Stalins Englishman

Biographies & Memoirs

Andrew Lownie

Historical

Hodder&Stoughton

John Buchan

Arts & Literature

McArthur & Company

READERS whose familiarity with John Buchan's life and works ends on the closing page of "Mr. Standfast" or at the final frame of Hitchcock's The Thirty-Nine Steps may find it difficult to believe that their author, beyond his position as the acknowledged father of the modern spy thriller, led a life that ranged widely across the landscape of British politics and culture. Buchan's literary career, one that started almost as an afterthought, was itself astonishing, comprising a hundred titles that ranged from the thrillers for which he is now best known to children's books, from biographies to romances, from poetry to screenplays. But Buchan's literary output represented only a fraction of his life experience; he moved in the uppermost reaches of British political, military, and cultural affairs, acting as speechwriter and confidant to two Prime Ministers, and counting luminaries as varied as Virginia Woolf, Robert Graves, and T. E. Lawrence as his colleagues and friends. He served as Director of Information during World War I and later as a member of Parliament, ending his long career as the beloved Governor-General of Canada. Andrew Lownie's biography-the first in over thirty years - reveals a character as complex and fascinating as any in his great quartet of thrillers starring master spy Richard Hannay. He succeeds in the daunting task of retelling Buchan's life in all its variety, breadth, and complexity. Based on exhaustive research this admirable biography produces a comprehensive portrait of one the last century's most engaging and fascinating figures.

John Buchan: The Presbyterian Cavalier

David R. Godine, Publisher

The intimate story of a unique marriage spanning the heights of British glamour and power that descends into infidelity, manipulation, and disaster through the heart of the twentieth century. DICKIE MOUNTBATTEN: A major figure behind his nephew Philip's marriage to Queen Elizabeth II and instrumental in the royal family taking the Mountbatten name, he was Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia during World War II and the last Viceroy of India. EDWINA MOUNTBATTEN: Once the richest woman in Britain--and a playgirl who enjoyed numerous affairs--she emerged from World War II as a magnetic and talented humanitarian worker who was loved throughout the- world. From British high society to the South of France, from the battlefields of Burma to the Viceroy's House, The Mountbattens is a rich and filmic story of a powerful partnership. Was Mountbatten one of the outstanding leaders of his generation, or a man over-promoted because of his royal birth, high-level connections, film-star looks, and ruthless self-promotion? What is the true story behind controversies such as the Dieppe Raid and Indian Partition, the love affair between Edwina and Nehru, and Mountbatten's assassination in 1979?

The Mountbattens : Their Lives & Loves

Blink

The Mountbattens

Navayan

Traitor King, by Sunday Times bestselling author Andrew Lownie, looks at the years following the abdication of Edward VIII when the former king was kept in exile, feuding with his family over status for his wife, Wallis Simpson, and denied any real job.\nDrawing on extensive research into hitherto unused archives and Freedom of Information requests, it makes the case that the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were not the naïve dupes of the Germans but actively intrigued against Britain in both war and peace.\nIt reveals: 
- the story behind the German attempts to recruit the Duke as a British Pétain in the summer of 1940. 
- the efforts, by Churchill in particular, to prevent post-war publication of the captured German documents which detailed the Duke's Nazi intrigues. 
- the reasons why the Duke, as Governor of the Bahamas, tried to shut down the investigation into the 1943 murder of his close friend Harry Oakes. 
- the full extent of the feud with the British Royal Family, based on his betrayals going back to his dishonesty about his true financial position at the time of the abdication. 
- that far from a love story, Wallis felt trapped in a marriage she had never wanted with a pathetic and suffocating husband, one of the reasons she took several lovers, including the gay playboy Jimmy Donahue.\nTraitor King tells the story of a royal exiled with his wife, turning his back on duty, his family and using his position for financial gain.

Traitor King

BLINK Publishing

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Books by Andrew Lownie