Oliver Cromwell, born a middle-ranking nobody in a declining county family in an obscure part of the country, became the only non-royal ruler of Britain. He organised the only public trial and execution of a king, brutalised parts of the British Isles in an attempt to unite them, changed religious and political life forever, and still divides people today. This book is not a biography of Cromwell but rather follows in his footsteps, both physically and mentally, attempting to work out what was happening in Cromwell's mind as he passed through these physical and political landscapes, always aware of the danger of overreach. The second part of the book considers his reputation after death. Cromwell was both soldier and politician and his actions and ideas still have political and social consequences today. The book begins in Huntingdon in 1599, with the respectable but unimportant Cromwell family living under the shadow of richer relatives. Civil War and Cromwell's controversial successes at Marston Moor, Naseby, Basing House and Worcester transform him into the most powerful person in Britain, and moving him from a modest house in Ely to Hampton Court Palace. Cromwell is involved in the execution of King Charles I outside the Banqueting House, his own coronation in Westminster Hall, and bloody slaughter in Ireland. His death in 1658 does not end the controversy. His enemies take revenge on his corpse and the debate about his legacy begins. 151 page large softback, illus.

Rare photographs from wartime archives, many of which are very distressing showing heaps of dead bodies, elderly Jews, women and children, wearing the star of David waiting selection on the ramp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Sonderkommandos assisted the newly arrived transports. The other principal groups of 'helpers' were Kapos and Trawniki. The Nazis' vast concentration camp network and later the Final Solution programme made heavy demands on the SS whose responsibility it was. The use of 'overseers' minimised costs and enabled the camps to run with fewer SS personnel. The super commandoes' duties included unloading Jews from trains, collecting their possessions and sorting them for storage. Under the supervision of the SS, their main assignment was to run the gas chambers and crematoria. The Kapos oversaw the Sonderkommandos. Many were originally prisoner functionaries recruited from violent criminal gangs and they had a well-deserved reputation for brutality. The third group known as Trawniki or Trawnikimänner were Central and Eastern European collaborators recruited from Russian PoW camps. While some served in a military capacity, others played an instrumental role in the Holocaust programme, rounding up and transporting Jews from the ghettos to the concentration camps. Whilst the Sonderkommandos were forced to undertake various grisly tasks, with the added fear of being killed at any moment, the Kapos and Trawniki competed without scruple to maintain the favour of their SS masters while pitting victim against victim. Very little text, the book is in the Images of War series and reproduces approximately 200 rare contemporary archive images of forced labour, known personnel and very harrowing images such as skeletal corpses being dragged in irons by the head and pushed into the oven for incineration (which normally took 45 minutes to one hour). 114pp, large softback.

'With incredible photos from never-before-seen archives which show the SAS in all its remarkable dash and splendour, this is incisive commentary and a fine wartime history. Spiced with sexual and criminal statistics, Joshua Levine reveals a Britain of loose morals, opportunistic pilfering and cheating, and hedonistic pleasure alongside the familiar virtues of courage and community.' - Sunday Telegraph. The SAS began as a lie, a story of a British Parachute Unit in the North African desert to convince the Axis they were under imminent threat. The lie was so effective that soon a small band of men were brought together to make it real, and these recruits were the toughest and brightest of their cohort. Their first commanders, David Stirling and Paddy Mayne, would go down in history as unorthodox visionaries. This book tells much more than the usual origin story and seeks out less well-known leaders like Bill Fraser, who was essential in helping the SAS achieve fame for their devastating raids. Written with the full cooperation of the SAS, and with exclusive access to archives, Joshua Levine includes interviews with veterans and family members and each page gives a visceral sense of what it was like to fight and train in the SAS in both North Africa and Europe during the Second World War, focussing on their failures as well as their successes. Levine's background as an actor, barrister and historian makes him the ideal interlocutor putting his interviewees at ease. 310pp, masses of archive and colour photos.

