Here is a book that I have been looking for for some time, a book that incorporates the magnificent artwork of the Napoleonic period along with a detailed profile of Napoleon. The result is magic and a pure delight to the eye. Proctor Jones has done a splendid job at merging the two memoirs of Menval (Napoleon's secretary) and Constant (Napoleon's valet) to provide a detailed and intimate account account of Napoleon. This is not a book that details Napoleon's battles or strategic genius but is a book that provides a wonderful insight into his character and personality instead. What comes across is that Napoleon was indeed human with many strengths and weaknesses and is not the ogre or monster as often portrayed by British propaganda. One can see the the unboundless energy, emotion, magnetism and even quirky habits of the man as seen through Menval and Constant. The artwork is plentiful and compliments the events as described in the narrative. This is a superb book, printed on high quality paper and an essential addition to any buff of the Napoleonic period. You will not be disappointed, only delighted.

I will begin this review by saying that I knew Proctor Jones and liked him very much. I had the privlege to travel with him and visit many of his friends while I was living and working France. He was a wonderful man and an enjoyable companion and I will fondly cherish my memories of him.

Even today his memory is still strong for those of us who knew him and his name is a talisman which opens doors which otherwise would be sealed.

Many people claim to have access to special or unknown collections. Proctor was the real deal.

This book was a labor of love for Proctor. He set out to publish pictures that had not been seen in other books...he spent an unbelievable amount of money, time and effort tracking down unpublished art and securing the right to publish it in this book.

He then published this book himself because no publisher would print it at the level of quality he wanted. He was particular about the paper, the binding and the detail of the reproductions...

Proctor then was able to get Jean Tulard to do the preface...virtually impossible for an American author...and even launched the French version of the book at a reception at Malmaison (I was there).

Proctor never intended to make money on the book...It was his intention to bring these works to an audience who would otherwise find them inaccessable. I know for a fact that at the print run he authorized he lost tens of thousands of dollars just on the royalties and fees he paid for the permission to reproduce these paintings.

This book is in a limited print run in English and in French and when they are gone they will be gone. Just like Proctor.

Proctor I will miss you and I thank you for producing this book.

This is a fantastic book as it includes within its cover a feast of great Napoleonic paintings and memorabilia which is worth the price alone. The text is finely edited by Proctor-Jones, comprising of an interwoven thread based on two memoirs of two men who were closely linked to Napoleon. One was his secretary, C Meneval and the other is his personal valet W Constant.
Every dedicated Napoleonophile should own a copy.

Charles Willeford apparently wrote these two memoirs relatively late in life, but he tells the stories as he experienced them at the time rather than through the filter of his mature personality. In his own modest, plainspoken style, you get to know the interior world of Mr. Willeford, first as a young orphan, and later as a young recruit in the Air Corps. Willeford had a rough life, but--and this might be a surprise to those who only know Willeford through his pulp fiction--he didn't allow his difficult childhood or military experience to make him coarse and cynical. For all the darkness of his novels, he appears to have been a sensitive, optimistic, and humane person, whose dark humor was a means of coping with life's disappointments.

I hope that Willeford's books someday fall into the hands of a competent publisher. Disc-Us Books did an incredibly shoddy job preparing the book for publication. Not only are there many typos and dropped or repeated lines of text, but they even misspelled "memoir" on the spine of the book. Perhaps they've caught the error and fixed it, but my copy says "memior"!

Willeford is one of the best writers America has produced.

The Great Depression is a time and a place that is foreign to most living Americans. GD USA is a country where nearly everyone is living in dire poverty, and the country itself is on the brink of collapse. Willeford, one of the most underappreciated writers of the 20th century, captures this odd world perfectly as he chronicles his picaresque travels through an economically devastated America.

The second memoir takes place in the U.S. Army off in the exotic Philippines during peacetime--years before the Japanese came, and 30 years after an insurrection that was put down in brutal fashion by American soldiers. Willeford leads you into an exotic world of malfunctioning aeroplanes and imperial slouching by indolent imperial soldier-airmen using pitch-perfect prose.

