into a savage war against the veteran armies of Napoleon, they find their illusions shattered and their lives changed for ever as they face the brutality of the battlefield . . . Combining the vivid detail of a master historian with the engaging characters and pulsating action of a natural storyteller, True Soldier Gentlemen is perfect for fans of Bernard Cornwell, Patrick O'Brian, C.S. Forester, Allan Mallinson and Simon Scarrow. ********************* 'It's so well written, flows so well, that the detail does not drag you down . . . a fantastic read, well written, well laid out and absorbing from start to finish' Goodreads reviewer 'Having now read quite a few novels set during the Napoleonic Wars, I was extremely impressed by Adrian Goldsworthy's knowledge of the period and his ability to relate this to the reader without it reading like a history text' Goodreads reviewer

Download or read book Beat the Drums Slowly written by Adrian Goldsworthy and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2011-08-11 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second novel in a brilliant new Napoleonic series from acclaimed historian Adrian Goldsworthy. Second in the series begun by TRUE SOLDIER GENTLEMEN, the story takes our heroes through the winter snows as Sir John Moore is forced to retreat to Corunna. Faced with appalling weather, and pursued by an overwhelming French army led by Napoleon himself, the very survival of Britain's army is at stake. But while the 106th Foot fights a desperate rearguard action, for the newly promoted Hamish Williams, the retreat turns into an unexpectedly personal drama. Separated from the rest of the army in the initial chaos, he chances upon another fugitive, Jane MacAndrews, the daughter of his commanding officer, and the woman he is desperately and hopelessly in love with. As the pair battle the elements and the pursuing French, picking up a rag-tag band of fellow stragglers along the way - as well as an abandoned newborn - the strict boundaries of their social relationship are tested to the limit, with surprising results. But Williams soon finds he must do more than simply evade capture and deliver Jane safe and sound to her father. A specially tasked unit of French cavalry is threatening to turn the retreat into a massacre, and Williams and his little band are the only thing standing between them and their goal.

Download or read book All in Scarlet Uniform written by Adrian Goldsworthy and published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. This book was released on 2013-08-08 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fourth novel in a brilliant Napoleonic series from acclaimed historian Adrian Goldsworthy. The year is 1809, and the recruiting sergeants are hard at work, as the British army gathers strength for the next phase of the campaign against Bonaparte on the Spanish Peninsula. Captain Billy Pringle of the 106th Foot, however, has a somewhat more urgent reason to leave the country: having become embroiled in an ill-advised duel with a lieutenant in the 14th Light Dragoons, a posting to Spain would avoid any awkwardness for the regiment. Along with his friend Lieutenant Williams - whose sister Kitty was the cause of the duel - and the doughty veteran Sergeant Dobson, Pringle takes on the task of training Spanish troops to stand alongside their British allies. But what seems at first like easy duty soon turns into a desperate fight for survival as they find themselves besieged in the strategic fortress of Cuidad Rodrigo. For Bonaparte, taking the fortress will be the first step towards pushing the British back to the sea, and the task is entrusted to one of his most daring and successful generals, Marshal Ney. And Ney in his turn has found the perfect officer to lead the assault, a man not only desperate for advancement but also thirsting for revenge - a man whom Williams knows only too well.

Download or read book Vindolanda written by Adrian Goldsworthy and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-06-01 with total page 387 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gripping, authentic novel set in Roman Britain from bestselling historian, Adrian Goldsworthy. AD 98: VINDOLANDA. A FORT ON THE EDGE OF THE ROMAN WORLD. The bustling army base at Vindolanda lies on the northern frontier of Britannia and the entire Roman world. In just over twenty years time, the Emperor Hadrian will build his famous wall. But for now defences are weak as tribes rebel against Rome, and local druids preach the fiery destruction of the invaders. It falls to Flavius Ferox, Briton and Roman centurion, to keep the peace. But it will take more than just a soldier's courage to survive life in Roman Britain. This is a hugely authentic historical novel, written by one of Britain's leading historians. 'A thrilling and engrossing novel' HARRY SIDEBOTTOM.

