'This is probably the best book ever written on the Habsburgs in any language, certainly the best I have ever read ... Students, scholars and the general reader will never find a better guide to Habsburg history' Alan Sked, Times Literary SupplementIn The Habsburgs, Martyn Rady tells the epic story of a dynasty and the world it built - and then lost - over nearly a millennium.From modest origins, the Habsburgs grew in power to gain control of the Holy Roman Empire in the fifteenth century. Then, in just a few decades, their possessions rapidly expanded to take in a large part of Europe stretching from Hungary to Spain, and from the Far East to the New World. The family continued to dominate Central Europe until the catastrophe of the First World War.With its seemingly disorganized mass of large and small territories, its tangle of laws and privileges and its medley of languages, the Habsburg Empire has always appeared haphazard and incomplete. But here Martyn Rady shows the reasons for the family's incredible endurance, driven by the belief that they were destined to rule the world as defenders of the Roman Catholic Church, guarantors of peace and patrons of learning. The Habsburg emperors were themselves absurdly varied in their characters - from warlords to contemplatives, from clever to stupid, from idle to frenzied - but all driven by the same sense of family mission. Scattered around the world, countless buildings, institutions and works of art continue to bear witness to their overwhelming impact.The Habsburgs is the definitive history of a remarkable dynasty that, for better or worse, shaped Europe and the world. Read more

A lost classic of Holocaust literature translated for the first time - from journalist, poet and survivor József Debreczeni'A literary diamond... A holocaust memoir worthy of Primo Levi' THE TIMES'A masterpiece' NEW STATESMANWhen József Debreczeni arrived in Auschwitz in 1944, had he been selected to go 'left', his life expectancy would have been approximately forty-five minutes. One of the 'lucky' ones, he was sent to the 'right', which led to twelve horrifying months of incarceration and slave labour in a series of camps, ending in the 'Cold Crematorium' - the so-called hospital of the forced labour camp Dörnhau, where prisoners too weak to work were left to die.Debreczeni beat the odds and survived. Very soon he committed his experiences to paper in Cold Crematorium, one of the harshest and powerful indictments of Nazism ever written. This haunting memoir, rendered in the precise and unsentimental prose of an accomplished journalist, compels the reader to imagine human beings in circumstances impossible to comprehend intellectually.First published in Hungarian in 1950, it was never translated due to the rise of McCarthyism, Cold War hostilities and antisemitism. This important eyewitness account that was nearly lost to time will be available in fifteen languages, finally taking its rightful place among the great works of Holocaust literature more than seventy years after it was first published. Read more

This lost classic, a crystal clear eyewitness account of the Holocaust, has been translated into English for the first time, 70 years after it was first published.'A literary diamond... A holocaust memoir worthy of Primo Levi' The Times'A masterpiece' New Statesman**SELECTED AS ONE OF THE 10 BEST BOOKS OF 2024 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES**For many years this powerful classic of Holocaust literature was forgotten. József Debreczeni was a journalist and poet who arrived in Auschwitz in 1944. He survived the initial selection and endured twelve months of incarceration and slave labour in a series of camps. He ended up in the ‘Cold Crematorium’, the so-called hospital of the forced labour camp Dörnhau, where prisoners too weak to work were left to die. Debreczeni beat the odds and survived. This is his story, written in haunting, lyrical prose, compelling us to imagine the unimaginable.Although published in Hungarian in 1950, the book was then lost for the next seventy years. Now, finally, this important eyewitness account takes its place among the great works of Holocaust literature.WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY JONATHAN FREEDLAND Read more

'A powerful, eloquent and deeply affecting book. I loved it' EDMUND DE WAAL'Tender, evocative and deeply moving' JONATHAN FREEDLAND'Profound, elegiac and fascinating... I zipped through it' PHILIPPE SANDS'Compelling' DAILY MAIL, BOOK OF THE WEEK'I SEEK A KIND PERSON WHO WILL EDUCATE MY INTELLIGENT BOY, AGED 11.' In 1938, Jewish families are scrambling to flee Vienna. Desperate, they take out adverts offering their children into the safe keeping of readers of a British newspaper, the Manchester Guardian. The right words in the right order could mean the difference between life and death.Eighty-three years later, Guardian journalist Julian Borger comes across the advert that saved his father, Robert, from the Nazis. Robert had kept this a secret, like almost everything else about his traumatic Viennese childhood, until he took his own life. Drawn to the shadows of his family's past and starting with nothing but a page of newspaper adverts, Borger traces the remarkable stories of his father, the other advertised children and their families, each thrown into the maelstrom of a world at war.From a Viennese radio shop to the Shanghai ghetto, internment camps and family homes across Britain, the deep forests and concentration camps of Nazi Germany, smugglers saving Jewish lives in Holland, an improbable French Resistance cell, and a redemptive story of survival in New York, Borger unearths the astonishing journeys of the children at the hands of fate, their stories of trauma and the kindness of strangers.I Seek a Kind Person is a gripping family memoir of grief, courage and hope, connecting us with multiple generations, distant continents and the hidden histories of our almost unimaginable past. Read more

