{"title":"Diana Preston","description":"\u003cp\u003eDiana Preston’s works offer richly detailed explorations of historical figures and pivotal moments, weaving biography with vivid narrative. From the intellectual fervour surrounding Charles Darwin to the tense diplomatic exchanges at Yalta, her writing captures the drama and complexity of history with clarity and insight.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eReaders can expect compelling journeys through travel and adventure, as well as nuanced perspectives on science and nature. Preston’s storytelling brings the past to life, blending meticulous research with engaging prose that appeals to both history enthusiasts and curious minds alike.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"a-pirate-of-exquisite-mind-by-diana-preston-9780552772105","title":"A Pirate Of Exquisite Mind","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA rip-roaring swashbuckler about a forgotten 17th century English hero who, starting as a poor, piratical buccaneer, became a famed round-the-world explorer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eWilliam Dampier\u003c\/i\u003e (1651-1715), was an English adventurer and pirate who preyed on ships on the Spanish Main. Poor and ill-educated and determined to make his fortune, he nonetheless had a passion for exploration and scientific research.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDampier was the first to map the winds and currents of the world's oceans; led the first recorded party of Englishmen to set foot on Australia—80 years before Cook; wrote about Galapagos wildlife 150 years before Darwin, who drew on Dampier's notes in his own work. He was the first travel writer— \u003ci\u003eA New Voyage Around the World\u003c\/i\u003e was an instant bestseller when it was published in 1697—and is said to have influenced the novels of Swift and Defoe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA man full of contradictions, this adventurer who achieved so much 'blew it' later in life, declining into scandal, failure and even farce. A unique man ahead of his time, he lived a large part of his life among pirates yet managed to preserve what Coleridge called his \"exquisite refinement of mind.\" \u003ci\u003eA Pirate Of Exquisite Mind\u003c\/i\u003e is a classic example of the best narrative history.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46369950859500,"sku":"9780552772105","price":27.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/21997693482384.jpg?v=1744800481"},{"product_id":"the-evolution-of-charles-darwin-by-diana-preston-9780802160188","title":"The Evolution of Charles Darwin","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e Book Prize-winning historian, the colourful, dramatic story of Charles Darwin's journey on HMS \u003ci\u003eBeagle\u003c\/i\u003e that inspired the evolutionary theories in his path-breaking books \u003cem\u003eOn the Origin of Species\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Descent of Man.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhen twenty-two-year-old aspiring geologist Charles Darwin boarded HMS \u003ci\u003eBeagle\u003c\/i\u003e in 1831 with his microscopes and specimen bottles—invited by the ship's captain Robert FitzRoy, who wanted a travel companion at least as much as a ship's naturalist—he hardly thought he was embarking on what would become perhaps the most important and epoch-changing voyage in scientific history. Nonetheless, over the course of the five-year journey around the globe in often hard and hazardous conditions, Darwin would make observations and gather samples that would form the basis of his revolutionary theories about the origin of species and natural selection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing on a rich range of revealing letters, diary entries, recollections of those who encountered him, and Darwin's and FitzRoy's own accounts of what transpired, Diana Preston chronicles the epic voyage as it unfolded, tracing Darwin's growth from untested young man to accomplished adventurer and natural scientist in his own right. Darwin often left the ship to climb mountains, navigate rivers, or ride hundreds of miles, accompanied by local guides whose languages he barely understood, across pampas and through rainforests in search of further unique specimens. From the wilds of Patagonia to the Galápagos and other Atlantic and Pacific islands, as Preston vibrantly relates, Darwin collected and contrasted volcanic rocks and fossils large and small, witnessed an earthquake, and encountered the Argentinian rhea, Falklands fox, and Galápagos finch, through which he began to discern connections between deep past and present.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDarwin never left Britain again after his return in 1836, though his mind journeyed far and wide to develop the theories that were first revealed, after great delay and with trepidation about their reception, in 1859 with the publication of his epochal book \u003cem\u003eOn the Origin of Species\u003c\/em\u003e. Offering a unique portrait of one of history's most consequential figures, \u003ci\u003eThe Evolution of Charles Darwin\u003c\/i\u003e is a vital contribution to our understanding of life on Earth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47487592661228,"sku":"9780802160188","price":64.