Paul Watkins – författare

At the age of seven, Paul Watkins was roughly transplanted from his home in Rhode Island to England''s Dragon School. He was greeted by a delegation of bullies who, in time, would become his friends and whose rules would become his own. For at Dragon, and later at Eton, "there was no middle ground. You could not go here and come out not caring one way or the other. You had to stand before your God and commit."In this enthralling and sometimes harrowing memoir, the acclaimed author of The Promise of Light gives us a masterly companion to such classics as Brideshead Revisited and A Separate Peace. Here are the masters who paddle boys for small infractions and then offer them sweets; the seniors who pamper pretty favorites and subject all others to humiliating servitude; the deep friendships and sudden, devastating betrayals. Above all, here is the exhilaration of a boy discovering own capacities for learning and creativity, in a book that conveys with astonishing insight the pangs of growing up.

Present-day Russia is the setting for this stunning new novel from Robert Harris, author of the bestsellers Fatherland and Enigma.        Archangel tells the story of four days in the life of Fluke Kelso, a dissipated, middle-aged former Oxford historian, who is in Moscow to attend a conference on the newly opened Soviet archives.        One night, Kelso is visited in his hotel room by an old NKVD officer, a former bodyguard of the secret police chief, Lavrenty Beria. The old man claims to have been at Stalin''s dacha on the night Stalin had his fatal stroke, and to have helped Beria steal the dictator''s private papers, among them a notebook.        Kelso decides to use his last morning in Moscow to check out the old man''s story. But what starts as an idle inquiry in the Lenin Library soon turns into a murderous chase across nighttime Moscow and up to northern Russia--to the vast forests near the White Sea port of Archangel, where the final secret of Josef Stalin has been hidden for almost half a century.        Archangel combines the imaginative sweep and dark suspense of Fatherland with the meticulous historical detail of Enigma. The result is Robert Harris''s most compelling novel yet.

This autobiography follows Paul Watkins's early life and schooling at the Dragon School, Eton and Yale. Born in 1963, Watkins is the author of "The Promise of Light" and "Night Over Day Over Night", which were both nominated for the Booker Prize.

Paris, 1939. Europe is on the brink of a second World War. David Halifax, a young American art student, is arrested for forgery. Unbeknownst to Halifax, an unscrupulous art dealer has put some of his paintings on the market, attempting to pass them off as Old Masters. When the ruse is uncovered, it is Halifax who is arrested, and charged with forgery. Then, as the Nazis converge upon Paris, Halifax is press-ganged into service by the Resistance: he must forge a number of great paintings, so that the originals don't fall into the hands of the invaders. Halifax is painfully aware that this unwanted commission could cost him his life.

A gripping, acclaimed action-packed Viking epic.Set in the 10th century, when Viking raids were at their peak, Paul Watkins spins a tale that covers three continents. After centuries of ranging unchecked across the northern world, the fortunes of the Vikings have begun to turn. In this time of violent change, a young man, struck by lightning, is believed to be marked by the gods as a keeper of the Norse religion's greatest secret. To save the Norse faith and himself, he embarks upon a journey that takes him far beyond the boundaries of the known world, where he must confront not only his own gods but the gods of a people yet more savage.'Few contemporary novelists have the ability to grab readers by the throat with such intense story-telling power and not release them until the final page has been turned.' Sunday Times

While the eyes of the world are focused upon attempts to scale Mount Everest, two young men - once members of the world's climbing elite, subsequently forced into premature retirement after the failure of a secret military operation in the Alps during World War II - have become outcasts of mountaineering society. Until, that is, a peculiar and dangerous request is made of them, drawing them back to the mountains on an exploit that will prove treacherous in more ways than one, as they confront not only the pitiless cruelty of nature but also the ghosts of their former selves.

Part exploration of a key group of Black Canadian poets, part literary, cultural, and musical history, Soundin’ Canaan demonstrates how music in Black Canadian poetry is not solely aesthetic, but a form of social, ethical, and political expression.Soundin' Canaan refers to the code name often used for Canada during the Black migration to Canada. The book analyzes the contributions of key Black Canadian poets, including their poetic styles and their performances. The book has several key objectives, including recuperating the collision of the historical and the Biblically derived figure of Canaan, the promised land of freedom and security for an African American population seeking to leave the shackles of slavery behind and the northern terminus of the underground railroad. Centering around the poetry of George Elliott Clarke, Dionne Brand, M. NourbeSe Philip, Wayde Compton, and rapper K’naan, it delves into how these poets draw inspiration from African American and Afro-diasporic musical genres, such as blues, jazz, reggae and dub, hip-hop, and remix, to reshape the notions of identity and citizenship. Soundin' Canaan asks: what does Canadian citizenship sound like, especially when voiced by Black Canadian poets who embrace a fluid and multicultural form of citizenship that moves between local and global spaces, much like music does?Using a DJ Methodology, the author mixes in close readings of poetry, music, cultural and literary history, as well as various interviews with the poets. The book includes an accompanying soundtrack to further enhance the reading experience. Moreover, the book uses musical and sonic terms to analyze the poets’ works and reveals their engagement with ideals and exclusions of state-authorized multiculturalism in a society built upon settler colonialism and anti-Black racism. What happens when those not normally seen as citizens with full rights are brought more into the picture and seen as co-performers of the Canadian remix project? No longer for the elite alone, citizenship is to be universally conferred for all Canadians.

Of all the acts of gallantry in World War II few were as audacious as the attack by midget submarines on the pride of the German fleet, the battleship Tirpitz, lying in her fortified mooring in a Norwegian fjord. Lieutenant Godfrey Place was in command of submarine X7 in September 1943 and traveled over 1000 miles, negotiating minefields and antisubmarine nets to accurately place four tons of high explosive under the hull of the Tirpitz. He was awarded the Victoria Cross in 1944, at the age of 22. Taken prisoner he was repatriated to England at the end of the war, and continued to serve in the Royal Navy for 25 years, flying with 801st squadron in the Korean War, and served on aircraft carriers at Suez, Nigeria and the withdrawal from Aden. On his retirement in 1970, he had the distinction of being the last serving naval officer to hold the Victoria Cross.Using many first-hand accounts, the book details his life, from a childhood spent partly in East Africa to being Chairman of the Victoria Cross and George Cross Association for over 20 years. It draws on previously unpublished material, including his own recollections on the attack on the Tirpitz and his time as a prisoner of war.