In a rich and fascinating history John Cornwell tells the epic story of Germany's scientists from the First World War to the collapse of Hitler's Reich. He shows how Germany became the world's Mecca for inventive genius, taking the lion's share of Nobel awards, before Hitler's regime hijacked science for wars of conquest and genocidal racism. Cornwell gives a dramatic account of the wide ranging Nazi research projects, from rockets to nuclear weapons; the pursuit of advanced technology for...

A STRONG WORDS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025'CHILLING AND THRILLING' JOHN BANVILLE'IRRESISTIBLE STORYTELLING' THE TIMESOn Tuesday morning, 23rd September 1975, the corpses of three unmarried siblings, last surviving members of the ancient Luxton clan of Winkleigh, North Devon, were found on their remote farm. All three had had their heads blown off. Robbie's cheeks and neck had been stabbed; Frances had a br...

By the first decade of the twentieth century, Germany was the Mecca of science and technology in the world. However, by the beginning of the First World War, Germany began to display some of the features that would blight the conduct of ideal science through the rest of the century.After Hitler came into power in 1933, science and technology were quickly pressed into service by racist, xenophobic idealologies. From 1939 to the war's end, scientists working under military control began rese...

One of the most extraordinary memoirs of recent years, the acclaimed writer John Cornwell has finally written his own story, and the story of a choice he had to make between the Church and a life lived outside its confines.John Cornwell decided to become a priest at the age of thirteen, a strange choice perhaps for a boy who'd been sent to a 'convalescent home' for having whacked a nun about the head. Growing up in a chaotic household, sharing two rooms with his brothers and sister...

On Tuesday morning, 23rd September 1975, the corpses of three unmarried siblings, last surviving members of the ancient Luxton clan of Winkleigh, North Devon, were found on their remote farm. All three had had their heads blown off. Robbie's cheeks and neck had been stabbed; Frances had a broken leg. Strangely, each of the four doors to the house had been locked from the inside.The Luxtons' idyllic farm on a stretch of lush countryside between Exmoor and Dartmoor had been lovingly ...

On September 14, 1989, Joseph Wesbecker entered a Louisville, Kentucky printing plant and shot twenty people with an automatic rifle before turning the gun on himself. Wesbecker had been severely depressed and was taking Prozac, and the families of the victims sued Prozac's manufacturer, Eli Lilly, on the grounds that the popular antidepressant had caused Wesbecker's deranged mental state. The resulting trial instigated unprecedented research into the mind of a "spree killer" — and raised ...

This is the story of two British men from very different social backgrounds, who both joined a new Pals battalion during World War I.To encourage men to volunteer, the British Army established Pals battalions that allowed men who enlisted together to serve together during the First World War. One of these men was Vivian Simpson, a 31-year-old solicitor who was well known in the city; partly because he was an outstanding footballer, playing for Sheffield Wednesday an...

Church, Interrupted: Havoc & Hope: The Tender Revolt of Pope Francis is a revealing portrait of Pope Francis's hopeful yet controversial efforts to recreate the Catholic Church to become, once again, a welcoming place of empathy, love, and inclusiveness.Bestselling author, Vanity Fair contributor, and papal biographer John Cornwell tells the gripping insider story of Pope Francis's bid to bring renewal and hope to a crisis-plagued Church and the world at l...

Our lives, states of health, relationships, behaviour, experiences of the natural world, and the technologies that shape our contemporary existence are subject to a superfluity of competing, multi-faceted and sometimes incompatible explanations. Widespread confusion about the nature of 'explanation' and its scope and limits pervades popular exposition of the natural sciences, popular history and philosophy of science. This fascinating and intriguing book explores the way explanations work,...

This book, an abridgment of Volumes I and II of the highly respected Group Theory in Physics, presents a carefully constructed introduction to group theory and its applications in physics. The book provides anintroduction to and description of the most important basic ideas and the role that they play in physical problems. The clearly written text contains many pertinent examples that illustrate the topics, even for those with no background in group theory.This work presents important math...

The fifth installment of Bernard Cornwell’s bestselling Saxon Tales chronicling the epic saga of the making of England, “like Game of Thrones, but real” (The Observer, London)—the basis for The Last Kingdom, the hit BBC America television series.At the end of the ninth century, King Alfred of Wessex is in ill health; his heir, an untested youth. His enemy, the Danes, having failed to conquer Wessex, now see their chance for victory. Led by the sword of savage warr...

The audiobook of the long-awaited twenty-first novel in the number one bestselling series featuring Richard Sharpe.In the winter of 1811 the war seemed lost. All Spain has fallen to the French, except for Cadiz which is now the Spanish capital and is under siege. Wellington and his British army are in Portugal, waiting for spring to spark the war to life again.Richard Sharpe and his company are part of a small expeditionary force sent to break a bridge across the River Guadi...