At Marathon an army of Greek city states, including Sparta and Athens, met the Persian army of Darius. This was the key battle of Western civilisation, for Athens were defending not only their independence but their radical new political form, democracy. Alan Lloyd details the course of Athenian democracy, its religion and culture and the uneasy alliances with other city-states, such as Sparta. Out of this historical background Lloyd brings the battle alive with a story-teller's vitality, ...

Combining fictional characterisation and factual research Alan Lloyd asks who were these people who lived in Pompeii and what were their lives like in those last days before the disaster? Alan Lloyd, an acclaimed historian and novelist, breathes life into the ghosts that haunt the empty streets, quiet courtyards and silent rooms of Pompeii while stirring the imagination of everyone who has seen the well-preserved ruins of the ancient city. Through the eyes of Taras, Lloyd's imaginatively r...

Back Part 1: Across the Fence follows a covert 1968 Special Forces (SOG) mission to the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the jungles of Laos, led by Spike Miller. In alternating chapters it also follows the modern-day story as Spike, now dying of cancer, gives his grandson, Mark, a combat journal and asks him to go back to find something he left in the jungle before he was extracted at the end of that mission. Mark, his friend Brad (an ex-US Marine) and a group of students from NYU prepare to go back ...

Back Part 2: Into The Jungle follows the modern-day trekkers into the Laotian jungle as they travel to the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the tri-border area of Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, looking for what Mark’s grandfather, Spike, left behind on his 1968 Special Forces mission. They have to deal with psychological, natural, historical and Vietnam War-related problems which unexpectedly arise as they penetrate deeper into the jungle, including wild animals, booby traps and unexploded ordnance, as w...

Ten years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the political and economic structures of the former German Democratic Republic are largely understood, yet many questions remain. What actually motivated the East Germans themselves? What common goals and values kept GDR society going and, until its unexpected collapse in 1989, seemed to make it into a relative success story? Building the East German Myth examines the East German communist party's propagandistic treatment of German high culture,...

Two cowboys--one old the other young, set off to seek their fortune driving a herd of horses across the West. Before long they find themselves risking everything to save five kidnapped Chinese girls from a life of prostitution. Thus begins an epic and perilous journey that changes forever the fates of these young girls, their unlikely guardians, and the other characters they meet along the way. The book is generously illustrated by Lloyd Kelly, a Listed Artist. The illustrator has exhibite...

In this groundbreaking book, Russ Alan Prince and Lewis Schiff examine the far-reaching impact of the middle-class millionaires—people who enjoy a net worth ranging from one to ten million dollars who have earned rather than inherited their wealth. Comprising 8.4 million households, these working rich are exerting a powerful influence on our attitudes and on society. They believe in the benefits of hard work. They believe in investing in themselves and in supporting their values with their...

Twenty-nine-year-old teacher Emily needs her father to believe her life is a success. He may have walked out on the family when she was a child and let her down when she needed him most, but her life is perfect despite him.Or it was until last Friday, when her fiancé dumped her. Now she’s facing a frighteningly empty future, and she’s unravelling at work. And just when she thought things couldn’t get worse, her father turns up on her doorstep.Ed knows he’s got it wrong, and...

Exit Wounds is a thrilling anthology of crime stories written by masters of the genre, including Dean Koontz, Val McDermid, Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Elly Griffiths, Dennis Lehane, Joe R. Lansdale, and others.After an introduction by the editors, Paul B. Kane and Marie O’Regan, this collection includes the following stories:“The Bully” by Jeffery Deaver“Dead Weight” by Fiona Cummins“Like a Glass Jaw” by Mark Billingham“On The Anatomization of an Unknown Man

"Splendidly recreate[s] the bustling life of this Roman town, as well as the eruption . . . a first-rate and compelling history of an ancient city." — Publishers WeeklyThe ash of Mt. Vesuvius preserves a living record of the complex and exhilarating society it instantly obliterated two thousand years ago. In this highly readable, lavishly illustrated book, Alex Butterworth and Ray Laurence marshal cutting-edge archaeological reconstruction...

Pompeii was one of most advanced cities of its time; it had a complex water system, gymnasium, and an amphitheater. Despite it's advancements, there was one thing it wasn't ready for: Mount Vesuvius—the volcano that led to its ultimate doom.The 79 AD eruption of Mount Vesuvius was one of the worst disasters in all of European history. In a near instant, over 15,000 people were dead and a city was completely destroyed.This book looks at the rise, fall, and rediscovery of the g...

The Last Days of Pompeii is a novel written by the baron Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1834. The novel was inspired by the painting The Last Day of Pompeii by the Russian painter Karl Briullov, which Bulwer-Lytton had seen in Milan.[1] It culminates in the cataclysmic destruction of the city of Pompeii by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. The novel uses its characters to contrast the decadent culture of 1st-century Rome with both older cultures and coming trends. The protagonist, Glaucus,...