Buy this one, and try out "The Woman Chaser" too.

This book changed our lives and helped us to see truth and come to real freedom.

I would highly highly recommend this book to all Christians.

I would agree wholeheatedly with the reviewer at Deep Healing Ministries in Oklahoma City. Charles Kraft's insights and explanations have truly impacted my life in a positive way.

To that I would add that this book is an absolute "must read" for ANYONE involved in any type of personal ministry or spiritual warfare. Beyond that, I would commend this book to every person who would like to discover the keys to become freed from the things that seem to tie you down, trip you up, or hold you back, so that you can live victoriously as Jesus promised us.

I Give You Authority shows the reader how to exercise the authority he/she has been given by the Holy Spirit. For many years I have been taught about the authority from Jesus Christ I have as a believer. It wasn't until I read this book that it really took root in my heart that I am a Princess, a daughter of the Almighty God.

When I became aware of the spiritual authority I have through Jesus Christ every aspect of my life began to be transformed and freed from satanic influence. I just walk in it and live it, submitting myself to the power of the Holy Spirit.

This book is rich in wisdom and solidly based on God's Word. Of all the books I've read, I Give You Authority has had a greater impact on my life than any other single book except for the Bible

This collection of aphorisms and thought provoking truths is relevant for anyone who cares for patients. I am on the Clinical Faculty at UC Davis Medical School and I make a point of giving a copy of this wonderful volume to those who study with me.

This is an invaluable little book , writen by someone with a great knowledge of medicine and of human nature. Warm, witty, pointing the way to attitudes in medical practice that bring back the best in doctor-patient relationships. A must for all medical students !

This is an excellent little book with a lot of wisdom. This would make a great gift for anyone in the medical field, especially students. Many years of experience are distilled into these 425 rules, and there is a lot of humor as well. Not particularly clinically oriented, the book stresses human behavior and patient assessment.

I first chanced upon this two-volume collection of recipes almost thirty years ago when I was a student at the University of South Florida, and I became immediately enamoured of it. The author, one Charles Henry Baker, Jr., describes anecdotally how he (seemingly) spent the better part of the 1920s and 1930s drinking and eating his way around the world - several times, rubbing elbows with the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Frank Buck, Douglas Fairbanks and other adventurers of the time.

In his far-ranging travels, Baker ferreted out the most intriguing and exotic restaurants and watering holes of the time from Shanghai to Key West, assiduously recording and compiling receipts (as he calls recipes) and concoctions galore. Baker shares these recipes with the reader in the form of well-detailed and often amusing remembrances of his first and sometimes subsequent encounters with the dish or drink. Many of the establishments he visited and chronicled are now legendary or nostalgically remembered. From the Raffles Hotel in Singapore to Shepperds in Cairo to the Grand Bretagne in Athens, Baker paints the reader an epicure's picture of a very different time and world long lost to us.

Although his prose were probably somewhat tortured even in the 1930s when the book was first published, they make for interesting if not amusing reading today. In fact, Baker's style as a raconteur amplifies and potentiates his narrative of those long-ago experiences, and his sheer enjoyment of life pushes through even the most obscure verbiage. This man was a giant among bon vivants. He lived life to the fullest and with such flair and conviction that one cannot help but be envious - if not in awe - of his exploits and adventures.

Baker, an interesting character, was born in 1895, and when not travelling, hung out down in Coconut Grove - way back when it really was a Bohemian artist's place to be. He was at various times a writer for the old Town and Country and Esquire magazines, penned a few other collections, once even tried his hand at a novel, and he is still quoted in the drink-crafting tomes. But first and foremost - without a doubt - Baker was the Grand Bon Vivant

