"What would happen, I wonder, if the Armies suddenly and simultaneously went on strike and said some other method must be found of settling the dispute?" --Winston Churchill, November 1914 This much, at least, is true: In December of 1914, soldiers along the battlefront laid down their arms and observed a Christmastime truce. That much is true. They buried their dead, sang and drank together, roasted pigs and rabbits they had caught, and had bicycle races. And there was more than one football game. The first part of The Christmas Mutiny is as close as I can manage to what really happened, allowing for dramatic license. I wanted to have a diverse cast of young characters, so I allowed an American pilot to be forced down near the front, a Turkish observer to be present among the Germans, and so on – they weren’t there, but they could have been. The second part of the book is something very different. It tells a story of what might have happened. It’s not the only way things might have happened, and maybe I’m wrong and it couldn’t possibly have happened the way I describe. You may certainly feel free to disagree. If you feel so strongly that you want to write your own version, I’d be very happy to read it.

From the manger of Jesus Christ to the 21st century, this encyclopedia explores more than 2,000 years of Christmas past and present through 966 entries packed with a wide variety of historical and pop-culture subjects. Entries detail customs and traditions from around the world as well as classic Christmas movies, TV series/specials and animated cartoons. Arranged alphabetically by entry name, the book includes the historical background of popular sacred and secular songs as well as accounts of beloved literary works with Christmas themes from such noted authors as Charles Dickens, Louisa May Alcott, Hans Christian Andersen, Pearl Buck, Henry Van Dyke and others. All things Christmas are available here in one comprehensive volume.

Whenever leadership emerges within a group, there will be resistance to that leadership. Discontent may manifest in a number of ways, and action will always be determined by factors such as resource, numbers, time, space, and the legitimacy of the resistance. What, then, turns discontent into mutiny? Mutiny is often associated with the occasional mis-leadership of the masses by politically inspired hotheads, or a spontaneous and unusually romantic gesture of defiance against a uniquely overbearing military superior. In reality it is seldom either and usually has far more mundane origins, not in the absolute poverty of the subordinates but in the relative poverty of the relationships between leaders and the led in a military situation. The roots of mutiny lie in the leadership skills of a small number of leaders, and what transforms that into a constructive dialogue, or a catastrophic disaster, depends on how the leaders of both sides mobilise their supporters and their networks. Using contemporary leadership theory to cast a critical light on an array of mutinies throughout history, this book suggests we consider mutiny as a permanent possibility that is further encouraged or discouraged in some contexts. From mutinies in ancient Roman and Greek armies to those that toppled the German and Russian states and forced governments to face their own disastrous policies and changed them forever, this book covers an array of cases across land, sea, and air that still pose a threat to military establishments today. The critical theoretical line also puts into sharp relief the assumption that oftentimes people have little choice in how they respond to circumstances not of their own making. If mutineers could choose to resist what they saw as tyranny, then so can we.

For its British population, the India that swelters in the late spring of 1857 is a place of amateur theatricals, horseracing and flirtations under the aegis of the omnipotent East India company. But a brutal awakening lies in store for the complacent British: one May night, after thirty years of abuse, the East India Company's native soldiers rise up against their British officers. Thus begins the most savage episode in our imperial history. Caught up in the violence is pretty Sophie Hardcastle, a young wife and mother newly arrived from England. As she searches for her infant son, missing in the chaos, Sophie finds herself bearing witness to atrocities on both sides. Moving, sombre and thrilling, Rathbone's tale is told on a grand scale, ranging from the Cannings in Government House to the heroism of the humblest soldiers and peasants. It is as exhilarating as any Victorian adventure story, and yet, with its unflinching examination of religious fanaticism and the horrors of war, THE MUTINY also carries a powerful message for the modern world.

