Ernle Dusgate Selby Bradford Boeken

Malta, then one of the easternmost bastions of Christendom, was attacked in 1565 by the Sultan of Turkey with 200 ships and 40,000 men. This book is based upon historical records and tells how approximately 700 Knights of St John plus 9,000 men defended Malta against the Sultan's armed forces.

An analysis of artifacts recovered from the Mary Rose, a sixteenth-century warship that sank off the coast of England evaluates the importance of the ship as an archaeological record of life in Tudor England

The order of the Knights Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem is the most long-lived of the great military orders of knighthood. Originating in a hospice on the road to Jerusalem and officially founded in 1099 during the First Crusade, the Knights of St. John continued to grow in wealth, power, and territory long after they were run out of Jerusalem by victorious Muslim forces. In The Shield and the Sword, Ernle Bradford displays his talents as a master storyteller and great scholar of the Mediterranean, charting the intriguing history of the Knights-from their origins in the Holy Land to their subsequent relocations to Rhodes, the island of Malta, and eventually England.

Situated halfway between Europe and Africa, Malta played a central role in the battles for the mastery of North Africa. The island was the vital supply base for British and Imperial troops in the to-and-fro desert campaigns against first Italy and then Germany and Rommel's Afrika Korps. The three-year siege of Malta was one of the longest sieges in history. In this thrilling account the author, who first came to know and love Malta whilst serving with the Royal Navy during the Second World War, paints a vivid picture of the suffering of the island and its population. He draws on personal accounts and reminiscences of the participants; he tells of the occasional despair that turned to joy when the convoys got through with much-needed supplies and of the bravery of both the civilians and the armed forces stationed there that won for Malta the George Cross.

For thousands of years people have sailed, traded, and fought across the waters of the Mediterranean. On its shores and islands they have built cities, colonised, dreamed, conquered and fallen. This sea, which brings together three continents, was the cradle of western civilisation.