Best Selling Books by John Christopher

A thought experiment in future-shock survivalism'' Robert MacFarlane ''Gripping ... of all science fiction''s apocalypses, this is one of the most haunting'' Financial Times WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ROBERT MACFARLANE A post-apocalyptic vision of the world pushed to the brink by famine, John Christopher''s science fiction masterpiece The Death of Grass includes an introduction by Robert MacFarlane in Penguin Modern Classics. At first the virus wiping out grass and crops is of little concern to John Custance. It has decimated Asia, causing mass starvation and riots, but Europe is safe and a counter-virus is expected any day. Except, it turns out, the governments have been lying to their people. When the deadly disease hits Britain, society starts to descend into barbarism. As John and his family try to make it across country to the safety of his brother''s farm in a hidden valley, their humanity is tested to its very limits. A chilling psychological thriller and one of the greatest post-apocalyptic novels ever written, The Death of Grass shows people struggling to hold on to their identities as the familiar world disintegrates - and the terrible price they must pay for surviving. John Christopher (1922-2012) was the pen name of Samuel Youd, a prolific writer of science fiction. His novels were popular during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably The Death Of Grass (1956), The World in Winter (1962), and Wrinkle in the Skin (1965), all works depicting ordinary people struggling in the midst of apocalyptic catastrophes. In 1966 he started writing science-fiction for adolescents; The Tripods trilogy, the Prince in Waiting trilogy (also known as the Sword of the Spirits trilogy) and The Lotus Caves are still widely read today. Ifyou enjoyed The Death of Grass, you might like John Wyndham''s The Day of the Triffids, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.

Nobody knows how long it has been since the Tripods came. Nobody remembers life on Earth before they enslaved it. Humans live in scattered farms and villages, kept quiet and obedient by the mind-controlling Caps implanted when they reach their teens. Will Parker''s time is fast approaching - but a chance encounter with a madman convinces him that it may still be possible to resist the alien masters. So begins an epic tale of survival and defiance - and Will''s journey to the White Mountains. John Christopher''s classic dystopian series is available for the first time in ebook format.

Includes an excerpt from another adventure by John Christopher entitled ''In the beginning.''

A fascinating portrayal of a medical miracle traces the influence of insulin on the world, from its discovery in 1921 through its widespread dissemination as a treatment for diabetes. (Health & Fitness)

This is the biography of J. Raymond Jones, premiere political strategist and first Black leader of Tammany Hall, who served New York City and the Democratic Party from the Harlem Renaissance through the Civil rights era. His rise thorough the ranks of the Party is traced in dramatic detail as his power expands to influence national politics and the political destinies of people like John Lindsay, Adam Clayton Powell, and Lyndon Johnson. It is based on extensive interviews with Jones and Jones''s proteges, including politically prominent figures, Robert Wagner, former mayor of New York City, Percy Sutton, and Congressman Charles Rangel. These memoirs are also a history of New York City politics during some of its most interesting and transitional eras. It is a lively account of the gradual emergence of blacks as a key element in the National Democratic Party coalition and will make an excellent case study for political activists by providing a practical, behind-the-scenes view of the political process in our nation''s largest city.

Penguin reissues a classic work of science fiction from the author of The Death of Grass - now with a new introduction by Hari Kunzru One year the UK suffers a terrible, harsh winter: rivers freeze solid, food and fuel run low, the whole of Europe lies under snow. As months pass and the arctic weather remains, it becomes clear that the world''s climate has changed permanently. Now, humanity must adapt to survive in the brutal new conditions. As the northern hemisphere nations fall into chaos and barbarism, with packs of men roaming like wolves through the frozen wastelands, citizens flee south to Africa and South America. Journalist Andrew Leedon is one of the lucky ones who escaped in time - swapping London for the white refugee slums of habitable Nigeria. Horrified by conditions and determined to act, Leedon makes a desperate plan to return and reclaim the dangerous wilderness of his abandoned country... The World in Winter is part of the Penguin Worlds classic science fiction series

