Nils Elmark – författare

On 24 August 1914, forty-four Americans joined the Foreign Legion and "with a cowboy swing" marched through Paris, wildly cheered by the crowd. They were Ivy League graduates, artists and dreamers and soldiers of fortune starting on equal terms as recruits in the French Army. They were the first Americans in the Great War, driven by a love for France and a thirst for adventure with no idea of the horrors awaiting them. This book is the amazing story of these American legionnaires told by three of the young volunteers: * David Wooster King - a 21-year-old dropout from Harvard, son of a rich businessman. King survived four years in the trenches ending as an officer in the US Army chasing German spies in Switzerland. He became a modern global adventurer and when the world went to war again David King was the first to volunteer for an even greater adventure in North Africa.* Alan Seeger - a 26-year-old poet and dreamer from a New York family of intellectuals. Seeger was killed during the Battle of the Somme on 4 July 1916. Six weeks earlier, he wrote the famous poem, 'I Have a Rendezvous with Death' which was to become his legacy and the favourite poem of President Kennedy. It has inspired a line of American presidents during the 20th century and is an indestructible poetic lifeline linking France and the United States of America.* Eugene James Bullard - the last of the three legionnaires and a 19-year-old entertainer and boxer from Columbus, Georgia. His father was born a slave, his mother was Creek Indian. Although wounded at Verdun and invalided out of the French Army, Bullard became the world's first black aviator. After the war he settled in Paris and ran a bar in Montmartre before going to war for France again in 1940.The three men represent different pillars of the American soul, and their lives and dreams symbolise the story of how America became modern and remind us of the strong historic ties between France and America. Most of all, this book is a fantastic saga of brave men, great adventures and terrific sacrifices that bring hope and a new direction in a time of human division.

Apple, Starbucks, Amazon, Zara, McDonald's - these are some of the brands and companies that are at the forefront of today's global economy. They are embedded in virtually every city and town. But when the global economy goes wrong (as in 2008), it can leave local communities vulnerable in the form of unemployment and bankruptcy. This forward-looking book argues for the creation of local economies as a means of resisting the seismic changes that globalization often brings, especially in times of crises. Moreover, research shows that for every GBP100 spent in a local shop, 45% will remain in the community (compared with only 15% if spent in retail chains such as Tesco or Aldi). As part of the design of the future, Elmark argues for the need to break up the global economy into local economies, so that communities can regain their independence and be less exposed to the tide of globalization.