Download or read book The True Soldier Jack Lark Book 6 written by Paul Fraser Collard and published by Headline. This book was released on 2017-07-13 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: JACK LARK: SOLDIER, LEADER, IMPOSTER. The sixth book in the dark historical military adventure series for fans of Bernard Cornwell, Ken Follet and Matthew Harffy. 'Brilliant' Bernard Cornwell 'Like all the best vintages Jack Lark has aged to perfection. Scarred, battered and bloody, his story continues to enthral' Anthony Riches 'Nobody writing today depicts the chaos, terror and brutality of war better' Matthew Harffy 'This ain't the kind of war you are used to. It's brother against brother, countryman against countryman' April, 1861. Jack Lark arrives in Boston as civil war storms across America. A hardened soldier, Jack has always gone where he was ordered to go - and killed the enemy he was ordered to kill. But when he becomes a sergeant for the Union army, he realises that this conflict between North and South is different. Men are choosing to fight - and die - for a cause they believe in. The people of Boston think it will take just one, great battle. But, with years of experience, Jack knows better. This is the beginning of something that will tear a country apart - and force Jack to see what he is truly fighting for. THE TRUE SOLDIER: JACK LARK BOOK 6 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ READERS CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF JACK LARK: 'Paul Fraser Collard does for the mid-19th-century what Bernard Cornwell's 'Sharpe' books did for the Napoleonic wars' 'This book is really extraordinary, the author's research and the descriptions of life in the military is first rate' 'I'm yet to have a single complaint about anything that Paul Collard has written' 'Such a thrilling story that capture the futility of war' 'A contender for best of the series'

Download or read book A Gentleman in Moscow written by Amor Towles and published by Random House. This book was released on 2017-01-09 with total page 547 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The mega-bestseller with more than 2 million readers Soon to be a Showtime/Paramount+ series starring Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander Rostov From the number one New York Times-bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway and Rules of Civility, a beautifully transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel 'A wonderful book' - Tana French 'This novel is astonishing, uplifting and wise. Don't miss it' - Chris Cleave 'No historical novel this year was more witty, insightful or original' - Sunday Times, Books of the Year '[A] supremely uplifting novel ... It's elegant, witty and delightful - much like the Count himself.' - Mail on Sunday, Books of the Year 'Charming ... shows that not all books about Russian aristocrats have to be full of doom and nihilism' - The Times, Books of the Year On 21 June 1922, Count Alexander Rostov - recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt - is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square and through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol. Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house arrest indefinitely. But instead of his usual suite, he must now live in an attic room while Russia undergoes decades of tumultuous upheaval. Can a life without luxury be the richest of all? A BOOK OF THE DECADE, 2010-2020 (INDEPENDENT) THE TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 A MAIL ON SUNDAY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 A DAILY EXPRESS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 AN IRISH TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S BEST BOOKS OF 2017 ONE OF BILL GATES'S SUMMER READS OF 2019 NOMINATED FOR THE 2018 INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLERS WEEK AWARD

Download or read book The Gentlemen and the Roughs written by Lorien Foote and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2010-06-01 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A seminal work” on class divisions within the Union Army—“One of the best examples of . . . scholarship on the social history of Civil War soldiers” (The Journal of Southern History). During the Civil War, the Union army appeared cohesive enough to withstand four years of grueling war against the Confederates and to claim victory in 1865. But fractiousness bubbled below the surface of the North’s presumably united front. Internal fissures were rife within the Union army: class divisions, regional antagonisms, ideological differences, and conflicting personalities all distracted the army from quelling the Southern rebellion. In this highly original contribution to Civil War and gender history, Lorien Foote reveals that these internal battles were fought against the backdrop of manhood. Clashing ideals of manliness produced myriad conflicts, as when educated, refined, and wealthy officers (“gentlemen”) found themselves commanding a hard-drinking group of fighters (“roughs”)—a dynamic that often resulted in violence and even death. Based on extensive research into previously ignored primary sources, The Gentlemen and the Roughs uncovers holes in our understanding of the men who fought the Civil War and the society that produced them. Finalist for the 2011 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize

