Engelska

As winter comes and the hours of darkness overtake the light, we seek out warmth, good food, and good company. But beneath the jollity and bright enchantment of the festive season, there lurks a darker mood - one that has found expression over the centuries in a host of strange and unsettling traditions and lore. Here, Sarah Clegg takes us on a journey through midwinter to explore the lesser-known Christmas traditions, from English mummers plays and Austrian Krampus runs, to modern pagan rituals at Stonehenge and the night in Finland when a young girl is crowned with candles as St Lucy - a martyred Christian girl who also appears as a witch leading a procession of the dead. At wassails and hoodenings and winter gatherings, attended by ghastly, grinning horses, snatching monsters and mysterious visitors, we discover how these traditions originated and how they changed through the centuries, and we ask ourselves: if we can't keep the darkness entirely at bay, might it be fun to let a little in?

In this new historical investigation, German historian Jens Weste-meier portrays the rise and fall of an SS war criminal, and demolishes persistent myths of a Nazi icon. The picture revealed here is at odds with the popular Peiper mythology created by wartime and contemporary National Socialist propaganda, novels, motion pictures, and right-wing Peiper biographies. Using primary sources and personal interviews, a compelling image of the SS colonel emerges. The result is a highly readable and scholarly account with the first complete picture of Joachim Peiper. Now, a previously little understood Waffen-SS icon comes to life in a book that is at once an important contribution for our understanding of World War II history, as well as the place of the Waffen-SS in Hitler's Third Reich.

<p>"Thoroughly engrossing . . . a spirited, suspenseful, economically told tale whose significance is manifest and whose pace never flags." -The Wall Street Journal   </p><p>From The New York Times-bestselling author of The Ghost Map and Extra Life, the story of a pirate who changed the world </p><p>Henry Every was the seventeenth century's most notorious pirate. The press published wildly popular-and wildly inaccurate-reports of his nefarious adventures. The British government offered enormous bounties for his capture, alive or (preferably) dead. But Steven Johnson argues that Every's most lasting legacy was his inadvertent triggering of a major shift in the global economy. Enemy of All Mankind focuses on one key event-the attack on an Indian treasure ship by Every and his crew-and its surprising repercussions across time and space. It's the gripping tale of one of the most lucrative crimes in history, the first international manhunt, and the trial of the seventeenth century. </p><p>Johnson uses the extraordinary story of Henry Every and his crimes to explore the emergence of the East India Company, the British Empire, and the modern global marketplace: a densely interconnected planet ruled by nations and corporations. How did this unlikely pirate and his notorious crime end up playing a key role in the birth of multinational capitalism? In the same mode as Johnson's classic nonfiction historical thriller The Ghost Map, Enemy of All Mankind deftly traces the path from a single struck match to a global conflagration.</p>

<b>WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST FACT CRIME<br/>SHORTLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN NON-FICTION<br/>SHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION<br/>**SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE DIRECTED BY MARTIN SCORSESE STARRING LEONARDO DICAPRIO AND ROBERT DE NIRO**</b><br/><br/>'<b>A riveting true story</b> of greed, serial murder and racial injustice'<b> JON KRAKAUER</b><br/>'<b>A fiercely entertaining mystery</b><b> story </b>and a wrenching exploration of evil'<b> KATE ATKINSON</b><br/>'<b>A fascinating account </b>of a tragic and forgotten chapter in the history of the American West' <b>JOHN GRISHAM </b><br/><br/><b>From the bestselling author of <i>The Lost City of Z, </i>now a major film starring Charlie Hunnam, Sienna Miller and Robert Pattison, <i>and the Number One international bestseller The Wager</i>, </b>comes a true-life murder story which became one of the FBI's first major homicide investigations.<br/><br/>In the 1920s, the richest people per capita in the world were members of the Osage Indian nation in Oklahoma. After oil was discovered beneath their land, they rode in chauffeured automobiles, built mansions and sent their children to study in Europe.<br/><br/>Then, one by one, the Osage began to be killed off. <b>As the death toll climbed</b>, <b>the FBI took up the case</b>. But the bureau badly bungled the investigation. In desperation, its young director, J. Edgar Hoover, turned to a former Texas Ranger named Tom White to unravel the mystery. Together with the Osage he and his undercover team began to expose <b>one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history</b>.<br/><br/>'<b>David Grann has a </b><b>razor-keen instinct for suspense</b>' <b>LOUISE ERDRICH</b>

<p><b>One of the most remarkable stories in the history of Special Forces' operations - <i>Daily Express</i></b><br/><br/>In the bleak moments after defeat on mainland Europe in winter 1939, Winston Churchill knew that Britain had to strike back hard. So Britain's wartime leader called for the lightning development of a completely new kind of warfare, recruiting a band of eccentric free-thinking warriors to become the first 'deniable' secret operatives to strike behind enemy lines, offering these volunteers nothing but the potential for glory and all-but-certain death.<br/><br/><i>The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare</i> tells the story of the daring victories for this small force of 'freelance pirates', undertaking devastatingly effective missions against the Nazis, often dressed in enemy uniforms and with enemy kit, breaking all previously held rules of warfare. Master storyteller Damien Lewis brings the adventures of the secret unit to life, weaving together the stories of the soldiers' brotherhood in this compelling narrative, from the unit's earliest missions to the death of their leader just weeks before the end of the war.</p>

I have taken up the old chronicles and the history of Sweden's oldest family, how members of this family were involved in shaping Sweden's history, one of the most famous Fale helped Erik Knutsson to the king's throne and is probably the same person as the fictional Arn, This Fale had decisive role together with Sune Folkesson in the battle of Gestilren and Lena.

<p>THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'[A] clever, lively ... splendid new book'DAN JONES, SUNDAY TIMES'A big gold bar of delight'SPECTATORSixteen hundred years ago Britain left the Roman Empire and swiftly fell into ruin. Into this violent and unstable world came foreign invaders from across the sea, and established themselves as its new masters.</p><p>In this sweeping and original history, renowned historian Marc Morris separates the truth from the legend and tells the extraordinary story of how the foundations of England were laid. 'Marc Morris is a genius of medieval narrative'IAN MORTIMER, author of The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England'Brilliant ... Beautifully written, incredibly accessible and deeply researched'JAMES O'BRIEN'A much-needed book ...</p><p>A gripping story, beautifully told'BERNARD CORNWELL, author of The Last Kingdom'Highly informative and hugely enjoyable'IAN HISLOP'A vivid, sharply drawn story of seven centuries of profound political change'THOMAS PENN, author of The Winter King</p>