- Table View
- List View
The Dictator, the Revolution, the Machine: A Political Account of Joseph Stalin
by Tony McKennaIt is a commonplace wisdom that from the authoritarian roots of the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 grew the gulags and the police state of the Stalinist epoch. The Dictator, the Revolution, The Machine overturns that perspective once and for all by showing how October was inspired by a profound mass movement comprised of urban workers and rural poor -- a movement that went on to forge a state capable of channelling its political will in and through the most overwhelming form of grass-roots democracy history has ever known. It was a single, precarious experiment whose life was tragically brief. In a context of civil war and foreign invasion the fledgling democracy was eradicated and the Bolshevik party was denuded of its social basis -- the working classes. While the party survived, its centrist elements came to the fore as the power of the bureaucracy asserted itself. From the ashes of human freedom there arose a zombified, sclerotic administration in which state functionaries took precedence over elected representatives. One man came to embody the inverted logic of this bureaucratic machine, its remorseless brutality and its parasitic drive for power. Joseph Stalin was its highest expression, accruing to himself state powers as he made his murderous, heady rise to dictator. This book examines his historical profile, its roots in Georgian medievalism, and shows why Stalin was destined to play the role he did. In broader strokes Tony McKenna raises the conflict between the revolutionary movement and the bureaucracy to the level of a literary tragedy played out on the stage of world history, showing how Stalinism's victory would pave the way for the Midnight of the Century.
The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics
by Alastair Smith Bruce Bueno de MesquitaA groundbreaking new theory of the real rules of politics: leaders do whatever keeps them in power, regardless of the national interest.As featured on the viral video Rules for Rulers, which has been viewed over 3 million times.Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Alastair Smith's canonical book on political science turned conventional wisdom on its head. They started from a single assertion: Leaders do whatever keeps them in power. They don't care about the "national interest"-or even their subjects-unless they have to. This clever and accessible book shows that democracy is essentially just a convenient fiction. Governments do not differ in kind but only in the number of essential supporters, or backs that need scratching. The size of this group determines almost everything about politics: what leaders can get away with, and the quality of life or misery under them. The picture the authors paint is not pretty. But it just may be the truth, which is a good starting point for anyone seeking to improve human governance.
The Dictionary People: LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024
by Sarah Ogilvie**LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2024**'Enthralling and exuberant ... Here is a wonder-book for word-lovers' Jeanette Winterson‘A lively, entertaining, and illuminating read. I loved it’ Susie DentWhat do three murderers, Karl Marx's daughter and a vegetarian vicar have in common?They all helped create the Oxford English Dictionary.The Oxford English Dictionary has long been associated with elite institutions and Victorian men. But the Dictionary didn't just belong to the experts; it relied on contributions from members of the public. By 1928, its 414,825 entries had been crowdsourced from a surprising and diverse group of people, from astronomers to murderers, naturists, pornographers, suffragists and queer couples.Lexicographer Sarah Ogilvie dives deep into previously untapped archives to tell a people's history of the OED. Here, she reveals, for the first time, the full story of the making of one of the most famous books in the world - and celebrates the extraordinary efforts of the Dictionary People.** A Financial Times, TLS and Daunt Books Book of the Year 2023 **'Utterly fascinating, entertaining, astonishing and as clever as a box of monkeys ... I completely love it' Joanna Lumley'Full marks to Sarah Ogilvie... guaranteed to grab those of us obsessed with books, language and mystery' Financial Times'[An] astonishing book' Sunday Times'Touching ... The oddities [of language] enliven the book' Observer *Book of the Day*'[An] affectionate and accomplished book' TLS'Engaging' Spectator'Marvellous, witty and wholly original' Alan Rusbridger'Glorious and surprising' Richard Ovenden, Bodley's Librarian and author of Burning the Books‘A fascinating and delightful exploration of the Victorian world … Wonderful’ Nicola Shulman, TLS Podcast
Did I Ever Tell You?: The most moving memoir of 2024
by Genevieve Kingston'Compelling and heartbreaking' Ann NapolitanoA deeply moving memoir of a young daughter, her dying mother - and the trail of letters and gifts she left behind.'Her messages met me like guideposts in a dark forest; if her words couldn't point the way, at least they offered the comfort of knowing someone had been there before'Ten days before Gwen Kingston turned twelve, her beloved mother - with whom she shared a birthday - died. She left behind two chests - one for Gwen and one for her brother - filled with lovingly wrapped presents and letters marking the milestones she would miss: driver's licences, graduations and every one of their birthdays until the age of thirty. Each gift a chance to reach back into the past and, for the briefest moment, hear her voice again.Over the last twenty years, the chest of treasures has travelled with Gwen across a continent, from state to state and apartment to apartment, growing lighter with each passing birthday. And now, just three gifts remain . . .In this beautiful and heart-rending memoir, Gwen describes growing up in the shadow of loss, guided by what her mother left behind. Woven in is her mother's own story, and that of their whole family - tragedies foreseen and unforeseen, paths taken and not taken. It's about a mother's love for her daughter, but more than that, it is a story of marriage, family, inheritance and everything that shapes a life.