Download or read book Gentlemen Volunteers written by Arlen J. Hansen and published by Arcade Publishing. This book was released on 1996 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This history of the American ambulance drivers corps during World War I is also a companion research reference to some of the greatest writers, editors, and philosophers of the 20th century. Young men from all parts of the country made starry eyed commitments to serving in Europe, finding a brutal reality for which Harvard or Yale had not prepared them. Among the most famous were John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, E.E. Cummings, Edward Weeks, and Malcolm Cowley. Hansen (English, U. of the Pacific) has gathered together letters, writings, and research to provide the historical landscape responsible for some of the best war literature ever produced. Includes photographs. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Download or read book Self Defense for Gentlemen and Ladies written by Colonel Thomas Hoyer Monstery and published by Blue Snake Books. This book was released on 2015-04-21 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This 19th-century self-defense manual—written by a master swordsman—will appeal to fencers and martial artists as well as fans of Victorian-era culture, steampunk, and American history Colonel Thomas Hoyer Monstery was a master swordsman who participated in more than fifty duels, fought under twelve flags, battled gangsters, and was constantly involved in the great conflicts and upheavals of his time. In the 1870s, he began writing his magnum opus—a series of newspaper articles that are now collected here for the first time in Self-Defense for Gentleman and Ladies. In this book, Colonel Monstery presents a unique look into the Victorian-era fighting world. He describes styles such as British “purring” (shin-kicking), Welsh jump-kicking, and American rough-and-tumble fighting, in addition to providing illustrated instruction in the art of gentlemanly self-defense with a cane, staff, or one’s bare hands. Fifty rare drawings and photographs from the period illuminate Monstery’s world, while an extensive glossary of terms and an introductory biography of Colonel Monstery—including fascinating details of his many duels as well as his groundbreaking devotion to teaching fencing and self-defense skills to women—update his text to make it accessible and useful to gentlemen and ladies of any era. Contents Colonel Thomas Hoyer Monstery: The Unknown American Martial Arts Master I. Introduction. II. The Logic of Boxing. III. Standing and Striking. IV. Advancing to Strike and Feinting. V. Simple Parries in Boxing. VI. Parries with Returns. VII. Effective or Counter Parries in Boxing. VIII. Offence and Defense by Evasions. IX. Trips, Grips, and Back-Falls. X. Rules for a Set-to with Gloves. XI. Observations on Natural Weapons. XII. The Use of the Cane. XIII. The Use of the Cane (continued). XIV. The Use of the Staff. XV. The Use of the Staff (continued). Appendix: Monstery's Rules for Contests of Sparring and Fencing Glossary

Download or read book This Man s Army written by Andrew Exum and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2004-06-03 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first combat memoir of the War on Terrorism: the gripping story of a young man’s transformation into a twenty-first-century warrior. Born into a family with a long history of military service dating back to the Revolutionary War, Andrew Exum enrolled in Army ROTC to pay for his Ivy League education. Shortly after graduation in 2000, he joined the infantry, then endured the grueling rigors of Ranger School before becoming a platoon leader with the storied 10th Mountain Division. He thought that perhaps, if he was lucky, he and his men would see action on a peacekeeping mission. Then came the fateful events of September 11, 2001. Called to action as a twenty-three-year-old, he led his troops into Afghanistan to root out the hard-core remnants of Osama bin Laden’s forces. Thrown into the maelstrom of modern war, Exum contended with Afghani warlords, cable news correspondents, and the military bureaucracy while hunting a desperate enemy in a treacherous land—and on a mountain ridge in the Shah-e-Kot Valley he would confront and kill an al-Qaeda fighter. After returning home, Exum struggled to come to terms with the media coverage and public perception of the war while seeking to make peace with the man he had become. By turns harrowing and reflective, this powerful memoir gives voice to a generation of soldiers that has risen to confront the threats of a dangerous new world.

Download or read book The Last Gentleman of the SAS written by John Randall and published by Random House. This book was released on 2014-03-27 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1945, John Randall was the first Allied officer to enter Bergen-Belsen – the concentration camp that would reveal the horrors of the Holocaust to the world. Randall was one of that league of extraordinary gentlemen handpicked for suicidally dangerous missions behind enemy lines in North Africa, Italy, France and Germany throughout the Second World War. He was a man of his class and of his times. He hated the Germans, liked the French and was unimpressed by the Americans and the Arabs. He was an outrageous flirt, as might be expected of a man who served in Phantom alongside film stars David Niven and Hugh Williams. He played rugby with Paddy Mayne, the larger-than-life colonel of the SAS and winner of four DSOs. He pushed Randolph Churchill, son of the Prime Minister, out of an aeroplane. He wined and dined in nightclubs as part of the generation that lived for each day because they might not see another. This extraordinary true story, partly based on previously unpublished diaries, presents a different slant on that mighty war through the eyes of a restless young man eager for action and adventure.