THIS IS A GREAT COLLECTION OF RECIPES,GATHERED FROM AROUND A NOT SO POLITICALLY CORRECT WORLD.EXCELLENT VARIETY OF SELECTIONS.THTRE WERE ACTUALLY THREE TWO VOLUME BOXED SETS. THERE WAS AN ORIGINAL SET, A REVISED SET AND A "SOUTH AMERICAN SET". EACH RECIPE HAS A STORY ABOUT THE ORIGINATOR AND HOW AND WHERE THE RECIPE ORININATED.STORIES OF EATING MUSHROOMS SMETANA IN A BAR IN SHANGHI,WHILE SIPPING ON AN ICE COLD MARTINI,FOR EXAMPLE.VOLUME I IS TRADITIONALLY FOOD; VOLUME II IS STRICTLY LIBATIONS.TWO EXCELLENT SELECTIONS ARE ST.CECELIA SOCIETY PUNCH AND FISH HOUSE PUNCH. SOMETIMES THE CONTENTS CAN BE A CHALLENGE IE. "WALNUT KETSUP" OR A "PONY" OF PEACH BRANDY. ALL IN ALL A TERRIFIC READ AND THE RECIPES WORK.

For me, as a foreign-born resident, the poems evoked a powerful sense of helplessness, hopelessness, and desperation all interwoven with love and forgiveness. Every time I visit the Midwest, the images in the poems appear ghost-like and collide head-on with the real world around me. Nothing can express the depth of the Midwest, but these poems come close.

This breathtaking series of poems, sprung from a true story of a horrific truck accident perfectly brings to mind life in a small struggling Midwestern town. I could easily relate to the characters and situations, having been raised in such a place myself. Anyone who has will find the characters strikingly familiar.

In reading this book it brought tears to my eyes many times. My son is verbally apraxic. I can share the Hale's excitement in knowing for the first time what their son is thinking and what he wants to say. Charles is truly an inspiration. His parents Mary Jane and Martel are true saints. In a world where people want easy solutions, they never gave up on Charles. They never stopped searching for new possibilites for Charles to communicate.

I feel this book is an absolute must read for anyone who deals in anyway with handicapped children or adults. This book is a breakthrough to a better understanding and a better way of helping handicapped people. This book will eduacate our special needs providers on a new level.

This book will also let parents know they are not alone and to continue to fight for your children, you are the only one who will. Never loose your hope or faith.

I thank Mary Jane and Charles for allowing us into their lives and for showing us brighter, promising futures for our loved ones.

With much respect and admiration!

This is a book about the best in all of us. A reaching across the greatest differences in humanity to discover the essence of our beings. It's also a story of uncommon heroism and the power of a loving family.

I feel I can speak eloquently about this because I also know, as the author of this book, what it means to find a whole person where others felt there was just a shell and not have people believe it or actively try to pull it away. It's the story of a mother and father's discovery that their child, who is a severely autistic 36 year old man, is not only very intelligent and aware, but has a depth of wisdom and love that is very rare.

But in keeping with her son Charles' attitude, Mary Jane doesn't dwell on the hurt and betrayal of those who don't believe in what Charles is saying, but joyously celebrates this wonderful discovery and what Charles tells us in his own words about autism and the controversy over Facilitated Communication (FC). I talked with five adult autistics using FC for two years and I have no doubt that every word that Charles says is his own. If you want to know about autism, this is the first place to start. For those that have used FC, they will find many new insights.

Jane's presentation is even and lively. I particularly enjoyed the biographical sketch which gives us a look at two wonderful parents in their journey together raising a very special but difficult child. I have been a worker and not a parent of special children, but I am a parent and have a special appreciation for what these parents go through. When they do it right like Jane and many more, it's especially enriching knowing them. These parents become just as special as their kids. But now, thanks to parents like Mary Jane, we can get a more complete picture of just how special their children are. Make no mistake about it, what we are learning through FC about consciousness and the human condition is equivalent to Copernicus' discovery of the Earth being round instead of flat. These special people have a very important function amongst us, and while Jane's son Charles doesn't flaunt it, you can assuredly hear it in his words. Think of this book as Rainman finally having a chance to talk.

