Santa Claus began as Nicholas, a Byzantine bishop whose anonymous acts of nighttime charity would turn him into the most popular and enduring of all saints. Jeremy Seal’s journey follows Nicholas’s all-conquering expansion west from Turkey to the Crusader ports of Bari and Venice, and thence to 16th century Amsterdam. Seal records his subject’s 20th century rebirth in the advertising boardrooms of Manhattan, and his own children’s encounter with Santa in his new Lapland home. This high adventure spans early-Christian relics and Italian chicanery to reindeer, chimneys and chocolate coins, in a riveting narrative that combines epic sweep with cameos of childhood innocence. From the nature of belief to the settling of modern America, this is an extraordinary tale, triumphantly told. 'A treat whatever the season' Traveller Magazine 'Funny, touching and absurd . . . a charming and original book' Sunday Telegraph ‘A highly original, historically engaging and enchanting book’ Geographical Magazine
The most dramatic, revealing and little-known story in Turkey's history - which illuminates the nation 'Through the spellbinding career of a single, ill-fated leader, Jeremy Seal illuminates a bitterly divided country' Colin Thubron 'Read this book if you're interested in Turkey. Read it if you're interested in power, hubris and redemption. Read it' Christopher de Bellaigue, author of The Islamic Enlightenment In the spring of 2016 travel writer Jeremy Seal went to Turkey to investigate perhaps the most dramatic, revealing and little-known episode in the country's history - the 'original' coup of 1960, which deposed the traditionalist Prime Minister Adnan Menderes. The story of Menderes - to his adoring supporters the country's founding democrat; to his sworn enemies its most infamous traitor - goes to the heart of the feud that continues to rage between the Western and secular ambitions of a minority elite and the religious and conservative instincts of the small-town majority. A Coup in Turkey is a thrilling account of the events leading up to the coup and the trials and executions that followed, a story of political subterfuge and score-settling, courtroom drama, state execution, authoritarian intolerance and ideological division. Seal travels through President Erdogan's Turkey, tracking down eye-witness accounts from survivors of the Menderes era in Istanbul, the historic metropolis, and the new capital at Ankara. As he expertly guides us through this extraordinary story, so the compelling parallels between past and present become strikingly clear, and he illuminates this troubled nation with a deep sympathy and love for the people and places he writes about. By focussing on one key event - one which many Turks regard with shame - this evocative, gripping portrait of Turkey recentres our understanding of the past and makes sense of one of Europe's most bewildering yet intriguing neighbours. 'A wonderful writer' Robert Macfarlane
This is a captivating mystery of the best kind - the sort that really happened. While walking through a cliff-top graveyard in the village of Morwenstow on the coast of Cornwall, Jeremy Seal stumbled across a wooden figurehead which once adorned the Caledonia, a ship wrecked on the coast below in 1842. Through further investigation, he began to suspect the locals, and in particular the parson, Robert Hawker, of luring the ship to her destruction on Cornwall's jagged shore. Wrecking is known to have been widespread along several stretches of England's coast. But is that what happened in Morwenstow? Seal weaves history, travelogue and vivid imaginative reconstruction into a marvellous piece of detective work.
A tour of the river evaluates its role as a cultural venue between the East and West, describing the author's canoe trips along the river's length to trace its history and the role of industrialization in transforming Turkey.
Presents the evolution of a bishop from fourth century Turkey into the modern-day icon of Santa Claus, tracing the revered saint's cult in the Orthodox Church and his gradual acceptance in the West as a symbol of Christmas.
The author recounts his adventures traveling through Turkey in search of the history of the fez, using it as a key to understanding the country's history and culture.
