James Hamilton-Paterson

In 1945 Britain was the world's leading designer and builder of aircraft - a world-class achievement that was not mere rhetoric. And what aircraft they were. The sleek Comet, the first jet airliner. The awesome delta-winged Vulcan, an intercontinental bomber that could be thrown about the sky like a fighter. The Hawker Hunter, the most beautiful fighter-jet ever built and the Lightning, which could zoom ten miles above the clouds in a couple of minutes and whose pilots rated flying it as better than sex. Just what was it like to be alive in that marvellous post-war moment when innovative new British aircraft made their debut, and pilots were the rock stars of the age? James Hamilton-Paterson captures that season of glory in a compelling book that fuses his own memories of being a schoolboy plane spotter with a ruefully realistic history of British decline - its loss of self confidence and power. It is the story of great and charismatic machines and the men who flew heroes such as Bill Waterton, Neville Duke, John Derry and Bill Beaumont who took inconceivable risks, so that we could fly without a second thought.

Gerald Samper, an effete English snob, has his own private hilltop in Tuscany, where he whiles away his time working as a ghostwriter for celebrities and inventing wholly original culinary concoctions — including ice cream made with garlic and the bitter, herb-based liqueur of the book's title. Gerald's idyll is shattered by the arrival of Marta, on the run from a crime-riddled former soviet republic. A series of hilarious misunderstandings brings this odd couple into ever closer and more disastrous proximity.James Hamilton-Paterson's first novel, "Gerontius," won the Whitbread Award. He is an acclaimed author of nonfiction books, including "Seven-Tenths," "Three Miles Down," and "Playing with Water," He currently lives in Italy.

"The fun is in Hamilton-Paterson's offhand observations and delicate touch in handling his two unreliable misfits as they find each other--and there's lots of it."—Publishers WeeklySet both in Tuscany and in the trendy haunts of London, this is the hilarious sequel to Cooking with Fernet Branca . The inimitable Gerald Samper is back, with his musings on the absurdities of modern life and his entertaining asides during which he comments on everything from publishing to penile implants, celebrity sportswomen to Australian media moguls. Plus his marvelously eccentric recipes. A smart literary romp featuring a cavalcade of misadventures and memorable characters.

Little more than ten years after the first powered flight, aircraft were pressed into service in World War I. Nearly forgotten in the war's massive overall death toll, some 50,000 aircrew would die in the combatant nations' fledgling air forces.The romance of aviation had a remarkable grip on the public imagination, propaganda focusing on gallant air 'aces' who become national heroes. The reality was horribly different. Marked for Death debunks popular myth to explore the brutal truths of wartime aviation: of flimsy planes and unprotected pilots; of burning nineteen-year-olds falling screaming to their deaths; of pilots blinded by the entrails of their observers.James Hamilton-Paterson also reveals how four years of war produced profound changes both in the aircraft themselves and in military attitudes and strategy. By 1918 it was widely accepted that domination of the air above the battlefield was crucial to military success, a realization that would change the nature of warfare forever.

When we last saw our hero he had taken to his bed in England, his beloved home in Tuscany having inexplicably capsized into a ravine. As Rancid Pansies opens, Samper is recuperating in Sussex at the home of the famous conductor Max Christ when he learns that film rights to his book on Millie Cleat—the one-armed yachtswoman whose inadvertent hari-kari, televised on Christmas day, gave his book an enormous boost—have been sold. This windfall is sufficient to finance a return to Italy and provide the time to indulge a long suppressed aspiration: writing the libretto for an opera (if only he can find a suitable subject). Before departing, the ever-gracious Gerald insists on preparing a farewell dinner for Max, his family and friends. The meal of liver smoothies and field mouse vol-au-vent is a memory-maker—and the assembled company’s gag reflex is one of heroic proportions. Back in Italy, Gerald discovers that an offhand remark he had made while surveying the wreckage of his house, claiming he and his friends were saved by an apparition of the late Princess of Wales, has found its way into the Italian newspapers. Now, religious pilgrims and curious tourists have erected an ad hoc shrine on what is left of his property. Annoying to be sure, but there is the kernel of a grand idea here. Opera requires romance and tragedy, right? And who more than the People’s Princess had such theatrics in super-sized quantities? And, if Princess Diana were to become Saint Diana, think of the promotional possibilities, the merchandising! So fasten your seat belts: it’s going to be a hilarious journey with some of the most appealing comic characters and sumptuous writing in recent literature.

