Sinclair McKay - Böcker

This fascinating ramble through the history of walking delves into our relationship with the British countryside.‘Ramble On’ tells the story of how country walks were transformed from a small and often illegal pastime to the most popular recreational activity in the country.From the brave band of hikers who scaled the off-limits peak Kinder Scout in 1932, via the intricate Lake District guides of Alfred Wainwright, to the resistant landowners (including the notorious Nicholas Van Hoogstraten, Madonna and Jeremy Clarkson) who have done their level best (and worst) to keep walkers off their land – this is the definitive history of rambling.Perfectly capturing the sense of exhilaration on reaching the summit of a blustery hill-top path, ‘Ramble On’ is for anyone who has ever pulled on a pair of walking boots or is partial to the taste of Kendal mintcake.

This insightful portrait of Winston Churchill delves beyond well-known political moments, incorporating perspectives from various individuals who encountered him throughout his life.From Bletchley Park codebreakers and Hollywood stars such as Charlie Chaplin, through writers as varied as H. G. Wells and P. G. Wodehouse, to the likes of Harold Wilson, Mahatma Gandhi and Queen Elizabeth II, these lesser-known interactions reveal glimpses of the man behind the legend.We meet Churchill the exuberant schoolboy thug with an early mania for bull-dogs, and Churchill the elder statesman shedding a tear in the House of Commons smoking room. Other incidents include a young journalist rudely dismissing a call from Churchill as a prank, and a visiting Dwight D. Eisenhower dreaming of being strangled, only to awake entangled in Churchill’s borrowed nightshirt.The book showcases the profound transformations during Churchill’s lifetime, which ran from Benjamin Disraeli’s premiership to the release of the Rolling Stones’ ‘Route 66’, and the shift from steam to atomic power. Examining controversial aspects of his legacy, this multifaceted portrait challenges preconceived notions, inviting readers to reconsider the complexities of Churchill.

'One of my favourite historians' Dan Snow'McKay is a gifted writer; his prose has the cadence, tone and power of a Shostakovich symphony. Horror is majestically conveyed’ Gerard DeGroot, The Times ‘Richly-layered and packed with insight, this riveting account of terrible events tells us as much about the present as it does the past’ Patrick Bishop, author of Paris '44.'McKay's magisterial history of Peter the Great’s monumental gift to Russia will become a classic' Amanda Foreman, author of GeorgianaIn the crucible of the Second World War, Saint Petersburg – then known as Leningrad – stands as a testament to human endurance. As the Nazis encircle the city, intent on annihilating its 1.5 million inhabitants, the narrative plunges into the harrowing 900 days and nights of relentless hardship and unyielding resilience.Starving residents, horrified by their own gaunt reflections, resort to bulking bread with wood shavings, consuming wallpaper paste, and even turning to their pets. Workers at the mass crematorium numb their horror with extra vodka rations. Yet, amid this suffering, the resilience of culture and hope shines through, with orchestras and theatres defiantly continuing their performances, a flicker of humanity against the backdrop of despair.This book not only chronicles the Siege of Leningrad but also traces the pivotal importance of Saint Petersburg across the centuries. From Peter the Great’s visionary founding of the city, through its revolutionary rebirth as Petrograd and its Soviet identity as Leningrad, to its renaissance as Saint Petersburg in the post-Soviet era, we explore the layers of history that shape this extraordinary place.'The story of the siege of Leningrad is one of the great epics of modern history. It has been told many times before, but never in such an engrossing, moving, often horrifying but also uplifting way' Brendan Simms