A Pulitzer Prize Winner and landmark book from one of the truly original scholars of our time: a magnificent revelation of turn-of-the-century Vienna where out of a crisis of political and social disintegration so much of modern art and thought was born. "Not only is it a splendid exploration of several aspects of early modernism in their political context; it is an indicator of how the discipline of intellectual history is currently practiced by its most able and ambitious craftsmen. It is also a moving vindication of historical study itself, in the face of modernism's defiant suggestion that history is obsolete."-- David A. Hollinger, History Book Club Review"Each of [the seven separate studies] can be read separately....Yet they are so artfully designed and integrated that one who reads them in order is impressed by the book's wholeness and the momentum of its argument."-- Gordon A. Craig, The New Republic"A profound work...on one of the most important chapters of modern intellectual history" -- H.R. Trevor-Roper, front page, The New York Times Book Review"Invaluable to the social and political historian...as well as to those more concerned with the arts" -- John Willett, The New York Review of Books"A work of original synthesis and scholarship. Engrossing."-- Newsweek Read more

*WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2024*A gripping reconstruction of the daring escape to freedom of hundreds of East Germans in the summer of 1989 and how it led to the fall of the Berlin Wall.'A pivotal – and exhilarating – moment in 20th century history. . . gripping' Observer'Intensely moving' Sunday Times'Engrossing and dramatic' William Boyd, New StatesmanIn August 1989, a group of Hungarian activists did the unthinkable: they entered the forbidden militarised zone of the Iron Curtain - and held a picnic. On wisps of rumour, thousands of East German 'holiday-makers' had made their way to the border, surveilled by lurking Stasi agents. The stage was set for the greatest border breach in Cold War history. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Soviet Union - the so-called end of history - all would flow from what happened next. Drawing on dozens of original interviews with those involved, Matthew Longo reconstructs this world-shaping event and its tumultuous aftermath.'Evoke[s] the dramatic events in vivid colour . . . fascinating' Katja Hoyer, Telegraph *****‘Captivating . . . a vivid, fast-paced narrative’ New York Times*SHORTLISTED FOR THE HISTORICAL WRITERS ASSOCIATION NON-FICTION CROWN*A GUARDIAN BIGGEST FICTION AND NON-FICTION FOR 2024*A WATERSTONES 'BOOK YOU NEED TO READ IN 2024'*A FOYLES TOP TEN READ FOR JANUARY 2024* A TORTOISE MEDIA BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024 Read more

Budapest has always been an important place. Almost at the centre of Europe, it is at the crossroads of geographical regions and of civilizations, at the intersection of ancient trade routes. Mountains that gradually slope into gentle hills converge on a great river, the Danube, and the regions of Buda and Pest sprang up on either side.Throughout history the centre of gravity in Budapest and among Hungarians has shifted between this division of East and West - culturally, politically, emotionally. Invaders have come and gone, empires have conquered, occupied for centuries or decades, and left a few footprints behind: the remains of a Roman bath house complete with wonderfully preserved mosaics stand next to a Soviet-style 'five-year-plan' apartment block. The city bears the scars of the rise and fall of multiple empires, two world wars, fascism, Nazi German occupation, Soviet Communism. It has been home to some of the world's greatest writers, artists and musicians. Hungary is a place of extremes, a small country that has often in history punched well above its weight. At many moments, events that began in Budapest have proved to be of world significance. This is the story of that tumultuous, often divided, but always fascinating city. Read more

A gripping and detailed study of the brutal urban battle for Budapest, which saw German and Hungarian troops struggling to halt the joint Soviet-Romanian offensive to take the key city on the Danube.The 52-day-long siege of Budapest witnessed some of the most destructive urban fighting of the war. The Transdanubia region was strategically vital to Nazi Germany for its raw materials and industry, and because of the bridgehead it allowed into Austria. As a result, Hitler declared Budapest a fortress city in early December 1944. The battle for the city pitted 90,000 German and Hungarian troops against 170,000 Soviet (2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts) and Romanian attackers. The operations to take the city ran across several phases, from the initial Soviet approach to Budapest commencing in late October 1944, through the encirclement of city first on the Pest side of the Danube, and then on the Buda bank, and on to the savage urban fighting that began in December 1944 for the Hungarian capital. This superbly detailed work analyses the background, chronology and consequences of the siege from both a military and political perspective, and documents the huge losses in military and civilian casualties and material damage. Read more

