Showing results by author "Sinclair McKay" in All Categories

Berlin tells the story of the city as seen through the eyes not of its rulers, but of those who walked its streets. In this magisterial biography of a city and its inhabitants, best-selling historian Sinclair McKay sheds new light on well-known characters—from idealistic scientist Albert Einstein to Nazi architect Albert Speer—and draws on never-before-seen first-person accounts to introduce us to people of all walks of Berlin life.

In Secret Britain, Sinclair McKay maps out the UK through the hidden bases and battlegrounds of WWII. These locations are full of history and intrigue, but if you don't know where to look, you might just miss them. Journeying through secret wildernesses, suburbs, underground tunnels and manor houses, Sinclair gives a glimpse into the stories of the incredible people behind the war effort, and shows how you might be able to visit these mysterious and evocative locations yourself.

In February 1945 the Allies obliterated Dresden, the 'Florence of the Elbe'. Explosive bombs weighing over 1,000 lbs fell every seven and a half seconds and an estimated 25,000 people were killed. Was Dresden a legitimate military target or was the bombing a last act of atavistic mass murder in a war already won? From the history of the city to the attack itself, conveyed in a minute-by-minute account from the first of the flares to the flames reaching almost a mile high best-selling author Sinclair McKay creates a vast canvas and brings it alive with touching human detail.

Built by slave labour in the early years of the eighteenth century, Saint Petersburg was Peter the Great’s so-called ‘window on to Europe’, a city that would outdo all of Europe in its splendour. But a window works both ways, and as bestselling historian Sinclair McKay writes, St Petersburg has always been a city that has drawn Westerners who wanted to see into Russia. It is also a city where much has happened.

Number 4 Euston Square was a respectable boardinghouse, like many others in Victorian London. But beneath this ordinary veneer lurked a murderous darkness. On 8th May 1879, the corpse of former resident Matilda Hacker was uncovered in the coal cellar. The investigation that followed stripped bare the shadow-side of Victorian domesticity, throwing the lives of everyone within into an extraordinary maelstrom.

There have been secret codes since before the Old Testament, and there were secret codes in the Old Testament too. Almost as soon as writing was invented, so too were the devious means to hide messages and keep them under the wraps of secrecy. In 50 Codes That Changed the World, Sinclair McKay explores these uncrackable codes, secret cyphers and hidden messages from across time to tell a new history of a secret world.

After the Second World War, many of the men and women who had worked at Bletchley Park moved on to GCHQ: the British government's new facility established to fight the KGB. The Spies of Winter explores the early years of GCHQ as it navigated its way through a tumultuous era - from the defection of the Cambridge Five and the treachery of atomic scientist Klaus Fuchs to the collapse of the British Empire and the emergence of the US as a superpower.

On 17 August 1860, wealthy widow Mary Emsley was found dead at home, killed by a blow to the head. What followed was a murder case that gripped the nation.There was an abundance of suspects, from disgruntled stepchildren and a spurned admirer to a trusted employee, former police officer and spy. A sensational trial culminated with a public execution, but years later the case caught Arthur Conan Doyle’s attention. Convinced that an innocent man had been convicted and executed, he could never find the real murderer, but now, best-selling author Sinclair McKay has solved the case.

On the afternoon of Sunday April 24, 1932, a group of approximately 500 men and women set out for the summit of Kinder Scout, the highest point in Derbyshire's Peak District. They were not here to take in the fresh air and breath-taking vistas; they were here to make a stand. Kinder Scout, like almost every other site of natural beauty in Britain at that time, was privately owned and fiercely guarded. This wild, open landscape was one that they had absolutely no right to visit.

I februar 1945 blev Dresden udslettet. Tusindvis af bomber blev kastet ned over byen, og omkring 25.000 mennesker blev dræbt. Den engelske bestsellerforfatter Sinclair McKay giver en levende beskrivelse af angrebet fra de allerførste bomber til de enorme brande, der bredte sig gennem byens kvarterer. Flammerne nåede efterhånden mere end en kilometer op i luften. "Dresden 1945" er baseret på et væld af nyt arkivmateriale såvel som førstehåndsberetninger fra indbyggere, flygtninge, børn, piloter og krigsfanger.