Download or read book The Ingenious Mr Pyke written by Henry Hemming and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2015-05-05 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The untold story of an enigmatic genius who changed warfare forever In the World War II era, Geoffrey Pyke was described as one of the world's great minds -- to rank alongside Einstein. Pyke was an inventor, adventurer, polymath, and unlikely hero of both world wars. He earned a fortune on the stock market, founded an influential pre-school, wrote a bestseller, and came up with the idea for the US and Canadian Special Forces. In 1942, he convinced Winston Churchill to build an aircraft carrier out of reinforced ice. Pyke escaped from a German WWI prison camp, devised an ingenious plan to help the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War, and launched a private attempt to avert the outbreak of the Second World War by sending into Nazi Germany a group of pollsters disguised as golfers. And he may have been a Russian spy. In 2009, long after Pyke's death, MI5 released a mass of material suggesting that Pyke was in fact a senior official in the Soviet Comintern. In 1951, papers relating to Pyke were found in the flat of "Cambridge Spy" Guy Burgess after his defection to Moscow. MI5 had "watchers" follow Pyke through the bombed-out streets of London, his letters were opened, and listening devices picked up clues to his real identity. Convinced he was a Soviet agent codenamed Professor P, MI5 helped to bring his career to an end. Henry Hemming is the first reporter to sift through this extraordinary new information and finally tell Pyke's astonishing story in full: his brilliance, his flaws, and his life of adventures, ideas, and secrets.

Download or read book Agents of Influence written by Henry Hemming and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2019-10-08 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The astonishing story of the British spies who set out to draw America into World War II As World War II raged into its second year, Britain sought a powerful ally to join its cause-but the American public was sharply divided on the subject. Canadian-born MI6 officer William Stephenson, with his knowledge and influence in North America, was chosen to change their minds by any means necessary. In this extraordinary tale of foreign influence on American shores, Henry Hemming shows how Stephenson came to New York--hiring Canadian staffers to keep his operations secret--and flooded the American market with propaganda supporting Franklin Roosevelt and decrying Nazism. His chief opponent was Charles Lindbergh, an insurgent populist who campaigned under the slogan "America First" and had no interest in the war. This set up a shadow duel between Lindbergh and Stephenson, each trying to turn public opinion his way, with the lives of millions potentially on the line.

Download or read book In Search of the English Eccentric written by Henry Hemming and published by John Murray Publishers. This book was released on 2008 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The English eccentric is under threat. In our increasingly homogenised society, these celebrated parts of our national identity are anomalies that may soon no longer fit. Or so it seems. On his entertaining and thought-provoking quest to discover the most eccentric English person alive today, Henry Hemming unearths a surprisingly large array of delightfully odd characters. He asks what it is to be an eccentric. Is it simply to thrive on creativity and non-conformity, and where does this incarnation of Englishness stem from? Hemming concludes that this tribe is, in fact, in rude health, as essential as ever to the English national identity, only they are no longer to be found where you'd expect them. Featuring interviews with Dame Vivienne Westwood, the Marquess of Bath, Pete Doherty, the modern-day reincarnation of King Arthur, the Leopard Man of Skye, Sebastian Horsley, Chris Eubank, Captain Beany and Brian Haw among others.

Download or read book The Last Days of Newgate written by Andrew Pepper and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2009-03-12 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A story of high intrigue and low politics, brutal murder and cunning conspiracies . . . tangy and rambunctious stuff!' Observer 'Gripping and atmospheric' Daily Express 'Enjoyably disturbing . . . likely to leave the reader clamouring for more' TLS St Giles, London, 1829: three people have been brutally murdered and the city simmers with anger and political unrest. Pyke, sometime Bow Street Runner, sometime crook, finds himself accidentally embroiled in the murder investigation but quickly realises that he has stumbled into something more sinister and far-reaching. In his pursuit of the murderer, Pyke ruffles the feathers of some powerful people and, falsely accused of murder himself, he soon faces a death sentence and the gallows. Imprisoned, and with only his uncle and the headstrong, aristocratic daughter of his greatest enemy to help, Pyke must engineer his escape, find the real killer and untangle the web of intrigue that has been spun around him. A story of intrigue, conspiracy and murder set in 19th-century Britain for fans of Antonia Hodgson, Ripper Street and Patrick Easter. 'The novel drips with all the atmospheric details of a pre-Victorian murder mystery - "pea-soupers", dingy lanterns and laudanum' The Times 'Pyke ia an intriguingly unfathomable character' Financial Times 'Pyke is violent, vengeful and conflicted in the best tradition of detectives. His story takes in grisly murder and torture, and uses 1800s London in the same way that hard-boiled fiction uses Los Angeles as a mirror of a corrupt society' Time Out

Download or read book Misadventure in the Middle East written by Henry Hemming and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2010-11-26 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Experience the tale of a hapless young artist, Yasmine the pick-up, and an extraordinary journey across the world.

