Wilful Murder: The Sinking Of The Lusitania

Description

The most comprehensive book to date to explore the tragedy of the sinking of the Lusitania. On May 7th, 1915 a passenger ship crossing the Atlantic sank with the loss of 1200 lives. On board were some world-famous figures, including multimillionaire Alfred Vanderbilt. But this wasn't the Titanic and there was no iceberg. The liner was the Lusitania and it was torpedoed by a German U-boat. Wilful Murder is the hugely compelling story of the sinking of the Lusitania. The first book to look at the events in their full historical context, it is also the first to place the human dimension at its heart. Using first-hand accounts of the tragedy Diana Preston brings the characters to life, recreating the splendour of the liner as it set sail and the horror of its final moments. Using British, American and German research material she answers many of the unanswered and controversial questions surrounding the Lusitania- why didn't Cunard listen to warnings that the ship would be a target of the Germans? Was the Lusitania sacrificed to bring the Americans into the War? What was really in the Lusitania's hold? Was she armed? Had Cunard's offices been infiltrated by German agents? And did the Kaiser's decision to cease unrestricted U-boat warfare in response to international outrage expressed after the sinking effectively change the outcome of the First World War? Highly readable, highly researched Wilful Murder casts dramatic new light on one of the world's most famous maritime disasters.

Diana Preston is an Oxford-trained historian, writer, and broadcaster who lives in London. She is the author of several books, including THE ROAD TO CULLODEN MOOR; A FIRST RATE TRAGEDY- ROBERT FALCON SCOTT AND THE RACE TO THE SOUTH POLE; THE BOXER REBELLION, BEFORE THE FALL-OUT and WILFUL MURDER- THE SINKING OF THE LUSITANIA. Michael Preston, Diana Preston's husband, read English at Oxford University and is now an historian and traveller.

'The most comprehensive and accessible account of the sinking there has been or perhaps will be' -- Alan Judd * Sunday Telegraph * 'Sets a standard which other books have not achieved' * Irish Independent * 'A fitting monument to a multiudinous loss' -- John Updike * New Yorker * 'It is not easy, nowadays, to write an original book on the first world war...but Preston has succeeded' -- Norman Stone * The Sunday Times * 'A book as majestic as its subject. Preston is a consumate popular historian and a stylish and elegant writer' * Chicago Sun-Times *