Thomas Harding Boeken

In July 2012 Thomas Harding's fourteen-year-old son Kadian was killed in a bicycle accident.Beginning on the day of Kadian's death, and continuing to the one-year anniversary, and beyond, Kadian Journal is at once a record of grief, a moving tribute to a lost son, and a celebration of a life lived to its fullest.

In the early 1800s Lehmann Gluckstein and his family escaped the pogroms of Eastern Europe and made their way to Whitechapel in the East End of London. There, starting with nothing, they worked tirelessly to pull themselves out of poverty, creating a small tobacco factory that quickly grew to become the largest catering company in the world: J. Lyons. For over a century, Lyons was everywhere. Its restaurants and corner houses were on every high street, its coffee and tea in every cup, its products in every home. By bringing the world to the British people, the company transformed the way we eat, drink and are entertained - democratising luxury and globalising our tastes. But it was a victory that was not easily won - a story of the virtue of hard work, perseverance and an indomitable spirit in the face of repeated obstacles: poverty, hatred and injustice. It is a tale that is rarely told, of an immigrant family's journey from rags to riches: the story of the British Dream. Legacy charts the rise and fall of one of the most influential dynasties in British history through the lives of five astonishing generations, bound together by an unbreakable code. This is a sweeping yet intimate work of history, filled with stories of sacrifice and selflessness, betrayal and personal tragedy, Empire and its cost, and success on an unimaginable scale

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE JQ WINGATE PRIZE 2015 SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD 'A gripping thriller, an unspeakable crime, an essential history.' JOHN LE CARR Hanns Alexander was the son of a prosperous German family who fled Berlin for London in the 1930s. Rudolf H ss was a farmer and soldier who became the Kommandant of Auschwitz Concentration Camp and oversaw the deaths of over a million men, women and children. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the first British War Crimes Investigation Team is assembled to hunt down the senior Nazi officials responsible for the greatest atrocities the world has ever seen. Lieutenant Hanns Alexander is one of the lead investigators, Rudolf H ss his most elusive target. In this book Thomas Harding reveals for the very first time the full account of H ss' capture. Moving from the Middle-Eastern campaigns of the First World War to bohemian Berlin in the 1920s, to the horror of the concentration camps and the trials in Belsen and Nuremberg, Hanns and Rudolf tells the story of two German men whose lives diverged, and intersected, in an astonishing way.

The story of the slave uprising that took place in the British colony of Demerara - now Guyana - in the Caribbean in 1823, and its momentous consequences

Set against the backdrop of a tumultuous century, this poignant narrative follows a small house that, after being seized by the Nazis, becomes a refuge for various families. Through their stories, the house bears silent witness to the trials and tribulations of its inhabitants, illustrating the profound impact of history on personal lives. The exquisite illustrations enhance the emotional depth of this moving tale, offering a unique perspective on resilience and the passage of time.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD 2015 LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2016 A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK âe~A passionate memoir.âe(tm) Neil MacGregor âe~A superb portrait of twentieth century Germany seen through the prism of a house which was lived in, and lost, by five different families. A remarkable book.âe(tm) Tom Holland âe~Personal and panoramic, heart-wrenching yet uplifting, this is history at its most alive.âe(tm) A.D. Miller In 2013, Thomas Harding returned to his grandmotherâe(tm)s house on the outskirts of Berlin which she had been forced to leave when the Nazis swept to power. What was once her âe~soul placeâe(tm) now stood empty and derelict. A concrete footpath cut through the garden, marking where the Berlin Wall had stood for nearly three decades. In a bid to save the house from demolition, Thomas began to unearth the history of the five families who had lived there: a nobleman farmer, a prosperous Jewish family, a renowned Nazi composer, a widow and her children and a Stasi informant. Discovering stories of domestic joy and contentment, of terrible grief and tragedy, and of a hatred handed down through the generations, a history of twentieth century Germany and the story of a nation emerged.

In the summer of 1993, Thomas Harding travelled to Germany with his grandmother to visit a small house by a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. It had been her 'soul place' as a child, she said - a holiday home for her and her family, but much more - a sanctuary, a refuge. In the 1930s, she had been forced to leave the house, fleeing to England as the Nazis swept to power. The trip, she said, was a chance to see it one last time, to remember it as it was. But the house had changed. Nearly twenty years later Thomas returned to the house. It was government property now, derelict, and soon to be demolished. It was his legacy, one that had been loved, abandoned, fought over - a house his grandmother had desired until her death. Could it be saved? And should it be saved? He began to make tentative enquiries - speaking to neighbours and villagers, visiting archives, unearthing secrets that had lain hidden for decades. Slowly he began to piece together the lives of the five families who had lived there - a wealthy landowner, a prosperous Jewish family, a renowned composer, a widower and her children, a Stasi informant. All had made the house their home, and all - bar one - had been forced out. The house had been the site of domestic bliss and of contentment, but also of terrible grief and tragedy. It had weathered storms, fires and abandonment, witnessed violence, betrayals and murders, had withstood the trauma of a world war, and the dividing of a nation. As the story of the house began to take shape, Thomas realized that there was a chance to save it - but in doing so, he would have to resolve his own family's feelings towards their former homeland - and a hatred handed down through the generations. The House by the Lake is a groundbreaking and revelatory new history of Germany over a tumultuous century, told through the story of a small wooden house. Breathtaking in scope, intimate in its detail, it is the long-awaited new history from the author of the bestselling Hanns and Rudolf

"In June 2006, police were called to number 9 Downshire Hill in Hampstead. The owner of the house, Allan Chappelow, was an award-winning photographer and biographer, an expert on George Bernard Shaw, and a notorious recluse, who had not been seen for several weeks. Someone had recently accessed his bank accounts, and attempted to withdraw large amounts of money. Inside the darkened house, officers found piles of rubbish, trees growing through the floor, and, in what was once the living room, the body of Chappelow, battered to death, partially burned and buried under four feet of paper. The man eventually arrested on suspicion of his murder was a Chinese dissident named Wang Yam: a man who claimed to be the grandson of one of Mao's closest aides, and a key negotiator in the Tiananmen Square protests. His trial was the first in modern British history to be held 'in camera': closed, carefully controlled, secret. Wang Yam was found guilty, but has always protested his innocence. Thomas Harding has spent the past two years investigating the case, interviewing key witnesses, investigating officers, forensic experts and the journalists who broke the story, and has unearthed shocking and revelatory new material on the killing, the victim and the supposed perpetrator. It is a crime that has been described in the press and by the leading detective as 'the greatest whodunnit' of recent years: an extraordinary tale of isolation, deception and brutal violence, stretching from the quiet streets of north London to the Palace of Westminster and beyond."--Provided by publisher