Bonanza Non-fiction Book Club

Impossible Monsters: How the Discovery of Dinosaurs Changed the World (Michael Taylor)

Impossible Monsters is the captivating story of the discovery of the dinosaurs and how it upended our understanding of the origins of the world.

In 1811, a twelve-year-old girl uncovered some strange-looking bones in Britain’s southern shoreline - and so sparked a crisis that would engulf science and religion for the next six decades. By its end, the literal reading of the Bible had been overturned, science had been liberated from religion and the secular age had begun. Impossible Monsters takes us into the lives and minds of the extraordinary men and women whose discovery of the dinosaurs revolutionised our understanding of the world, as well as those who resisted them and those, like Charles Darwin, who took great risks to construct a new account of the earth’s and mankind’s origins. It is the riveting story of a group of people who dared to think impossible things and then showed them to be true.

One of the most interesting stories in the world . . . brilliant . . . told with brio and humour, but not without a sense of the pathos of Doubt . . . I relished every word - A. N. Wilson, Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year

Excellent . . . Everything that popular scholarly history should be . . . written with clarity, zest, and wit - Piers Brendon, Literary Review

Impossible Monsters: How the Discovery of Dinosaurs Changed the World (Michael Taylor)

Impossible Monsters is the captivating story of the discovery of the dinosaurs and how it upended our understanding of the origins of the world.

In 1811, a twelve-year-old girl uncovered some strange-looking bones in Britain’s southern shoreline - and so sparked a crisis that would engulf science and religion for the next six decades. By its end, the literal reading of the Bible had been overturned, science had been liberated from religion and the secular age had begun. Impossible Monsters takes us into the lives and minds of the extraordinary men and women whose discovery of the dinosaurs revolutionised our understanding of the world, as well as those who resisted them and those, like Charles Darwin, who took great risks to construct a new account of the earth’s and mankind’s origins. It is the riveting story of a group of people who dared to think impossible things and then showed them to be true.

One of the most interesting stories in the world . . . brilliant . . . told with brio and humour, but not without a sense of the pathos of Doubt . . . I relished every word - A. N. Wilson, Times Literary Supplement, Books of the Year

Excellent . . . Everything that popular scholarly history should be . . . written with clarity, zest, and wit - Piers Brendon, Literary Review

SAS: Rogue Heroes (Ben Macintyre)

From the secret SAS archives, and acclaimed author Ben Macintyre: the first ever authorized history of the SAS.

In the summer of 1941, at the height of the war in the Western Desert, a bored and eccentric young officer, David Stirling, came up with a plan that was radical and entirely against the rules: a small undercover unit that would inflict mayhem behind enemy lines. Despite intense opposition, Winston Churchill personally gave Stirling permission to recruit the toughest, brightest and most ruthless soldiers he could find. So began the most celebrated and mysterious military organisation in the world: the SAS. Now, 75 years later, the SAS has finally decided to tell its astonishing story.

It has opened its secret archives for the first time, granting historian Ben Macintyre full access to a treasure trove of unseen reports, memos, diaries, letters, maps and photographs, as well as free rein to interview surviving Originals and those who knew them. The result is an exhilarating tale of fearlessness and heroism, recklessness and tragedy; of extraordinary men who were willing to take monumental risks. It is a story about the meaning of courage.

This book has many strengths but perhaps its greatest is how thought-provoking it is - Laurence Rees, Sunday Times

Macintyre provides a riveting history of a revolutionary fighting force . . . A ripping good read - Washington Post 10 Best Books of 2016

The sharp style and sly wit reveal some pretty acute insights into the politics of the nation's favourite undercover boys - Evening Standard Books of the Year

So good and so much more than the boys own adventure you might think it will read like. Ben is a brilliant writer - Dermot O'Leary

SAS: Rogue Heroes (Ben Macintyre)

From the secret SAS archives, and acclaimed author Ben Macintyre: the first ever authorized history of the SAS.

In the summer of 1941, at the height of the war in the Western Desert, a bored and eccentric young officer, David Stirling, came up with a plan that was radical and entirely against the rules: a small undercover unit that would inflict mayhem behind enemy lines. Despite intense opposition, Winston Churchill personally gave Stirling permission to recruit the toughest, brightest and most ruthless soldiers he could find. So began the most celebrated and mysterious military organisation in the world: the SAS. Now, 75 years later, the SAS has finally decided to tell its astonishing story.

It has opened its secret archives for the first time, granting historian Ben Macintyre full access to a treasure trove of unseen reports, memos, diaries, letters, maps and photographs, as well as free rein to interview surviving Originals and those who knew them. The result is an exhilarating tale of fearlessness and heroism, recklessness and tragedy; of extraordinary men who were willing to take monumental risks. It is a story about the meaning of courage.

This book has many strengths but perhaps its greatest is how thought-provoking it is - Laurence Rees, Sunday Times

Macintyre provides a riveting history of a revolutionary fighting force . . . A ripping good read - Washington Post 10 Best Books of 2016

The sharp style and sly wit reveal some pretty acute insights into the politics of the nation's favourite undercover boys - Evening Standard Books of the Year

So good and so much more than the boys own adventure you might think it will read like. Ben is a brilliant writer - Dermot O'Leary