Did I Ever Tell You This?
by Sam Neill‘Just wonderful, so funny and charming. Sam Neill's lively, lovely book made me laugh out loud’ MERYL STREEPDead Calm The Hunt for Red October The Piano Jurassic ParkFor over forty years, Sam Neill’s name has been a hallmark of quality. From enduring blockbusters to arthouse and cult classics, his work has taken him all over the world, working with Hollywood’s greats.In Did I Ever Tell You This? he invites us in, sharing stories from an extraordinary life with heaps of charm, honesty and a good-humoured appreciation for the absurd.‘Sam Neill is a legend, and in this magnificent book he shares his stories of family, friends and film’ LAURA DERN‘Charming. A transparently lovely man, with a life hectically well lived’ Mail on Sunday‘A fabulously entertaining, insanely readable memoir’ STEPHEN FRY‘Really, really, really funny. There are some cracking stories’ LORRAINE KELLY‘I love this book. A real treat. Fantastic’ GRAHAM NORTON
Did She Kill Him?: A Victorian tale of deception, adultery and arsenic
by Kate ColquhounIn the summer of 1889, young Southern belle Florence Maybrick stood trial for the alleged arsenic poisoning of her much older husband, Liverpool cotton merchant James Maybrick. 'The Maybrick Mystery' had all the makings of a sensation: a pretty, flirtatious young girl; resentful, gossiping servants; rumours of gambling and debt; and torrid mutual infidelity. The case cracked the varnish of Victorian respectability, shocking and exciting the public in equal measure as they clambered to read the latest revelations of Florence's past and glimpse her likeness in Madame Tussaud's. Florence's fate was fiercely debated in the courtroom, on the front pages of the newspapers and in parlours and backyards across the country. Did she poison her husband? Was her previous infidelity proof of murderous intentions? Was James' own habit of self-medicating to blame for his demise? Historian Kate Colquhoun recounts an utterly absorbing tale of addiction, deception and adultery that keeps you asking to the very last page, did she kill him?
Did Ye Hear Mammy Died?