James Hamilton-Paterson's classic exploration of the sea, Seven Tenths is a beautifully written blend of literature and science that includes the acclaimed essay "Sea Burial." Hamilton-Paterson writes about fishing, piracy, ecological crises, and is especially brilliant on the melancholy fascination of those border places and moments when the sea and land meet and the human experience seems transient.Taking humanity's complex relationship with the sea as its starting point, Seven Tenths is an enticing meditation on the sea as the physical birthplace of the human race and the emotional source of our dreams. Shifting effortlessly between the sciences and the humanities—between cartography and poetry, between ecology and philosophy—Hamilton-Paterson has created one of the most engrossing works on the sea in recent memory. The prose is never less than stunning, even as it is employed to describe exactly what happens to a human body during a burial at sea, as it sinks slowly through miles of water.At a time of growing concern about our degradation of the oceans, this extraordinary book is an immensely relevant and powerful reminder of the power, fragility and sublime beauty of the sea.

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The fascinating story of the spy plane SR-71 Blackbird—the fastest manned aircraft in the history of aviation.The SR-71 Blackbird, the famed “spy” jet, was deliberately designed to be the world's fastest and highest-flying aircraft—and its success has never been approached since.It was conceived in the late 1950s by Lockheed Martin's highly secret 'Skunk Works' team under one of the most (possibly the most) brilliant aero designers of all time, Clarence “Kelly” Johnson. Once fully developed in 1964, the Blackbird represented the apogee of jet-powered flight. It could fly at well over three times the speed of sound above 85,000 feet and had an unrefueled range of 3,200 nautical miles. It flew with great success until 1999). Despite extensive use over Vietnam and later battlefields, not one was ever shot down (unlike the U2 in the Gary Powers incident).The Blackbird's capabilities seem unlikely ever to be exceeded. It was retired because its function can be performed by satellites—and in today's steady trend toward unmanned military aircraft, it is improbable that another jet aircraft of this speed and caliber will ever again be conceived.

Nearing the end of his career, Sir Edward Elgar, the British composer, impulsively decides to travel to Brazil, where he encounters a woman from his past

'Exquisitely written and ripe with detail' Sunday Times. 'An engaging book ... He knows his British stuff' The Times. 'One of England's most skilled and alluring prose writers in or out of fiction, has done something even more original' London Review of Books.WHAT WE HAVE LOST IS A MISSILE AIMED AT THE BRITISH ESTABLISHMENT, A BLISTERING INDICTMENT OF POLITICIANS AND CIVIL SERVANTS, PLANNING AUTHORITIES AND FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, WHO HAVE PRESIDED, SINCE 1945, OVER THE DECLINE OF BRITAIN'S INDUSTRIES AND REPLACED THE 'GREAT' IN BRITAIN WITH A FOR SALE SIGN HUNG AROUND THE NECK OF THE NATION.Between 1939 and 1945, Britain produced around 125,000 aircraft, and enormous numbers of ships, motor vehicles, armaments and textiles. We developed radar, antibiotics, the jet engine and the computer. Less than seventy years later, the major industries that had made Britain a global industrial power, and employed millions of people, were dead. Had they really been doomed, and if so, by what? Can our politicians have been so inept? Was it down to the superior competition of wily foreigners? Or were our rulers culturally too hostile to science and industry?James Hamilton-Paterson, in this evocation of the industrial world we have lost, analyzes the factors that turned us so quickly from a nation of active producers to one of passive consumers and financial middlemen.

