Thomas Harding

It is a tale that is rarely told, of an immigrant family's journey from rags to riches: the story of the British Dream.Legacy charts the rise and fall of one of the most influential dynasties in British history through the lives of five astonishing generations, bound together by an unbreakable code.

On 14 June 2006, police were called to 9 Downshire Hill in Hampstead. The owner, Allan Chappelow, was a writer and notorious recluse who had not been seen for several weeks. Inside the darkened house, officers found piles of rubbish, trees growing through the floor, and the body of Chappelow, battered to death, partially burned and buried under four feet of paper.The man eventually arrested on suspicion of his murder was a Chinese dissident named Wang Yam, who claimed to be the grandson of one of Mao's closest aides. His trial was the first in modern British history to be held `in camera': closed, carefully controlled, secret. Wang Yam was found guilty, but has always protested his innocence. Did Wang Yam do it? Or was he framed for a crime he didn't commit? When everything is hidden, how do we know what's really true?

Longlisted for the Orwell Prize Named a Best Book of the Year by The Times (London), New Statesman (London), Daily Express (London), and Commonweal MagazineIn the summer of 1993, Thomas Harding traveled to Germany with his grandmother to visit a small house by a lake on the outskirts of Berlin. It had been a holiday home for her and her family, but in the 1930s, she had been forced to flee to England as the Nazis swept to power. Nearly twenty years later, the house was government property and soon to be demolished. It was Harding's legacy, one that had been loved, abandoned, fought over--a house his grandmother had desired until her death. Could it be saved? And should it? When Harding began to make inquiries, he unearthed secrets that had lain hidden for decades about the lives of the five families who had lived there: a wealthy landowner, a prosperous Jewish family, a renowned composer, a widow and her children, and a Stasi informant. The house had been the site of domestic bliss and of contentment, but also of terrible grief and tragedy. As its story began to take shape, Harding realized that there was a chance to save it, but in doing so, he would have to resolve his own family's feelings towards their former homeland--and a hatred handed down through the generations.

In July 2012, Thomas Harding's fourteen-year-old son Kadian was killed in a bicycle accident. Shortly afterwards Thomas began to write. This book is the result. Beginning on the day of Kadian's death, and continuing to the one-year anniversary, and beyond, Kadian Journal is a record of grief in its rawest form, and of a mind in shock and questioning a strange new reality. Interspersed within the journal are fragments of memory: jewel-bright everyday moments that slowly combine to form a biography of a lost son, and a lost life. Kadian Journal is a document of startling bravery and candour--a description of a family dislocated and united by tragedy, and a beautiful and moving tribute to a son.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD 2015LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2016A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK'A superb portrait of twentieth century Germany seen through the prism of a house which was lived in, and lost, by five different families.

In July 2012 Thomas Harding's fourteen-year-old son Kadian was killed in a bicycle accident.

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER The "compelling," untold story of the man who captured and brought to trial Rudolf H ss--one of Nazi Germany's most notorious war criminals and subject of the Oscar-nominated film The Zone of Interest--"fascinates and shocks" (The Washington Post). May 1945. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the first British War Crimes Investigation Team is assembled to hunt down the senior Nazi officials responsible for the greatest atrocities the world has ever seen. One of the lead investigators is Lieutenant Hanns Alexander, a German Jew who is now serving in the British Army. Rudolf H ss is his most elusive target. As Kommandant of Auschwitz, H ss not only oversaw the murder of more than one million men, women, and children; he was the man who perfected Hitler's program of mass extermination. H ss is on the run across a continent in ruins, the one man whose testimony can ensure justice at Nuremberg. Hanns and Rudolf reveals for the very first time the full, exhilarating account of H ss's capture, an encounter with repercussions that echo to this day. Moving from the Middle Eastern campaigns of World War I to bohemian Berlin in the 1920s to the horror of the concentration camps and the trials in Belsen and Nuremberg, it tells the story of two German men--one Jewish, one Catholic--whose lives diverged, and intersected, in an astonishing way. This is "one of those true stories that illuminates a small justice in the aftermath of the Holocaust, an event so huge and heinous that there can be no ultimate justice" (New York Daily News).

Moving from the Middle-Eastern campaigns of the First World War to bohemian Berlin in the 1920s, to the horror of the concentration camps and the trials in Belsen and Nuremberg, this book tells the story of two German men whose lives diverged, and intersected, in an unusual way.

'The global protest movement is growing because activists are learning to tell their own stories, to capture their triumphs on tape, and share them with others around the world. This book is about media that doesn't just cover activism, it is activism, a crucial part of the process of reclaiming public space and communities.' Naomi Klein, author of No Logo 'Crucially, Harding covers not just the 'hows' and 'whats' of vid-activism, but also the vital 'why' question. Why do it? Because this is about democracy and empowerment. Vid-activism is about circumventing the hopeless conventionality, commercialism and conservatism of the mainstream media ...Buy it. Read it. Act on it. Your world will never be the same again.' Charles Secrett, Director, Friends of the Earth This second edition of the highly popular The Video Activist Handbook includes numerous examples of contemporary video activism from around the world. The first book to provide the basic skills and know-how required for beginning video activism, it also offers a wealth of ideas on video strategies to those with some prior experience. Whether you are involved in campaigning, non-violent direct action, or simply want to know how to make use of video as a political tool, this book is for you. * Covers the key topics in a step-by-step guide - from choosing and using the right equipment and planning when and where to shoot, to supplying to TV, making a campaign video and legal considerations * Combines clearly written and illustrated practical advice, backed up by a wealth of resources, with first-hand examples of successful video activism * Critically assesses the mainstream media agendas and offers a lively survey of the international video activist scene