by Seamas O'Reilly'A gorgeous memoir' Pandora Sykes'Tender, sad and side-splittingly funny' Annie MacManus'A heartfelt tribute to an alarmingly large family held together by a quietly heroic father' Arthur Mathews, co-creator of Father Ted and Toast of LondonSéamas O'Reilly's mother died when he was five, leaving him, his ten brothers and sisters and their beloved father in their sprawling bungalow in rural Derry. It was the 1990s; the Troubles were a background rumble (most of the time), and Séamas at that point was more preoccupied with dinosaurs, Star Wars and the actual location of heaven than the political climate.Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? is a book about a family of argumentative, loud, musical, sarcastic, grief-stricken siblings, shepherded into adulthood by a man whose foibles and reticence were matched only by his love for his children and his determination that they would flourish. It is the moving, often amusing and completely unsentimental story of a boy growing up in a family bonded by love, loss and fairly relentless mockery.'Not only hilarious, tender, absurd, delightful and charming, but written with such skill as to render it unforgettable' Nina Stibbe, author of Reasons to be Cheerful 'Grotesquely funny' Sophie Heawood, author of The Hungover Games
Did You Ever Love Me?: Abused by the ones who were supposed to keep her safe
by Toni Maguire Cassie CookHow do you stop your past from determining your future? “It’s what daddies do with their little girls,” he explains, “every little girl does it. But it’s a secret, and you must not talk about it.”Cassie was too young to remember when her father started abusing her, but she remembers how unclean it made her feel. When she got married at sixteen and had a family of her own, she thought she’d finally escaped his clutches, but he found a way to make sure she could never move on. Turning to drink to cope, Cassie’s babies were taken into care and her husband left her. Now would begin the biggest challenge of her life: winning her children back and working to eclipse the pain of the past. This is the heartbreaking true story of a little girl that just wanted to be loved.
Did You Like That? Fred Dibnah, In His Own Words: Fred Dibnah, In His Own Words
by Don HaworthWhen Fred Dibnah debuted on television in 1979, British audiences immediately embraced a new cultural icon: a steeplejack from Bolton who fell in love with England's decaying industrial landscape and an exhaustive storyteller whose charm and wit was matched only by his down-to-earth manner. The Producer of that first film, Don Haworth, would go on to make nineteen films about this unlikely celebrity and true British eccentric.Did You Like That? collects the best stories from these films: colourful tales told by Fred himself, recounting key moments in his life, his experiences as a steeplejack, his fascination with machinery, his work as an engineer, craftsman, artist, inventor and steam enthusiast, and his forthright views on life in general.Told with true Northern grit, Did You Like That? is the story of a man who never shied away from a hair-raising challenge, and the closest thing to Fred's autobiography we're likely to get. In paperback for the first time, this is Fred's story, in his own words.
Did You Really Shoot the Television?: A Family Fable
by Max HastingsMax Hastings's account of his family's tumultuous 20th century experiences embraces the worlds of fashion and newspapers, theatre and TV, pioneering in Africa and even – his father's most exotic 1960 stunt – being cast away on a desert island in the Indian Ocean.
Diddly Squat: A Year on the Farm
by Jeremy ClarksonPull on your wellies, grab your flat cap and join Jeremy Clarkson in this hilarious and fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the farm we're all obsessed withWelcome to Clarkson's farm.An idyllic spot offering picturesque views across the Cotswolds, bustling hedgerows and natural springs, it's the perfect plot of land for someone to delegate the actual, you know, farming to someone else while he galivants around the world in cars.Until one day, Jeremy decided he would do the farming itself.After all, how hard could it be? . . .Faced with suffocating red tape, biblical weather, local objections, a global pandemic and his own frankly staggering ignorance of how to 'do farming', Jeremy soon realises that turning the farm around is going to take more than splashing out on a massive tractor.Fortunately, there's help at hand from a large and (mostly) willing team, including girlfriend Lisa, Kaleb the Tractor Driver, Cheerful Charlie, Ellen the Shepherd and Gerald, his Head of Security and Dry Stone Waller.Between them, they enthusiastically cultivate crops, rear livestock and hens, keep bees, bottle spring water and open a farm shop. But profits remain elusive.And yet while the farm may be called Diddly Squat for good reason, Jeremy soon begins to understand that it's worth a whole lot more to him than pounds, shillings and pence . . .Praise for Clarkson's Farm:'The best thing Clarkson's done . . . It pains me to say this' THE GUARDIAN'Shockingly hopeful' THE INDEPENDENT'Even the most committed Clarkson haters will find him likeable here' THE TELEGRAPH'Quite lovely' THE TIMES