1961. A squadron of Vulcan aircraft, Britain’s most lethal nuclear bomber, flies towards the east coast of the United States. Highly manoeuvrable, the great delta-winged machines are also equipped with electronic warfare devices that jam American radar systems. Evading the U. S. fighters, the British aircraft target Washington and New York, reducing them to smoking ruins.They would have done, at least, if this were not an exercise. This extraordinary raid (which actually took place) opens James Hamilton-Paterson’s remarkable novel about the lives of British pilots at the height of the Cold War, when aircrew had to be ready 24 hours a day to fly their V-bombers to the Western USSR and devastate its cities.This is the story of Squadron-Leader Amos McKenna, a Vulcan pilot who is suffering from desires and frustrations that are tearing his marriage apart and making him question his ultimate loyalties. Relations with the American cousins are tense; the future of the RAF bomber fleet is in doubt. And there is a spy at RAF Wearsby, who is selling secrets to his Russian handlers in seedy East Anglian cafes.A macabre Christmas banquet at which aircrew under intolerable pressures go crazy, with tragic consequences, and a disastrous encounter with the Americans in the Libyan desert, are among the high points of a novel that surely conveys the beauty and danger of flying better than any other in recent English literature.

A narrative history of the USA-supported dictatorship that came to define the Philippines. Ferdinand & Imelda Marcos presented themselves as the reincarnation of a primal couple from Filipino mythology. Ferdinand reinvented himself as a matchless fighter against the Japanese. Time magazine hailed him as a hero. He was the strongman, the dictator, welcomed at the White House by Lyndon B. Johnson, Nixon, Reagan & the CIA--America's Boy. For 21 years he & Imelda dominated the Philippines. A "democratic revolution" replaced them with Corazon Aquino, who, in turn, was followed by Fidel Ramos, Imelda's cousin. Nothing changed: the world applauded, the shadow play went on. James Hamilton-Paterson has gathered astonishing information from senators, cronies, rivals & Marcos family members, including Imelda. Covering the entire 100-year history of US involvement in the Philippines, he offers a devastating vision of the price Filipinos paid for dictatorship. Perhaps no other couple is as emblematic of American imperialism as the Marcoses; America's Boy is their story. Passionate, deeply researched & haunting, it is "a riveting read" (The Guardian London) by one of the language's best stylists.

An ode to Beethoven's revolutionary masterpiece, his Third SymphonyIn 1805, the world of music was startled by an avant-garde and explosive new work. Intellectually and emotionally, Beethoven's Third Symphony, the "Eroica," rudely broke the mold of the Viennese Classical symphony and revealed a powerful new expressiveness, both personal and societal. Even the whiff of actual political revolution was woven into the work-it was originally inscribed to Napoleon Bonaparte, a dangerous hero for a composer dependent on conservative royal patronage. With the first two stunning chords of the "Eroica," classical music was transformed.In Beethoven's Eroica , James Hamilton-Paterson reconstructs this great moment in Western culture, the shock of the music and the symphony's long afterlife.

A chance encounter in a local store leads a biographer to record the life of his enigmatic neighbor. From the terrace of a Tuscan villa comes the story of a tantalizing journey, leading the reader from the gas-lit streets of prewar London to Egypt in the months before World War II. Loving Monsters is a provocative novel from the winner of the 1991 Whitbread First Novel Award for Gerontius.

A wasteland city whose factory processes the skeletons of derelicts harbors four people--a television journalist, an archaeologist, an embattled and poor Filipina, and a corrupt cop--who reflect unresolved pasts

In the wake of World War II, an eccentric European curator struggles to keep alive a greenhouse full of exotic, nocturnal plants, fending off financial threats to their survival and his own creeping insanity

People hunting monkeys in the jungle once devised a simple yet effective When the creature found a banana in a large jar with a narrow neck, it would plunge its paw in to retrieve it. But it couldn't let go. And unless the monkey released the banana, it was stuck.We are, of course, the stuck monkey, paralysed by our modern lifestyles and consumer our constant stream of online shopping deliveries, our compulsive dependence on digital devices, our obsession with ourpets. These addictions, as small and harmless as they may seem, are quietly destroying the planet. And the eco-friendly alternatives that alleviate our guilt are often not much better.In Stuck Monkey, James Hamilton-Paterson uncovers the truth behind the everyday habits fuelling the climate crisis. Drawing on eye-opening research and shocking statistics, he mercilessly dissects a wide spectrum of modern pets, gardening, sports, vehicles, fashion, wellness, holidays, and more. Ferociously unflinching andintelligent, this book will make you think twice about the 'innocent' habits we often take for granted.