Download or read book The Moscow Rules written by Antonio J. Mendez and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2019-05-21 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the spymaster and inspiration for the movie Argo, discover the "real-life spy thriller" of the brilliant but under-supported CIA operatives who developed breakthrough spy tactics that helped turn the tide of the Cold War (Malcolm Nance). Antonio Mendez and his future wife Jonna were CIA operatives working to spy on Moscow in the late 1970s, at one of the most dangerous moments in the Cold War. Soviets kept files on all foreigners, studied their patterns, and tapped their phones. Intelligence work was effectively impossible. The Soviet threat loomed larger than ever. The Moscow Rules tells the story of the intelligence breakthroughs that turned the odds in America's favor. As experts in disguise, Antonio and Jonna were instrumental in developing a series of tactics -- Hollywood-inspired identity swaps, ingenious evasion techniques, and an armory of James Bond-style gadgets -- that allowed CIA officers to outmaneuver the KGB. As Russia again rises in opposition to America, this remarkable story is a tribute to those who risked everything for their country, and to the ingenuity that allowed them to succeed.

Download or read book The Escape Artists written by Neal Bascomb and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2018-09-18 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This “fast-paced account” of WWI airmen who escaped Germany’s most notorious POW camp is “expertly narrated” by the New York Times bestselling author (Kirkus, starred review). During World War I, Allied soldiers might avoid death only to find themselves in the abominable conditions of Germany’s many prison camps. The most infamous was Holzminden, a land-locked Alcatraz that housed the most escape-prone officers. Its commandant was a boorish tyrant named Karl Niemeyer, who swore that none should ever leave. Desperate to break out of “Hellminden”, a group of Allied prisoners hatch an audacious escape plan that requires a risky feat of engineering as well as a bevy of disguises, forged documents, and fake walls—not to mention steely resolve and total secrecy. Once beyond the watchtowers and round-the-clock patrols, they are then faced with a 150-mile dash through enemy-occupied territory toward free Holland. Drawing on never-before-seen memoirs and letters, historian Neal Bascomb “has unearthed a remarkable piece of hidden history, and told it perfectly. The story brims with adventure, suspense, daring, and heroism” (David Grann, New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon).

Download or read book Agent M written by Henry Hemming and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2017-05-09 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fascinating, improbable true story of Maxwell Knight -- the great MI5 spymaster and inspiration for the James Bond character M. Maxwell Knight was perhaps the greatest spymaster in history. He did more than anyone in his era to combat the rising threat of fascism in Britain during World War II, in spite of his own history inside this movement. He was also truly eccentric -- a thrice-married jazz aficionado who kept a menagerie of exotic pets -- and almost totally unqualified for espionage. Yet he had a gift for turning practically anyone into a fearless secret agent. Knight's work revolutionized British intelligence, pioneering the use of female agents, among other accomplishments. In telling Knight's remarkable story, Agent M also reveals for the first time in print the names and stories of some of the men and women recruited by Knight, on behalf of MI5, who were asked to infiltrate the country's most dangerous political organizations. Drawing on a vast array of original sources, Agent M reveals not only the story of one of the world's greatest intelligence operators, but the sacrifices and courage required to confront fascism during a nation's darkest time.

Download or read book Off Screen written by Al Braithwaite and published by Booth-Clibborn. This book was released on 2004-09 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A year long journey (Sept. 02-Sept. 03) through Turkey, Iran, Kurdish Iraq, UAE, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Israel.

Download or read book Clockwork Heart written by Dru Pagliassotti and published by EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing. This book was released on 2017-05-15 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Flight is freedom, but death hangs in the skies....Taya soars over Ondinium on metal wings. She is an icarus, a courier privileged to travel freely across the city’s sectors and mingle indiscriminately amongst its castes. But even she cannot outfly the web of terrorism, loyalty, murder, and intrigue that snares her after a daring mid-air rescue. Taya finds herself entangled with the Forlore brothers, scions of an upperclass family: handsome, brilliant Alister, who sits on Ondinium’s governing council and writes programs for the Great Engine; and awkward, sharptongued Cristof, who has exiled himself from his caste and repairs clocks in the lowest sector of the city. Both hide dangerous secrets, in the city that beats to the ticking of a clockwork heart.Books in the Trilogy: - Clockwork Heart - Clockwork Lies: Iron Wind - Clockwork Secrets: Heavy Fire

Download or read book Abdulnasser Gharem written by Henry Hemming and published by Booth-Clibborn. This book was released on 2012-03-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents Saudi Arabian artist Abdulnasser Gharem (b. 1973), who is also a lieutenant colonel in the Saudi Arabian army. Gharem is a pioneer in the Middle East for his firebrand intellectual courage and innovative use of materials, including rubber stamps, a collapsed bridge, and an invasive tree. His story shows what it is to stand against the tide, to innovate, and to do so fearlessly, and it reveals what happens when a trickster positions himself both at the center of society and at its margins.

