‘A gripping new collection from Max Hastings that puts you at the heart of the battle … Compelling’ Daily Mail ‘An unmissable read’ Sunday Times Soldiers is a very personal gathering of sparkling, gripping tales by many writers, about men and women who have borne arms, reflecting bestselling historian Max Hastings’s lifetime of studying war. It rings the changes through the centuries, between the heroic, tragic and comic; the famous and the humble. The nearly 350 stories illustrate vividly what it is like to fight in wars, to live and die as a warrior, from Greek and Roman times through to recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here you will meet Jewish heroes of the Bible, Rome’s captain of the gate, Queen Boudicca, Joan of Arc, Cromwell, Wellington, Napoleon’s marshals, Ulysses S. Grant, George S. Patton and the modern SAS. There are tales of great writers who served in uniform including Cobbett and Tolstoy, Edward Gibbon and Siegfried Sassoon, Marcel Proust and Evelyn Waugh, George Orwell and George MacDonald Fraser. Here are also stories of the female ‘abosi’ fighters of Dahomey and heroic ambulance drivers of World War I, together with the new-age women soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The stories reflect a change of mood towards warfare through the ages: though nations and movements continue to inflict terrible violence upon each other, most of humankind has retreated from the old notion of war as a sport or pastime, to acknowledge it as the supreme tragedy. This is a book to inspire in turn fascination, excitement, horror, amazement, occasionally laughter. Max Hastings mingles respect for the courage of those who fight with compassion for those who become their victims, above all civilians, and especially in the twenty-first century, which some are already calling ‘the Post-Heroic Age’.
CONTRIBUTORS: Max HastingsEAN: 9780008454234COUNTRY: United KingdomPAGES: WEIGHT: 720 gHEIGHT: 234 cm
PUBLISHED BY: HarperCollins PublishersDATE PUBLISHED: CITY: GENRE: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Military, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Survival, HISTORY / Ancient / General, HISTORY / Military / General, HISTORY / Modern / 20th CenturyWIDTH: 153 cmSPINE:
Book Themes:
United Kingdom, Great Britain, English, CE period up to c 1500, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, True war and combat stories, Military history
‘[Stories] of breathtaking derring-do … A gripping new collection from Max Hastings that puts you at the heart of the battle … In his powerful new book, Soldiers: Great Stories Of War And Peace, he has collected first-person accounts that illustrate in searing detail and immediacy all the violence, grief, pathos, black humour and courage of conflict. In these compelling extracts, a young officer agonises over his decision to leave a dying comrade, a badly wounded Gurkha gets back into battle, and a legendary field marshal is executed by his own side’Daily Mail
‘These accounts show the reality of military life … A pointillist portrait of enthralling sensitivity … stories tumble from the pages of this book like gems from a pirate’s chest … The anecdotes about female soldiers in this book are fascinating’Gerard DeGroot, The Times
‘An unmissable read … A brilliant, wide-ranging anthology … The book ambly proves Max Hastings’s contention that “all generalisations about soldiers fail” and that “they come in as many sorts and conditions as does the rest of humanity” … The sheer variety of voices for which Hastings has found room is impressive … The most famous names of military history, from Julius Caesar to Erwin Rommel, have their places, yet some of the most compelling tales are those of ordinary, often reluctant warriors. For all those who share Hastings’s “fascination with wars and those who have fought through the ages”, Soldiers is an unmissable collection’Sunday Times
‘A delightful book, which can be dipped into anywhere and which will provide enormous enjoyment to all those who are interested in how people react to war’Aspects of History
‘A fascinating collection of military stories … The sort of book that can be picked up at intervals … [but] once tasted, is hard to put down’Washington Post
Max Hastings is the author of twenty-nine books, most about conflict, and between 1986 and 2002 served as editor-in-chief of the Daily Telegraph, then editor of the Evening Standard. He has won many prizes both for journalism and his books, of which the most recent are All Hell Let Loose, Catastrophe and The Secret War, bestsellers translated around the world. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Fellow of King’s College, London and was knighted in 2002. He has two grown-up children, Charlotte and Harry, and lives with his wife Penny in West Berkshire, where they garden enthusiastically.
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‘A gripping new collection from Max Hastings that puts you at the heart of the battle … Compelling’ Daily Mail ‘An unmissable read’ Sunday Times Soldiers is a very personal gathering of sparkling, gripping tales by many writers, about men and women who have borne arms, reflecting bestselling historian Max Hastings’s lifetime of studying war. It rings the changes through the centuries, between the heroic, tragic and comic; the famous and the humble. The nearly 350 stories illustrate vividly what it is like to fight in wars, to live and die as a warrior, from Greek and Roman times through to recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here you will meet Jewish heroes of the Bible, Rome’s captain of the gate, Queen Boudicca, Joan of Arc, Cromwell, Wellington, Napoleon’s marshals, Ulysses S. Grant, George S. Patton and the modern SAS. There are tales of great writers who served in uniform including Cobbett and Tolstoy, Edward Gibbon and Siegfried Sassoon, Marcel Proust and Evelyn Waugh, George Orwell and George MacDonald Fraser. Here are also stories of the female ‘abosi’ fighters of Dahomey and heroic ambulance drivers of World War I, together with the new-age women soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The stories reflect a change of mood towards warfare through the ages: though nations and movements continue to inflict terrible violence upon each other, most of humankind has retreated from the old notion of war as a sport or pastime, to acknowledge it as the supreme tragedy. This is a book to inspire in turn fascination, excitement, horror, amazement, occasionally laughter. Max Hastings mingles respect for the courage of those who fight with compassion for those who become their victims, above all civilians, and especially in the twenty-first century, which some are already calling ‘the Post-Heroic Age’.
