Giles Milton

Milton makes an impressive fiction debut with this comic thriller set in 1969. Edward Trencom, the owner and operator of London's pre-eminent cheese emporium, holds the title Life President of the Most Worshipful Company of Cheese Connoisseurs. During a tour group's visit to his shop, a mysterious Greek gentleman accosts Edward and prompts him to explore his family history. To his dismay, Edward discovers that many of his ancestors met violent and suspicious ends.

The tiny island of Run is an insignificant speck in the Indonesian archipelago--remote, tranquil, and, these days, largely ignored. Yet 370 years ago, Run's harvest of nutmeg (yielding a 3,200% profit by the time it arrived in England) made it the most lucrative of the Spice Islands, precipitating a battle between the Dutch East India Company and the British Crown. The outcome was that Britain ceded Run to Holland but in return was given Manhattan--leading to the birth of New York and to the beginning of the British Empire. This deal was due to the persistence of one man: Nathaniel Courthope and his small band of adventurers were sent to Run in October 1616, and held off the Dutch navy for four years. This book centers on the showdown between Courthope and the Dutch Governor General, and the brutal fate of mariners racing to Run to reap the huge profits of the spice trade.--From publisher description. "The tiny island of Run is an insignificant speck in the middle of the Indonesian archipelago."--BOOK JACKET. "Yet, 370 years ago, Run's harvest of nutmeg (a pound of which yielded a 3200% profit by the time it arrived in England) turned it into the most lucrative of the Spice Islands, precipitating a battle between the all-powerful Dutch East India Company and the British crown. The outcome of the fighting was one of the most spectacular deals in history: Britain ceded Run to Holland but in return was given Manhattan. This led not only to the birth of New York but to the beginning of the British Empire."--BOOK JACKET. "Such a deal was due, in part, to the persistence of one man. Nathaniel Courthope and his small band of adventurers were sent to Run in October 1616 and for four years held off the massive Dutch Navy, Nathaniel's Nutmeg centers on the remarkable showdown between Courthope and the Dutch Governor General, Jan Coen, and the brutal fate of the mariners racing to Run - and the other corners of the globe - to reap the huge profits of the spice trade."--BOOK JACKET.

Reveals the life of the medieval knight whose accounts of journeys to Jerusalem, India, China, Tibet, and Sumatra inspired explorers and writers, but who was later discredited and ignored.

The definitive account of the Normandy invasion by the bestselling author of Stalingrad and The Fall of Berlin 1945From critically acclaimed world historian, Antony Beevor, this is the first major account in more than twenty years to cover the whole invasion from June 6, 1944, right up to the liberation of Paris on August 25. It is the first book to describe not only the experiences of the American, British, Canadian, and German soldiers, but also the terrible suffering of the French caught up in the fighting. More French civilians were killed by Allied bombing and shelling than British civilians were by the Luftwaffe.The Allied fleet attempted by far the largest amphibious assault ever, and what followed was a battle as savage as anything seen on the Eastern Front. Casualties mounted on both sides, as did the tensions between the principal commanders. Even the joys of liberation had their darker side. The war in northern France marked not just a generation, but the whole of the postwar world, profoundly influencing relations between America and Europe. Beevor draws upon his research in more than thirty archives in six countries, going back to original accounts, interviews conducted by combat historians just after the action, and many diaries and letters donated to museums and archives in recent years.D-Day will surely be hailed as the consummate account of the Normandy invasion and the ferocious offensive that led to the liberation of Paris.

"Obscure and addictive true tales from history told by one of our most entertaining historians, Giles Milton. The first installment in Giles Milton's outrageously entertaining series, History's Unknown Chapters: colorful and accessible, intelligent and illuminating, Milton shows his customary historical flair as he delves into the little-known stories from the past.There's the cook aboard the Titanic, who pickled himself with whiskey and survived in the icy seas where most everyone else died. There's the man who survived the atomic bomb in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And there's many, many more. Covering everything from adventure, war, murder and slavery to espionage, including the stories of the female Robinson Crusoe, Hitler's final hours, Japan's deadly balloon bomb and the emperor of the United States, these tales deserve to be told"--

"In 1917, a band of communist revolutionaries stormed the Winter Palace of Tsar Nicholas II, a dramatic and explosive act marking that Vladimir Lenin's communist revolution was now underway. But Lenin would not be satisfied with overthrowing the Tsar. His goal was a global revolt that would topple all Western capitalist regimes starting with the British Empire. This book tells the story of the British spies in revolutionary Russia and their mission to stop Lenin's red tide from washing across the free world. They were an eccentric cast of characters, led by Mansfield Cumming, a one-legged, monocle-wearing former sea captain, and included novelist W. Somerset Maugham, beloved children's author Arthur Ransome, and the dashing, ice-cool Sidney Reilly, the legendary Ace of Spies and a model for Ian Fleming's James Bond. Cumming's network would pioneer the field of covert action and would one day become Britain's Military Intelligence 6 (MI -6) -- From book jacket.

Meet Arnold Trevellyan - charismatic, exuberant and somewhat strange. His love of mushrooms is matched only by a passion for Flora, his wife of twelve years. One day, while searching for mushrooms, Arnold makes a wondrous discovery that will turn his world upside down. He abandons Flora and heads to the South Pacific where he finds himself marrying the queen of a remote tropical island. But all is not as it seems in Arnold's idyllic realm. In a series of cassettes to his oldest friend, he reveals he is trapped in an international conspiracy in which mushrooms hold the key to life or death.

The true story behind James Clavell's best-selling Shogun, Samurai William is the incredible tale of a man who tried to bridge two very different cultures during one of the earliest and most fascinating encounters between East and West. In 1611, the merchants of London's East India Company received a startling letter from Japan, written by a marooned English mariner named William Adams. Even though foreigners had been denied access to this unknown land for centuries, Adams had been living there for years. He had taken a Japanese name, risen to the highest levels in the ruling shogun's court, and was now offering his services as adviser and interpreter. Seven adventurers were sent to Japan with orders to find and befriend Adams in the belief that he held the key to exploiting the riches to be discovered there. But, overwhelmed by the exotic attractions of this new and forbidden country, and failing to grasp the intricacies of a culture so different from their own, the Englishmen quickly found themselves at odds with the ruling shogun. For more than a decade, the English, helped by Adams, attempted trade with the shogun. Faced with the difficulties of communicating, and hounded by scheming Jesuit monks and fearsome Dutch assassins, they eventually found themselves in a desperate battle for their lives. - Jacket flap.

"The lively, immersive story of the race to seize Berlin in the aftermath of World War II that fired the starting gun for the Cold War"-- After the 1945 Yalta Conference, Berlin-- along with the rest of Germany-- was to be carved up among the victorious powers. On paper, it seemed a pragmatic solution. In reality, once the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union were no longer united by the common purpose of defeating Germany, they wasted little time reverting to their prewar hostility toward one another. Milton introduces readers to individuals like America's explosive Frank "Howlin' Mad" Howley, a brusque sharp-tongued colonel with loathing for all Russians. Howley fought an intensely personal battle against his nemesis, General Alexander Kotikov, commandant of the Soviet sector. They were flawed individuals who were determined to win, and Milton shows that they had a shaping force on the modern world- one that's still felt today. -- adapted from jacket

In this collection of obscure and addictive true tales from history, Milton presents outrageously unbelievable-- yet true-- stories from history. There's the Russian scientist who attempted to produce a human-ape hybrid; the family who survived thirty-eight days at sea after their ship was destroyed by a killer whale; and Churchill ordered the test of biological weapons using sheep on a small Scottish island.