Download or read book Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune written by Rory Muir and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-14 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of younger sons in Regency England and how these “spares” supported themselves: “Illuminates the hard facts with vignettes of actual lives lived.” —The Spectator In Regency England the eldest son usually inherited almost everything—while his younger brothers, left with little inheritance, had to make a crucial decision: What should they do to make an independent living? Historian Rory Muir weaves together the stories of many obscure and well-known young men of good family but small fortune, shedding light on an overlooked aspect of Regency society. This is the first scholarly yet accessible exploration of the lifestyle and prospects of these younger sons.

Download or read book Last of the Blue and Gray written by Richard A. Serrano and published by Smithsonian Institution. This book was released on 2013-10-08 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Richard Serrano, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the Los Angeles Times, pens a story of two veterans. In the late 1950s, as America prepared for the Civil War centennial, two very old men lay dying. Albert Woolson, 109 years old, slipped in and out of a coma at a Duluth, Minnesota, hospital, his memories as a Yankee drummer boy slowly dimming. Walter Williams, at 117 blind and deaf and bedridden in his daughter's home in Houston, Texas, no longer could tell of his time as a Confederate forage master. The last of the Blue and the Gray were drifting away; an era was ending. Unknown to the public, centennial officials, and the White House too, one of these men was indeed a veteran of that horrible conflict and one according to the best evidence nothing but a fraud. One was a soldier. The other had been living a great, big lie.

Download or read book The Temporary Gentleman written by Sebastian Barry and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-04-28 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stunning new novel from the two-time Man Booker shortlisted author of The Secret Scripture. Sebastian Barry's latest novel, A Thousand Moons, is now available. Irishman Jack McNulty is a “temporary gentleman”—an Irishman whose commission in the British army in World War II was never permanent. Sitting in his lodgings in Accra, Ghana, in 1957, he’s writing the story of his life with desperate urgency. He cannot take one step further without examining all the extraordinary events that he has seen. A lifetime of war and world travel—as a soldier in World War II, an engineer, a UN observer—has brought him to this point. But the memory that weighs heaviest on his heart is that of the beautiful Mai Kirwan, and their tempestuous, heartbreaking marriage. Mai was once the great beauty of Sligo, a magnetic yet unstable woman who, after sharing a life with Jack, gradually slipped from his grasp. Award-winning author Sebastian Barry’s The Temporary Gentleman is the sixth book in his cycle of separate yet interconnected novels that brilliantly reimagine characters from Barry’s own family.

Download or read book Ordinary Men written by Christopher R. Browning and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2013-04-16 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The shocking account of how a unit of average middle-aged Germans became the cold-blooded murderers of tens of thousands of Jews.

Download or read book Gentlemen Bootleggers written by Bryce Bauer and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2014-07-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During Prohibition, while Al Capone was rising to worldwide prominence as Public Enemy Number One, the townspeople of Templeton, Iowa—population just 418—were busy with a bootlegging empire of their own. Led by the whip-smart and gregarious Joe Irlbeck, an outfit of farmers, small merchants, and even the church Monsignor together created a whiskey so excellent it was ordered by name: “Templeton rye.” However, a prohibition agent from the adjacent county named Benjamin Franklin Wilson was ardent in his fight against alcohol, and he chased Irlbeck for over a decade. But Irlbeck was not Capone, and Templeton would not be ruled by violence like Chicago. Gentlemen Bootleggers tells a never-before-told tale of ingenuity, bootstrapping, and perseverance, showcasing a group of criminals who embraced the American ideals of self-reliance, dynamism, and democratic justice. It relies on previously classified Prohibition Bureau investigation files, federal court case files, extensive newspaper archive research, and a recently disclosed interview with kingpin Joe Irlbeck. Unlike other Prohibition-era tales of big-city gangsters, it provides an important reminder that bootlegging wasn’t only about glory and riches, but could be in the service of a higher goal: producing the best whiskey money could buy. Bryce T. Bauer is a Hearst Award-winning journalist who has written for Saveur, the Daily Iowan, the Cedar Rapids Gazette, and other publications. He is coproducing and cowriting West Iowa Whiskey Cookers, a documentary on Prohibition-era bootlegging. He lives in New York City.

Download or read book A Gentleman s Murder written by Christopher Huang and published by Inkshares. This book was released on 2018-07-31 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring a half-Chinese detective protagonist, A GENTLEMAN'S MURDER is a must for those who love mysteries and reads like a Christie-esque whodunit with a modern eye toward the historical treatment of Chinese veterans and post-war racism.