Diddly Squat: The No 1 Sunday Times Bestseller
by Jeremy ClarksonThe seeds are being sown, the soil turned, the farm shop restocked - that's right, it's time for another riotous trip to Diddly Squat Farm with farmer-in-progress Jeremy Clarkson . . .Welcome back to Clarkson's Farm.At the end of Jeremy's first year in the tractor's driving seat, Diddly Squat farm rewarded him with a profit of just £144. So, while he's the first to admit that he's still only a 'trainee farmer'*, there is clearly still work to be done.Because while he's mastered the art of moaning about nearly everything, some of the other attributes required of a successful farmer prove more of a challenge.Who knew, for instance . . .That loading a grain trailer was more demanding than flying an Apache gunship? That cows were more dangerous than motor-racing? Or that it would have been easier to get planning permission to build a nuclear power station than to turn an old barn into a farm restaurant?But if the council planning department and the local red trouser brigade seem determined to frustrate his schemes at every turn, at least he's got Lisa, Kaleb, Cheerful Charlie and Gerald, his dry-stone-walling Head of Security to see him through.Life on Clarkson's Farm may not always go according to plan. There may not always be one. But there's not a day goes by when Jeremy can't say 'I've done a thing' and mean it . . .* generous, in Kaleb's view____________PRAISE FOR DIDDLY SQUAT'Clarkson has done more for farmers in one series than Countryfile achieved in 30 years' James Rebanks, author of A Shepherd's Life'Clarkson has showcased the passion, humour and personalities of the people who work throughout the year to grow the nation's food . . . and brought an understanding of many of the issues faced by farmers to the British public' National Farmers Union'A deserving Farming Champion of the Year' Farmers Weekly 'I don't know anything about farming. It's like David Attenborough doing jet-skiing, or Nicholas Witchell saying, "I'm going to be a cage fighter'" Jeremy Clarkson
Diddly Squat: Pigs Might Fly
by Jeremy ClarksonGet tucked in to a third bestselling helping of Clarkson's Farm from our favourite wellie-wearing wannabe farmer, Jeremy ClarksonWelcome back to Clarkson's Farm. Since taking the wheel three years ago Jeremy's had his work cut out. And it's now clear from hard-won experience that, when it comes to farming, there's only one golden rule:Whatever you hope will happen, won't.Enthusiastic schemes to diversify have met with stubborn opposition from the red trouser brigade, defeat at the hands of Council Planning department, and predictable derision from Kaleb - although, to be fair, even Lisa had doubts about Jeremy's brilliant plan to build a business empire founded on rewilding and nettle soup. And only Cheerful Charlie is still smiling about the stifling amount of red tape that's incoming . . . But he charges by the hour.Then there are the animals: the sheep are gone; the cows have been joined by a rented bull called Break-Heart Maestro;. the pigs are making piglets; and the goats have turned out to be psychopaths.But despite the naysayers and (sometimes self-inflicted) setbacks, Jeremy remains irrepressibly optimistic about life at Diddly Squat. Because It's hard not to be when you get to harvest blackberries with a vacuum cleaner.And, after all, it shouldn't just be Break-heart Maestro who gets to enjoy a happy ending . . .Diddly Squat, Number 1 Sunday Times bestseller, October 2022
The Didi Man
by Dietmar HamannA warm and highly entertaining account of Dietmar Hamman's personal story, The Didi Man was a Sunday Times bestseller on hardback publication. Dietmar 'Didi' Hamann is a complete one-off. The foreigner with a Scouse accent. The German who now plays cricket for his local village team. The overseas footballer turned anglophile who fell deeply in love with the city of Liverpool, its people and its eponymous football club. The classy midfielder had a long and distinguished playing career, but it was his seven seasons at Anfield that marked him out forever as a true Liverpool legend. His cult status was secured when he came off the bench at half-time during the 2005 Champions League final in Istanbul to inspire his team to a dramatic come-back and spectacular European glory. The Didi Man is Hamann's story of his time on Merseyside at a football club which will always have a very special place in his heart.