For more than 50 years, the Weddell Seal Science project has been studying the world’s southernmost breeding mammal in its farthest-south location, McMurdo Sound, on the ice-bound edge of Antarctica. This book explores the life history of Weddell seals — surprisingly approachable big-eyed, smiling-faced creatures — and details the science of studying them: the techniques, the motivations, the objectives, and the results. Although science is at the heart of the book, this is also an adventure story about scientists living in a remote field camp, far out on the sea ice, surrounded by glaciers, where you can feel the ocean pulsing beneath your feet. Seals are all around, penguins walk through camp, the weather can be exquisitely beautiful or too severe to step outside. Simply being there would be a wonderful experience on its own but in this case the objective is science — a deeper understanding of our endlessly fascinating planet.
While walking through a cliff-top graveyard in the village of Morwenstow on the coast of Cornwall, the author encounters a wooden Scottish maiden trimmed with emblems and a shield. At first, Seal presumes the maiden is merely an elaborate headstone. But upon closer inspection, he realizes that the maiden, now a guardian for the graves she overlooks, was once the figurehead of a merchant ship. He learns that she adorned the Caledonia, a ship wrecked on the English coast in 1842, and that the crew had been benevolently buried there by the villagers. Further investigation leads Seal to suspect those villagers, and chiefly the village's parson, Robert Hawker, for the Caledonia's sudden demise. Though no one has ever been brought to court for wrecking--luring ships ashore to loot the cargo--it's a commonly held belief that this did take place. But, is that what happened in Morwenstow, a village cruelly perched above a jagged, inhospitable shore? Having meticulously researched maritime logs and burial registers, broadsides of the day, diary entries, and other first-hand documents, Seal weaves history, travelogue, and imaginative narrative into this marvelous piece of detective work, bringing us a mystery of the best kind--the sort that really did happen.
A New York Times bestseller Now also an Oscar-nominated documentary In Dirty Wars, Jeremy Scahill, author of the New York Times bestseller Blackwater, takes us inside America's new covert wars. The foot soldiers in these battles operate globally and inside the United States with orders from the White House to do whatever is necessary to hunt down, capture or kill individuals designated by the president as enemies. Drawn from the ranks of the Navy SEALs, Delta Force, former Blackwater and other private security contractors, the CIA's Special Activities Division and the Joint Special Operations Command ( JSOC), these elite soldiers operate worldwide, with thousands of secret commandos working in more than one hundred countries. Funded through "black budgets," Special Operations Forces conduct missions in denied areas, engage in targeted killings, snatch and grab individuals and direct drone, AC-130 and cruise missile strikes. While the Bush administration deployed these ghost militias, President Barack Obama has expanded their operations and given them new scope and legitimacy. Dirty Wars follows the consequences of the declaration that "the world is a battlefield," as Scahill uncovers the most important foreign policy story of our time. From Afghanistan to Yemen, Somalia and beyond, Scahill reports from the frontlines in this high-stakes investigation and explores the depths of America's global killing machine. He goes beneath the surface of these covert wars, conducted in the shadows, outside the range of the press, without effective congressional oversight or public debate. And, based on unprecedented access, Scahill tells the chilling story of an American citizen marked for assassination by his own government. As US leaders draw the country deeper into conflicts across the globe, setting the world stage for enormous destabilization and blowback, Americans are not only at greater risk -- we are changing as a nation. Scahill unmasks the shadow warriors who prosecute these secret wars and puts a human face on the casualties of unaccountable violence that is now official policy: victims of night raids, secret prisons, cruise missile attacks and drone strikes, and whole classes of people branded as "suspected militants." Through his brave reporting, Scahill exposes the true nature of the dirty wars the United States government struggles to keep hidden.
The high adventure of James Rollins meets the gripping suspense of Matthew Reilly in Robinson's explosive new thriller about an ex-Navy SEAL turned NCIS Special Agent sent to the world's only sub-oceanic research facility located off the Florida Keys.
Two years after the death of his wife, former Navy SEAL Atticus Young attempts to reconcile with his rebellious daughter by taking her to swim with a pod of humpback whales off the coast of Maine. But the beauty of the sea belies a terror from the deep--a horrific creature as immense as it is ancient. Original.
