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  Ian Fleming's Inspiration - The...

  Edward Abel Smith

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  “A journey through Fleming’s direct involvement in World War II intelligence and how this translated through his typewriter into James Bond’s world.” —The Washington Times 
   
  Secret agent James Bond is among the best known fictional characters in history, but what most people don’t know is that almost all of the characters, plots, and gadgets come from the real life of Bond’s creator, Commander Ian Fleming. This book goes through the plots of Fleming’s novels—explaining the experiences that inspired them.  
   
  Along with Fleming’s direct involvement in World War II intelligence, the book notes the friends who Fleming kept, among them Noel Coward and Randolph Churchill, and the influential people he would mingle with, including British prime ministers and American presidents. Bond is known for his exotic travel, most notably to the island of Jamaica, where Fleming spent much of his life. The desk in his Caribbean house, Goldeneye, was also where his life experiences would be put onto paper in the guise of James Bond. This book takes us to that island, and many other locales, as it traces the adventures of both 007 and the man who created him.

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  Lincoln Revisited

  Harold Holzer, John Y. Simon,...

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  This essay collection “draws together some of the best and brightest Abraham Lincoln scholars around” for a fresh and enlightening view of his life (The Journal of American History).   More than 150 years after his death, Abraham Lincoln remains the most written-about figure in American history. Lincoln Revisited is a brilliant gathering of fresh scholarship by the leading Lincoln historians of our time. Brought together by the Lincoln Forum, these scholars tackle uncharted territory and emerging questions; they also take a new look at established debates—including debates about their own landmark works.   Here, key chapters in Lincoln’s legacy are revisited—from Matthew Pinsker on Lincoln’s private life; Jean Baker on religion and the Lincoln marriage; Geoffrey Perret on Lincoln as leader; and Frank J. Williams on Lincoln and civil liberties in wartime.   These eighteen original essays explore every corner of Lincoln’s world—religion and politics, slavery and sovereignty, presidential leadership and the rule of law, the Second Inaugural Address and the assassination.   In his 1956 classic, Lincoln Reconsidered, David Herbert Donald confronted the Lincoln myth. Today, the scholars in Lincoln Revisited give a new generation of students, scholars, and citizens the perspectives vital for understanding the constantly reinterpreted genius of Abraham Lincoln.   “A superb collection.” —Booklist

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  Toe Blake - Winning Is Everything

  Paul Logothetis, Scotty Bowman

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  The first ever biography of Toe Blake — Hockey Hall of Famer and eleven-time Stanley Cup winner
  		 
  “Holy Dirty Dora!” Hector “Toe” Blake would bark while pacing behind the Montreal Canadiens bench, hands thrust into his pockets, jawing at chewing gum before intentionally banging his forehead into the glass that separates players and fans. No lead was safe or sufficient for the lifelong hockey man at the helm of the greatest dynasty in NHL history. As a player, Toe won a Stanley Cup with the Montreal Maroons before captaining a stumbling Canadiens organization to glory and a pair of Cups. As the Habs coach, Toe cemented the team’s status as lords of the league with eight more.
  		 
  Born into a family of 11, Blake emerged from the poverty of the Depression and a youth spent working the mines of Sudbury’s Nickel Belt to find junior hockey success and an unlikely shot at the NHL. While a fiery temper and penchant for stick-swinging nearly railroaded Toe’s promise, the Canadiens recognized his talent and leadership, and he went on to spend more than 50 years with the organization.
  		 
  History remembers Toe being hoisted onto the shoulders of his beloved players, waving his signature fedora and sipping from the Cup, but behind the success was a man driven by fear and an obsessive desire for victory. Despite personal tragedy, Toe always put winning first, and as a result, there are few coaches in any sport who have enjoyed Blake’s success and even fewer who endured the toll that came with it.

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  On This Day: September 15

  Emily Goldstein

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  On This Day: September 15. Daily podcast of historical and noteworthy activity on this calendar day. Birth of Agatha Christie; Confederate capture of Harper's Ferry during the American Civil War; bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL

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  The Mighty Warrior Kings - From...

  Philip J. Potter

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  The epic victories and struggles of nine kings—from the restoration of the western Roman empire by Charlemagne to the battles of Robert the Bruce. 
   
  The Mighty Warrior Kings traces the history of early Europe through the biographies of nine kings, who had the courage, determination and martial might to establish their dominance over the fragmented remnants of the Roman Empire. The book begins with Charlemagne, who united large regions of current-day France, Germany and Italy into the Holy Roman Empire and ends with Robert the Bruce, who gallantry defended Scotland against the attempted usurpation of England.  
   
  There are many famous warrior kings in the book, including Alfred the Great of Wessex, whose victories over the Vikings led to the unification of England under a single ruler, William I of Normandy, whose triumph at Hastings in 1066 changed the course of English history, while Frederick I Barbarossa led his army to victory in Germany and Italy solidifying and expanding the lands under the suzerainty of the Holy Roman Emperor. Among the lesser known monarchs discussed in the work are Cnut, whose victory at the battle of Ashingdon won the English crown and resulted in the creation of the North Sea Empire, which ruled over the kingdoms of England, Denmark and Norway, while during the reign of Louis IX of France the knights of Europe answered his call for the Seven Crusade to expel the Muslims from the Holy City of Jerusalem.  
   
  From Charlemagne to Robert the Bruce, the warrior kings created a new Europe with a centralized power base and set the stage for the following Age of Absolutism. 
   
  “A most fascinating account.” —Firetrench

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  My Secret Life Vol 3 Chapter 13

  Dominic Crawford Collins

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  My Secret Life, the anonymously written erotic memoirs of a Victorian English gentleman who refers to himself simply as 'Walter' is one of the most idiosyncratic and sexually obsessed books ever written. In this vast autobiographical confessional the author recounts, in meticulous detail, his sexual exploits throughout the course of a life devoted entirely to the pursuit of carnal pleasure. Through this compelling exploration of the author's sexual behaviour we are left with a uniquely entertaining insight into life behind the closed doors of Victorian society. My Secret Life is evocative, provocative, sorrowful, suspenseful, obscene, exciting and highly erotic...in it we are privy to the thoughts, emotions and memories of one of the most unusual, unsung and colourful English eccentrics of the Victorian era.Now, for the first time, the complete unabridged version of this unique text is being narrated and scored by film composer Dominic Crawford Collins as an 'audiofilm' (an audiobook in which the emotional landscape is explored through the music score). Each chapter of My Secret Life will be released at monthly intervals over the next ten or so years culminating in what is likely to become the longest audio book ever to be produced.

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