Didn’t You Use to Be Chris Mullin?: Diaries 2010–2022
by Chris Mullin“When I retired from Parliament in April 2010, I ceased keeping a diary, on the assumption that life would no longer be of sufficient interest to justify doing so. It soon became apparent that I was wrong…I am under no illusion, however. Despite the occasional moment in the sunshine, I have never been much more than a fleabite on the body politic. On a visit to Parliament a couple of years after retiring, I came across a former colleague. He peered at me over the top of his glasses and said, ‘Didn’t you use to be Chris Mullin?’”Picking up where he left off in 2010’s Decline and Fall, celebrated diarist Chris Mullin returns with his trademark irreverence and keen eye for the absurd to chronicle the turbulent last decade of the second Elizabethan era.Didn’t You Use to Be Chris Mullin? charts the collapse of New Labour, the long years of austerity politics, the highs and lows of Brexit, the rise and fall of Jeremy Corbyn and no fewer than four Tory Prime Ministers, culminating in the death of the Queen.Wise, witty and deeply perceptive, Mullin paints a vivid portrait of our recent political history.
Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge
by Rainer Maria RilkeThe Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge is Rilke’s major prose work and was one of the earliest publications to introduce him to American readers. The very wide audience which Rilke’s work commands today will welcome the reissue in paperback of this extremely perceptive translation of the Notebooks by M. D. Herter Norton. A masterly translation of one of the first great modernist novels by one of the German language's greatest poets, in which a young man named Malte Laurids Brigge lives in a cheap room in Paris while his belongings rot in storage. Every person he sees seems to carry their death within them and with little but a library card to distinguish him from the city's untouchables, he thinks of the deaths, and ghosts, of his aristocratic family, of which he is the sole living descendant. Suffused with passages of lyrical brilliance, Rilke's semi-autobiographical novel is a moving and powerful coming-of-age story.
Die Brug: Na die hel en terug in Angola
by Deon LamprechtIn vergeelde foto’s van drie dekades gelede staan oop gesigseuns vol bravade voor hul Ratel-gevegsvoertuie. Hierdie dienspligtiges van 61 Gemeganiseerde Bataljon Groep staan aan die begin van hul reis diep in Angola in om vir volk en vaderland te gaan veg.In ’n bloedige geveg op Valentynsdag 1988 en in die doods akker by Tumpo sou hul jeugdige onskuld egter sneuwel. In die hitte van die gevegte kom die besef: Nou gaan dit nie oor ideologie nie, maar om oorlewing.Ná die oorlog gaan die lewe voort, maar die vrae en geestelike letsels wyk nie. In 2018 keer ’n groep van dié ouddienspligtiges terug na Cuito Cuanavale op soek na afsluiting – en om die wrak te vind van die Ratel waarin ’n makker op die laaste dag van die oorlog gesterf het.Die Brug vertel van hul reis van jong man na veteraan en gee ook ’n stem aan die vroue in hul lewe. Dit is ’n verhaal van ontnugtering, maar ook van trotse kameraderie en genesing.
Die Leiden des jungen Werther -- Band 2
by Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheMost of The Sorrows of Young Werther is presented as a collection of letters written by Werther, a young artist of a sensitive and passionate temperament, to his friend Wilhelm. These give an intimate account of his stay in the fictional village of Wahlheim (based on Garbenheim, near Wetzlar),[citation needed] whose peasants have enchanted him with their simple ways. There he meets Charlotte, a beautiful young girl who takes care of her siblings after the death of their mother. Werther falls in love with Charlotte despite knowing beforehand that she is engaged to a man named Albert eleven years her senior.[3]
Die Walking: A Child's Journey Through Genocide
by Obadiah M.An unforgettable first-person account of surviving the Rwandan genocide and its aftermath Featuring a foreword by Globe and Mail Africa Bureau Chief Geoffrey York In 1994, Obadiah was the thirteen-year-old son of a Hutu pastor, living comfortably in Rwanda and dreaming of becoming a pilot, when violence and bloodshed began to engulf the country. His family soon fled their home, pursued by soldiers and stalked by death and hunger. As the genocide led into a horrific war, Obadiah was forced to survive unrelenting terror and the darkest despair as a refugee, both in neighbouring Zaire and eventually in the American refugee detention system. Obadiah was sustained through these horrors by his faith and the philosophy of ubuntu — finding one’s self through connection with others. In the spirit of Night by Elie Wiesel, Die Walking is one boy’s horrific story of shared humanity in a chaotic world.