A gripping reconstruction of the daring escape to freedom of hundreds of East Germans in the summer of 1989 - and how it led to the fall of the Berlin Wall.‘Beautifully written . . . The Picnic reads like a thriller’ Peter Frankopan'Exhilarating' Observer'Intensely moving' Sunday Times'Engrossing and dramatic' William BoydIn August 1989, a group of activists did the unthinkable: they entered the forbidden militarised zone of the Iron Curtain - and held a picnic. On wisps of rumour, thousands of East German 'holiday-makers' had made their way to the border, surveilled by lurking Stasi agents. The stage was set for the greatest border breach in Cold War history. The fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Soviet Union - the so-called end of history - all would flow from what happened next. Drawing on dozens of original interviews with those involved, Matthew Longo reconstructs this world-shaping event and its tumultuous aftermath.‘Revelatory . . . adds a new, captivating chapter to the history of the Cold War’ New Statesman‘Gripping . . . refreshingly fast-paced, effortlessly moving the reader from one place and moment to another’ History Today'Evoke[s] the dramatic events in vivid colour . . . fascinating' Katja Hoyer, Telegraph *****‘A great story . . . this is history told from the point of view of those who make it’ Ben Rogers, Times Literary Supplement*WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2024**SHORTLISTED FOR THE HISTORICAL WRITERS ASSOCIATION NON-FICTION CROWN* Read more

Budapest today is a palimpsest of its history and partially crystallized present. Its earlier history is best seen on the Castle Hill of Buda, the seat of Hungarian royal power since the beginning in the 13th Century. This peaked in the glory years of King Matthias' reign in the second half of the 15th Century, when Buda was one of the largest and wealthiest cities of Europe. The Ottoman conquest that followed a generation later was a catastrophe whose effect would last two centuries. However when the new Castle Hill of Buda arose, it became a version of Baroque central Europe, controlled by Imperial Vienna. Pest, on the opposite banks of the Danube, is a symbol of the grandeur of the late 19th Century metropolis. Elaborate, historicist buildings and monuments first inhabited by the members of the rising bourgeoisie that had achieved prosperity in the booming Budapest around the year 1900. This era still largely defines the visual appearance of the central city. Nearly half a century later Fascism, and then forty years of Communism, again produced economic dislocation and social tumult in the lives of the people. This is best shown through descriptions of the fate of individual families in Budapest. Since 1990 the metropolis and its people have gone through a frenzied transition for which there was no template: authoritarian socialist economy to volatile capitalism and democracy. The story of the key players and groups in this transition make this tumultuous process particularly vivid. Today Budapest is a city whose role in Europe is still being crystallized. However, inventive entrepreneurs and creative artists are making the city a more and more vibrant home for its citizens and a favoured destination for a rapidly increasing flow of visitors. Read more

'This is proper history. It is illuminating to pick up this book with the twenty-first century's crises of Brexit and Iraq in mind.' Jeremy Bowen (BBC correspondent, and author of Six Days). Over sixteen extraordinary days in October and November 1956, the twin crises of Suez and Hungary pushed the world to the brink of a nuclear conflict and what many at the time were calling World War III. Blood and Sand is a revelatory new history of these dramatic events, for the first time setting both crises in the context of the Arab–Israeli conflict, and the treacherous power politics of imperialism and oil.    Blood and Sandtells this story hour by hour, with a fascinating cast of characters including Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anthony Eden, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Nikita Khrushchev, Christian Pineau, Imre Nagy and David Ben-Gurion. It is a tale of conspiracy and revolutions, spies and terrorists, kidnappings and assassination plots, the fall of the British Empire and the rise of American hegemony. Blood and Sand is essential to our understanding of the modern Middle East and resonates powerfully with the problems of oil control, religious fundamentalism and international unity that face the world today. Read more

At the end of the First World War, Hungary, as a member of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, found itself on the losing side. Its army disintegrated and its armaments were acquired or destroyed by the victorious Allied nations. However, in the late 1920s, Hungarian diplomacy did all it could to reduce its isolation, forging relations with Italy and other neighboring countries to try to create a better position for Hungary among European nations. A kind of secret rearmament favoured by the new political movements in Europe at that time soon began.In this contest, Italy was among the main protagonists that made the Magyar military renaissance possible. Various cooperation projects were set up, and within the framework of these, Italy supplied or granted licences for various weapon systems, both land and aviation. Many vehicles were involved in this cooperation: among the vehicles, the L3 tankettes together with the Fiat B 3000 light tank. Artillery tractors such as the Pavesi and Breda, numerous artillery equipment and guns. Motor vehicles and motorbikes. In the avionic field: the Fiat CR 32, CR 42, Reggiane 2000 and CA 135 bombers. Read more