CONTRIBUTORS: Max HastingsEAN: 9780008454234COUNTRY: United KingdomPAGES: WEIGHT: 720 gHEIGHT: 234 cm
PUBLISHED BY: HarperCollins PublishersDATE PUBLISHED: CITY: GENRE: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Military, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Survival, HISTORY / Ancient / General, HISTORY / Military / General, HISTORY / Modern / 20th CenturyWIDTH: 153 cmSPINE:
Book Themes:
United Kingdom, Great Britain, English, CE period up to c 1500, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, True war and combat stories, Military history
Max Hastings is the author of twenty-nine books, most about conflict, and between 1986 and 2002 served as editor-in-chief of the Daily Telegraph, then editor of the Evening Standard. He has won many prizes both for journalism and his books, of which the most recent are All Hell Let Loose, Catastrophe and The Secret War, bestsellers translated around the world. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Fellow of King’s College, London and was knighted in 2002. He has two grown-up children, Charlotte and Harry, and lives with his wife Penny in West Berkshire, where they garden enthusiastically.
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Naval's insights in this book are simple yet powerful.
This book is like a guide to living well. It’s easy to read, but the ideas are deep and make you see things in a new light. Definitely a book you should keep in your bookshelf!
Kruhan Malherbe is ’n tipiese twaalfjarige wat saam met sy ouers in met ’n ou Pajero en ’n karavaan van plek tot plek deur Suid-Afrika reis en vir tye staan in karavaanparke. Die storielyn is heel kontemporêr in terme van sy ouers se beroepe wat hulle aanlyn kan beoefen en Kruhan wat ’n internasionale skoolsyllabus volg. En ook tipies van ’n knaap van sy ouderdom, volg hy nie altyd opdragte en waarskuwings nie, en is hy soms krities, teleurgesteld en verveeld met sy ouers.
Die storie skop af wanneer die gesin by Kebospark kamp opslaan, ’n vervalle karavaanpark waar vreemde karakters woon. Gou blyk dit dat die rietbos, die strandmeer en die nagapies buitengewoon is. Die skrywer verweef die magiese, die mitiese en spanningselemente vernuftig om met ’n boeiende storielyn vorendag te kom. Ek is baie ouer as die aanbevole lesers van 12 jaar en ouer, maar ek het sommer baie gretig gelees aan hierdie jeugverhaal.
In kinder- en jeugverhale soek ek altyd na brokkies lewenswysheid wat aan die lesers oorgedra kan word deur middel van ’n storie. Geheim in die riete slaag puik daarin. Wat is meer heilsaam as ‘n seun wat dapper verantwoordelikheid aanvaar vir ander se veiligheid, wat misleiding raaksien en na waarde beoordeel, en besef hoe belangrik sy ouers in werklikheid vir hom is.
Constant van Graan het bekendheid verwerf vir sy Jungu Josh reeks en aanhangers behoort hierdie nuwe boek ook te geniet.
“Enigeen kan ’n moordenaar wees. Al wat dit vat, is ’n goeie rede, en ’n slegte dag.” (p. 25) Sommer vroeg-vroeg moes ek heelhartig saamstem met hierdie sentiment van adjudant-offisier Lisamore Talakase. Ek het om die beurt ’n hele paar van die uitgebreide aanbieding van karakters oorweeg as die moordenaar, selfs die moontlikheid ondersteun dat daar inderdaad meer as een moordadige sluiper los is in Hermanus. Die tienermoorde en die ander moorde hou duidelik nie verband nie.
Koloner Bekeer se taakspan, bestaande uit Talakase, Werner de Wege en die vermaaklike Johnny Delport, maak nie hond haaraf van die twee reekse moorde nie. Die hulp van kaptein Stephan Schutte word ook ingeroep. Laasgenoemde se IT-vernuf sorg weliswaar vir ’n paar deurbrake. Die tienermoordenaar word redelik vroeg ontmasker, maar die storielyn verloor nie momentum nie. Die ander moorde sorg dat die spanningslyn geensins verslap nie.
Wegkruiper is die tipiese boek wat mens heeltemal te vinnig lees omdat jy agter die kap van die byl wil kom. Die skrywer het geduldig omgegaan met die detail van destydse gebeure wat die karakters verbind asook met die moordenaar se makabere motivering is die wreedaardige slagtings.
Christelle Wessels se vorige boeke, Adder en Brandmerk, het ek nie gelees nie, maar ek is seker dat Wegkruiper ’n stewige posisie gaan inneem onder spanningsromans. Dit is net-net aanvaarbaar vir hierdie ietwat sensitiewe leser!
Wegkruiper is uitgegee deur Penguinbooks SA
A Crown of Chains was my introduction into the literary world of Closed Door Romance books. I loved every minute of it. The characters were well written, the story made my pulse race and the main character was so strong. Loved it!