Diego Costa: The Art of War
by Fran Guillén"Every setback, every fight, every goal. This is Costa uncovered" - Graham Hunter Summer 2014. Diego Costa has arrived for his first day as a Chelsea player and he has something he wants to say to his new team-mates. He's been practising a single, short sentence. Actually, a mission statement: "I go to war - you come with me." In The Art of War, Fran Guillén retraces every step of Costa's brutal, exhilarating journey: from street footballer in his home city of Lagarto, north-east Brazil, to La Liga winner at Atlético Madrid, through loan spells at Celta Vigo, Albacete, Valladolid and Rayo Vallecano, and finally to Premier League champion with Chelsea in 2015. Through exclusive interviews with coaches, team-mates, agents and friends, Spanish journalist Guillén uncovers the inside story of Costa's arrival in Portugal as a 17 year old and his move to Atlético Madrid where, under Diego Simeone, the player's goalscoring finally started to eclipse his fearsome reputation and saw his emergence as one of the world's greatest strikers. Then in 2014 Costa made the shock decision to defect from the Brazilian side and play for Spain in the World Cup. After a disastrous tournament, Costa joined Jose Mourinho's Chelsea and immediately dispelled the ghosts of Brazil by taking the Premier League by storm in an indomitable debut season at Stamford Bridge. This is an inspiring and insightful portrait of English football's new superstar. Let's go to war.
Diego Maradona: 1960 - 2020
by Harry HarrisThe death of Diego Maradona in November 2020 shocked the football world but he left behind a unique legacy following a playing career packed with amazing moments on the pitch and controversy off it.Award-winning football journalist Harry Harris gives his personal perspective on Maradona's life story as one of only a few British writers to have been granted access to arguably the world's greatest ever player.He is helped by World Cup winner Ossie Ardiles who was a close friend of Diego's for most of his life having first seen the boy wonder at close quarters performing football tricks in the warm-up at an international match in 1975 before Diego became a regular in the Argentina side. Harry has captured Ossie's personal recollections of his close friend in graphic detail, and has also compiled a selection of all the worldwide tributes that poured in after his death.As the Daily Mirror chief football writer and one of the most prominent sports journalists of his generation, Harris followed Diego's career with first-hand knowledge and experience. He was present in the Azteca stadium when Maradona scored the most controversial and then the greatest goal in World Cup history and was also at the press conference in Dallas in 1994 following a positive drug test.Harry is one of the few global journalists afforded a one-to-one interview with Diego and he gives an account of the remarkable and incredible personal circumstances surrounding that exclusive interview.
Diego Rivera: A Biography (Greenwood Biographies)
by Manuel Aguilar-Moreno Erika CabreraThis revealing biography covers the life and art of painter Diego Rivera.Diego Rivera: A Biography presents a concise but substantial biography of the famous and controversial Mexican artist. Chronologically arranged, the book examines Rivera's childhood and artistic formation (1886–1906), his European period (1907–1921), and his murals of the 1920s. It looks at the work he did in the United States (1930–1933) and follows his career from his subsequent return to Mexico through his death in 1957.Drawing from primary source materials, the book reveals facts about Rivera's life that are not well known or have not been widely discussed before. It explores his tempestuous marriage to renowned painter Frida Kahlo and looks at controversial works, such as Rivera's 1933 mural for the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan, which featured a portrait of Communist party leader Vladimir Lenin, and was officially destroyed the following year.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906-1945: Martyr, Thinker, Man of Resistance
