Diana Preston

Michael Preston

A biography of the English explorer and naturalist who journeyed three times around the world, sailing more than 200,000 miles in his lifetime.

Explorer, Naturalist, and Buccaneer: The Life of William Dampier

A Pirate of Exquisite Mind

Nobel Prize-winning poet Tagore called the Taj Mahal 'a teardrop on the cheek of time', the words inspired by the famous monument of flawless symmetry and elegance.It was built to mark the passionate love of a great Moghul emperor for his Empress. Yet the construction of this architectural jewel bankrupted the Moghul dynasty, set brother against brother and son against father in bloody conflict, and pushed the C17th's most powerful empire into religious fundamentalism and decline. Emperor Shah Jahan married Mumtaz Mahal in 1612 in an unusual love match. Jahan involved his wife on all matters of state, and she followed him on all his military campaigns in spite of being almost constantly pregnant. She bore him 14 children, but her sudden death in childbirth caused Jahan inconsolable grief. His only solace was in creating the perfect memorial to his lost love on the banks of the Jumna River at Agra. The mausoleum, made from milk-white marble and studded with a fortune in precious jewels, took 20 years to complete, involved over 20,000 labourers, and incurred catastrophic costs which led to bloody rebellion by the offspring of his own great love match. Shah Jahan spent his final years in captivity, imprisoned by his own son. The Moghul Empire, irrevocably weakened by anarchy, fratricide and savage warfare, was eventually destroyed by the British Empire while the Taj itself lived on, surviving to this day as a monument of unparalleled beauty.

The Story of the Taj Mahal

A Teardrop on the Cheek of Time

A narrative history of the great monument of Moghul India traces the story of the Taj Mahal, built by emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial to his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal, examining its creation against the backdrop of the history of the Moghul Empire. 50,000 first printing.

Passion and Genius at the Heart of the Moghul Empire

Taj Mahal

William Dampier, (1651-1715), was an English adventurer and pirate who preyed on ships on the Spanish Main. Poor and ill-educated and determined to make his fortune, he nonetheless had a passion for exploration and scientific research. Dampier was the first to map the winds and currents of the world's oceans; led the first recorded party of Englishmen to set foot on Australia - 80 years before Cook; wrote about Galapagos wildlife 150 years before Darwin, who drew on Dampier's notes in his own work; was the first travel writer: A NEW VOYAGE AROUND THE WORLD was instant bestseller when it was published in 1697 - said to have influenced the novels of Swift and Defoe. A man full of contradictions: he who achieved so much 'blew it' later in life, declining into scandal, failure and even farce. A unique man ahead of his time, he lived a large part of his life among pirates yet managed to preserve what Coleridge called his "exquisite refinement of mind". A classic example of the best narrative history.

Michael Preston

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