Seize the Fire
Play Windows Media Sample  Play Real Sample

Seize the Fire

Adam Nicolson
Adam Nicolson
Publisher : Harper Collins US
Duration : 6 hours
Categories : Historical
War & Military
Download Price : $29.95 $19.95
Purchase...

Ill what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
William Blake, Songs of Experience 1794

In Seize the Fire, Adam Nicolson, author of the widely acclaimed God's Secretaries, takes the great naval battle of Trafalgar, fought between the British and Franco-Spanish fleets in October 1805, and uses it to examine our idea of heroism and the heroic.

Is violence a necessary aspect of the hero? And daring? Why did the cult of the hero flower in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in a way it hadn't for two hundred years? Was the figure of Nelson-intemperate, charming, theatrical, anxious, impetuous, considerate, indifferent to death and danger, inspirational to those around him, and, above all, fixed on attack and victory - an aberration in Enlightenment England? Or was the greatest of all English military heroes simply the product of his time, "the conjuror of violence" that England, at some level, deeply needed?

It is a story rich with modern resonance. This was a battle fought for the control of a global commercial empire. It was won by the emerging British world power, which was widely condemned on the, continent of Europe as "the arrogant usurper of the freedom of the seas. " Seize the Fire not only vividly describes the brutal realities of battle but enters the hearts and minds of the men who were there; it is a portrait of a moment, a close and passionately engaged depiction of a frame of mind at a turning point in world history.

Adam Nicolson is the author of God's Secretaries, Sea Room, and Seamanship. He lives with his family in Sissinghurst, England.

Other titles you may be interested in

Expected One (Abridged), The

Expected One (Abridged), The

Kathleen McGowen
Linda Emond
Publisher : Simon & Schuster
Duration : 7 hours
Categories : Historical
Action & Adventure
Religious
Download Price : $29.95 $17.95
A deadly political rivalry... an intricate love triangle... a religious revolution that changed the world More info...
Seven Dials

Seven Dials

Anne Perry
Michael Page
Publisher : Brilliance Audio Inc
Duration : 11 hours 33 minutes
Categories : Detective
Detective
Historical
Download Price : $24.95
A magical passport to the age of Victoria at its brilliant zenith. More info...
Fortune of War, the

Fortune of War, the

Patrick O'Brian
Robert Hardy
Publisher : Harper Collins UK
Duration : 2 hours 49 minutes
Categories : Historical
War & Military
Download Price : $12.75
Captain Jack Aubrey, RN, arrives in the Dutch East Indies to find himself appointed to the command of the fastest and best... More info...
By Sorrow's River

By Sorrow's River

Larry McMurtry
Alfred Molina
Publisher : Simon & Schuster
Duration : 11 hours 30 minutes
Categories : Historical
Action & Adventure
Western
Download Price : $23.95
By Sorrow's River continues the Berrybender party's trail across the endless Great Plains of the West toward Santa Fe, where those lucky enough to survive the journey intend to spend the winter. More info...
Wish You Well

Wish You Well

David Baldacci
Norma Lana
Publisher : Hachette Audio
Duration : 10 hours
Categories : Historical
Download Price : $29.98 $20.99
Precocious twelve-year-old Louisa Mae Cardinal lives in the hectic New York City of 1940 with her family. Then tragedy strikes. More info...

 

 

McCarthy's Bar
Play Windows Media Sample  Play Real Sample

McCarthy's Bar

Written By : Pete McCarthy
Narrated By : Pete McCarthy
Hodder & Stoughton Audiobooks
Length : 2 hours
Type : Autobiography
Biographical
Travel
Price : $16.75
Buy Now...

The audio of the million-selling book - Pete McCarthy's hilarious journey in search of his Irish roots.

McCarthy's tale of his hilarious trip around Ireland has gained thousands of fans all over the world.

Pete was born in Warrington to an Irish mother and an English father and spent happy summer holidays in Cork. Years later, reflecting on the many places he has visited as a travel broadcaster, Pete admits that he feels more at home in Ireland than anywhere. To find out whether this is due to rose-coloured spectacles or to a deeper tie with the country of his ancestors, Pete sets off on a trip around Ireland and discovers that it has changed in surprising ways.