The remarkable story of the real 'Dad's Army', from the bestselling historian of The Secret Life of Bletchley Park'Impeccably researched and deliciously entertaining, Dad's Army shines a bright searchlight on to an organization dismissed for far too long as humorously incompetent' - Giles Milton, author of the The Stalin AffairWith the threat of invasion from Hitler's forces looming large in 1940, British men of all ages and backgrounds assembled under the banner of the Home Guard. At its height, this voluntary force, much later nicknamed ‘Dad’s Army’, was made up of almost two million volunteers prepared to defend every corner of the kingdom. Numerous notable figures were involved including George Orwell, A. A. Milne, and C. S. Lewis; many women took part too, including in the Women's Home Defence Force, which was formed in 1941.In Dad’s Army, Sunday Times bestselling author Sinclair McKay tells the remarkable story of these courageous, highly trained and often pioneering men and women through original archival research, vivid storytelling and insights into the beloved television comedy that has shaped the national memory of the Home Guard.Far from the stereotype of charming incompetence, McKay shows that the Home Guard were in fact entirely serious in their approach. Many volunteers had fought in the First World War, and radical veterans from the Spanish Civil War taught new techniques in lethal guerilla fighting.Chocolate-box village greens throughout the country were reimagined as bloody battlefields, with duties including rifle and mortar training, night-time patrols and manning anti-aircraft guns – all on top of volunteers’ everyday jobs. Yet all of this was underpinned by an essential good humour, with moments of levity and camaraderie vital in keeping up a much-needed spirit of defiance.With its vibrant personalities and touch of nostalgia, Dad's Army tells this extraordinary story in full colour.'One of my favourite historians' Dan Snow

A Times/Sunday Times Book of the Year'Powerful . . . there is rage in his ink. McKay's book grips by its passion and originality. Some 25,000 people perished in the firestorm that raged through the city. I have never seen it better described' Max Hastings, Sunday TimesIn February 1945 the Allies obliterated Dresden, the 'Florence of the Elbe'. Explosive bombs weighing over 1,000 lbs fell every seven and a half seconds and an estimated 25,000 people were killed. Was Dresden a legitimate military target or was the bombing a last act of atavistic mass murder in a war already won?From the history of the city to the attack itself, conveyed in a minute-by-minute account from the first of the flares to the flames reaching almost a mile high - the wind so searingly hot that the lungs of those in its path were instantly scorched - through the eerie period of reconstruction, bestselling author Sinclair McKay creates a vast canvas and brings it alive with touching human detail.Along the way we encounter, among many others across the city, a Jewish woman who thought the English bombs had been sent from heaven, novelist Kurt Vonnegut who wrote that the smouldering landscape was like walking on the surface of the moon, and 15-year-old Winfried Bielss, who, having spent the evening ushering refugees, wanted to get home to his stamp collection. He was not to know that there was not enough time.Impeccably researched and deeply moving, McKay uses never-before-seen sources to relate the untold stories of civilians and vividly conveys the texture of contemporary life. Dresden is invoked as a byword for the illimitable cruelties of war, but with the distance of time, it is now possible to approach this subject with a much clearer gaze, and with a keener interest in the sorts of lives that ordinary people lived and lost, or tried to rebuild.Writing with warmth and colour about morality in war, the instinct for survival, the gravity of mass destruction and the manipulation of memory, this is a master historian at work.'Churchill said that if bombing cities was justified, it was always repugnant. Sinclair McKay has written a shrewd, humane and balanced account of this most controversial target of the Anglo-American strategic bombing campaign, the ferocious consequence of the scourge of Nazism' Allan Mallinson, author of Fight to the Finish'Beautifully-crafted, elegiac, compelling - Dresden delivers with a dark intensity and incisive compassion rarely equalled. Authentic and authoritative, a masterpiece of its genre' Damien Lewis, author of Zero Six Bravo'Compelling . . . Sinclair McKay brings a dark subject vividly to life' Keith Lowe, author of Savage Continent'This is a brilliantly clear, and fair, account of one of the most notorious and destructive raids in the history aerial warfare. From planning to execution, the story is told by crucial participants - and the victims who suffered so cruelly on the ground from the attack itself and its aftermath' Robert Fox, author of We Were There

