Bøger udgivet af Skyhorse

The Rise and Fall of the World's Most Powerful Restaurant Critic and His Battle with Severe, Debilitating Depression From the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, Bryan Miller was a household name among restaurant goers in the greater New York City area and beyond as the restaurant critic for theNew York Times, as well as the author of numerous books, a public speaker, and a radio and television commentator. Over ten years as a columnist, he dined out more than five thousand times in the United States and abroad, from haute to humble. The Wine Spectator, in a front-page profile, declared Miller ';the most powerful restaurant critic in America.' And for much of that time, he wanted to die.Dining in the Dark chronicles Miller's battle with Bipolar II disorder, also known as depression, which ruined his life, professionally and personally. Depression was directly responsible for his surrendering theNew York Times restaurant column and, shortly thereafter, leaving the paper altogether. Everything he had worked for so diligently, rising from cub reporter to big-city columnist in less than a decade, vanished. In the ensuing years, unable to work, he lost his home, his life savings, two wonderful wives, the chance to have a family, and numerous friends and colleagues. He became increasingly reclusive; like many victims of serious depression, he reached the point where he was afraid to answer the phone. Pile on a brain tumor, electroshock therapy, a near-fatal bout with Lyme disease, accidental drug overdoses (he was once carried out of the newsroom on a gurney), and you have a life in shambles.Dining in the Dark tells the story of Miller's battle, but it also brings hope by sharing his journey to coping with, and finally conquering, his depression. The coping mechanisms he employed in order to get through the day will be of benefit to those in need of a helping hand. Dining in the Dark is philosophical, inspirational, educational, and even humorous at times. And, of course, there are lots of inside-the-New York Times anecdotes, as well as lots of food, wine, travel, and celebrity.

Discover the history of one of the most exciting eras in the history of the United States and some of its most fascinating characters . . . the mountain men! They were the first white men to penetrate the continent, and they soon lost their identity, becoming something completely new and different. The popular legends of the mountain men were generated from a surprisingly short period in American history. From the first forays up the Missouri River in the early 1800s to the final Rendezvous at Horse Creek in 1840, fewer than forty years had passed. The legends were based on tales of incredible survival against the odds. Harsh winter conditions, dangerous terrain, and the constant threat of Indian encounters all challenged the mountain men. Some stories, like that of John Colter, who is thought to be the fist white man to have explored what is now Yellowstone National Park, were derided as being far-fetched. In order to survive, the mountain man had to be a superb marksman, a skilled horseman, and a trapper, and one who knew about nature and the seasons. As they sought ever more distant trapping grounds, the mountain men carved out a path that made the crossing of the American continent a reality rather than a dream. The demand for beaver fur has long since died out, but the tracks of the mountain men are still there to be seen.Through this detailed and comprehensively illustrated book, The Lives of Mountain Men brings us their stories!

A road map to every womans success. Glass ceilings. #MeToo. Less than equal pay for equal work. After decades fighting to free ourselves from male-dominated social and economic structures, women still struggle. But many of us are poised to rise up with innovative ways to approach the many problems facing today's world. A Year without Men is an essential guide to every womans success and liberation. Using the events of a very painful year in her own personal and professional lifeher husband left her, her consulting business took an unexpected hit, and she faced a serious health scarebusiness consultant and life strategist Allison Carmen explores the forces in women's personal and professional lives that hold us back. In A Year without Men, she offers twelve simple, practical tools to help us look within, find our own values, morals, and passions, work on our skills, call on other women, and forge new ways to do business. Together, we can create a new way to earn money, a new way to look at beauty, and so many other new ways to be in the world. Take a stand and gain the power to overcome any obstacle with A Year without Men.

