Michael Wood

Voltaire

Theo Cuffe

Candide, Or, Optimism

Two murders. Twenty years. Now the killer is back for more...

For Reasons Unknown (DCI Matilda Darke Thriller, Book 1)

A single volume history of China, offering a look into the past of the global superpower and its significance today. Michael Wood has travelled the length and breadth of China, the world’s oldest civilization and longest lasting state, to tell a thrilling story of intense drama, fabulous creativity, and deep humanity that stretches back thousands of years. After a century and a half of foreign invasion, civil war, and revolution, China has once again returned to center stage as a global superpower and the world’s second largest economy. But how did it become so dominant? Wood argues that in order to comprehend the great significance of China today, we must begin with its history. The Story of China takes a fresh look at the Middle Kingdom in the light of the recent massive changes inside the country. Taking into account exciting new archeological discoveries, the book begins with China’s prehistory—the early dynasties, the origins of the Chinese state, and the roots of Chinese culture in the age of Confucius. Wood looks at particular periods and themes that are now being reevaluated by historians, such as the renaissance of the Song with its brilliant scientific discoveries. He paints a vibrant picture of the Qing Empire in the 18th century, just before the European impact, a time when China’s rich and diverse culture was at its height. Then, Wood explores the encounter with the West, the Opium Wars, the clashes with the British, and the extraordinarily rich debates in the late 19th century that pushed China along the path to modernity. Finally, he provides a clear up-to-date account of post-1949 China, including revelations about the 1989 crisis based on newly leaked inside documents, and fresh insights into the new order of President Xi Jinping. All woven together with landscape history and the author’s own travel journals, The Story of China is the indispensable book about the most intriguing and powerful country on the world stage today.

The Epic History of a World Power from the Middle Kingdom to Mao and the China Dream

The Story of China

The author places the landmark novel into the context of modern Colombia's violent history, exploring the complex vision of Gabriel Garcâia Mâarquez.

Gabriel García Márquez: One Hundred Years of Solitude

This edition of Michael Wood's groundbreaking first book explores the fascinating and mysterious centuries between the Romans and the Norman Conquest of 1066. In Search of the Dark Ages vividly conjures up some of the most famous names in British history, such as Queen Boadicea, leader of a terrible war of resistance against the Romans, and King Arthur, the 'once and future king', for whose riddle Wood proposes a new and surprising solution. Here too, warts and all, are the Saxon, Viking and Norman kings who laid the political foundations of England - Offa of Mercia, Alfred the Great, Athelstan, and William the Conqueror, whose victory at Hastings in 1066 marked the end of Anglo-Saxon England. Reflecting recent historical, textual and archaeological research, this revised edition of Michael Wood's classic book overturns preconceptions of the Dark Ages as a shadowy and brutal era, showing them to be a richly exciting and formative period in the history of Britain. 'With In Search of the Dark Ages, Michael Wood wrote the book for history on TV.' The Times 'Michael Wood is the maker of some of the best TV documentaries ever made on history and archaeology.' Times Literary Supplement

In Search of the Dark Ages

‘DCI Matilda Darke is the perfect heroine’ Elly Griffiths The second book in Michael Wood’s darkly compelling new crime series featuring DCI Matilda Darke. Perfect for fans of Stuart MacBride, Mark Billingham and Val McDermid.

Outside Looking In (DCI Matilda Darke Thriller, Book 2)

‘She is the perfect heroine’ Elly Griffiths The addictive new crime thriller featuring DCI Matilda Darke. Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons. ‘DCI Matilda Darke is going places’ James Oswald

Stolen Children (DCI Matilda Darke Thriller, Book 6)

Stendhal

Şerif Hulusi

Kırmızı ve siyah

Your life is in his hands. In the gripping new serial killer thriller from Michael Wood, Matilda Darke faces a vicious killer pursuing his own brand of lethal justice. Perfect for fans of Angela Marsons and Helen Fields.

The Hangman’s Hold (DCI Matilda Darke Thriller, Book 4)

Emily Apter

Barbara Cassin

Jacques Lezra

A one-of-a-kind reference to the international vocabulary of the humanities This is an encyclopedic dictionary of close to 400 important philosophical, literary, and political terms and concepts that defy easy—or any—translation from one language and culture to another. Drawn from more than a dozen languages, terms such as Dasein (German), pravda (Russian), saudade (Portuguese), and stato (Italian) are thoroughly examined in all their cross-linguistic and cross-cultural complexities. Spanning the classical, medieval, early modern, modern, and contemporary periods, these are terms that influence thinking across the humanities. The entries, written by more than 150 distinguished scholars, describe the origins and meanings of each term, the history and context of its usage, its translations into other languages, and its use in notable texts. The dictionary also includes essays on the special characteristics of particular languages—English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Originally published in French, this one-of-a-kind reference work is now available in English for the first time, with new contributions from Judith Butler, Daniel Heller-Roazen, Ben Kafka, Kevin McLaughlin, Kenneth Reinhard, Stella Sandford, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Jane Tylus, Anthony Vidler, Susan Wolfson, Robert J. C. Young, and many more.The result is an invaluable reference for students, scholars, and general readers interested in the multilingual lives of some of our most influential words and ideas. Covers close to 400 important philosophical, literary, and political terms that defy easy translation between languages and cultures Includes terms from more than a dozen languages Entries written by more than 150 distinguished thinkers Available in English for the first time, with new contributions by Judith Butler, Daniel Heller-Roazen, Ben Kafka, Kevin McLaughlin, Kenneth Reinhard, Stella Sandford, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Jane Tylus, Anthony Vidler, Susan Wolfson, Robert J. C. Young, and many more Contains extensive cross-references and bibliographies An invaluable resource for students and scholars across the humanities