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/6e94415409f2833ff6de2ca997165cdd.jpg?v=1775773056"},{"product_id":"the-evolution-of-charles-darwin-by-diana-preston-9780802161222","title":"The Evolution of Charles Darwin","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom the \u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e Book Prize-winning historian, the colourful, dramatic story of Charles Darwin's journey on HMS \u003ci\u003eBeagle\u003c\/i\u003e that inspired the evolutionary theories in his path-breaking books \u003ci\u003eOn the Origin of Species\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Descent of Man\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhen twenty-two-year-old aspiring geologist Charles Darwin boarded HMS \u003ci\u003eBeagle\u003c\/i\u003e in 1831 with his microscopes and specimen bottles—invited by ship's captain Robert FitzRoy, who wanted a travel companion at least as much as a ship's naturalist—he hardly thought he was embarking on what would become perhaps the most important and epoch-changing voyage in scientific history. Nonetheless, over the course of the five-year journey around the globe in often hard and hazardous conditions, Darwin would make observations and gather samples that would form the basis of his revolutionary theories about the origin of species and natural selection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing on a rich range of revealing letters, diary entries, recollections of those who encountered him, and Darwin's and FitzRoy's own accounts of what transpired, Diana Preston chronicles the epic voyage as it unfolded, tracing Darwin's growth from untested young man to accomplished adventurer and natural scientist in his own right. Darwin often left the ship to climb mountains, navigate rivers, or ride hundreds of miles, accompanied by local guides whose languages he barely understood, across pampas and through rainforests in search of further unique specimens. From the wilds of Patagonia to the Galápagos and other Atlantic and Pacific islands, as Preston vibrantly relates, Darwin collected and contrasted volcanic rocks and fossils large and small, witnessed an earthquake, and encountered the Argentinian rhea, Falklands fox, and Galápagos finch, through which he began to discern connections between deep past and present.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDarwin never left Britain again after his return in 1836, though his mind journeyed far and wide to develop the theories that were first revealed, after great delay and with trepidation about their reception, in 1859 with the publication of his epochal book \u003ci\u003eOn the Origin of Species\u003c\/i\u003e. Offering a unique portrait of one of history's most consequential figures, \u003ci\u003eThe Evolution of Charles Darwin\u003c\/i\u003e is a vital contribution to our understanding of life on Earth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47487592726764,"sku":"9780802161222","price":52.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/4992cab9e075935a269ca6cd2282e3b9.jpg?v=1775773051"},{"product_id":"eight-days-at-yalta-by-diana-preston-9781509868773","title":"Eight Days at Yalta","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMeticulously researched and vividly written, \u003cem\u003eEight Days at Yalta\u003c\/em\u003e is a remarkable work of intense historical drama.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the last winter of the Second World War, Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin arrived in the Crimean resort of Yalta. Over eight days of bargaining, bombast, and intermittent bonhomie, they decided on the conduct of the final stages of the war against Germany, on how a defeated and occupied Germany should be governed, on the constitution of the nascent United Nations, and on spheres of influence in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and Greece.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOnly three months later, less than a week after the German surrender, Roosevelt was dead and Churchill was writing to the new President, Harry S. Truman, of 'an iron curtain' that was now 'drawn down upon [the Soviets'] front'.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDiana Preston chronicles eight days that created the post-war world, revealing Roosevelt's determination to bring about the dissolution of the British Empire and Churchill's conviction that he and the dying President would run rings round the Soviet premier. But Stalin monitored everything they said and made only paper concessions, while his territorial ambitions would soon result in the imposition of Communism throughout Eastern Europe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Macmillan Publishers New Zealand Ltd","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48241160847596,"sku":"9781509868773","price":34.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781509868773-eight-days-at-yalta-1.jpg?v=1787935162"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/diana-preston.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}