Hundreds of weird and wonderful facts in this massive encyclopedia of food and drink oddities! A perfect gift for foodies and trivia fans alike!Food Weird-o-Pediaoffers up hundreds of off-kilter bits of info about food that will make you rethink what you know about even those dishes you've been eating your whole life. Organized in sections such as ';Between-Meal Tidbits: Curious Facts about Snacks' and ';Spice Up Your Life: Unexpected morsels about condiments, sauces and spices,' each chapter offers an alphabetical encyclopedia of strange facts that will give you plenty to chew over whether reading from cover-to-cover or just flipping to a random page during a lunch break. Learn weird and obscure facts about fruits, vegetables, baked goods, meat, dairy, seafood, junk food, condiments, sauces, spices, beverages, desserts, and more, such as: Cherries may have killed the twelfth president of the United States.Why we call that vulgar sound we make by putting our tongue between our lips and blowing out a ';raspberry.Enzymes on the inside of a banana peel actually encourage splinters to move toward the skin's surface.Dark soy sauce contains ten times the antioxidants of red wine and contributed to a decrease in risk of cardiovascular disease.The most egg yolks ever found in a single egg is nine.Frank Sinatra was buried with a bottle of Jack Daniel's whiskey.Hershey's Kisses get their names from the smooching sound and motion the machine made when it popped the candy onto the conveyor belt.And many, many more! Every one of us has a deeply personal relationship to the food we eat, each as unique as we are. But there is also a lot that can surprise us about what we put in our bodyunexpected facts about staple fruits and veggies, strange backstories to our favorite sweets, and ways of whipping up a familiar dish that are downright weird. These odd aspects of the food we eat are what this book is all about.Food Weird-o-Pediais sure to provide plenty of fodder to impress friends and family over your next mealwhatever it is you're eating.

In this comprehensive guide, you'll learn everything you need to know about the various methods of composting and how to adapt them to your home and garden. With full-color photographs and easy-to-follow instructions, this will be an essential addition to every gardener's library.Great compost is one of the most important secrets of successful organic gardening. Topics covered here include:What you can and can't throw on your compost pileHow to balance nitrogen and carbon in your pile for quick decomposition and rich compostBuying or building the best tools and containersVermicompostingHow to compost indoorsTroubleshooting smelly compost, dry compost, and other problemsHow and when to apply the compost to your garden bedsWith growing concerns about the use of pesticides, herbicides, and GMOs in mainstream gardening practices, more and more families are turning to their backyards to grow their own food using methods they know are safe. The need for clear, straightforward instruction on organic gardening techniques has never been greater. With Composting for Absolute Beginners, readers will get the information they need to prepare their gardens for healthy, abundant crops.

How can we protect our kids onlineand teach them to protect themselves? Do you feel overwhelmed with technology in your home? Do headlines about this app or that website make you feel anxious and undecided as a parent? Do you get advice from many expertsbut still feel unclear on what to do? This book unpacks the ';3 Ms' of parenting in the digital age, a proven approach used with thousands of parents through the work of Digital Respons-Ability and its founder, Carrie Rogers-Whitehead. When Carrie first started working in the field of digital citizenship, she found significant gaps in how digital parenting was taught. Not only were parents not informed enough around technology, they also didn't understand child developmental stages. Parents' expectations for their children were unrealistic because they didn't know how online responsibility changes at different ages, as children's brains change. From this realization, Carrie developed the 3 Msthree approaches to digital parenting, based on specific age ranges: Model (ages 0-8)Manage (ages 8-13)Monitor (ages 13-18) By teaching parents how to change their approach to digital responsibility based on the developmental stage of their child, she has seen significant success in fostering happier and healthier relationships between parents and kids, as well as safer tech use by kids at all ages. This book presents Carrie's approach in an accessible, easy-to-implement manner, giving all parents the opportunity to develop better tech use in their own homes and families, and to parent confidently and without fear.

A celebration of simple living skills. Not too long ago, handwork skills such as sewing a quilt, crocheting a washcloth, or embroidering a pillowcase were handed down from one generation to the next. Candle- and soap-making, blacksmithing, basket weaving, natural yarn dying, and repurposing were all time-honored traditions that were essential to the farm's microeconomy and long-term success. While many of these traditional skills have been lost to the convenience of today's modern economy, they are still alive and thriving among America's farmers. The FarmMade Essential Skills Book showcases fifty authentic projects from farms all over the country. Hailing from New England, the Deep South, the Midwest, Southwest, and Northwest, each farm-made project represents its region's unique array of raw materials and end products. Revive valuable lost traditions and pave the way for a more independent, sustainable future with The FarmMade Essential Skills Book.