2025. The Election has passed once more, and America has fractured. The divided political forces in the United States have grown to massive levels as Socialist and Conservative turn on each other. The Government has shut off or canceled basic services. Electric, phone, TV are down, inflation skyrockets, war is on the horizon, in the making since the assassination of JFK in 1963. Alone stands Thomas Reeve, former United States Navy SEAL; who just wants to live quietly on his Washington ranch. After firearms are confiscated, he slips away and gets final orders: Defeat the Socialist uprising. One SEAL and a ragtag group of patriots are about to embark on the ultimate mission: Save America.
Treason is the only crime explicitly defined in America’s Constitution. Relatively few Americans have been convicted of it. Far more have had the poisonous word thrown at them. Through the cases of Americans who—whether acting in defense of their country, for personal gain, or simply when society had redefined treasonous activity—were accused of betraying their country, though not charged with the ultimate crime against one’s nation, If This Be Treason tackles the complicated question of where dissent ends and betrayal begins. Jeremy Duda covers the gamut of American history, from the earliest days of the republic, when George Logan’s act of unauthorized diplomacy kept his fledgling country out of war with France but so outraged his enemies that Congress passed a law to prevent it from ever happening again, to today as Edward Snowden remains an international fugitive for exposing the government’s spying on its own citizens. Among other examples are diplomatic envoy Nicholas Trist, who betrayed his president’s order to return home so he could negotiate a just treaty with a vanquished foe; former congressman Clement Vallandigham, who was exiled from his own country for speaking out against Lincoln’s prosecution of the Civil War; and Richard Nixon, who scuttled a peace deal to end the war in Vietnam. “If this be treason, make the most of it!” So proudly declared Patrick Henry, accused of treason for opposing the Stamp Act imposed by Great Britain on its American colonies. Throughout history, Americans have toed the line between treason and dissent. Exactly where that line is has remained difficult to ascertain. But these cases serve as a fascinating way to explore and interpret where dissent ends and betrayal begins..
The remarkable story of how Israel used sabotage, assassination, cyberwar--and diplomacy--to thwart Iran's development of nuclear weapons, in the process forging a new Middle East by uniting with Sunni Arab nations to stop their common enemy. Authors Bob and Evyatar describe how Israel has used cyberwarfare, targeted assassinations, and sabotage of Iranian facilities to great effect, sometimes in cooperation with the United States. In doing so Israel has managed to transform the politics of the Middle East, culminating in the Abraham Accords of 2020. No longer do Arab states such as Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and, most importantly, Saudi Arabia, insist on a solution to the Palestinian problem before cooperating with Israel. Now, united in their opposition to Iran, which has funded and even trained Shi'a terrorists, Israel and these Arab states are cooperating as Israel undermines Iran's nuclear program. Bob and Evyatar reveal how Israel has used documents secretly stolen from Tehran to show the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency how Iran has repeatedly violated the 2015 JCPOA nuclear agreement and lied about its nuclear weapons program. Drawing from interviews with confidential sources in Mossad, Israel's equivalent to the CIA, the authors tell the inside story of the tumultuous, and often bloody, history of how Israel has managed to outmaneuver Iran--so far.
CESARS WARS is based on the true story of Roberto Csar Montiel, a Special Forces soldier and CIA operative who made American history for 35 years: The Portable Atomic Bomb. The creation of Special Forces. The Bay of Pigs. The School of the Americas. Korea. Vietnam. Operation Phoenix. Operation Condor. The Contras. Non-official Cover. Interrogations. Torture. Through it all, his family paid the price. There were other women. PTSD. Alcoholism and abuse. In the end, the violence always comes first circle. Youre like a Mafia wife, his oldest son tells his mother. The more dad kills, the more you pray. CESARS WARS is also the tale of a first generation American family that struggles to endure the sacrifices and understand the sins committed in the name of God, country, democracy and empire. From the rebuilding of post-war Europe and Japan, through the turbulent 1960s, and the covert South American operations of the 1980s and beyond, this is the story of a family and a nation in crisis.
