Who was the real Count of Monte Cristo? In this extraordinary biography Tom Reiss traces the almost unbelievable life of the man who inspired not only Monte Cristo but all three of the Musketeers: the novelists own father. Born in St Dominigue in 1762 the son of a French nobleman & a sugar plantation slave General Alexandre Dumas did not have an auspicious start in life. Things got worse when his father sold him into slavery to pay his passage back to Normandy. But six months later Dumas fortunes changed. His father bought him out of slavery & raised him in France where Dumas went to the nations finest schools & fencing academies & having enrolled in the army became known as Frances most handsome & strongest soldier. By the time Napoleon invaded Egypt Dumas was his top cavalry commander. But Napoleon was threatened by the physical prowess & popularity of this black nobleman. He engineered his disgrace & imprisonment & to please the sugar growers reintroduced slavery. A brief flowering of freedom & equality was over & forgotten but Dumas legacy would live on in the novels of the son who adored him. Reiss tells this tale with magisterial authority. Long years of research have led him across Europe the Caribbean & the Middle East in search of forgotten documents. He has journeyed through the Alps where Dumas scaled unscalable ice cliffs. He has walked the streets of Cairo where Dumas intrepid cavalry charge is still remembered. The result is an enthralling book that entertains astounds & triumphantly resurrects a lost hero from the worlds first multiracial society. ...

Completely absorbing". (Amanda Foreman). " Enthralling". (Guardian). " The Three Musketeers! The Count of Monte Cristo! The stories of course are fiction. But here a prize-winning author shows us that the inspiration for the swashbuckling stories was in fact Dumas' own father Alex
- the son of a marquis & a black slave... He achieved a giddy ascent from private in the Dragoons to the rank of general; an outsider who had grown up among slaves he was all for Liberty & Equality. Alex Dumas was the stuff of legend". (Daily Mail). So how did such this extraordinary man get erased by history? Why are there no statues of ' Monsieur Humanity' as his troops called him? The Black Count uncovers what happened & the role Napoleon played in Dumas' downfall. By walking the same ground as Dumas
- from Haiti to the Pyramids Paris to the prison cell at Taranto
- Reiss like the novelist before him triumphantly resurrects this forgotten hero. " Entrances from first to last. Dumas the novelist would be proud". (Independent). " Brilliant". (Glasgow Herald)."


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The photographs in this book capture the reality of life in the Black Country since the 1950s. Among the subjects covered by Graham Goughs stunning photographs are the gritty poverty poor housing & social unrest while the lighter side of life is not forgotten. From historic events to riots & extreme weather & from changing high streets to celebrity snaps all Black Country" life is here." ...

Based on his popular Rail Around Birmingham website this series incorporates a wealth of information & many new pictures of the areas railways in a handy portable book format allowing the reader to explore the extensive network past & present on the ground. Covering every station in the region line by line location by location the book provides a unique record of the development decline & rebirth of the greater Birminghams railway network. Rail Around Birmingham" provides a contemporary photographic survey of the sites of all past & present stations & locations within the area covered as well as many previously unpublished historical photographs & items of ephemera together with maps & location details." ...

Black Country Chronicles" is a fascinating & multi-faceted narrative of twentieth-century life in the Black Country. Tom Larkin & other members of the Black Country Memories Club have long been determined that the way of life sacrifices & hardships & daily activities should not be allowed to be forgotten & this book achieves their aim. Tom Larkin looks at the Black Country from the working-class point of view & records the significant contribution which these people made to the economic stability of the country as a whole. He neither romanticises nor exaggerates working-class life at this time but faithfully brings to the fore the harsh living conditions bad housing polluted environment low standards of hygiene & tough discipline which dominated peoples lives. This will provide a fascinating insight into the Black Country of yesteryear & a valuable record of the reality of life for generations to come." ...

Los Angeles 15th January 1947: a beautiful young woman walked into the night & met her horrific destiny. Five days later her tortured body was found drained of blood & cut in half. The newspapers called her The Black Dahlia. Two cops are caught up in the investigation & embark on a hellish journey that takes them to the core of the dead girls twisted life... ...

When a tide of ferocious draug the vampire's deadliest enemy floods Morganville its eclectic mix of residents must fight to save their town from devastation. Chaos has taken over the quiet college town of Morganville as the threat of the draug rapidly spreads with the help of the city's water system. Whilst most of the locals have already fled student Claire Danvers & her friends Shane Eve & Michael choose to stay & fight. Things take a turn for the worse when vampire Amelie the town's founder is infected by the master draug's bite. Unless Claire & her friends can find an antidote to save Amelie & overcome the draug Morganville's future looks bleak... For news about Rachel's up-coming 2012 UK tour giveaways & to share your love for Morganville sign up to the UK Fans of the Morganville Vampires group on Facebook. ...

The Black Death remains the greatest disaster to befall humanity killing about half the population of the planet in the 14th century. John Hatcher recreates everyday medieval life in a parish in Suffolk from which an exceptional number of documents survive. This enables us to view events through the eyes of its residents revealing in unique detail what it was like to live & die in these terrifying times. With scrupulous attention to historical accuracy John Hatcher describes what the parishioners experienced what they knew & what they believed. His narrative is peopled with characters developed from the villagers named in the actual town records & a series of dramatic scenes portray how contemporaries must have experienced the momentous events. ...

The Black Death is the name most commonly given to the pandemic of bubonic plague that ravaged the medieval world in the late 1340s. From Central Asia the plague swept through Europe leaving millions of dead in its wake. Between a quarter & a third of Europes population died. In England the population fell from nearly six million to just over three million. The Black Death was the greatest demographic disaster in European history. Sean Martin looks at the origins of the disease & traces its terrible march through Europe from the Italian cities to the far-flung corners of Scandinavia. He describes contemporary responses to the plague & makes clear how helpless was the medicine of the day in the face of it. He examines the renewed persecution of the Jews blamed by many Christians for the spread of the disease & highlights the bizarre attempts by such groups as the Flagellants to ward off what they saw as the wrath of God. His book is a vivid & dramatic account of one of the great catastrophes of history. ...

Catherine Bailey's Black Diamonds" is an extraordinary tale of family feuds forbidden love civil unrest & the downfall of a mining dynasty. Wentworth in Yorkshire was surrounded by 70 collieries employing tens of thousands of men. It is the finest & largest Georgian house in Britain & belonged to the Fitzwilliam family. It is England's forgotten palace which belonged to Britain's richest aristocrats. " Black Diamonds" tells the story of its demise: family feuds forbidden love class war & a tragic & violent death played their part. But coal one of the most emotive issues in twentieth century British politics lies at its heart. This is the extraordinary story of how the fabric of English society shifted beyond recognition in fifty turbulent years in the twentieth century. " Magnificent.. .peels back the grand facade of Wentworth toreveal a family riven with fueds mental illness & forbidden love". (" Tatler"). "A compelling new history.. .fascinating insights into the dynasty that once ruled this Yorkshire roost". (" Daily Mail"). " An aristocratic tale of epic proportions this gripping novel cleverly interweaves interviews letters & historical fact.. . Fascinating". (" Easy Living"). Catherine Bailey read history at Oxford University. She is a successful award-winning television producer & director making a range of critically acclaimed documentary films inspired by her interest in twentieth century history. She is the author of " Black Diamonds" & " The Secret Rooms: A True Gothic Mystery". She lives in West London." ...