In The Ultimate Guide to Hiking, readers interested in the outdoors are provided with time-tested advice on hiking and backpacking in the wilderness. Some practical tips include:   How to choose the best gearHow to set up a campsiteHow to interact safely with wildlifeHow to properly read a mapHow to forecast the weatherLearning practical navigation skillsAnd so much more!  

Practical Guidelines to Resourceful City Living, Self-reliance, Emergency Preparedness, and Getting More for Less A survival guidebook that reflects the world in which we now find ourselves. The post 9/11 world seems a bit more hostile, as terrorist threats and attacks are no longer a surprise. The Great Tsunami of Christmas 2004 showed us that quick extinctions (like Noah's flood) can and do happen without apparent warning. HurricanesKatrina and Sandy not only told us that it can happen to us, but that it is foolhardy to make no preparations and pretend that the governmentwill take care of you in the post-disaster landscape.The price of gold id rising again. War, rumors of war, famines, political instability, economic instability, global pandemics all these and more are causes of concern to the average family. Economic survival is also addresses, since this is such a fundamental building block of everything else in modern society. Money cannot be ignored.

Over 1,000 Tips for Gardening, Country Cooking, Saving Money, DIY Cleaning Solutions, Home Remedies, and More! This comprehensive collection of practical tips covers all aspects of keeping a country home, from painting a wall to removing wine stains, making perfect pastry to making your own window cleaner. In addition, find advice for cleaning carpets, making jam, wallpapering, knitting, sewing, and more! Woven throughout are poems and proverbs, legends and lore, making this an enjoyable read and a perfect housewarming gift. Crisp limp lettuce and celery by placing in a pan of cold water for an hour with slices of raw potato.If an aluminum pan has become discolored, boil some apple peel in it for a few minutes, then rinse and dry.Tighten up sagging cane seats of chairs by scrubbing both the top and underside with hot soapy water. Rinse in cold salt water.Sprinkle salt on paths and brickwork crevices to get rid of weeds and grass.A needle can be threaded more easily if a little hairspray, starch, or beeswax is put on the end of the thread.Sage tea is a valuable tonic that stimulates the circulation and soothes a persistent cough. Complete with lovely color illustrations throughout, this is a delightful and useful read.

For anyone who owns a boat, this is the handbook you need to own. Included are all of the official government rules and regulations that must be followed by anyone out on the water. This book will prepare you for head-on situations, avoiding collisions, using, distress signals, and will inform you of all the up-to-date water regulations. Whether you're in a jam or just relaxing at sea, Navigation Rules will teach and prepare you for anything and everything you may encounter while on your boat.

';A breezy, tantalizing view of the woman who, through wiles and a complete lack of scruples, briefly transcended the role of presidential mistressand may have paid for it with her life.'The New York Times John F. Kennedy said he needed sex every three days or he got a headache. In the White House, he never had a headache. Kennedy met Mary Pinchot in 1935, when he was eighteen and she was sixteen. Twenty years later, when she was living in Virginia and married to Cord Meyer, a high-ranking CIA official, she was Jack and Jackie Kennedy's next-door neighbor. In 1962, she was an artist, divorced, living in Washingtonand Kennedy's first serious romance. Mary Pinchot Meyer was more than a bedmate. She was Kennedy's beacon light: his sole female adviser, spending mornings in the Oval Office, and, at night, discussing issues. After the 1964 election, Kennedy said, he would divorce Jackie and marry her. After the assassination, Mary didn't believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, and she shared that view, loudly and often, in Washington's most elite circles. Her ex-husband urged her to be silent, but when the report of the Warren Commission was released, she was even more loudly critical. On October 10, 1964, two days before her forty-forth birthday, as she walked in Georgetown, a man shot her in the head and the heart. That night, Marys best friend called her sister. ';Mary had a diary,' she said. ';Get it.' The diary was filled with sketches, notes for paintingsand ten pages about an affair with an unnamed lover. Her sister burned it. In JFK and Mary Meyer: A Love Story, Jesse Kornbluth recreates the diary Mary might have written. Working from a timeline of Kennedy's presidency and every documented account of their public relationship, he has written a high-octane thriller that tracks this secret, doomed romanceand invites readers to solve Mary's murder.

