Böcker av Stephen Bates

englisch/spanisch (spanischer Text in eingelegtem Booklet)Deutscher Text als Download verfügbarEnglish/Spanish (Spanish in an inserted booklet)Text in German available for download

This is a story of ambition, deceit, venom and what turned out to be very expensive skulduggery.It depicts a major story that has rumbled on in the press since 2018, about the scandal surrounding the attempt by his College to remove and sack the Very Reverend Dr Martyn Percy, the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. At one level this reads like a very pacey crime novel - packed with detail which most people will deem unbelievable. The College spent £2.5 million on legal costs and in addition had to pay Percy £1.5 million in damages on top of Percy's own legal costs. The Charity Commission was called in, as were two High Court Judges and finally the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. This is a story that has to be told for the public good because the episode is symptomatic of something rotten in the English establishment with consequences for the Church and State as a whole. Dr Percy has survived this dreadful episode with fortitude and astonishing courage. The inner circle at Christ Church who wanted him removed included two Professors of Divinity no less, but the accusations that publicly flew around about Percy are truly shocking - insanity, sexual misdemeanours and pilfering money for a start.Here is the true story of this episode, written by a top Times journalist, with the full cooperation of the Dean.

The story behind the 1940s Commission on Freedom of the Press--groundbreaking then, timelier than ever now

A set of antique photographic plates is the key to uncovering hidden truths of the Civil War, Great Depression, and 9/11 eras in this ';unflinching' novel (Publishers Weekly). A teenage boy and his grandfather travel across America to attend that last great reunion of Civil War veterans at Gettysburg in 1938, where secrets and lies are revealed about the old man's past. Perhaps he was not the hero his grandson thought, but he still has a valuable treasure to reveal, which will shed intriguing light on the war and his part in it. Interweaving three periods of crisis in American historythe Civil War, the Depression, and 9/11The Photographer's Boy explores the power of photography and journalism to inform or mislead; raises questions about love; and offers ';an unflinching but sympathetic, often touching, look at the comforting fictions people wrap themselves in to protect themselves from the cold of reality' (Publishers Weekly).

Asquith's administration laid the foundation of Britain's welfare state, but he was plunged into a major power struggle with the House of Lords. Asquith was Prime Minister on the outbreak of World War I, but his government fell in 1916 as a result of the 'Shells Scandal'.

In answering this question, Stephen Bates will show that unity has been coveted by some above integrity, and has been the cause of vicious infighting and internal politics. In the run-up to publication of A Church At War the author will be in the front line, as he files regular reports on the twists and turns of battle.