The Sunday Times-bestselling author of Dresden returns with a monumental biography of the city that defined the twentieth century - BerlinThroughout the twentieth century, Berlin stood at the centre of a convulsing world. This history is often viewed as separate acts: the suffering of the First World War, the cosmopolitan city of science, culture and sexual freedom Berlin became, steep economic plunges, the rise of the Nazis, the destruction of the Second World War, the psychosis of genocide, and a city rent in two by competing ideologies. But people do not live their lives in fixed eras. An epoch ends, yet the people continue - or try to continue - much as they did before. Berlin tells the story of the city as seen through the eyes not of its rulers, but of those who walked its streets.In this magisterial biography of a city and its inhabitants, bestselling historian Sinclair McKay sheds new light on well-known characters - from idealistic scientist Albert Einstein to Nazi architect Albert Speer - and draws on never-before-seen first-person accounts to introduce us to people of all walks of Berlin life. For example, we meet office worker Mechtild Evers, who in her efforts to escape an oncoming army runs into even more appalling jeopardy, and Reinhart Cruger, a 12-year-old boy in 1941 who witnesses with horror the Gestapo coming for each of his Jewish neighbours in turn. Ever a city of curious contrasts, moments of unbelievable darkness give way to a wry Berliner humour - from banned perms to the often ridiculous tit-for-tat between East and West Berlin - and moments of joyous hope - like forced labourers at a jam factory warmly welcoming their Soviet liberators.How did those ideologies - fascism and communism - come to flower so fully here? And how did their repercussions continue to be felt throughout Europe and the West right up until that extraordinary night in the autumn of 1989 when the Wall - that final expression of totalitarian oppression - was at last breached? You cannot understand the twentieth century without understanding Berlin; and you cannot understand Berlin without understanding the experiences of its people. Drawing on a staggering breadth of culture - from art to film, opera to literature, science to architecture - McKay's latest masterpiece shows us this hypnotic city as never before.'Remarkable . . . A majestic work of non-fiction' Matthew d'Ancona'Sinclair McKay was born to write this book' David Aaronovitch, The Times'A masterful account of a city marked by infamy . . . If there is a book that must be read this year, this is it' Amanda Foreman'An electrifying new account of Berlin' Julia Boyd, author of Travellers in the Third Reich'One of my favourite historians' Dan Snow

This insightful portrait of Winston Churchill delves beyond well-known political moments, incorporating perspectives from various individuals who encountered him throughout his life.From Bletchley Park codebreakers and Hollywood stars such as Charlie Chaplin, through writers as varied as H. G. Wells and P. G. Wodehouse, to the likes of Harold Wilson, Mahatma Gandhi and Queen Elizabeth II, these lesser-known interactions reveal glimpses of the man behind the legend.We meet Churchill the exuberant schoolboy thug with an early mania for bull-dogs, and Churchill the elder statesman shedding a tear in the House of Commons smoking room. Other incidents include a young journalist rudely dismissing a call from Churchill as a prank, and a visiting Dwight D. Eisenhower dreaming of being strangled, only to awake entangled in Churchill’s borrowed nightshirt.The book showcases the profound transformations during Churchill’s lifetime, which ran from Benjamin Disraeli’s premiership to the release of the Rolling Stones’ ‘Route 66’, and the shift from steam to atomic power. Examining controversial aspects of his legacy, this multifaceted portrait challenges preconceived notions, inviting readers to reconsider the complexities of Churchill.

‘Richly-layered and packed with insight, this riveting account of terrible events tells us as much about the present as it does the past’ Patrick Bishop, author of Paris '44From Peter the Great to Putin, a biography of the city Hitler tried - and failed - to wipe off the mapThe siege of Saint Petersburg – then known as Leningrad – stands as a testament to human endurance. Intended by the Nazis as civilian extermination, the numbers who perished in this 900-day ordeal almost outweighed the entire total of British and American troop deaths in the Second World War.The city’s 2.5 million residents began to starve as rations shrank and dwindled. As temperatures plunged to minus 43°C, electricity faltered, and fuel ran out. Yet, amid this suffering, the resilience of culture and hope shone through, with orchestras and theatres defiantly continuing their performances, a flicker of humanity against the backdrop of despair.In Saint Petersburg, bestselling historian Sinclair McKay book chronicles the horrors of the siege through immersive prose and gripping first-hand accounts. He also traces the pivotal importance of Saint Petersburg across the centuries, from Peter the Great’s visionary founding of the city to the way it has shaped its most infamous son, Vladimir Putin.From its darkest moments to its enduring spirit, Saint Petersburg explore the layers of history that have shaped this extraordinary place.'McKay is a gifted writer; his prose has the cadence, tone and power of a Shostakovich symphony. Horror is majestically conveyed’ Gerard DeGroot, The Times