This is a story about the lust for gold and treasure," Fine writes. In the 1600s and 1700s, Spain dominated the oceans with its fleet of galleons. Coming to the New World, these ships filled their holds with gold and silver and treasures beyond imagining. The seaway between Spain and the New World was dubbed The Golden Highway. On their journeys back across the seas, many were wrecked on reefs or destroyed by hurricanes. The watery depths now hold their treasures. Today, treasure divers seek their fortunes by attempting--sometimes successfully, sometimes fatally--to retrieve these hordes of riches. In Treasures of the Spanish Main, readers relive each voyage of long ago as well as witness the modern wreck diver''s efforts to extract their secrets. Included are: The 1622 fleet * The Concepcion * The Maravillas * The Shipwreck off Jupiter Beach * The San Jose * the 1715 Fleet * and the 1733 Fleet The voyages of centuries ago come alive with Fine''s excellent historical detail. Readers will experience the wild storms and the results of unfortunate choices made by long-ago sailors. The eccentric treasure hunters of today, along with those of the past, create a mosaic of suspense and drama on the high seas. A must for everyone interested in pirates, treasure, sailing, history, or just plain fun.

After being transported by the mysterious fireball to an alternate world, Simon and Brad face Indians, Vikings, and Aztecs in their attempts to reach California.

Will must defeat the Tripods once and for all in this third book of a classic alien trilogy ideal for fans of Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave and Margaret Peterson Haddix’s Shadow Children series. After being held captive in the City of Gold and Lead—the capital, where the creatures that control the mechanical, monstrous Tripods live—Will believes that he’s learned everything he needs to know to destroy them. He has discovered the source of their power, and with this new knowledge, Will and his friends plan to return to the City of Gold and Lead to take down the Masters once and for all. Although Will and his friends have planned everything down to the minute, the Masters still have surprises in store. And with the Masters’ plan to destroy Earth completely, Will may have just started the war that will end it all.

A resource written from a distinctively Pentecostal perspective, primarily for pastors, lay persons, and Bible students, based upon the best scholarship, written in popular language and communicating the meaning of the text with minimal technical distractions.In keeping with the ethos and spirituality of the Pentecostal tradition, to which at least 400 million Christians belong, the writers explore how their scholarship might be contextualized within their own local church body and strengthened by the dynamic interaction between the Holy Spirit, the body of Christ, and the Word of God. The series is conceived of as part of the ministry of the body of Christ, for the glory of God.The structure of the commentaries reflects the dialogical way in which the tradition tends to approach the biblical text. Each volume begins with a series of questions designed to identify corporate and individual issues illuminated in the biblical book. An introduction proper then discloses the need, process, purpose, time, and place of composition, and a detailed discussion of the genre and structure of the book forms the basis of organization for the exposition that follows.This commentary on the Johannine Epistles, by a leading Pentecostal scholar and editor of the commentary series, provides a running exposition on the text, extended comments on texts of special significance for Pentecostals, and acknowledges and interacts with major options in interpreting individual passages. It also provides periodic opportunities for reflection upon and personal response to the biblical text.

The fate of Luke—and the civilized world—is at stake in the tumultuous and explosive conclusion to the post-apocalyptic Sword of the Spirits trilogy from the author of The Tripods series. Following the death of his brother, Luke has now ascended to the throne of Winchester. And with the success of his first campaigns he is crowned “Prince of Three Cities,” finally fulfilling the prophecy made by the Spirits years before. Luke knows that the power of the Spirits is nothing more than a hoax to advance the Seers’ plans for a scientific revival. Their deception is the reason Luke has his crown. But as old rivalries and new alliances emerge and chaos sweeps through Winchester, can Luke stop death and disaster from plunging the civilized world into darkness?

Two and a half years have elapsed since Brad and Simon went through the fireball. Since then they have travelled more than 8000 km from their starting point. Now, captured by Chinese slavers, the two boys are taken from California to China where they find a nation torn apart by civil war. They learn about the power of the Mind, with its creation of illusions, and finally discover the secret of the fireball itself. Faced with a decision which will affect their whole lives, what will they do? Will they return to their own world, or will they venture on into the unknown?

The Sherman tank was never the equal of the German heavies, but tough, reliable and manoeuvrable it was built in such prodigious quantities that it played a vital role in the Allies'' victory in WW2. Published to commemorate 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

Will and his friends return to the City of the Tripods—and risk their lives—in this second book of a classic alien trilogy ideal for fans of Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave and Margaret Peterson Haddix’s Shadow Children series. When Will and his friends arrived at the White Mountains, they thought everything would be okay. They’d found a safe haven where the mechanical monsters called Tripods could not find them. But once there, they wonder about the world around them and how they are faring against the machines. In order to save everyone else, Will and his friends want to take down the Tripods once and for all. That means journeying to the Tripod capital: the City of Gold and Lead. Although the journey will be difficult, the real danger comes once Will is inside the city, where Tripods roam freely and humans are even more enslaved than they are on the outside. Without anyone to help him, Will must learn the secrets of the Tripods—and how to take them down—before they figure out that he’s a spy…and he can only pretend to be brainwashed for so long.

