February 2017

In 1815, the British controlled the seas. Before the end of the nineteenth century, they ruled Australia, India, New Zealand, half of Africa,
half of North America, and islands all around the globe. Theirs was the most powerful empire the world has ever known.
Here is the story of how the English acquired their vast domain; how they ruled, maintained, and exploited it; and how, within decades,
they presided over its dissolution.
Here are Britain's triumphs and also her stinging defeats, her heroes and her scoundrels. It is a full and fascinating chronicle of the growth
of the British Empire and its people and of the impact that empire had on the rest of the world.

The leading actors and events in Boston in the 1770s - Samuel Adams, John Hancock, the Boston Tea Party, Lexington, Concord, and
Bunker Hill - have assumed a cherished place in history. Yet, with the passage of time, a layer of legend has obscured the true picture.
Here, from award-winning historian Francis Russell, is the bloody story of the early days of the American Revolution.

Here is the story of the tormented, mercurial Ludwig van Beethoven cast against the panorama of the times in which he lived. What
emerges is a portrait of a man and an age that adds another dimension to the music that has become part of our heritage.