Download or read book Escape from Earth written by Fraser MacDonald and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2019-06-25 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The long-buried truth about the dawn of the Space Age: lies, spies, socialism, and sex magick. Los Angeles, 1930s: Everyone knows that rockets are just toys, the stuff of cranks and pulp magazines. Nevertheless, an earnest engineering student named Frank Malina sets out to prove the doubters wrong. With the help of his friend Jack Parsons, a grandiose and occult-obsessed explosives enthusiast, Malina embarks on a journey that takes him from junk yards and desert lots to the heights of the military-industrial complex. Malina designs the first American rocket to reach space and establishes the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. But trouble soon finds him: the FBI suspects Malina of being a communist. And when some classified documents go missing, will his comrades prove as dependable as his engineering? Drawing on an astonishing array of untapped sources, including FBI documents and private archives, Escape From Earth tells the inspiring true story of Malina's achievements--and the political fear that's kept them hidden. At its heart, this is an Icarus tale: a real life fable about the miracle of human ingenuity and the frailty of dreams.

Download or read book Together written by Henry Hemming and published by John Murray Publishers. This book was released on 2011-08 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Together is about the extraordinary revival of small groups in Britain today. What happens when a room full of people decide to work towards the same dream? Why is it that when we come together in small groups we are so much more than the sum of our parts? From druids to bingo-clubbers, eco-warriors to flash-mobbers, historical re-enactors to bee-keepers, books groups and knitting circles, W.I.s, Young Farmers and the fan-owners of a football club, Together reveals the true story of modern Britain. The country we live in is in fact an extraordinary composition of small groups powered by shared interests and common ideals. Hemming reveals a different way of seeing society, one that recognizes the massive, untapped potential of these hundreds of thousands of small groups, how they work and what they enable us to do that we can't do alone. Witty and provocative, Together gives us an extraordinary cast of characters, a series of unlikely alliances and most importantly, a vision of what we can achieve Together.

Download or read book Freud in Cambridge written by John Forrester and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-09 with total page 719 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors explore the influence of Freud's thinking on twentieth-century intellectual and scientific life within Cambridge and beyond.

Download or read book M written by Henry Hemming and published by Preface Publishing. This book was released on 2017-05-18 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Sittaford Mystery written by Agatha Christie and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-03-17 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sittaford Mystery is Dame Agatha at her most intriguing, as a séance in a snowbound house predicts a particularly grisly murder. In a remote house in the middle of Dartmoor, six shadowy figures huddle around a table for a seance. Tension rises as the spirits spell out a chilling message: "Captain Trevelyan . . . dead . . . murder." Is this black magic or simply a macabre joke? The only way to be certain is to locate Captain Trevelyan. Unfortunately, his home is six miles away and, with snowdrifts blocking the roads, someone will have to make the journey on foot. . . .

Download or read book Our Man in New York written by Henry Hemming and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2019-09-05 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A revelatory and wholly fascinating work of history. Superbly researched and written with gripping fluency, this lost secret of World War II espionage finally has its expert chronicler.' - WILLIAM BOYD 'Gripping and intoxicating, it unfolds like the best screenplay.'- NICHOLAS SHAKESPEARE 'This is excellent, surprising and timely. Henry is a proper talent.' - DAN SNOW 'This is a fascinating and gripping book, and deserves to be a big hit on both sides of the Atlantic.' - JOHN O'FARRELL 'In Hemming's sure hands, America's uncertain progress towards direct engagement in the second world war becomes riveting history.' - SPECTATOR 'A galloping story that Henry Hemming tells with clarity and aplomb.' - NEW STATESMAN The gripping story of a propaganda campaign like no other: the covert British operation to manipulate American public opinion and bring the US into the Second World War. When William Stephenson - "our man in New York" - arrived in the United States towards the end of June 1940 with instructions from the head of MI6 to 'organise' American public opinion, Britain was on the verge of defeat. Surveys showed that just 14% of the US population wanted to go to war against Nazi Germany. But soon that began to change... Those campaigning against America's entry into the war, such as legendary aviator Charles Lindbergh, talked of a British-led plot to drag the US into the conflict. They feared that the British were somehow flooding the American media with 'fake news', infiltrating pressure groups, rigging opinion polls and meddling in US politics. These claims were shocking and wild: they were also true. That truth is revealed here for the first time by bestselling author Henry Hemming, using hitherto private and classified documents, including the diaries of his own grandparents, who were briefly part of Stephenson's extraordinary influence campaign that was later described in the Washington Post as 'arguably the most effective in history'. Stephenson - who saved the life of Hemming's father - was a flawed maverick, full of contradictions, but one whose work changed the course of the war, and whose story can now be told in full.