Books with author John Kelly

La moria grandissima began its terrible journey across the European and Asian continents in 1347, leaving unimaginable devastation in its wake. Five years later, twenty-five million people were dead, felled by the scourge that would come to be called the Black Death. The Great Mortality is the extraordinary epic account of the worst natural disaster in European history -- a drama of courage, cowardice, misery, madness, and sacrifice that brilliantly illuminates humankind's darkest days when an old world ended and a new world was born.

A magisterial account of one of the worst disasters to strike humankind--the Great Irish Potato Famine--conveyed as lyrical narrative history from the acclaimed author of The Great MortalityIn this masterful, comprehensive account of the Irish Potato Famine, delivered with novelistic flair, Kelly gives us not only the startling facts of this disaster--one of the worst to strike mankind, killing twice as many lives as the American Civil War--but examines the intersection of political greed, bacterial infection, religious intolerance, and racism that made it possible. Kelly brings new material to his analysis of relevant political factors during the years leading up to the famine, and the extent to which Britain's nation-building policies exacerbated the mounting crisis. Despite the shocking, infuriating implications of his findings, The Graves Are Walking is ultimately a story of triumph--of one people's ability to remake themselves in a new land in the face of the unthinkable.

WARNING! THIS IS AN EMERGENCY. There's been a major Q-T incident reported in Cringetown – we need the monster doctor, stat!Q-Ts are highly dangerous to all monsters – they have huge eyes, tiny noses, squeaky high-pitched voices and are covered in a disgustingly soft fur-like material. Physical contact with these revolting creatures is to be avoided AT ALL COSTS! Ozzy is an ordinary human – an unusual trait for a monster doctor in training! – and he can't understand why monsters are so scared of these Q-Ts. So when the doctor receives a desperate phone call reporting a Q-T sighting, she and Ozzy race to save the horrible creature before the abominable Inspector Pincher arrives . . .Monster Doctor: Revolting Rescue is the second in a howlingly hilarious series of monster adventures from John Kelly that will have you laughing your head off . . . literally.

A magisterial account of one of the worst disasters to strike humankind--the Great Irish Potato Famine--conveyed as lyrical narrative history from the acclaimed author of The Great MortalityDeeply researched, compelling in its details, and startling in its conclusions about the appalling decisions behind a tragedy of epic proportions, John Kelly's retelling of the awful story of Ireland's great hunger will resonate today as history that speaks to our own times.It started in 1845 and before it was over more than one million men, women, and children would die and another two million would flee the country. Measured in terms of mortality, the Great Irish Potato Famine was the worst disaster in the nineteenth century--it claimed twice as many lives as the American Civil War. A perfect storm of bacterial infection, political greed, and religious intolerance sparked this catastrophe. But even more extraordinary than its scope were its political underpinnings, and The Graves Are Walking provides fresh material and analysis on the role that Britain's nation-building policies played in exacerbating the devastation by attempting to use the famine to reshape Irish society and character. Religious dogma, anti-relief sentiment, and racial and political ideology combined to result in an almost inconceivable disaster of human suffering. This is ultimately a story of triumph over perceived destiny: for fifty million Americans of Irish heritage, the saga of a broken people fleeing crushing starvation and remaking themselves in a new land is an inspiring story of revival. Based on extensive research and written with novelistic flair, The Graves Are Walking draws a portrait that is both intimate and panoramic, that captures the drama of individual lives caught up in an unimaginable tragedy, while imparting a new understanding of the famine's causes and consequences.

Ivy Pocket is a twelve-year-old maid of no importance, with a very lofty opinion of herself. Dumped in Paris by the Countess Carbunkle, who would rather run away to South America than continue in Ivy's companionship, our young heroine (of sorts) finds herself with no money and no home to go to ... until she is summoned to the bedside of the dying Duchess of Trinity. For the princely sum of £500 (enough to buy a carriage, and possibly a monkey), Ivy agrees to courier the Duchess's most precious possession – the Clock Diamond – to England, and to put it around the neck of the revolting Matilda Butterfield on her twelfth birthday. It's not long before Ivy finds herself at the heart of a conspiracy involving mischief, mayhem and murder.Illustrated in humorous gothic detail by John Kelly, Anyone But Ivy Pocket is just the beginning of one girl's deadly comic journey to discover who she really is ...

The pig lives all alone in a house on top of a hill. He's very happy with his quiet life. He has his books, his tidy tidy house and a lovely view. Until one morning he opens the curtains to find a duck has taken up residence on the tiny pinnacle of rock outside his window. Much to the pigs annoyance the excessively friendly duck likes the spot and decides to build a house there. With a swimming pool. And a garden and patio. The duck tries to be friendly. He's very confident and outgoing. It seems he's been everywhere (unlike the pig), done everything; skiing, mountain climbing, parachuting, scuba-diving, even brain surgery. The pig just wants to be left alone. Eventually, after a particularly loud party, the pig shouts at the duck, and the next morning finds a note pinned to the duck's front door. It reads: GONE AWAY. At first the pig is pleased. But gradually realises that his life without the duck is quiet and slightly dull. He comes to miss the duck and regrets rejecting him. One day there is a knock on the door and the pig opens it to find the duck wearing a som- brero and carrying a pinata. He'd only been on holiday in the South. He does it every year. Maybe next year the pig will join him.

The link between animal protein and cancer became global news with the publication of an international lab study a decade ago. The facts were startling: a diet rich in animal and dairy products was shown to stimulate cancer cell growth. But the conventional medical institutions apparently overlooked the obvious. Counteracting the disease by promoting an animal-protein-free diet could be a revolutionary step in cancer recovery. One visionary Dublin doctor chose to investigate the realities of the alternative approach to cancer treatment in a trial conducted with his own patients. What he learned may change our view of cancer forever.

Learn about Quack Quack, Billy Bunny, Sammy Squirrel, and Tommy Dormouse, four animal friends who do everything together. They get up to all sorts of adventures, but this first story introduces you to the boys and their habitat, where they live - on the pond, in the meadow, and in the woods. There are more friends who will be introduced in later stories.Those who grew up experiencing the countryside will love remembering some of the things you used to get up to as the animals repeat those experiences.The story is related by a grandfather to his grandchildren, Syd and Leila, at bedtime. Sound familiar?Read on....

The Irish famine that began in 1845 was one of the nineteenth century's greatest disasters. By its end, the island's population of eight million had shrunk by a third through starvation, disease and emigration. This is a brilliant, compassionate retelling of that awful story for a new generation - the first account for the general reader for many years and a triumphant example of narrative non-fiction at its best.The immediate cause of the famine was a bacterial infection of the potato crop on which too many the Irish poor depended. What turned a natural disaster into a human disaster was the determination of senior British officials to use relief policy as an instrument of nation-building in their oldest and most recalcitrant colony. Well-meaning civil servants were eager to modernise Irish agriculture and to improve the Irish moral character, which was utterly lacking in the virtues of the new age of triumphant capitalism. The result was a relief programme more concerned with fostering change than of saving lives.This is history that resonates powerfully with our own times.