Roger Boyes

'We-have-a-house-in-the-country?'Lena nodded solemnly.'Where?' I almost shouted, briefly rattling the table. 'No, wait, don't tell me- it's Todi in Umbria, right? The old manor house, the one with the lemongroves!''Alt-Globnitz.''Alt-Globnitz?' Suddenly I felt cold.'Alt-Globnitz. It's a really nice place. You will love it.'In a desperate attempt to save his relationship with girlfriend Lena andtake a break from the world of journalism, Germany correspondent RogerBoyes agrees to make a great escape from the easy urban lifestyle of Berlinand decamp to the countryside. Roger has hopes for southern Italy, butLena has inherited a run-down old schloss in deepest, darkest Brandenburg.Needing a form of income, they decide to set up a B & B with a Britishtheme. Enter unhelpful Harry and his Trinidadian chef cousin, a mad Scotto advise them on re-branding Brandenburg, some suicidal frogs and aposse of mad tourists. It all culminates, naturally, in a cricket match betweenthe Brits and the Germans on an old Russian minefield. Farce meets romancein this follow-up to the successful A Year in the Scheisse.

Misadventures in Rural East Germany

To Prussia with Love

'It was time, the editor told me, for a more modern approach to Germany...The three of us were the backbone of the British press corps. No cliche about Germany left the country without us having given it our seal of approval.'Laugh-out-loud funny, this is the memorable story of an English journalist's adventures - including his encounters with women - as he tries to get to grip with the Germans. Facing bankruptcy, Roger is advised by his accountant to make use of a legal loophole: in Germany married couples have their tax bill halved. So the search is on for a German bride. Meanwhile his father, a former bomber pilot and war hero, is also in financial trouble and is threatening to move to Germany and sponge off his son.The combination of financial, romantic and parental crises sets in train a hilarious romp during which we discover more than we really wanted to about speed-dating and nudist beaches, the British media obsession with Adolf Hitler and how to cheat at the Berlin marathon, curry wurst and stuffed cabbage. Writing incisively and almost without prejudice, Roger Boyes describes the peculiarities of everyday life in Germany. AUTHOR: Roger Boyes, 54, was born in Hereford into a military family and moved around a lot. He has been a foreign correspondent for over thirty years, and is currently the GErmany correspondent for The Times and author of the column 'My Berlin' in Tagesspiegel.

Getting to Know the Germans

A Year in the Scheisse

Leitfaden für ein wunderliches Land

How to be a Kraut

Adam LeBor

The authors here provide a radical new examination of the relationship between the Nazi Party and those it sought to seduce and control.

Choices, Corruption and Compromise in the Third Reich

Surviving Hitler

‘It was time, the editor told me, for a more modern approach to Germany... The three of us were the backbone of the British press corps. No cliché about Germany left the country without us having given it our seal of approval.’ Laugh-out-loud funny, this is the memorable story of an English journalist’s adventures – including his encounters with women – as he tries to get to grip with the Germans. Facing bankruptcy, Roger is advised by his accountant to make use of a legal loophole: in Germany married couples have their tax bill halved. So the search is on for a German bride. Meanwhile his father, a former bomber pilot and war hero, is also in financial trouble and is threatening to move to Germany and sponge off his son. The combination of financial, romantic and parental crises sets in train a hilarious romp during which we discover more than we really wanted to about speed-dating and nudist beaches, the British media obsession with Adolf Hitler and how to cheat at the Berlin marathon, curry wurst and stuffed cabbage. Writing incisively and almost without prejudice, Roger Boyes describes the peculiarities of everyday life in Germany.

An account of how black markets in the Soviet Union are being transformed into the driving force of economic reform. The author examines daily life in the Soviet bloc, arguing that almost every transaction - from housing and education to the health service - involves the black market.

