Confidence Men
How Two Prisoners of War Engineered the Most Remarkable Escape in History
«Margalit Fox is one of the premier narrative storytellers we have today, and The Confidence Men is a wonderfully entertaining brew of history, thrills, and ingenuity, one that highlights the rare occasion when con artistry is employed for the greater public good»
Sarah Weinman, author of The Real Lolita and editor of Unspeakable Acts: True Tales of Crime, Murder
Imprisoned in a remote Turkish POW camp during the First World War, two British officers, Harry Jones and Cedric Hill, cunningly join forces. To stave off boredom, Jones makes a handmade Ouija board and holds fake séances for fellow prisoners. Les mer
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Imprisoned in a remote Turkish POW camp during the First World War, two British officers, Harry Jones and Cedric Hill, cunningly join forces. To stave off boredom, Jones makes a handmade Ouija board and holds fake séances for fellow prisoners. One day, an Ottoman official approaches him with a query: could Jones contact the spirits to find a vast treasure rumoured to be buried nearby? Jones, a lawyer, and Hill, a magician, use the Ouija board - and their keen understanding of the psychology of deception-to build a trap for their captors that will lead them to freedom.
The Confidence Men is a nonfiction thriller featuring strategy, mortal danger and even high farce - and chronicles a profound but unlikely friendship.
The Confidence Men is a nonfiction thriller featuring strategy, mortal danger and even high farce - and chronicles a profound but unlikely friendship.
Detaljer
- Forlag
- Profile Books Ltd
- Innbinding
- Paperback
- Språk
- Engelsk
- Sider
- 352
- ISBN
- 9781788162722
- Utgivelsesår
- 2022
- Format
- 20 x 13 cm
Anmeldelser
«Margalit Fox is one of the premier narrative storytellers we have today, and The Confidence Men is a wonderfully entertaining brew of history, thrills, and ingenuity, one that highlights the rare occasion when con artistry is employed for the greater public good»
Sarah Weinman, author of The Real Lolita and editor of Unspeakable Acts: True Tales of Crime, Murder
«Fox, a former senior obituary writer for The New York Times and the author of three previous books, unspools Jones and Hill's delightfully elaborate scheme in nail-biting episodes that advance like a narrative Rube Goldberg machine, gradually leading from Yozgad to freedom by way of secret codes, a hidden camera, buried clues, fake suicides and a lot of ingenious mumbo jumbo. At moments, The Confidence Men has the high gloss of a story polished through years of telling and retelling»
The New York Times
«Exceptionally entertaining ... [Fox] never loosened her grip on my attention»
Michael Dirda, Washington Post
«The Confidence Men couldn't have come along at a better time. This story of two unlikely con artists - young British officers who use a Ouija board to escape from a Turkish prisoner-of-war camp - is a true delight, guaranteed to lift the spirits of anyone eager to forget today's realities and lose oneself in a beautifully written tale of an exciting and deeply moving real-life caper»
Lynne Olson, author of Madame Fourcade's Secret War
«A true account of one of the most daring and implausible examples of wartime cunning by British soldiers»
Daily Express
«Rarely has a means of escape seemed as unlikely as a handmade Oujia board and a fake séance ... Margalit Fox's book explores how the men used psychology to dupe camp staff over many months - and how it nearly cost them their mental health and physical safety»
BBC History Magazine
«One of the strangest tales of the First World War ... an awesome book made even more valuable by such outstanding research and insight»
Britain at War
«Wonderfully researched and written»
Who Do You Think You Are?
«The story is incredible ... this is a great read»
NB Reviews