A Financial Times Best Summer Book 2023A Waterstones Best True Crime BookNagyrev, Hungary, 1929. Over 160 mysterious deaths. A group of local wives conspiring together, and one woman at the centre of it all…In 1929, a dark secret at the heart of a Hungarian farming village was finally exposed. For more than 15 years, Nagyrev had harboured a group of serial killers, one of the largest murder rings ever recorded. They came to be known as The Angel Makers.Led by a sharp-minded midwife known as Auntie Suzy, the local wives brazenly rid themselves of unwanted relatives, spooning doses of arsenic into soup and wine, stirring it into coffee and brandy. Murder was just another chore.Over 160 mysterious deaths later, the unlikely gang of murderesses came to justice in a sensational trial reported the world over. With absorbing detail, Patti McCracken pieces together the lives of Auntie Suzy, her wide network of killers, the unsuspecting victims and the villagers who witnessed it all.The Angel Makers is the utterly gripping account of an almost unbelievable – yet entirely true – moment in crime history. Read more

Vienna combines drama and elegance like no other. For centuries the heart of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the stately city on the Danube, has been defined by vast palaces and imperial grandeur―but behind the Baroque opulence, Vienna is also a place of genteel coffee house culture, epicurean tradition, and a heritage of both delicate and daring music, art, and design, from Johann Strauss to Egon Schiele, from Gustav Mahler to Josef Hoffmann.This volume is a treasure trove of photography from the last 175 years, following the evolution of Vienna from imperial capital to modern metropolis. Like a visual walk through time and cityscape, hundreds of carefully curated pictures trace the developments in Vienna’s built environment and the cultural and historical trends they reflect, whether the urban Gesamtkunstwerk of the 19th-century Ringstrasse or the experiments of “Red Vienna” in the 1920s, when the city had a social democrat government for the first time.Through these remarkable photographs, we discover not only the great landmarks and lesser-known corners of Vienna, but also the ubiquity and the tumult of its history. We see the cultural blossoming of the fin de siècle, when radical innovators such as Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Adolf Loos, and Sigmund Freud turned Vienna into a “laboratory of modernity”; the clashes of 1934; the ascent of Nazi dictatorship; and the horrors writ by the Holocaust in what was once one of the most populous and multi-ethnic cities on earth. More recently, fascinating postwar photographs explore the Vienna of the Third Man, at once a city in ruins and a hub for spies. The book closes with the most recent pictures, celebrating the emergence of today’s Vienna―one of the most attractive cities in Europe, in which rich history once again coexists with international flair and vibrant contemporary culture. Read more

✅ DualZone Air Fryer Cookbook ✅Quick, Delicious and Energy-saving Double Basket Air Fryer Recipes for Beginners and Busy People to Cook Faster and Healthier.If you're new to cooking, this Dual Zone Air Fryer Cookbook makes the experience foolproof and fearless. It tells you:🔸 How to Operate the 2-Basket Air Fryer🔸 Safety Guidelines🔸 Tips for Cooking Success🔸 Tips for Cleaning and Maintenance🔸 Easy Tasty RecipesMultiple theme menu ideas are as follow to refer:🥙Nutritious Breakfasts Recipes🧀Great Variety of Snacks and Appetizers🥬Flavorsome Vegan & Vegetable Recipes🥐Mouth-watering Fish and Seafood Recipes🍟Crispy Air Fryer Poultry Recipes🥩Juicy Beef, Pork, and Lamb Recipes🤤 Desserts and much more!This cookbook is a must-have for anyone who loves to cook. With a range of traditional and new ideas, you'll find something to suit every taste and occasion.🛒 Get your copy of the Dual Zone Air Fryer Cookbook today and level up your cooking skills to impress your family and friends! Read more

Eastern Front Sniper is a long overdue and comprehensive biography of one of World War IIs most accomplished snipers.Mathus Hetzenauer, the son of a Tyrolean peasant family, was born in December 1924. He was drafted into the Mountain Reserve Battalian 140 at the age of 18 but discharged five months later.He received a new draft notice in January 1943 for a post in the Styrian Truppenbungsplatz Seetal Alps where he met some of the best German snipers and learned his art.Hetzenauer went on to fight in Romania, Eastern Hungary and in Slovakia. As recognition for his more than 300 confirmed kills he was awarded on the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on April 17, 1945.After nearly five years of Soviet captivity Mathus Hetzenauer returned to Austria on January 10, 1950. He lived in the Tyrol's Brixen Valley until his death on 3 October of 2004. Read more