Five years ago, the United States Space Force became a reality. And while those writing the checks took things very seriously, the other military branches did not. As a result, Space Force was populated by undesirables: men and women who made too many mistakes, didn't follow the rules, or...slept with the wrong general's daughter. Three times. On camera. It was a mistake, okay? My name is Captain Ethan Stone, a decorated member of SEAL Team 6 turned Space Force 'recruit.' While the powers-that-be attempted to make Space Force an embarrassment, they also sent some of the very best minds, fighters, and pilots to the program, because sometimes the best of us decide to take a stand against those same powers. Yeah, yeah. Not me. Though I seem to recall I was standing when... Sorry. It's a distracting memory. Flash forward five years and between tenses. President West is in office. Power has shifted. And Space Force is defunded. With just a handful of us still living on base, we find ourselves being evicted. But before all of us can leave, aliens invade. Really ugly ones, too. Super nasty. I don't think I could describe them here without getting the book banned. Anywho, using their advanced technology, they seal off Space Force Command behind a shrinking force field and kick off a battle royale to the death. Human vs. alien. To the victors goes the Earth. While my boy Frank Taylor and I throw down inside the force field, my main squeeze, First Lieutenant Jennifer Hale, leads an international strike team into freekin' space. It's nuts. Crazy action. Super funny, too, in like a Deadpool way, if that's your thing. The only way to really know what went down is to snag a copy of this book and read it for yourself...before it's too late. Or wait for the movie. There is going to be a movie, right?
For more than 50 years, the Weddell Seal Science project has been studying the world’s southernmost breeding mammal in its farthest-south location, McMurdo Sound, on the ice-bound edge of Antarctica. This book explores the life history of Weddell seals — surprisingly approachable big-eyed, smiling-faced creatures — and details the science of studying them: the techniques, the motivations, the objectives, and the results. Although science is at the heart of the book, this is also an adventure story about scientists living in a remote field camp, far out on the sea ice, surrounded by glaciers, where you can feel the ocean pulsing beneath your feet. Seals are all around, penguins walk through camp, the weather can be exquisitely beautiful or too severe to step outside. Simply being there would be a wonderful experience on its own but in this case the objective is science — a deeper understanding of our endlessly fascinating planet.
Jeremy Clarkson, shares his opinions on just about everything in For Crying Out Loud. The publication of The World According to Clarkson in 2004 launched a multi-million copy bestselling phenomenon. But to no avail. Jeremy's one man war on crimes against common sense has not yet been won. And out hero's still scratching his head at the madness of it all. But it's not all bad. He's learnt a little along the way, including: • Why binge drinking is good for you • The worst word in the English language • The remarkable secret of eternal youth • The problem with America • And how to dispose of a seal For anyone who's been driven to wonder just what is the matter with people these days, For Crying Out Loud is the perfect riposte. Surprising, fearless and always laugh-out-loud funny, Clarkson's back. And he's got a point . . . For Crying Out Loud is a hilarious collection of Jeremy's Sunday Times columns and the third in his The World According to Clarkson series which also includes The World According to Clarkson, And Another Thing... and How Hard Can It Be? Praise for Jeremy Clarkson: 'Brilliant . . . laugh-out-loud' Daily Telegraph 'Outrageously funny . . . will have you in stitches' Time Out 'Cars take a back seat as Clarkson grumpily lets rip . . . the man has a point!' Zoo Number-one bestseller Jeremy Clarkson writes on cars, current affairs and anything else that annoys him in his sharp and funny collections. Born To Be Riled, Clarkson On Cars, Don't Stop Me Now, Driven To Distraction, Round the Bend, Motorworld and I Know You Got Soul are also available as Penguin paperbacks; the Penguin App iClarkson: The Book of Cars can be downloaded on the App Store. Jeremy Clarkson because his writing career on the Rotherham Advertiser. Since then he has written for the Sun and the Sunday Times. Today he is the tallest person working in British television, and is the presenter of the hugely popular Top Gear.
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