Driven by a passion for travel and history and a love of ships and the sea, former Monty Python stalwart and beloved television globe-trotter Michael Palin explores the world of HMS Erebus, last seen on an ill-fated voyage to chart the Northwest Passage. Michael Palin brings the fascinating story of the Erebus and its occupants to life, from its construction as a bomb vessel in 1826 through the flagship years of James Clark Ross’s Antarct ...
Legend has it that bank robber Harry Longbaugh and his partner Robert Parker were killed in a shootout in Bolivia. That was the supposed end of the Sundance Kid and Butch Cassidy. Sundance tells a different story. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Longbaugh is very much alive, though serving in a Wyoming prison under an alias. When he is released in 1913, Longbaugh reenters a changed world. What hasn't changed are Longbaugh's ...
Gute Freunde, Gesundheit, Familie, Erfolg im Beruf und eine gluckliche Partnerschaft sind fur die meisten Menschen besonders wichtig. Aber gerade eine gluckliche und harmonische Partnerschaft wird oft durch Streitigkeiten und anderen vertrackten Ereignissen auf die Probe gestellt. Friedrich Glauser und Gerhard Acktun beschreiben in ihren teils amusanten, teils auch tiefsinnigen, mit einem Schuss Boshaftigkeit versehenden Kurzgeschichten die Abg ...
Who was King Arthur? That question has delighted, inspired, and confounded people for centuries. Was he a mighty warrior who united the kingdoms of Britain to fight off the Saxons and their allies after the Roman Legions withdrew? Was he the champion of chivalry who was involved in a love triangle that ended up destroying all that he had built? Was he a larger-than-life warrior surrounded by magical weapons and beings? Or was he just a man tryin ...
Early in the 4th century, a new doctrine threatened to split the Christian churches apart. The Roman Emperor Constantine I grew tired of the debate. He needed a unified church to control his empire in ways that his legions couldn't. In 325 AD, he called a meeting of Christian bishops at Nicaea to end the debate once and for all. The Council of Nicaea created the blueprint for the Christian Churches going forward, but was it the blueprint fo ...
In the days leading up to the War of Spanish Succession (also known as Queen Anne's War), a frigate from England's Navy is dispatched on a secret mission to the Americas. The Captain's orders are simple: stop the French and Spanish treasure fleets from reaching Europe and funding the coming war against England. How he is commanded to carry out those orders, however, is something no English Naval Officer had ever been ordered to do ...
Koln, 1376. Im ersten Teil ihrer spannenden Reihe uber die Erlebnisse der Begine Almut und des Paters Ivo erzahlt Andrea Schacht von einem Giftmord: Almut hat Jean, einem jungen Gast im Hause eines wohlhabenden Weinhandlers, ein Medikament verabreicht. Kurz darauf ist Jean tot. Vergiftet. Naturlich fallt der Verdacht auf die Begine. Nur mit Hilfe einiger guter Freunde schafft sie es, ein Komplott aufzudecken, das aus Habgier, Eifersucht und Lieb ...
Why is Cinco de Mayo—a holiday commemorating a Mexican victory over the French at Puebla in 1862—so widely celebrated in California and across the United States, when it is scarcely observed in Mexico? As David E. Hayes-Bautista explains, the holiday is not Mexican at all, but rather an American one, created by Latinos in California during the mid-nineteenth century. Hayes-Bautista shows how the meaning of Cinco de Mayo has shifted over time—it ...