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  Man-eaters of Kumaon

  Jim Corbett

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  This is the Merlin Unwin Books edition and is the only one currently available which contains the iconic Raymond Sheppard illustrations which capture with remarkable verve and accuracy the dramatic highlight of each story. All royalties from the sale of the Merlin Unwin Books hardback edition go to the Corbett tiger reserve in India.
  The presence of a man-eating tiger in the Indian province of Naini Tal spread fear and panic throughout the impoverished rural community. This tigress had already killed 434 villagers by the time Jim Corbett was approached to track and despatch her in 1907.
  These thrilling and moving tales are Corbett's first-hand accounts as, over the ensuing 29 years and at the request of desperate locals, he expertly tracks and kills various specific tigers and leopards which had become man-eaters, driven to this by injury or extreme old age.
  No one understood the ways of the Indian jungle better than Corbett. A skilled tracker, he preferred to hunt alone and on foot, sometimes accompanied by his small dog Robin. Corbett derived intense happiness from observing wildlife and he was a fervent conservationist as well as a tracker and ace shot.
  He empathised with the impoverished people amongst whom he lived, in what is today Uttarakhand, and he established India's first tiger sanctuary there.
  Corbett's writing is as immediate and accessible today as it was when first published in 1944.

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  Margaret - Friend of Orphans

  Mary Lou Widmer

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  A biography of Margaret Haughery, the beloved woman who went from a life of poverty to one of philanthropy and became known as the “Angel” of New Orleans.   Margaret Haughery gave everything she ever had to the orphans and the poor. Despite being unable either to read or write, she possessed an incredible business acumen, which allowed her to donate—including what she bequeathed in her will—more than $500,000 throughout her life.   What is perhaps even more astounding is that Margaret lost everyone she ever loved, yet she was still able to give so much love. As a child in the Maryland area, this Irish immigrant lost her parents and her baby sister when they died in a fever epidemic. She was separated from her brother in the aftermath, and he very well may have perished in the epidemic as well. Then, when she was a young wife and mother in New Orleans, her husband died of consumption. Soon afterward, her newborn daughter died in her sleep.   Determined to not succumb to self-pity and depression, Margaret, strengthened by her Roman Catholic faith, dedicated the rest of her life to helping the orphans and the poor. Helping to support an orphanage, she first started a dairy to provide milk for the children. Then she went on to earn a small fortune from running a local bakery. This financial success allowed her to donate enormous monetary sums to charity. Still, her fiscal generosity was eclipsed by her spiritual gifts.   This docunovel has dialogue added to enliven the text.

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  The Black Russian

  Vladimir Alexandrov

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  The “altogether astonishing” true story of a black American finding fame and fortune in Moscow and Constantinople at the turn of the 20th century (Booklist, starred review).  The Black Russian tells the true story of Frederick Bruce Thomas, a man born in 1872 to former slaves who became prosperous farmers in Mississippi. But when his father was murdered, Frederick left the South to work as a waiter in Chicago and Brooklyn. Seeking greater freedom, he traveled to London, then crisscrossed Europe, and—in a highly unusual choice for a black American at the time—went to Russia.   Because he found no color line there, Frederick settled in Moscow, becoming a rich and famous owner of variety theaters and restaurants. When the Bolshevik Revolution ruined him, he barely escaped to Constantinople, where he made another fortune by opening celebrated nightclubs as the “Sultan of Jazz.”   Though Frederick reached extraordinary heights, the long arm of American racism, the xenophobia of the new Turkish Republic, and Frederick’s own extravagance brought his life to a sad close, landing him in debtor’s prison, where he died a forgotten man in 1928. “In his assiduously researched, prodigiously descriptive, fluently analytical” narrative (Booklist, starred review), Alexandrov delivers “a tale . . . so colourful and improbable that it reads more like a novel than a work of historical biography.” (The Literary Review).   “[An] extraordinary story . . . [interpreted] with great sensitivity.” —The New York Review of Books

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  Kissinger's Shadow - The Long...