In the divided England of the distant future, a recently-orphaned boy flees the sprawling area known as the Conurb for the serene world of the County where the people seem to live a simpler existence.

During World War 2, Hitler''s engineers had pioneered an incredible array of futuristic secret weapons, from the Me 262, the first operational jet fighter, to the deadly V2 inter continental ballistic missile. With the Third Reich shattered and lying in ruins, in the summer of 1945, the Allies launched a frantic race to grab what they saw as the justifiable spoils of war. The Americans and Russians in particular were anxious to secure not only the aircraft and the research and production facilities, but also the key German scientists and engineers. This Nazi technology would define the balance of power in the phoney peace of the Cold War era, launching an arms race that shaped our modern world for decades to come. But what of Britain''s role in this supermarket sweep? The Race for Hitler''s X-Planes tells the untold story of the British mission to Germany.

The martial arts novel is one of the most distinctive and widely-read forms of modern Chinese fiction. John Christopher Hamm offers the first in-depth English-language study of this fascinating and influential genre, focusing on the work of its undisputed twentieth-century master, Jin Yong.

When Simon and Brad investigate the mysterious fireball, they suddenly find themselves in an alternate world--a world where the unrealized possibilities of the actual world have been realized.

Eade has checked the dates of more than 250 inscriptions from Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos. He reproduces old calendrists'' calculations for each year from AD 638 to 2000. The introduction provides an outline of the calendrical system and an explanation of its technical aspects.

Two boys discover a series of caverns underneath their moon colony home in this futuristic story from the author of the Tripods series. Marty and Steve may live on the moon, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to get away every once in a while. So when Steve makes the suggestion to skip school and take a lunar car out to explore the moon’s surface like real astronauts, Marty thinks it’s a great idea. But the fun quickly ends when the lunar car crashes, stranding Marty and Steve beneath the moon’s surface. There, in a bizarre, cave, Marty and Steve find the unexpected: a world filled with various plants, food, and life…including a man who supposedly went missing more than one hundred years before. The boys think that they’ve found the most wonderful place in the galaxy…but they soon learn that the joy comes with a price. The strange creature that is keeping them alive also wants to control them, and when Marty and Steve decide that they want to leave, the creature might have something else in mind.

In a future world where civilization has collapsed, fourteen-year-old Ben sets out on a journey to discover his birthright, and meets members of a technologically advanced remnant, who use machines to foster belief in Demons among the people of Ben''s homeland.

Experience the beginning of the Tripods’ reign in this prequel to the classic alien trilogy ideal for fans of Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave and Margaret Peterson Haddix’s Shadow Children series. When it comes to alien invasions, bad things come in threes. Three landings: one in England, one in Russia, and one in the United States. Three long legs, crushing everything in their paths, with three metallic arms, snacking out to embrace—and then discard—their helpless victims. Three evil beings, called Tripods, which will change life on Earth forever.

Based on declassified wartime reports, this in-depth dossier details the inner workings of the Organisation Todt which not only built the Autobahns, but also Germany''s Siegfried Line and Atlantic Wall.

"A massive series of powerful earthquakes on a worldwide scale reduce towns and cities to rubble and plunge the survivors into barbarism. Most of western Europe is dramatically uplifted, transforming the English Channel into a muddy desert, while elsewhere lands are plunged below sealevel and flooded. The protagonist is Matthew Cotter, a Guernsey horticulturalist who finds himself one of only a handful of survivors on the former island. Cotter decides to trek across the empty seabed to England, in the faint hope that his daughter has somehow survived. He finds the situation on the former mainland has descended to barbarism, with competing bands of scavengers preying on survivors. He and his companion, a young boy, finally make their way to the borders of Sussex, where his daughter was staying, only to discover that the land has slipped beneath the sea. Cotter, along with some survivors from the mainland, eventually returns to Guernsey."--Wikipedia.

This Handbook makes a comprehensive examination of calendrical systems used in mainland Southeast Asia. It is designed (with numerous examples from the literature) to provide a grammar of the subject that will enable scholars to investigate it for themselves.