Bestselling Bletchley Park Brainteasers continues to delight hundreds of thousands of devoted puzzlers with its fiendish puzzles, riddles and enigmas. It's never to late to join the code breakers of Bletchley Park in their enjoyment of a devilish challenge!Would you love to master morse code? Could you have have outsmarted an enigma machine? Would your love of chess have seen you recruited into the history books?When scouring the land for top-level code breakers, the Bletchley Park recruiters left no stone unturned. As well as approaching the country's finest mathematicians, they cast their nets much wider, interviewing sixth-form music students who could read orchestral scores, chess masters, poets, linguists, hieroglyphics experts and high society debutantes fresh from finishing school. To assess these individuals they devised various ingenious mind-twisters - hidden codes, cryptic crosswords, secret languages, complex riddles - and it is puzzles such as these, together with the fascinating recruitment stories that surround them, that make up the backbone of this book. The code breakers of Bletchley Park were united in their love of a good puzzle. If you feel the same, why not dive in, put your mental agility to the test and discover: Would Bletchley Park have recruited YOU?

You've already broken codes in Sinclair McKay's bestselling Bletchley Park Brainteasers, now it's time to pit your wits against the secret heroes of MI5 and MI6 and find out if YOU have what it takes to be a spy!If you cracked the GCHQ Puzzle Book and followed the Ordnance Survey Puzzle Book, you MUST show off your James Bond credentials with Secret Service Brainteasers. . .Whether you have linguistic flair, an instinct for technology or good old common sense, pit your wits against some of the greatest minds of our time with ingenious brainteasers including secret languages, sabotage themed brain bogglers, deadly countdowns and hidden codes.Weaving astonishing stories of the men and women who operate from the shadows, the secret heroes and heroines of MI5 and MI6 who have faced extraordinary and terrifying challenges and a wide range of mind twisting puzzles, Secret Service Brainteasers will test your mental agility to discover: Do YOU have what it takes to be a spy?

Pit your wits against the brilliant minds of Scotland Yard, from the bestselling author of Bletchley Park Brainteasers, Sinclair McKay. If you cracked the GCHQ Puzzle Book and tore through the Ordnance Survey Puzzle Book, you MUST show off your brainteaser abilities and prove that you have what it takes to be a detective at the Yard...How can a man be in two places at once? How might a murder be committed when no one is seen entering or exiting the house? Can an entire crime be solved with just a suitcase of empty beer bottles?It's time for you to tackle the conundrums that confounded the best detectives over the years.Since it opened its doors in 1829, Scotland Yard has used the science of detection to solve the most macabre of murders and catch the most audacious of thieves. The Scotland Yard Puzzle Book takes a look through the history of this famous institution and recreates some of the most complex puzzles its detectives have ever faced. Technology can now shine a light on some of the most difficult cases, but the analytical mind needed to crack the clues remains as essential as ever. Do you have what it takes to be a Scotland Yard detective?

If you cracked the GHCQ Puzzle Book and tore through the Ordnance Survey Puzzle Book, you must show off your brainteaser abilities with the newest puzzle book from the bestselling author of Bletchley Park Brainteasers...The Tower of London is one of the world's most famous landmarks, with its iconic Beefeaters guarding the gates, Crown Jewels that remain securely within and ravens that flock to its walls. It holds a rich history of invasion, intrigue and murder that has captured imaginations for decades.Even though the Tower of London is recognised by people all over the world, it is surprising how very few know about the stories that echo around the ancient walls. From the Norman Conquest to the Reformation and through the break with Rome; from the murder of a King to the execution of numerous queens; from exotic animals held captive, to Nazi spies in the 1940s, the Tower of London has seen a parade of pageantry, political violence and passionate revolution that is shocking and ultimately, fascinating.Now it's time to use your smarts to take on brilliant brainteasers and incredible conundrums inspired by the Tower of London's greatest events. From logic games involving daring attempts on the Crown Jewels to decoding messages smuggled around the Tower by its famous prisoners, to finally discovering what happened to the princes murdered in their sleep, this book will be a maze of addictively brilliant challenges that will take you through the most secret and sacred recesses of this extraordinary London citadel.So it's time to don your bearskin, and embark on a mind-bending journey into the depths and dungeons of London's most ominous landmark in The Tower of London Puzzle Book.

