There is nothing more disconcerting than someone vanishing into thin air. Unanswered questions abound and the mysteries only tend to grow. The Disappearance of Percy Fawcett and Other Famous Vanishings attempts to provide clarity and background on several individuals’ unexplained departures.While looking for his mythical Lost City of Z, Percy Fawcett vanished. Amelia Earhart did the same while circling the earth on her historic flight. Much like these two historical figure...

A fitness plan with exercises to help you lose weight, get fit, improve posture and combat stress, all from the comfort of your desk—includes photos.People today are spending more time at work and less time being active, whether by sitting in front of a computer all day or in a car battling grueling traffic-or both! Working on the Ball solves this problem by providing an innovative, playful approach to fitness, no gym shoes or expensive club membership req...

**NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING ROBERT PATTINSON, CHARLIE HUNNAM AND SIENNA MILLER**The story of Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett, the inspiration behind Conan Doyle's The Lost WorldFawcett was among the last of a legendary breed of British explorers. For years he explored the Amazon and came to believe that its jungle concealed a large, complex civilization, like El Dorado. Obsessed with its discovery, he christened it the City of Z. In...

From Alexander von Humboldt to Charles and Anne Lindbergh, these are stories of people of great vision and daring whose achievements continue to inspire us today, brilliantly told by master historian David McCullough.The bestselling author of Truman and John Adams, David McCullough has written profiles of exceptional men and women past and present who have not only shaped the course of history or changed how we see the world but whose stories expr...

A collection of reflections on writing and the nature of the writer from one the greatest American writers of the 20th century.Throughout Hemingway’s career as a writer, he maintained that it was bad luck to talk about writing—that it takes off “whatever butterflies have on their wings and the arrangement of hawk’s feathers if you show it or talk about it.”Despite this belief, by the end of his life he had done just what he intended not to do. In his novels...

As heard on the Empire podcast, the epic story of one of the most extraordinary engineering feats in world history: the building of the Panama Canal.'A completely wonderful book, beautifully written, amazingly researched' William Dalrymple'An excellent, excellent book’ Anita AnandHell's Gorge traces a heroic dream that spanned four centuries: to build a canal linking the Atlantic a...

A unique look at the military misconceptions that we take for granted, and a revelation of the truth behind the lies.Who tried to bomb Japan with bats? Who invented the air-gun in 250BC? Which stories should we believe? The so-called Dambusters raid was all but ineffective; the Hurricane not the Spitfire was the champion of the Battle of Britain; Singapore did not fall because all the guns were pointing the wrong way' and who would go to war over a game of football...

True and harrowing accounts of adventurers who never came homeSome adventures end in glory, others in obituaries. Instead of receiving laurels and a parade, the adventurers in Vanished! met infamy on a road with no return. Immerse yourself in these gripping accounts of explorers who ventured forth—then simply disappeared. Their fates? We’ll never know. Vanished! draws you into seven page-turning accounts, including one that contains new details of...

In 1922, a 15-year-old girl, fed up with life in a French convent school, answered an ad for a travelling secretary. Tall, blonde, and swaggering with confidence, she might have passed for twenty. She also knew what she wanted: to become the first female to drive around the world. Her name was Aloha Wanderwell.Aloha's mission was foolhardy in the extreme. Drivable roads were scarce and cars were alien to much of the world. The Wanderwell Expedition created a specially modified Mode...

Literary legend James A. Michener was “a Renaissance man, adventurous, inquisitive, unpretentious and unassuming, with an encyclopedic mind and a generous heart” (The New York Times Book Review). In this exceptional memoir, the man himself tells the story of his remarkable life and describes the people, events, and ideas that shaped it. Moving backward and forward across time, he writes about the many strands of his experience: his passion for travel; his lifelong infatuation with...

Published to coincide with the release of the HBO film Hemingway and Gellhorn, starring Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen.Michael Reynolds was the supreme biographer of Ernest Hemingway. HBO’s film concentrates on Hemingway’s years with his third wife, the adventurous journalist Martha Gellhorn. This book brings together Reynolds’s Hemingway: The 1930s and Hemingway: The Final Years.

On 1 June 1943 Flight 777, a Douglas DC-3, en route from Lisbon to Britain, was shot down over the Bay of Biscay by German aircraft. Among the dead was the actor Leslie Howard, who had returned from Hollywood to England to help the British war effort. Also on board was Howards tax adviser, Alfred Chenhalls, who smoked cigars and looked remarkably like Winston Churchill. Did the Germans believe that Churchill was on board Flight 777? Other aircraft flying that route went unmolested by the L...