Showing results for "History Wars" in Entertainment & Celebrity

Benedict Cumberbatch reads Ian Kelly’s biography of one of the most beguiling and controversial individuals of any age. In this fascinating biography of the notorious libertine, Ian Kelly draws on documents by Casanova, his friends and his lovers (male and female) in order to bring fresh...

With the nation at war in the 1940s, twenty-two-year-old Jack Valenti flew fifty-one combat missions as the pilot of a B-25 attack bomber with the 12th Air Force based in Italy. In the 1960s, with the nation reeling from the assassination of a beloved president and becoming embroiled in a far...

'A revealing account of the tricky reality behind TV's glamorous image' Daily Mail In the summer of 1992, Jason Salkey was cast in a role that would change his life forever. Sharpe’s Rifles, a Napoleonic war drama, was to be shot in the Crimean Peninsula. Little did the producers know that...

During a séance in 1924, Houdini―the greatest entertainer in the world―was cursed by a vengeful spirit, who said his days were numbered. Houdini laughed. He believed talking to the dead was impossible. By 1926, Houdini was dead. This is the untold story of the last performance of Harry Houdini, who―inspired by his hero Abraham Lincoln―devotes himself full-time to a personal crusade against Spiritualism, the practice of speaking to the dead.

Before the Second World War, Josephine Baker (1906-1975) was one of the most famous performers in the world. She made her name dancing on the Parisian stage, but when war broke out she decided not to return to America. Instead, Baker turned spy for the French Secret Services. In this engaging, deeply researched study, Hanna Diamond tells the full story of Baker’s actions for the French and Allied powers in World War Two.

Walt Whitman experienced first-hand the ravages of the Civil War as a volunteer nurse in the hospitals of Washington D.C. During that time, he filled notebooks with "impromptu jottings" that became the basis of two works: Drum-Taps, a collection of 71 poems, and Memoranda During the War, an intimate diary of his experience tending to the sick and dying during the war. These two historical works are presented here, narrated by acclaimed actor Bronson Pinchot.

The extraordinary life and legacy of legendary journalist Cokie Roberts—a trailblazer for women—remembered by her friends and family. Through her visibility and celebrity, Cokie Roberts was an inspiration and a role model for innumerable women and girls. A fixture on national television and...

Australian General Sir John Monash changed the way wars were fought and won. When the British and German High Commands of the First World War failed to gain ascendancy after four years of unprecedented human slaughter, Monash used innovative techniques and modern technology to plan and win a succession of major battles that led to the end of the Great War.But Australia's greatest military commander fought as many battles with those on his side as he did with his enemies.

History called on Harry Truman to unite the Western world against Soviet communism, but first he had to rally Republicans and Democrats behind America’s most dramatic foreign policy shift since George Washington delivered his farewell address. How did one of the least prepared presidents to...

With the nation at war in the 1940s, twenty-two-year-old Jack Valenti flew fifty-one combat missions as the pilot of a B-25 attack bomber with the 12th Air Force based in Italy. In the 1960s, with the nation reeling from the assassination of a beloved president and becoming embroiled in a far...

Brought to you by Penguin. In March 2022, Michael Palin travelled the length of the River Tigris through Iraq to get a sense of what life is like in a region of the world that once formed the cradle of civilisation, but that in recent times has witnessed turmoil and appalling bloodshed. It was a...