Историческая литература - скачать книги или читать онлайн. Страница 165

A completely original history of one of the most extraordinary movements in the world – the Girl Guides – and how they helped win the war.The Girl Guides is one of the world's most extraordinary movements: millions of women have been members. But what have the Guides actually achieved, since they began 100 years ago? Do they do more than sell biscuits, sing around campfires, and tie knots? In this constantly surprising book, Janie Hampton shows that Girl Guides have been at the heart of women's equality since the early twentieth century – when they were garnering badges like Electrician and Telegraphist.Exploring modern-day girlhood through this very British institution's effect on global warfare, ‘How the Girl Guides Won the War’ reveals, for the first time, the dramatic impact that the Guides had on the Second World War. When the Blitz broke out, they dug bomb shelters, grew vegetables and helped millions of evacuated children adjust to new lives in the country. Many were taken as prisoners of war and survived concentration camps.Told by the Guides themselves ‘How the Girl Guides Won the War’ is packed with rich social history, fond and funny anecdotes, surprising archives, and the lingering taste of smoky tea in a tin mug. Providing a new slant on both the Guide movement, and World War II, Janie Hampton's remarkable book finally gives the Girl Guides the historical attention they deserve.

For fans of Barbara Erskine and Kate Morton comes an unforgettable novel about three women and the power one lie can have over history.London, 1662:There was something the Winter Queen needed to tell him. She fought for the strength to speak.‘The crystal mirror is a danger. It must be destroyed – ‘He replied instantly. ‘It will’.Ashdown, Oxfordshire, present day: Ben Ansell is researching his family tree when he disappears. As his sister Holly begins a desperate search, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to an ornate antique mirror and to the diary of Lavinia, a 19th century courtesan who was living at Ashdown House when it burned to the ground over 200 years ago.Intrigued, and determined to find out more about the tragedy at Ashdown, Holly’s only hope is that uncovering the truth about the past will lead her to Ben.‘Fans of Kate Morton will enjoy this gripping tale.‘– Candis

A hooker. A mistress. A murder. This town was built on sin.The town of Trinidad, Colorado was a tough place to be a woman in 1913. But it was the best place in the West to find one, if you had the cash.Honeyville, they used to call it.A murder throws Inez and Dora together – two women from opposite sides of town, in a town built for men. Against all odds, the well born girl and the high class hooker are drawn together in friendship…But this is a town that is rotten to the core, and beyond the rustling of silk skirts, the dancing and laughter, deadly unrest is building…Welcome to Honeyville – a town living by its own rules, where nothing is quite as it seemsA STORY INSPIRED BY A LOST CHAPTER IN AMERICAN HISTORY

From the internationally bestselling author of A Woman of Substance comes the continuing story of indomitable heroine, Emma HarteEmma Harte was the heroine of Barbara Taylor Bradford’s multi-million copy bestseller, A Woman of Substance.Now she is eighty years old and ready to hand over the reins of the vast business empire she has created.To her favourite grandchild, Paula McGill Fairley, Emma bequeaths her mighty retailing empire with these heartfelt words: ‘I charge you to hold my dream.’A towering international success, this is the powerfully moving tale of one woman’s determination to ‘hold the dream’ which was entrusted to her, and in so doing find the happiness and passion which is her legacy.

Paul Cohen’s sumptumous debut novel captures the high drama and low dealings that lie behind the polished facade of fin de siecle New York.He sang for his lifeShe lived for his loveMario Alfieri is the world's greatest tenor. He is also, if rumours are to be believed, the world's greatest lover. When he arrives in New York in 1894 to prepare for his first season at the Metropolitan Opera House, all Manhattan is aflame with excitement. Society hostesses compete for Alfieri's company. Everybody wants to hear him sing. Success, it seems, is assured. Until he meets Clara Adler. This bewitching orphan lives in the mansion of her late guardian, penniless, friendless and alone except for the unwelcome attentions of Thaddeus Chadwick, the lawyer who controls the estate. Mario and Clara fall hopelessly in love. But Chadwick is determined to keep Clara for himself and will stop at nothing to destroy all that Mario and Clara hold most dear. As Clara faces the unforgiving gaze of a world astonished that she has snared its most eligible bachelor, she is forced to confront her own dark secret and unravel the mysteries of a past she has tried hard to forget.

The second collection of stories from Yiyun Li, author of the Guardian First Book Award-winning A Thousand Years of Good Prayers and The Vagrants.The stories in this collection, like the stories in A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, are mostly set in China. The country portrayed here is the China of the 21st century, where economic development has led to new situations unknown to previous decades: residents in a shabby apartment building witnessing in awe the real estate boom; a local entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist sheltering women in trouble in her mansion; a group of retired women discovering fame late in their lives as private investigators specializing in extramarital affairs; a young woman setting up a blog to publicize an alleged affair of her father.Underneath the veneer of prosperity and opportunity, however, lie the struggles of characters trying to reorient themselves in the unfamiliar landscapes of modern China: a widower, reminiscing about his wife, confronts a young unmarried woman purchasing condoms in a pharmacy; a new wife makes a plea to have a baby with her husband who was to be executed only to discover that she has become an instant celebrity; a middle-aged couple in America, who, upon losing their only daughter, return to their hometown in China to hire a young woman as a surrogate mother. These characters' fates are affected as much by the historical moments in which they reside as by the choices they make.Yiyun Li's collection of stories is a report from the frontline of a changing world, and confirms Li to be an unmissable writer.

An alluring, exotic novel based on the life of the famous and much-painted courtesan, La Belle Phanariote. Perfect for fans of Painting Mona Lisa.‘Stories precede her. Whispers of delighted amusement at her exotic beauty, her mysterious past. Some swear she has been a Sultan’s odalisque. Others that she is a Greek princess. Princes praise her exquisite manners and her pleasing ways. And the King of Poland leads her in the polonaise.’Sophie, the Countess Potocki, is travelling with her entourage from St Petersburg to Paris, to consult with French doctors, when she stops at the Berlin palace of her friend, the Graf von Haefen.There, her whole extraordinary life during one of the most turbulent periods of European history comes back to haunt her – the many strands of her life, the many roles in which she has presented herself, the many biographies she has made up, the many lovers and protectors she has cherished and deceived. And still she continues to attempt to manipulate the lives of those around her.Brilliantly written, cleverly constructed with a strong cast of characters, both real and fictional, and vivid scenes, Garden of Venus is an alluring, sensuous and exotic saga which will delight readers of Tracy Chevalier, Philippa Gregory and Isabelle Allende.