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Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution
Author: Amanda Vaill
NEW RELEASE
American Revolution Biographies
🗽 America’s Founding Era reconsidered through the lives of two women as formidable as, and in some respects stronger than, the men they loved, married, and mothered.
Angelica and Elizabeth Schuyler, born to wealth and privilege in New York’s Hudson Valley during the latter half of the eighteenth century, were raised to make good marriages and supervise substantial households. Instead they became embroiled in the turmoil of America’s insurrection against Great Britain—and rebelled themselves, in ways as different as each was from the other, against the destiny mapped out for them.
Glamorous Angelica, who sought fulfillment through attachments to powerful men, eloped at twenty with a war profiteer and led a luxurious life, first in Paris, then in London, charming Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and the Prince of Wales. Eliza, one year her junior, too candid for flirtation and uninterested in influence or intrigue, married a penniless illegitimate outsider, Alexander Hamilton, and devoted herself to his career. But after his appointment as America’s first Treasury Secretary, she was challenged by the controversies in which he became involved, not the least of which was the attraction that grew between him and her adored sister.
When tragedy followed, everything changed for both women: one deprived of her animating spirit, the other improbably gaining a new, self-determined life. “You would not have suffered if you had married into a family less near the sun,” wrote Angelica to Eliza, “but then [you would have missed] the pride, the pleasure, the nameless satisfactions.”
Beyond Hamilton: Amanda Vaill gives the Schuyler sisters the full historical treatment they deserve—beyond the musical, beyond their famous husbands, into the complex realities of their lives. Angelica eloped with a war profiteer and charmed Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and the Prince of Wales in Paris and London. Eliza married the penniless, illegitimate Alexander Hamilton and devoted herself to his career, only to face the controversies he courted—including his attraction to her own sister. Vaill traces how tragedy transformed both women: one lost her animating spirit, the other improbably found a new, self-determined life. This is Founding Era history reconsidered through women who were as formidable as the men they loved, married, and mothered. For readers who loved Hamilton and want the deeper, more complicated truth, this new release delivers scholarly biography with narrative power.
Mr Wilman’s Motoring Adventure: Top Gear, Grand Tour and Twenty Years of Magic and Mayhem
Author: Andy Wilman
NEW RELEASE
Motor Sports Biographies
🏎️ Lift the bonnet on 20 years of magic and mayhem on Top Gear and The Grand Tour—from the mysterious man behind the camera . . .
The perfect gift for fans of fast cars, big laughs and full-throttle TV adventures!
Top Gear turned gloomy Sunday nights into celebratory Friday nights.
It made household names of presenters Clarkson, Hammond and May, their unique chemistry and buddy movie antics proving irresistible to a vast global audience. With these three at the helm, Top Gear earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the most popular factual TV show on the planet.
Then, a short while later, it was all gone.
How did a thoroughly sensible little consumer advice programme on cars turn into a global phenomenon in the first place, though? How did it all go wrong? And how did they rise from the ashes as The Grand Tour, and go on to scale even greater heights?
One man has all the answers.
There from the beginning, Top Gear and The Grand Tour co-creator, and Jeremy’s oldest friend, Andy Wilman, opens the bonnet on over twenty years of motoring mayhem. In Mr Wilman’s Motoring Adventure, the mysterious man in the shadows tells the inside story of your favourite TV shows for the first time.
Irreverent, joyful and as laugh-out-loud funny as the shows themselves, it’s the best book about Top Gear and The Grand Tour . . . in the world.
The inside story from the man who made it happen: Andy Wilman was there from the beginning—co-creator of Top Gear and The Grand Tour, Jeremy Clarkson’s oldest friend, and the mysterious figure behind the camera while Clarkson, Hammond, and May became global stars. Now he’s finally telling the inside story: how a sensible car consumer show became the most popular factual TV program on the planet, how it all went wrong, and how they rose from the ashes to scale even greater heights with The Grand Tour. Wilman promises the same irreverent humor that made the shows beloved, plus answers to questions fans have wondered about for twenty years. If you’ve ever watched those three idiots drive cars into rivers, race across continents, or destroy caravans, this new release is the definitive behind-the-scenes account from the one person who saw it all.
Sisters in Death: The Black Dahlia, the Prairie Heiress, and Their Hunter
Author: Eli Frankel
NEW RELEASE
Biographies of Serial Killers
🔍 Who killed the Black Dahlia? In this eye-opening shocker, an award-winning producer, true-crime researcher, and Hollywood insider finally solves the greatest—and most gruesome—murder mystery of the twentieth century just before its 80th anniversary.
In January 1947, the bisected body of Elizabeth Short, completely drained of blood, was discovered in an undeveloped lot in Los Angeles. Its gruesome mutilations led to a firestorm of publicity, city-wide panic, and an unprecedented number of investigative paths led by the LAPD—all dead ends. The Black Dahlia murder remained an unsolved mystery for over seventy years.
Six years earlier and sixteen hundred miles away, another woman’s life had ended in a similarly horrific manner. Leila Welsh was an ambitious, educated, popular, and socially connected beauty. Though raised modestly on a prairie farm, she was heiress to her Kansas City family’s status and wealth. On a winter morning in 1941, Leila’s butchered body was found in her bedroom bearing the marks of unspeakable trauma. One victim faded into obscurity. The other became notorious. Both had in common a killer whose sadistic mind was a labyrinth of dark secrets.
Eli Frankel reveals for the first time a key fact about the Black Dahlia crime scene, never before shared with the public, that leads inexorably to the stunning identification of a criminal who was at the same time amateurish and fiendish, skilled and lucky, sophisticated and brutish. Drawing on newly discovered documents, law enforcement files, interviews with the last surviving participants, the victims’ own letters, trial transcripts, military records, and more, this epic true-crime saga puts together the missing pieces of a legendary puzzle.
A cold case finally solved? Eli Frankel claims to have done what seventy years of investigators couldn’t: identify the Black Dahlia killer. His approach links Elizabeth Short’s 1947 murder to another horrific killing six years earlier—Leila Welsh, a Kansas City heiress found butchered in her bedroom in 1941. One victim became infamous; the other faded into obscurity. But Frankel argues they shared the same killer. Drawing on newly discovered documents, law enforcement files, interviews with surviving participants, victims’ letters, trial transcripts, and military records, he reveals a key crime scene fact never before made public. The killer he identifies was simultaneously amateurish and fiendish, skilled and lucky. Whether Frankel’s solution convinces you or not, this new release promises the most comprehensive investigation into America’s most notorious unsolved murder, arriving just before its 80th anniversary.
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