by Ferdinand SchlingensiepenA new comprehensive biography of this hugely important Christian martyr, 60 years after his execution at the hands of the Nazis Bonhoeffer has gained a position as one of the most prominent Christian martyrs of the last century. His influence is so widespread that even 60 years after his execution by the Nazis, Bonhoeffer's life and work are still the subject of fresh and lively discussion. As a pastor and theologian, Bonhoeffer decided to resist the Nazis in Germany, but his resistance was not solely theological. He played a key leadership role in the Confessing Church, a major source of Christian opposition to Hitler and his anti-Semitism and was principal of the secret seminary at Finkenwalde in Pomerania.It was here that he developed his theological visions of radical discipleship and communal life. In 1938, he joined the Wehrmacht's "Abwehr", the German Military Intelligence Office, in order to seek international support for the plot against Hitler. Following his inner calling and conscience meant that Bonhoeffer was continually forced to make decisions that separated him from his family, friends, and colleagues, and which ultimately led to his martyrdom in Flossenbürg concentration camp, less than a month before the Second World War came to an end. His letters and papers from prison movingly express the development of some of the most provocative and fascinating ideas of 20th century theology.Sixty years after Bonhoeffer's death and forty years after the publication of Eberhard Bethge's ground breaking biography, Ferdinand Schlingensiepen offers a definitive new book on Bonhoeffer, for a new generation of readers. Schlingensiepen takes into account documents that have only been made accessible during the last few years - such as the letters between Bonhoeffer and his fiancée Maria von Wedemeyer. Schlingensiepen's careful narrative brings to life the historical events, as well as displaying the theological development of one of the most creative thinkers of the 20th century, who was to become one of its most tragic martyrs.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1906-1945: Martyr, Thinker, Man of Resistance
by Ferdinand SchlingensiepenA new comprehensive biography of this hugely important Christian martyr, 60 years after his execution at the hands of the Nazis Bonhoeffer has gained a position as one of the most prominent Christian martyrs of the last century. His influence is so widespread that even 60 years after his execution by the Nazis, Bonhoeffer's life and work are still the subject of fresh and lively discussion. As a pastor and theologian, Bonhoeffer decided to resist the Nazis in Germany, but his resistance was not solely theological. He played a key leadership role in the Confessing Church, a major source of Christian opposition to Hitler and his anti-Semitism and was principal of the secret seminary at Finkenwalde in Pomerania.It was here that he developed his theological visions of radical discipleship and communal life. In 1938, he joined the Wehrmacht's "Abwehr", the German Military Intelligence Office, in order to seek international support for the plot against Hitler. Following his inner calling and conscience meant that Bonhoeffer was continually forced to make decisions that separated him from his family, friends, and colleagues, and which ultimately led to his martyrdom in Flossenbürg concentration camp, less than a month before the Second World War came to an end. His letters and papers from prison movingly express the development of some of the most provocative and fascinating ideas of 20th century theology.Sixty years after Bonhoeffer's death and forty years after the publication of Eberhard Bethge's ground breaking biography, Ferdinand Schlingensiepen offers a definitive new book on Bonhoeffer, for a new generation of readers. Schlingensiepen takes into account documents that have only been made accessible during the last few years - such as the letters between Bonhoeffer and his fiancée Maria von Wedemeyer. Schlingensiepen's careful narrative brings to life the historical events, as well as displaying the theological development of one of the most creative thinkers of the 20th century, who was to become one of its most tragic martyrs.
A Difference of Opinion: The Autobiography of Jim Sillars
by Jim SillarsJim Sillars as a working-class schoolboy was told by the Deputy Rector at Ayr Academy that he would end up a ‘common labourer’, and by the Rector that he would ‘make nothing of himself’. He went on to be elected an MP twice, reaching high levels of political leadership, and making a continuing high-profile contribution to public life and policy. During a 60-year career in politics he moved from being a Labour MP and staunch Unionist – known as the hammer of the Nats – to becoming a prominent member of the SNP. He won the Govan by-election for the SNP, controversially became a columnist for the Scottish Sun, and when he lost his seat in 1992 notoriously described Scots as ‘90-minute patriots’.His 33-year marriage to Margo MacDonald and her involvement in nationalist politics is covered in the book. Though he is still a member of the SNP, both he and Margo clashed repeatedly with the SNP leadership, and he is now a sharp critic of the SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon and what he describes as the SNP’s cult of personality.