For the fans of "Ship of Gold" and "The Deep Blue Sea" comes a fascinating tale of deep sea exploration and a hunt for sunken World War II treasure.

Set in the imaginary Far Eastern holy city of Malomba,the city of 37 different religins. The Bell Boy is the story of the bohemian Hemony family and Laki, the shrewd and winning bell-boy of the title. The tragi-comic story of their mutual exploitation involves financial extortion and psychic surgery.Beautifully written, the novel is alive with the sights, sounds and scents of the East, and the juxtapositions between and mutual expectations of Eastern and Western cultures.

Having spent most of his life in foster homes and institutions, a fourteen-year-old withdraws into himself until a strange message on the beach takes him back to another time.

Examines the mysterious relics of Egypt's past, detailing the chemical processing involved in mummification, discussing superstitions that have persisted through the centuries, & providing photographs, diagrams & other illustrations.

A lavishly illustrated celebration of the golden age of aircraft, cars, ships and locomotives from 1900 to 1941 by the author of the bestselling Empire of the Clouds. This dazzling book describes the flourishing of transport and travel, and the engineering that made it possible, in the years before the Second World War. It is an homage to the great vehicles and their mechanisms, their cultural impact and the social change they enabled. James Hamilton-Paterson explores the pinnacle of the steam engine, the advent and glory days of the luxury motorcar and the monster vehicles used in land speed records, the marvellous fast ocean liners and the excitement and beauty of increasingly aerodynamic forms of passenger aircraft. These were the days when for most people long-distance travel was a dream, and the dream-like glamour of these machines has never been surpassed. Hamilton-Paterson has an unrivalled ability to write evocatively about engineering and design in their historical context, and in this book he brings a vanished era to life.

A Very Personal War , first published in 1971, was James Hamilton-Paterson's first non-fiction book, and though out of print for many years it retains its force and relevance today. 'In 1969 my agent called me into his office to meet a mysterious man who wanted his story told. He was Cornelius Hawkridge, who had escaped from Hungary during the 1956 uprising and had gone to America. He had recently returned from Vietnam, where for some years he had been conducting a bull-headed one-man investigation into the wholesale theft in South East Asia of US construction material, the corrupt practices of major US contractors supplying the military, and an international money-changing scam... But few wished to any negative news about the war in Vietnam qualified as 'rocking the boat'... In 1970 I holed up with him on the island of Gozo for some weeks while he told his story.' James Hamilton-Paterson

Book by Hamilton-Paterson, James

James Hamilton-Paterson is surely one of the most eclectic and versatile writers working today. The Briton has written two superb books of non-fiction, Playing with Water (about his experiences living on a remote Philippine isle in the 1970s) and The Great Deep (a collection of ruminations and historical asides on the sea), several volumes of poetry, and the novels Gerontius and Ghosts of Manila . In this, his second collection of short stories, his locales and characters are scattered all over the an American pianist giving a recital in China, a clandestine political meeting in Libya, a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, a music censor in Eastern Europe, a young Filipina musician forced into prostitution. Music, particularly the high classical forms of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, provides the central themes for each story. Mozart even shows up, reincarnated as a Nigerian cardiac surgeon attending a conference in Malta. It's a daring, idiosyncratic collection, pulled off with great aplomb by a distinctive composer of prose.

Tessa Hemony travels with her two children from their home in a religious cult commune to the holy city of Malomba, where they become the unwitting pawns of an enterprising young bellboy

This edition is unique, since it prepared for the teacher of English to help struggling students with reading. The book contains questions on the text and is abridged based on a vocabulary of 1200.

Hardcover. First edition. Very good (marked page block head) in good jacket. Few marks and an abrasion on slightly sunned jacket; worn slightly at edges and spine. Text is clear throughout, and all pages are sound. TS