A Philosophical Lexicon

Dictionary of Untranslatables

DCI Matilda Darke thriller #9

The Lost Children 

The Spanish conquest of the Americas in the sixteenth century was one of the most cataclysmic events in history. Spanish expeditions had to endure the most unbelievable hardships to open up the lands of the New World. Few stories, if any, in history match these for sheer drama, endurance and distances covered. In Conquistadors Michael Wood travels in the footsteps of some of the greatest of the Spanish adventurers from Amazonia to Lake Titicaca, and from the deserts of North Mexico to the heights of Macchu Picchu. He experiences first hand the reality of epic journeys, such as those made by Hernan Cortes, and Francisco and Gonzalo Pizarro, and explores the turbulent and terrifying events surrounding the Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires, as well as Orellanas extraordinary voyage of discovery down the Amazon and Cabeza de Vacas journey across America to the Pacific. In Peru, as in Mexico, the conquistadors swept away the indigenous states, subjugating the native people, destroying their religion and culture. As well as bringing history alive with evocative text and stunning pictures, Michael Wood grapples with the moral legacy of the European invasion. The stories in this book are not only of conquest, heroism and greed, but of changes in the way we see the world in our view of history and civilization, justice and human rights.

Conquistadors

‘This is a total BOOM BOOM POW! of a book...Budge up Jed Mercurio when you are done working on Line of Duty I think it is time for you to meet Matilda’ LJ, Read and Rated Book Review Blog

Time Is Running Out (DCI Matilda Darke Thriller, Book 7)

Martin L. McLaughlin

Italo Calvino

This is the first collection in English of the extraordinary letters of one of the great writers of the twentieth century. Italy's most important postwar novelist, Italo Calvino (1923-1985) achieved worldwide fame with such books asCosmicomics, Invisible Cities, and If on a Winter's Night a Traveler. But he was also an influential literary critic, an important literary editor, and a masterful letter writer whose correspondents included Umberto Eco, Primo Levi, Gore Vidal, Leonardo Sciascia, Natalia Ginzburg, Michelangelo Antonioni, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Luciano Berio. This book includes a generous selection of about 650 letters, written between World War II and the end of Calvino's life. Selected and introduced by Michael Wood, the letters are expertly rendered into English and annotated by well-known Calvino translator Martin McLaughlin. The letters are filled with insights about Calvino's writing and that of others; about Italian, American, English, and French literature; about literary criticism and literature in general; and about culture and politics. The book also provides a kind of autobiography, documenting Calvino's Communism and his resignation from the party in 1957, his eye-opening trip to the United States in 1959-60, his move to Paris (where he lived from 1967 to 1980), and his trip to his birthplace in Cuba (where he met Che Guevara). Some lengthy letters amount almost to critical essays, while one is an appropriately brief defense of brevity, and there is an even shorter, reassuring note to his parents written on a scrap of paper while he and his brother were in hiding during the antifascist Resistance. This is a book that will fascinate and delight Calvino fans and anyone else interested in a remarkable portrait of a great writer at work.

Letters, 1941-1985

‘DCI Matilda Darke is the perfect heroine’ Elly Griffiths The third book in Michael Wood’s darkly compelling crime series featuring DCI Matilda Darke. Perfect for fans of Peter James, Lee Child and Karin Slaughter.

A Room Full of Killers (DCI Matilda Darke Thriller, Book 3)

In Search of the First Civilizations

The Story of India

Provides a compact study of the famed director's life and career, combining biography and criticism.

The Man Who Knew Too Much

Alfred Hitchcock

Michael Wood goes in search of four of the most famous myths in the world- Shangri-la, the Golden Fleece, the Queen of Sheba, and the Holy Grail. These four romantic journeys take him to some of the remotest and most exciting places on earth including Western Tibet, the mountains of Georgia and the Caucasus, the plains of Southern Iraq, to the coasts of Ethiopia Yemen and the Horn of Africa. Michael asks the question- why do such legends still captivate us today? Over the last twenty years, from In Search of the Trojan War to his epic journeys in the footsteps of Alexander the Great and the Conquistadors, Michael Wood has taken the TV audience, and the reader, on romantic and compelling journeys into the past. In his new series and book IN SEARCH OF MYTHS AND HEROES he goes in search of four of the most famous myths in the world- Shangri-la, the Golden Fleece, the Queen of Sheba, and the Holy Grail. The journeys take him to some of the remotest and most exciting places on earth - to the fantastic landscapes of Western Tibet, to the mountains of Georgia and the Caucasus, to the plains of Southern Iraq, and to the coasts of Ethiopia Yemen and the Horn of Africa. The stories will also take in Greece and Turkey, India and Nepal, Egypt and Israel, and the world of Celtic Britain and the West of Ireland- What is the truth behind the medieval Indian legend of a lost civilisation behind the western Himalayas - a place where the ancient wisdom of humanity was preserved to save it from our future? The legend was immortalised in James Hilton's novel about Shangri-la, and by Hollywood in Frank Capra's movie Lost Horizon. But why do such legends still captivate us today? And was there a real Shangri-la? What lies behind the Bible story of the Queen of Sheba, King Solomon, and the Ark of the Covenant? The tale is found in both the Jewish Bible and the Muslim Koran, and the Queen of Sheba is still revered. Illustrated with a wonderful series of specially commissioned photographs by the Himalayan author, photographer and mountaineer Steve Razzetti, Great Mysteries is at once a book of great journeys, a historical adventure, and an exploration of some of humanity's most enduring myths.

In Search of Myths & Heroes

They were the perfect family. It was the perfect crime. The new gripping DCI Matilda Darke crime thriller about the dark secrets that lie within a perfect family. For fans of Patricia Gibney and Angela Marsons.

Michael Wood

About

Books

Join the club