This book is great. It shows most of the Peanuts strips for the year of 1992. It has some awesome strips, like the one where it shows Marcie without her glasses, something I had never seen before(her eyes look just like everybody else's). The only complaint that I have is that it doesn't show most of the Sunday strips in the year. But other than that, this book is a great collection for any Peanuts fan!

Another great collection of Peanuts strips. A single year's worth in a single volume. Hundreds of laughs that will tug your heart.

In this splendid volume historian Robert B. Partridge has done a wonderful service for students of the life of King Charles, martyr; particularly for those who continue to lament the impropriety of the dearth of appropriate memorials to Charles's memory. 'O Horrable Murder' serves to refresh the memory of experts, and provides useful background and context for those beginning to study his life and martyrdom.
Partridge begins with an accurate and compressed recounting of King Charles's life, then focuses on his imprisonment, last days, trial, execution, and burial. He is adept at synthesizing familiar material from secondary sources, but goes the extra mile correcting errors that have crept into the record by consulting primary sources. For those efforts alone Partridge is to be commended. But this book's primary strengths are the organization of familiar and new details about Charles's final resting place, and the stunning examples of the neglect he has suffered in death. This book provides valuable information for those who argue today for a more appropriate and larger shrine to his memory.
Partridge throughout keeps his sympathies well in check: his factual work is scrupulously accurate and fair. Not every detail selected or featured will please Royalists, and some of Partridge's historical analysis might be discussed with alternate views, but by and large he is an author that defends the martyr case and the cause of Charles's memory because he doesn't argue: he presents the facts.
Partridge's writing style is brief, clear, and clean, but most commendably he is a master of selecting details that give focus to the argument of the neglect of King Charles. Yet, the argument is not made explicitly, but rather by allusion. Partridge carefully details the initial actions of the interested parties in Charles's day that had neither the resources, nor the power, to provide him with a more suitable burial. He continues to recount the processes and delays for a Restoration memorial through the reigns of Charles II and James II. He then provides the most ironic section of the book, "1649 to 1813," detailing the long period of ignoring Charles. Partridge furthers the unstated argument by providing details of Charles's relics being displayed without piety but as a "curiosity." He then carefully and fully describes the standard treatment dead English Royalty ordinarily would be served. The contrast with Charles's treatment cries out from the vault of Saint George's Chapel at Windsor castle.
Partridge's strengths as a historian are evident throughout, but his work with neglected primary sources is the volume's real contribution. Chapter twelve for example is a transcription and comments on Sir Henry Halford's account of the exhumation of Charles in 1813, unearthed when workmen accidentally broke through the unmarked vault in St George's Chapel. The exhumation revealed how the body of the King had been prepared for burial, which enables a comparison to be made between his and other royal burials of this period and furthers the case for Charles's neglect. Halford discusses medical evidence from the king's body, and strikes a fine balance on including thorough pathological detail without descending to the ghoulish, however, this chapter safely can be skipped by those whose piety or other proclivities would prevent review.
Chapter thirteen contains perhaps the one disappointment of this book: Partridge provides information of how the martyred King's resting place finally came to be marked with a slab of black granite in 1837 by King William IV. The information, but not the story; as Partridge notes "Exactly why William IV decided to have the site marked may never be known." Well, readers want to know the story, and Partridge has done such an excellent job teasing out the telling detail, correcting the misleading error, and synthesizing the available information so far the reader is left curious as to why he stops on this subject.
'O Horrable Murder' includes for the first time in print a transcription of the Tuesday, December 13th, 1888 account "REPLACING OF RELICS in THE GRAVE OF CHARLES I."
In a sadly annoying conclusion he lauds as a fitting epitaph for the Martyr King the Puritan poet Andrew Marvell's well-known lines about Charles, in a poem otherwise glorifying Oliver Cromwell. Well it is not a fitting epitaph, not nearly adequate enough, as Partridge's whole own book makes all too clear.