Gorbachev, the Underworld and the Rebirth of Capitalism

The Hard Road to Market

It is a truism that when America sneezes, Europe catches a cold. The subprime mortgage crisis, which began in America in 2007, unleashed a veritable epidemic of financial ill health all over the world. All European countries were affected, and the developing world also felt a chill. However it was Iceland, a tiny volcanic outcrop in the North Atlantic whose population of 300,000 had the highest GDP and counted itself the happiest in the world, which caught the worst cold. It has nearly killed them. For a few short years, the Icelanders deluded themselves that they were rich. Dour Reykjavik became the Capital of Cool. Rock musicians like Damon Albarn bought houses and stakes in pubs. Clubs boomed, the alcohol was expensive and the Krona was strong. All over the world people are trying to understand what caused the economic crisis and are asking themselves who is to blame. In Iceland that question is easily answered and the handful of bankers and politicians responsible have had to hire body guards, hole themselves up in their country houses and stay off the streets for fear of attack. Collaborating with the business editor of Iceland's leading daily newspaper, award-winning writer Roger Boyes tells the inside story of the bankrupting of Iceland and explains how it has ramifications for us all, from the private and public investors who trusted their money in Iceland's banks, to the workers in high street clothes stores whose owners no longer can pay for the shirts on their own backs. Writing with panache and colour, and drawing on interviews with everyone from artists and policitians to the local fisherman, Meltdown Iceland is an authoritative and compelling account of the financial destruction of this tiny, icy but vibrant country.

How the Global Financial Crisis Bankupted an Entire Country

Meltdown Iceland

Suzy Jagger

In a period when Western military engagement has unleashed violent sectarianism global terrorism, and become a catalyst for the biggest exodus of migrants since the Second World War, the 1999 Nato intervention in Kosovo remains a unique and shining example of a process that led to a peaceful transition from vicious ethnic war to modern democracy. Less than twenty years ago, a young ethnic Albanian student leader called Hashim Thaçi, led a revolution against Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian tyrant with the biggest military force in Europe, and convinced the West to bomb Belgrade out of Kosovo. The aerial bombardment beckoned a period of unrivalled peace in the Balkans which Western leaders who sought to subsequently overturn other tyrannies in foreign lands would view with envy as a rare successful model. Nato intervention in Kosovo, led by Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, resulted in democracy and the rule of law. By contrast, however, attempts by George W. Bush to effect regime change in Iraq and Afghanistan, and by America, Britain and France to do the same in Libya, have left lethal power vacuums filled by Islamist insurgents, and brought about the downfall of Western leaders themselves. This book is the story of the rare success of Western military intervention and the first biography of the new President of Kosovo, the youngest country in Europe.

Hashim Thaçi – A Biography

New State, Modern Statesman

Presents an account of the total financial breakdown of the entire country of Iceland in the wake of the 2008 global economic crisis, citing the actions of key contributors while offering additional insight into the interconnected nature of the global crisis.

Lessons on the World Financial Crisis from a Small Bankrupt Island

Describes how the Nazis exploited German dissatisfaction and promised restored German greatness based on ethical and moral compromise, and offers an explanation of how Hitler was able to seduce an entire nation.

The Choices of a Nation and the Ethics of Survival

Seduced by Hitler

The economic crisis that emerged in America in 2008 unleashed a veritable epidemic of ill health around the world. However it was Iceland, whose population of three hundred thousand had the world's highest GDP per capita and counted itself the happiest of countries, that caught the worst cold. It has nearly killed them. No story from the economic crisis of 2008 is more evocative than I celand's. The names may be unfamiliar-Johanesson, Bjoergolfsson, Oddsson-but their exuberance, greed, and miscalculation have many counterparts on our shores. And however traumatic the collapse of individual companies may be in the United States, in Iceland's case an entire country melted down. All the wealth accumulated in the previous decade-during which a new breed of Icelanders had dared to believe they could compete economically on an international level, during which Reykjavik became the Capital of Cool-disappeared practically overnight. Iceland's story shows how closely the world economy is interconnected: The default on subprime mortgages in the U .S. led to the collapse of Lehman Brothers, which led directly to the run on Iceland's banks, which forced local authorities in Britain to switch off the heating in their classrooms. With panache and color, Roger Boyes tells the inside story of the bankrupting of I celand: how it happened, the human dramas-from politicians to financiers to fishermen-that continue to swirl around it, and the lessons we can not ignore. Published on the first anniversary of its collapse, Meltdown Iceland is a cautionary tale for our times, an authoritative and compelling account of the financial destruction of a tiny country whose saga should resonate for us all.

Roger Boyes

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