The 30-Minute Runner takes a simplified approach to training, which is to break down everything into one thirty-minute session per daya manageable segment for first-time runners and those who may be in decent shape but lead incredibly busy lives. Everything in the bookincluding training schedules, techniques, and tipsis put forth purely in terms of minutes spent running, without any goal paces to worry about, mileage to keep track of, or anything to measure other than time spent out on the roads and trails. The book focuses on how to maximize those thirty critical minutes in order to achieve two primary goals: shedding extra pounds and completing a 5K race. Author Duncan Larkin, a certified Army Master Fitness Trainer, also covers topics like running for new moms, single-parent training, how to prepare to run your first race, race-day tips, how to train while on business travel, and taking it to the next levelrunning forty-five and sixty minutes a day (10K and half-marathon schedules). In addition to the running-based guidelines, The 30-Minute Runner also offers nutritional advice and core exercises that complement the thirty-minute runs.

Henry Hughes has been fishing his entire life. But unlike those who stick to their local stream, Hughes has traveled the world in search of new and exciting adventures.Back Seat with Fish is unlike any memoir youve ever read. Traveling across East Asiafrom Beijing to Bangkokas well as throughout the United States, Hughes shares stories of the fish hes caught and the people hes met.Fishing is a sport that crosses boundaries of race, ethnicity, gender, and class. In his travels, Hughes learns lessons on issues of race and culture as he interacts with a wide variety of people who share his love for fishing and enjoy the sensual connection between the salty pleasures and tensions of human and fish life.Throughout the adventures in Back Seat with Fish are tales with carp and fugu, sharks and snakeheads, as well as exchanges with a variety of people, including a Sioux Indian from South Dakota, an elderly African American on the Mississippi, and waterside inhabitants of Beijing. But Hughess journey isnt just for people who fish or love nature. Back Seat with Fish is for anyone who enjoys a good story.Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for fishermen. Our books for anglers include titles that focus on fly fishing, bait fishing, fly-casting, spin casting, deep sea fishing, and surf fishing. Our books offer both practical advice on tackle, techniques, knots, and more, as well as lyrical prose on fishing for bass, trout, salmon, crappie, baitfish, catfish, and more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

The cofounder of True Religion Brand Jeans, Kym Gold uses her story to serve up a firm dose of life and career lessons that helped her build a multimillion-dollar fashion brand from the ground up.Kym Golds mantra, never settle for a no; always look for a yes, is what led her to co-create True Religion Brand Jeans, a major retail clothing company that sold for close to a billion dollars in 2013. In Gold Standard, Kym finally gives her side of the story of how the once fledgling jeans company that nobody wanted, went on to become a giant revolutionizing player in the fashion industry.As a woman in the boys club world of the fickle fashion business, Kym armed herself and became one of True Religions majority shareholders and their lead female clothing designer. On Valentines Day in 2007, she was served divorce papers by her then husband and had her company ripped from under herall within an hour. Since then, she has reestablished her place in the industry and catapulted herself into the coveted 1 percent of the richest Americans.In Gold Standard, Kyms savvy business and fashion branding experience of thirty years gives a behind-the-scenes look into the always changing fashion industry. It also mixes in her compelling personal journey, including her marriage to Mark Burnett before he became TV's biggest mega producer, a compassionate view for women of the pressures of balancing a career, finances, and family. Kym motivates readers to throw the gold gloves on and put up a fight.