Partridge includes several excellent additions to his main subject matter that further illuminate his focus and provide useful guides. "Principal Players" for example, is a collection of sketches of the figures involved in Charles's life, imprisonment, trial, execution and burial. "The Banqueting House and the Window Leading to the Scaffold" is the best treatment ever regarding the specific window Charles's used to ascend the scaffold and meet his maker. "Signatories to The Death Warrant of King Charles I" collects all the usual suspects in one quick reference, but sadly does not come as a perforated detachable page for use as a darts target.
"The Death of A Monarch" provides detail on English royal burial customs that preceded and followed the death of King Charles, martyr, and serves to accentuate the level of neglect and impropriety he suffered. Those who wish to avoid technical, medical, and clinical treatments of the dead would be advised to skip the first 23 paragraphs (until the middle of page 162) of this appendix, and then continue on with the fascinating details about coffin ornamentation for royalty, the construction of life-like funeral effigies, and elaborate temporary monuments.
Appendix IV provides an introduction to the activities of The Sealed Knot, of which Partridge is a leading member. "The Society stages a wide variety of seventeenth century historical military reenactments, throughout the length and breadth of Great Britain." Partridge notes that the modern society of The Sealed Knot is "non-political...and includes both Royalists and Parliamentarians within its ranks." Of course the members of the original society of The Sealed Knot were loyal Royalists who eventually succeeded in restoring Charles II to the throne, although not without their own martyrs along the way.
The book includes 58 rare and seldom available illustrations that contribute helpful detail, many the author's own competently executed pen and ink sketches made to amplify historical points in the text. Most startling is the cover, which on first glance appears to be a close up photograph of the face of King Charles. It isn't of course, but rather a "soft-focus" photograph of his wax likeness at the famous Madame Tussaud's of London.