Discover the stories of the brave men and women who worked, trained and fought across the UK, from Bletchley Park in southern England all the way to Arisaig in northern Scotland, in an unbelievable effort to defeat the Nazis and win the Second World War .From the outset of the war, most of Britain felt like a mystery even to those who lived there. All road and railway signs were removed up and down the country to thwart potential enemy spies. An invisible web of cunning spread across the United Kingdom; secret laboratories were hidden in marshes, underground bases were built to conceal key strategic plans and grand country houses became secret and silent locations for eccentric boffins to do their confidential cryptography work.In Secret Britain, Sinclair McKay maps out the UK through the hidden bases and battlegrounds of WWII. These locations are full of history and intrigue, but if you don't know where to look, you might just miss them. Journeying through secret wildernesses, suburbs, underground tunnels and manor houses, Sinclair gives a glimpse into the stories of the incredible people behind the war effort, and shows how you might be able to visit these mysterious and evocative locations yourself.With his trademark warmth and compassion, Sinclair unearths the truths of the war that have remained under layers of secrecy since the war was won in 1945.

A CUNNING CHRONICLE OF THE 50 CODES THAT ALTERED THE COURSE OF HISTORY AND CHANGED THE WORLDFrom the bestselling author of Bletchley Park Brainteasers and The Scotland Yard Puzzle Book. There have been secret codes since before the Old Testament, and there were secret codes in the Old Testament too. Almost as soon as writing was invented, so too were the devious means to hide messages and keep them under the wraps of secrecy.In 50 Codes that Changed the World, Sinclair McKay explores these uncrackable codes, secret cyphers and hidden messages from across time to tell a new history of a secret world. From the temples of Ancient Greece to the court of Elizabeth I; from antique manuscripts whose codes might hold prophecies of doom to the modern realm of quantum mechanics, you will see how a few concealed words could help to win wars, spark revolutions and even change the faces of great nations.Here is the complete guide to the hidden world of codebreaking, with opportunities for you to see if you could have cracked some of the trickiest puzzles and lip-chewing codes ever created. -----------------------Praise for Sinclair McKay's books:'This book [The Secret Life of Bletchley Park] seems a remarkably faithful account of what we did, why it mattered, and how it all felt at the time by someone who couldn't possibly have been born then. - THE GUARDIAN[Bletchley Park Brainteasers] is outrageously difficult but utterly fascinating. - THE EXPRESS'Sinclair McKay's account of this secret war of the airwaves in [Secret Listeners] is as painstakingly researched and fascinating as his bestselling The Secret Life Of Bletchley Park, and an essential companion to it.' - DAILY MAIL

BECOME A TOP SECRET CODEBREAKER! - The ultimate puzzle book for kids and families.Welcome to Bletchley Park, once the top-secret home of the Second World War codebreakers. Here, some of the greatest minds helped crack near-impossible codes.. You can join them . . .Inside you will find:* Over 80 brain-teasing puzzles, including logic puzzles, word games, number challenges, brain games and cryptic crosswords* Fascinating facts and stories about Bletchley Park and the history of codebreaking - from ancient Roman and Greek ciphers to the Enigma machine and incredible twentieth-century spy technology.* Meet the real-life heroes of codebreaking - mathematicians, poets, chess champions and musicians who outsmarted the Enigma and helped win the war* Fun family-friendly activities perfect for curious kids, puzzle lovers and history buffs.The perfect gift book for curious kids. So, grab your family and friends, get puzzling, and see if you could make it into the history books as a Bletchley Park codebreaker.