A hard look at the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and the families desperately trying to navigate their way through it.The Vaccine Court looks at the mysterious and often unknown world of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (NVICP), the only recourse for seeking compensation for those who have been injured by a vaccine. The NVICP, better known as the Vaccine Court, however, is not without controversy.Established by Congress as a direct result of the passage of the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, the NVICP was supposed to offer a no-fault alternative to the traditional injury claims filed in state or federal courts and was to provide quick, efficient, and fair compensation for those who have been injured by vaccines. The reality, however, is that many cases take several years or longer to complete and require tremendous commitment from families already pushed to the brink of bankruptcy caring for the vaccine-injured family member, only to discover that the end result is manipulated by the government in defense of the US vaccine policy.Mr. Rohde looks into the inner workings of the US Federal Claims Court and the NVICP. He interviews families who have filed petitions and won compensation, families who have been denied compensation, and families still waiting for a decision. By highlighting the journeys of these familiestheir efforts to find attorneys willing to represent them, the filing of their petitions, and the subsequent mountain of paperwork, medical records, and other documents that span yearsMr. Rohde exposes the bitter truth behind the NVICP. Through his thoughtful interviews and fact-finding research, The Vaccine Court sheds light on how the NVICP has evolved into something far more treacherous than what Congress envisioned with the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act in 1986.

The Aviation Instructors Handbook is a world-class educational reference tool developed and designed for ground instructors, flight instructors, and aviation maintenance instructors. This information-packed handbook provides the foundation for beginning instructors to understand and apply the fundamentals of instructing. It also provides aviation instructors with detailed, up-to-date information on learning and teaching, and how to relate this information to the task of conveying aeronautical knowledge and skills to students. Experienced aviation instructors will also find the new and updated information useful for improving their effectiveness in training activities. No aviation instructors library is complete without the up-to-date Aviation Instructors Handbook.

A comprehensive guide for chalk art creators! With so many searching for ways to have fun at home in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, chalk art has become a great way to do so while enjoying some fresh air. The Chalk Art Handbook offers budding artists a review of the tools involved, as well as tips and tricks to creating an array of sidewalk creatures. Artist David Zinn, whose work has been used as inspiration for elementary and middle school art lessons, offers step-by-step guidance on how to make chalk art come to life and advice on specific techniques such as smudging, perspective, and 3-D illusions. He also encourages artists to work outside the box with details on how to best incorporate concrete specks and natural holes or cracks in the ground into their artwork. The Chalk Art Handbook even includes bonus activities to keep everyone drawing happily both indoors and outdoors. The perfect gift for those looking for hours of outdoor fun!

The fourth installment in Sam Miserendino and Mike Odum’s Addicted Animal Series Following the success of other adult-themed parodies of children’s books, author Sam Miserendino presents a delightful tale that will entertain readers with its charming combination of innocence and lack thereof. A humorous play off of the famous If You Give a Moose a Muffin, If You Give a Dog a Doobie tells the tale of a pot-loving pooch whose toking neighbor gives him the best treat ever. The book follows the dog as he experiences the highs and lows of being high and it reveals whether or not it's possible to teach a stoned dog new tricks . . .or to even get him to remember old ones! Featuring gorgeous full-color illustrations by illustrator Mike Odum that accompany the text, this heartwarming cautionary tale informs readers of the dangers of mixing pot and cute pups.

Just when you thought they'd moved out for good… Being a mommy is great. So is being a daddy. But do you know what's even better?Being an empty nester.Oh, the joys of watching a fully raised child sprout wings and move away. Until the horrifying day…That child comes back.Goodbye tranquility. Goodbye cleanliness. Goodbye leftover meatloaf.It's a fact that 52% of millennials are living in their parents' homes.Get the H*** Out of My House is picture book for the parents who hoped, thought and prayed they'd be empty nesters. It's a way to tell them they're not alone in having those hopes dashed, thoughts dismissed and prayers unanswered.If that's you, don't despair. Just read this book, and keep the faith.And if you're the millennial who's moved back, buy them this book…then get the hell out of their house!

How do you use the word "radical?" Committed to the progressive? The cooperative? The communal? The equalitarian? In so far as social, political, and economic power is sought and wielded in malice, just so far is benevolence radical. The history of social, political, and economic power has been mostly the history of malice. The history of benevolence has been mostly the history of radicalism. The sensibility that loves benevolence has been a radical sensibility. In An Essay in the History of the Radical Sensibility in America, L.S. Halprin argues that before the middle of the nineteenth century the work of all American radicals was organized to defend some form of sentimental faith in millennial progress; that the work of the great writers of the middle of the nineteenth century was the first to be fundamentally free of the constraints of sentimentality; that despite that generation's accomplishments, the old sentimentalities have persisted, perpetuating the cycle in which illusions designed to make radicalism's chances seem better than they are become the disillusions which make them seem worse. Along the way, Halprin unfolds something of the contribution of Edgar Alan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman to the specific content of the radical sensibility in America. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, the radical's work has been primarily to accomplish political power. That work and the frustrations of it often leave little energy for the pursuit of a thoroughgoing self-awareness. Halprin's analysis is particularly useful now to remind readers of both the sentimentalities and the wisdoms from which we come.