In this splendid volume historian Robert B. Partridge has done a wonderful service for students of the life of King Charles, martyr; particularly for those who continue to lament the impropriety of the dearth of appropriate memorials to Charles's memory. 'O Horrable Murder' serves to refresh the memory of experts, and provides useful background and context for those beginning to study his life and martyrdom.
Partridge begins with an accurate and compressed recounting of King Charles's life, then focuses on his imprisonment, last days, trial, execution, and burial. He is adept at synthesizing familiar material from secondary sources, but goes the extra mile correcting errors that have crept into the record by consulting primary sources. For those efforts alone Partridge is to be commended. But this book's primary strengths are the organization of familiar and new details about Charles's final resting place, and the stunning examples of the neglect he has suffered in death. This book provides valuable information for those who argue today for a more appropriate and larger shrine to his memory.
Partridge throughout keeps his sympathies well in check: his factual work is scrupulously accurate and fair. Not every detail selected or featured will please Royalists, and some of Partridge's historical analysis might be discussed with alternate views, but by and large he is an author that defends the martyr case and the cause of Charles's memory because he doesn't argue: he presents the facts.
Partridge's writing style is brief, clear, and clean, but most commendably he is a master of selecting details that give focus to the argument of the neglect of King Charles. Yet, the argument is not made explicitly, but rather by allusion. Partridge carefully details the initial actions of the interested parties in Charles's day that had neither the resources, nor the power, to provide him with a more suitable burial. He continues to recount the processes and delays for a Restoration memorial through the reigns of Charles II and James II. He then provides the most ironic section of the book, "1649 to 1813," detailing the long period of ignoring Charles. Partridge furthers the unstated argument by providing details of Charles's relics being displayed without piety but as a "curiosity." He then carefully and fully describes the standard treatment dead English Royalty ordinarily would be served. The contrast with Charles's treatment cries out from the vault of Saint George's Chapel at Windsor castle.
Partridge's strengths as a historian are evident throughout, but his work with neglected primary sources is the volume's real contribution. Chapter twelve for example is a transcription and comments on Sir Henry Halford's account of the exhumation of Charles in 1813, unearthed when workmen accidentally broke through the unmarked vault in St George's Chapel. The exhumation revealed how the body of the King had been prepared for burial, which enables a comparison to be made between his and other royal burials of this period and furthers the case for Charles's neglect. Halford discusses medical evidence from the king's body, and strikes a fine balance on including thorough pathological detail without descending to the ghoulish, however, this chapter safely can be skipped by those whose piety or other proclivities would prevent review.
Chapter thirteen contains perhaps the one disappointment of this book: Partridge provides information of how the martyred King's resting place finally came to be marked with a slab of black granite in 1837 by King William IV. The information, but not the story; as Partridge notes "Exactly why William IV decided to have the site marked may never be known." Well, readers want to know the story, and Partridge has done such an excellent job teasing out the telling detail, correcting the misleading error, and synthesizing the available information so far the reader is left curious as to why he stops on this subject.
'O Horrable Murder' includes for the first time in print a transcription of the Tuesday, December 13th, 1888 account "REPLACING OF RELICS in THE GRAVE OF CHARLES I."
In a sadly annoying conclusion he lauds as a fitting epitaph for the Martyr King the Puritan poet Andrew Marvell's well-known lines about Charles, in a poem otherwise glorifying Oliver Cromwell. Well it is not a fitting epitaph, not nearly adequate enough, as Partridge's whole own book makes all too clear.
Partridge includes several excellent additions to his main subject matter that further illuminate his focus and provide useful guides. "Principal Players" for example, is a collection of sketches of the figures involved in Charles's life, imprisonment, trial, execution and burial. "The Banqueting House and the Window Leading to the Scaffold" is the best treatment ever regarding the specific window Charles's used to ascend the scaffold and meet his maker. "Signatories to The Death Warrant of King Charles I" collects all the usual suspects in one quick reference, but sadly does not come as a perforated detachable page for use as a darts target.
"The Death of A Monarch" provides detail on English royal burial customs that preceded and followed the death of King Charles, martyr, and serves to accentuate the level of neglect and impropriety he suffered. Those who wish to avoid technical, medical, and clinical treatments of the dead would be advised to skip the first 23 paragraphs (until the middle of page 162) of this appendix, and then continue on with the fascinating details about coffin ornamentation for royalty, the construction of life-like funeral effigies, and elaborate temporary monuments.
Appendix IV provides an introduction to the activities of The Sealed Knot, of which Partridge is a leading member. "The Society stages a wide variety of seventeenth century historical military reenactments, throughout the length and breadth of Great Britain." Partridge notes that the modern society of The Sealed Knot is "non-political...and includes both Royalists and Parliamentarians within its ranks." Of course the members of the original society of The Sealed Knot were loyal Royalists who eventually succeeded in restoring Charles II to the throne, although not without their own martyrs along the way.
The book includes 58 rare and seldom available illustrations that contribute helpful detail, many the author's own competently executed pen and ink sketches made to amplify historical points in the text. Most startling is the cover, which on first glance appears to be a close up photograph of the face of King Charles. It isn't of course, but rather a "soft-focus" photograph of his wax likeness at the famous Madame Tussaud's of London.
The Bibliography contains the usual secondary sources familiar to students of the English Civil Wars, however he also includes primary source surprises such as King Charles I, his Death, his Funeral, his Relics, by Edmund H. Fellows (Windsor Castle, 1950), and Essays and Orations, including An account of the opening of the Tomb of King Charles I, by Sir Henry Halford (John Murray, 1831). The index is quite good, but not exhaustive, and further editions would need improvement as it covers proper names only and excludes topics and subjects.
'O Horrable Murder' is printed by a very small London-based press, which no doubt accounts for its rather dear price. However, the material Partridge has sifted through, the detail he provides, and his particular focus makes it worthwhile to acquire.

Mr. Mee is a fantastic writer. As another reviewer remarked, Mr. Mee definitely brings history to life. The meetings described in this book make for great, enticing reading material for junior high school on up.

Mr. Mee is an excellent writer and truely brings history to life. I recommend this book to anybody that wants more than "light reading", has an interest in human-kind and is not a real history buff.