BECOME A TOP SECRET CODEBREAKER! - The ultimate puzzle book for kids and families.Welcome to Bletchley Park, once the top-secret home of the Second World War codebreakers. Here, some of the greatest minds helped crack near-impossible codes.. You can join them . . .Inside you will find:* Over 80 brain-teasing puzzles, including logic puzzles, word games, number challenges, brain games and cryptic crosswords* Fascinating facts and stories about Bletchley Park and the history of codebreaking - from ancient Roman and Greek ciphers to the Enigma machine and incredible twentieth-century spy technology.* Meet the real-life heroes of codebreaking - mathematicians, poets, chess champions and musicians who outsmarted the Enigma and helped win the war* Fun family-friendly activities perfect for curious kids, puzzle lovers and history buffs.The perfect gift book for curious kids. So, grab your family and friends, get puzzling, and see if you could make it into the history books as a Bletchley Park codebreaker.

Behind the celebrated code-breaking at Bletchley Park lies another secret…The men and women of the ‘ Y’ (for Wireless’ ) Service were sent out across the world to run listening stations from Gibraltar to Cairo, intercepting the German military’s encrypted messages for decoding back at the now-famous Bletchley Park mansion. Such wartime postings were life-changing adventures – travel out by flying boat or Indian railways, snakes in filing cabinets and heat so intense the perspiration ran into your shoes - but many of the secret listeners found lifelong romance in their far-flung corner of the world. Now, drawing on dozens of interviews with surviving veterans, Sinclair McKay tells their remarkable story at last.

This is beautifully slipcased  presented collector’ s edition of the best selling title, The Lost World of Bletchley Park, a comprehensive illustrated history of this remarkable place, from its pre-war heyday as a country estate, its wartime requisition and how it became the place where modern computing was invented and the German Enigma code was cracked, to its post-war dereliction and then rescue towards the end of the twentieth century as a museum.Removable memorabilia includes:1938 recruiting memo with a big tick against Turing’ s name Churchill’ s ‘ Action this day’ letter giving code breakers extra resources Handwritten Turing memos Top Secret Enigma decryptions, about the sinking of the Bismark, German High Command’ s assessment of D-Day threat and the message announcing Hitler’ s suicide A wealth of everyday items such as call-up papers, security notices and propaganda posters Newly redesigned interiors with 25% new content, high end slipcase package featuring removable facsimile documents, this is an essential purchase for everyone interested and wanting to experience the place where code-breaking helped to win the war.

The reason for the huge commercial success of Sinclair McKay's The Secret Life of Bletchley Park was simple: for the first time it told the stories of the ordinary people (mostly women), who worked there, and what it was like. Sworn to secrecy, they never divulged their remarkable wartime service for decades. But what did they go on to achieve after the war? And what about those who did become household names, but whose Bletchley Park years remain unknown?Now Sinclair McKay tells the stories of a hundred such people, and the often equally extraordinary lives they went on to. Here are dozens of unsung heroes, who certainly made their mark after the war as well as during its finest hour: people like Home Secretary Roy Jenkins, or novelist Angus Wilson; or Jane Fawcett, a trained ballerina who went on to co-found the Victorian Society and save St Pancras Station; or James Bernard, a protege of Benjamin Britten who wrote all the music for the Dracula films; or Joan Clarke, Alan Turing's girlfriend, who became a senior codebreaker herself at GCHQ.

Bletchley Park has played a vital role in British history. This Victorian country house in the Buckinghamshire countryside was was where one of the war’s most famous – and crucial – achievements was made: the cracking of Germany’ s 'Enigma' code in which its most important military communications were couched. It was home to some of Britain’s most brilliant mathematical brains, such as Alan Turing, and the scene of immense advances in technology – indeed, the birth of modern computing. The military codes deciphered there were instrumental in turning both the Battle of the Atlantic and the war in North Africa. But, though plenty has been written about the boffins, and the codebreaking, fictional and non-fiction – from Robert Harris and Ian McEwan to Andrew Hodges’ biography of Turing – what of the thousands of men and women who lived and worked there during the war? What was life like for them – an odd, secret territory between the civilian and the military? This is the first oral history of life at Bletchley Park, an amazing compendium of memories from people now in their eighties – of skating on the frozen lake in the grounds (a depressed Angus Wilson, the novelist, once threw himself in) – of a youthful Roy Jenkins, useless at codebreaking, of the high jinks at nearby accommodation hostels – and of the implacable secrecy that meant girlfriend and boyfriend working in adjacent huts knew nothing about each other's work.