The essential guide for work from home moms everywhere! More than half of kids across the United States are learning virtually from home. There are fewer daycare spots than ever before. And more and more moms are clocking into their jobs from the kitchen table. The coronavirus pandemic has erased the lines between work and home, and made balancing the two more challenging than ever. This book, chock full of wisdom from the writers and editors at Working Mother, provides solutions for moms tasked with filling the role of employee, teacher and parent, all while attempting to maintain a semblance of sanity. Some of the many topics that this practical compendium addresses include: How to manage your mental health.Tips for taking care of an infant while working from home.A plan to balance work and family.How to create a workspace and a playspace under the same roof.And much more!

A frank examination of Aretha Franklin, Mark Begos definitive biography traces her career accomplishments from her beginnings as a twelve-year-old member of a church choir in the early 1950s, to recording her first album at the age of fourteen and signing a major recording contract at eighteen, right up through her headline-grabbing 2010 health scare. Originally positioned to become a gospel star in her fathers Detroit church, Aretha had a privileged urban upbringingstars such as Mahalia Jackson, Dinah Washington, and Sam Cooke regularly visited her father, Rev. C. L. Franklin. It wasnt long before she was creating a string of hits, from Respect to Freeway of Love, and becoming one of the most beloved singers of the twentieth century.This New York Times bestselling authors detailed research includes in-person interviews with record producers Jerry Wexler, Clyde Otis, and Clive Davis, Arethas first husband, several of her singing star contemporaries, and a rare one-on-one session with Aretha herself. Every album, every accolade, and every heart-breaking personal drama is examined with clarity and neutrality, allowing Franklins colorful story to unfold on its own. With two teenage pregnancies and an abusive first marriage, drinking problems, battles with her weight, the murder of her father, and tabloid wars, Arethas life has been a roller coaster. This freshly updated and expanded biography will give readers a clear understanding of what made Aretha Franklin the Queen of Soul.

The US government has spent half the time covering up conspiracies as it has spent helping the American people. In Hidden History, you will see the amount of effort over the past fifty years that our government has dedicated to lying and covering up the truth to the world.Starting with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Don Jeffries chronicles a wide variety of issues that have plagued our countrys history. Whether its the assassinations of MLK and RFK, Iran-Contra, the Oklahoma City bombing, TWA Flight 800, voting fraud, or 9/11, every major disaster or war that weve witnessed has somehow been distorted by those who are supposed to be protecting us.Jeffries also delves into extensive research on the death of John F. Kennedy Jr., and youll be shocked by what he finds out.So whether youve only heard bits and pieces of these stories or have read several books on the topics, Hidden History is the book that belongs in every conspiracy theorists library, as the information included in this encyclopedia has never been collected together in any other published work available. So sit down, strap in, and get ready to be shocked and awed by how much has been hidden from you by our government over the past fifty years.Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

The Extraordinary Story of a Young Winston Churchill in the Boer War, as Told by His Granddaughter In this lively biography of a dashing, brash twenty-five-year-old Churchill, Celia Sandys chronicles her celebrated grandfather's adventures as a correspondent and combatant during nine months of the Anglo-Boer War-events that took him from the bivouacs and battle sites of Transvaal to his incarceration as a prisoner of war in Pretoria and ultimately to a bold escape across the border into Mozambique. Using both British and South African sources of testimony, which reveal the dauntless Winston alternately as a courageous ally or foolhardy foe, Sandys recounts the exploits of a Churchill that history has largely forgotten. With historical authority, narrative vigor, and singular charm, she offers both a fully drawn portrait of the ready adventurer who would become England's legendary prime minister and an illuminating account of the turbulent events that defined South Africa for modern times.