  Greg Grandin

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  A new account of America's most controversial diplomat that moves beyond praise or condemnation to reveal Kissinger as the architect of America's current imperial stance. In his fascinating new book, acclaimed historian Greg Grandin argues that to understand the crisis of contemporary America - its never-ending wars abroad and political polarization at home - we have to understand Henry Kissinger.  
  Examining Kissinger's own writings as well as a wealth of newly declassified documents, Grandin reveals how Richard Nixon's top foreign policy advisor, even as he was presiding over defeat in Vietnam and a disastrous, secret, and illegal war in Cambodia, was helping to revive a militarized version of American exceptionalism centered on an imperial presidency. Believing that reality could be bent to his will, insisting that intuition is more important in determining policy than hard facts, and vowing that past mistakes should never hinder future bold action, Kissinger anticipated, even enabled the ascendance of the neoconservative idealists who took America into crippling wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  
  Going beyond accounts focusing on either Kissinger's crimes or accomplishments, Grandin offers a compelling new interpretation of the diplomat's continuing influence on how the United States views its role in the world.

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  Willie Wells - "El Diablo" of...

  Bob Luke

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  The first complete biography of an important Negro League baseball player from Austin, Texas.Willie Wells was arguably the best shortstop of his generation. As Monte Irvin, a teammate and fellow Hall of Fame player, writes in his foreword, “Wells really could do it all. He was one of the slickest fielding shortstops ever to come along. He had speed on the bases. He hit with power and consistency. He was among the most durable players I’ve ever known.” Yet few people have heard of the feisty ballplayer nicknamed “El Diablo.” Willie Wells was black, and he played long before Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier. Bob Luke has sifted through the spotty statistics, interviewed Negro League players and historians, and combed the yellowed letters and newspaper accounts of Wells’s life to draw the most complete portrait yet of an important baseball player.Wells’s baseball career lasted thirty years and included seasons in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Canada. He played against white all-stars as well as Negro League greats Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Buck O’Neill, among others. He was beaned so many times that he became the first modern player to wear a batting helmet.As an older player and coach, he mentored some of the first black major leaguers, including Jackie Robinson and Don Newcombe. Willie Wells truly deserved his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame, but Bob Luke details how the lingering effects of segregation hindered black players, including those better known than Wells, long after the policy officially ended. Fortunately, Willie Wells had the talent and tenacity to take on anything—from segregation to inside fastballs—life threw at him. No wonder he needed a helmet.“Willie Wells: “El Diablo” of the Negro Leagues is well researched and well written, so the average baseball fan should find it to be an entertaining read.” —Dale Petroskey, president, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum “The story of Willie Wells opens another window on the conditions and constraints of Jim Crow America, and how painfully difficult it can be, even now, to remedy the persistent effects of discrimination. Every baseball fan will love this story. Every American should read it.” —Ira Glasser, executive director, American Civil Liberties Union, 1978-2001“Reconstructing, indeed resurrecting, the career of a peripatetic Negro League baseball player is a daunting task. Negro and Major League great Monte Irvin tells us that his fellow Hall of Famer, shortstop Willie Wells, belongs on the same baseball page as Gibson, DiMaggio, Paige, and Feller. This fine biography by Bob Luke does a wonderful job in telling us why and how that is the case. We have here a Hall of Fame telling of the story of a true Hall of Famer.” —Lawrence Hogan, author of Shades of Glory: The Negro Leagues and the Story of African American Baseball

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  Fighting for Queen and Country -...

  Nigel Ely

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  'Slowly I raised my rifle, aimed and pulled the trigger... One round hit and went through the boot. The leg kicked up about three feet and fell back. Confirmed! The Argy was now dead for sure. No screams, no nothing.'Spud Ely's SAS career has taken him into some of the most deadly, high-octane, violent battles ever. From the Falklands to the Persian Gulf, he has been in the very centre of the most ferocious fighting scenes modern history has witnessed. Armed to the hilt with the most up-to-date, hi-tech military machinery and his highly-toned fighting skills, Steve is truly a force to be reckoned with.Fighting for Queen and Country is the unputdownable account of his most bloody, violent, heroic moments. 'Through the smoke and fire I could see two bodies inside, one burning and obviously a goner. I shot the other in the guts. The look on his face was total shock as blood spurted up from him and covered my right leg. Then I put two rounds in the other body for good measure.'

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