Jannaway's Mutiny is a novel of love and tragedy that reveals the secret causes of the British Navy's most catastrophic mutiny. In September 1931, the sailors of the Royal Navy's Atlantic Fleet staged a mass mutiny at Invergordon, Scotland. In this historical fiction account, Charles Gidley Wheeler tells the life story of Frank Jannaway, a British sailor who finds himself at the focus of the mutiny. Sent into the Navy against his will, Frank experiences the hardship and injustice of life on the lower deck aboard a coal-burning cruiser on the China Station. After serving with distinction at the Battle of Jutland, Frank reunites with Anita Yarrow, whom he has known since his youth, and who has been sent to Malta in disgrace. Anita helps Frank, her childhood hero, to gain promotion to officer rank. Years later, when Anita's brother, Roddy Yarrow, is bullying his officers aboard a cruiser of the Atlantic Fleet, Frank Jannaway is appointed to his ship. The result is tragedy. Encompassing an era from the Edwardian Golden Age to wartime Britain in the blitz, Jannaway's Mutiny paints a vivid picture of love, ambition, self-sacrifice and heroism--and of the part that captains and admirals of the Royal Navy played in ringing down the final curtain on the British Empire.

The Bounty Trilogy is a book comprising three novels by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. It relates events prior to, during and subsequent to the Mutiny on the Bounty. "Mutiny on the Bounty" is novel based on the mutiny against Lieutenant William Bligh, commanding officer of the HMS Bounty in 1789. It tells the story through a fictional first-person narrator by the name of Roger Byam, based on a crew member Peter Heywood. HMS Bounty was on a voyage to Tahiti for breadfruit plants and some of the crew members were complaining about Lieutenant William Bligh's harsh treatment. The mutiny broke out under the leadership of Fletcher Christian, master's mate on the ship. Mutineers set Bligh afloat in a small boat with members of the crew loyal to him. Byam, although not one of the mutineers, remained with the Bounty after the mutiny. Mutineers continued to sail on the Bounty, looking for a place build a colony, conflicting with natives. "Men Against the Sea" follows the journey of Lieutenant William Bligh and the eighteen men set adrift in an open boat by the mutineers of the Bounty. The story is told from the perspective of Thomas Ledward, the Bounty's acting surgeon, who went into the ship's launch with Bligh. It begins after the main events described in the novel and then moves into a flashback, finishing at the starting point. "Pitcairn's Island" – After two unsuccessful attempts to settle on the island of Tubuai, the Bounty mutineers returned to Tahiti where they parted company. Fletcher Christian and eight of his men, together with eighteen Polynesians, sailed from Tahiti in September 1789, and for a period of eighteen years nothing was heard of them. Then, in 1808, the American sailing vessel Topaz discovered a thriving community of mixed blood on Pitcairn Island under the rule of Alexander Smith.

If one must flirt...flirt with danger. Lessons in the art of espionage aboard Mademoiselle Geraldine's floating dirigible have become quite tedious without Sophronia's sweet sootie Soap nearby. She would much rather be using her skills to thwart the dastardly Picklemen, but her concerns about their wicked intentions are ignored, and now she's not sure whom to trust. What does the brusque werewolf dewan know? On whose side is the ever-stylish vampire Lord Akeldama? Only one thing is certain: a large-scale plot is under way, and when it comes to fruition, Sophronia must be ready to save her friends, her school, and all of London from disaster--in decidedly dramatic fashion, of course. What will become of our proper young heroine when she puts her years of training to the test? Find out in this highly anticipated and thrilling conclusion to the New York Times bestselling Finishing School series!

Two absolute strangers, Andoni a young Spaniard and Howard an aging American join forces to cross the Atlantic on a 34-foot sloop. All they have in common is love of the sea. Language, customs, habits, traditions and ethics all influence the final understanding of what may be a request, an instruction or an order. Determining the difference between them depends on the context, the circumstances and who is on either end of the communications link. When is it correct for a crewmember to disobey an order from his Skipper? How far does the Captain's authority reach and who is ultimately responsible if blind obedience to an order that is poorly phrased, incomplete or just plain wrong were to place the ship in danger? The mutiny aboard the USS Caine is fiction but what happened aboard HMS Bounty is sadly true. How this ocean passage began, what occurred during the 46 days at sea and how it ends makes for an interesting tale.