The nautical dimension of prehistory has not so far received the attention it deserves. It is also too often assumed that early man was land bound, yet this is demonstrably not the case. Recent research has shown that man travelled and tracked over greater distances and at a much earlier date than has previously been thought possible. Some of these facts can be explained only by man's mastery of water transport from earliest times. This book, by an acknowledged expert on prehistoric sea-cr...

George Miller made his first film, Mad Max, in 1976 after hiring unknown Mel Gibson and editing it in his kitchen. It would become the most profitable film ever made. Miller and Max is the story of two heroes. One, a globally recognised dystopian warrior. The second, the artist who created him. Written with the cooperation of a role call of cast, crew, family and associates, author Luke Buckmaster gets behind the scenes of both the set and the man: revealing the Max in Miller.

‘It began with fluttering excitement, joy and a world full of possibilities. There was a slow chiselling away of me. I felt disbelief and foggy confusion, before the ugly reality of abuse dawned on me.’In Shattered to Shining, nine women and one male domestic violence survivor describe how they were shattered, as their home became a place where physical and sexual violence, emotional and psychological control dominated their lives. Through persistence and courage, they have risen a...

The extraordinary story of how Dutch sailors found Australia and an English pirate almost beat Captain CookRob Mundle is back on the water with another sweeping and powerful account of Australian maritime history. It is the story of 17th-century European mariners - sailors, adventurers and explorers - who became transfixed by the idea of the existence of a Great South Land: ‘Terra Australis Incognita'. Rob takes you aboard the tiny ship, Duyfken, in 1606 when Dutch navigator and ex...

"Variably genial, cautionary, lyrical, admonitory, terrifying, horrifying and inspiring…A lifetime of thought, travel, reading, imagination and memory inform this affecting account." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)Blending history and anecdote, geography and reminiscence, science and exposition, New York Times bestselling author Simon Winchester tells the breathtaking saga of the Atlantic Ocean in a masterful work of narrative nonfiction. A gifted storyteller and...

"MENZIES [IS] PROPOUNDING ONE OF THE MOST REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS IN THE HISTORY OF HISTORY." — New York Times MagazineNew York Times bestselling historian Gavin Menzies presents newly uncovered evidence revealing, conclusively, that "the lost city of Atlantis" was not only real but also at the heart of a highly advanced global empire that reached the shores of America before being violently wiped from the earth.For three mill...

In 1795 three boys discovered the top of an ancient shaft on uninhabited Oak Island in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. The boys began to dig, and what they uncovered started the world's greatest and strangest treasure hunt but nobody knows what the treasure is. Two hundred years of courage, back-breaking effort, ingenuity, and engineering skills have failed to retrieve what is concealed there.Theories of what the treasure could be include Captain Kidd's bloodstained pirate gold, an army p...

A biography that puts you on the quarterdeck with history's greatest sailorCaptain James Cook is one of the greatest maritime explorers in world history. Over three remarkable voyages of discovery into the Pacific in the latter part of the eighteenth century, Cook unravelled the oldest mystery surrounding the existence of Terra Australis Incognita - the Great South Land. He became the first explorer to circumnavigate New Zealand and establish that it was two main islands; discover ...

The bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman and The Map That Changed the World examines the enduring and world-changing effects of the catastrophic volcanic eruption off the coast of Java of the earth’s most dangerous volcano — Krakatoa.The legendary annihilation in 1883 of the volcano-island of Krakatoa — the name has since become a byword for a cataclysmic natural disaster — was followed by an immense tsunami that killed nearly forty...

This unique "fusion of science and the physical history" traces the story of the Scots through their DNA ( Sunday Herald).An almost limitless archive of our history lies hidden inside our bodies, and this book traces the ancient story of Scotland from that scientific viewpoint. The mushrooming of genetic studies, of DNA analysis, is rewriting history in spectacular fashion.In Scotland: A Genetic Journey, Alistair Moffat explores the history ...

A guide to the British Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Age for fans of the Aubrey–Maturin series: "A gem of a book" ( Minneapolis Star Tribune).What is a sand-grouse, and where does it live? What are the medical properties of lignum vitae, and how did Stephen Maturin use it to repair his viola? Who is Admiral Lord Keith, and why is his wife so friendly with Captain Jack Aubrey?More than any other contemporary author, Patrick O'Brian knew the ...

In this New York Times bestseller, Brian Fagan shows how climate transformed-and sometimes destroyed--human societies during the earth's last global warming phase.From the 10th to 15th centuries the earth experienced a rise in surface temperature that changed climate worldwide-a preview of today's global warming. In some areas, including much of Western Europe, longer summers brought bountiful crops and population growth that led to cultural flowering. In ...