The hydrogeologist author is a member of the Western Front Association with a special interest in the First World War. Few soldiers on the Western Front had heard of the Australian Electrical and Mechanical Mining and Boring Company, even after it had been renamed the 'Alphabet Company' by an AIF wag, yet many knew the work of this tiny unit which numbered fewer than 300 at full strength. Its influence was enormous and spanned the entire British sector of the Western Front, from the North Sea to the Somme. This is the story of the 'Alphabeticals' who, led by Major Victor Morse DSO, operated and maintained pumps, generators, ventilation fans, drilling equipment and other ingenious devices in the horrendous conditions of the trenches in which the troops lived and fought. These quiet achievers provided unsung services and here is the story of the three Australian tunnelling companies which resulted following the disbandment in May 1916. Many of the uses had never been imagined by the manufacturers and much of these front-line tunnelling activities were generally secret undertakings. The bulk of records relating to the unit were destroyed in a fire just months before they were due to be handed to the War Office so Morse hastily typed up the Unit's history based on his recollections and remnants of records salvaged from the fire. The Alphabet Company arrived in France with 13 electric generating sets, underground ventilation and water pumping equipment, also 40 portable drilling machines and large, steam-powered drilling machines, and their work became increasingly prized and more and more equipment was purchased and more men trained in its operation. Their workplaces were frequently hot, cramped, smelly little dugouts, cellars or roughly constructed lean-tos. The book seeks to do justice to the work of this dynamic little unit. 329pp in large well illustrated softback including archive photos and maps. Please note contents same as code 93260.

A startling, gripping portrait of what it was like to be alive in Britain during the Blitz, and what it was like to be around Winston Churchill. On Winston Churchill's first day as Prime Minister, Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next 12 months, the Nazis would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons and destroying two million homes. In this book, Erik Larson gives a new and brilliantly cinematic account of how Britain's most iconic leader set about unifying the nation at its most vulnerable moment, and teaching 'the art of being fearless.' Set in the shelled streets of London, the book traces the fraught decisions, personal clashes and intimate affairs that defined Churchill's first tempestuous months in power. Larson's deft portraits show the essential connection that words created between the powerful and the powerless, and the reader turns the pages with his gripping prose. There are narrative arcs, heroes, villains and suspense aplenty. Drawing on once-secret intelligence reports and diaries, the bestselling author takes us to Churchill's own chambers, giving a vivid vision of true leadership and perseverance bound a country together. 585pp, paperback.

From the Wars of the Roses and the Earl of Essex losing his head, London turning against Charles I, Wellington and Nelson crossing paths, Russell's despatches from the Crimean War, spies in World War One, women wearing the trousers in industry and services, World War Two and queueing becoming a pastime, weekly allowances, nylons, whiskey, knicker elastic, digging for victory, eating out, bombing casualties, Ian Fleming taking his naval role with zeal, hospitals, the BBC, over five million books destroyed in the Paternoster Row hit, Penguin revolutionising paperbacks, tensions developing between US troops and Londoners, the ATS and the Home Guards, here are stories of mighty battles, heroic deeds and staunch determination in the face of adversity. A rich history of our remarkable capital city in times of war, an absorbing collection of stories and trivia. 142pp, well illus. with line art and photos.

Michael Morpurgo writes about a Brodie helmet, A. L. Kennedy about a Verners Pattern compass, Tracy Chevalier about the Princess Mary Gift Fund Box, and others about a zeppelin bomb, a recruitment poster, a soldier's writing case, sheet music, a wartime butter dish, a Victoria Cross, school magazines and a little French toy soldier. It is a powerful collection of stories by bestselling authors, each inspired by a different object encompassing both world wars, the home front and the trenches, realism and imaginary friends. Morpurgo triggers tears, others write in blank verse, in the rhythm of jazz to relate the experience of a horn player from Harlem and Jim Kay's angular illustrations convey both atmosphere and fact. A big hardback heavyweight publication, 304pp, well illus. Designed for ages 9-12 years or for all interested in military matters. 21.5 x 17cm.

A powerful and moving collection of first person accounts, contributors include a rear gunner who took part in 60 bombing raids, a Jewish woman who played in the orchestra at Auschwitz, a Japanese man who survived Hiroshima, and Sir Nicholas Winton who saved 669 children by setting up the Kindertransport programme from Czechoslovakia. RAF pilots, evacuees, Resistance fighters, land-girls, US Navy sailors all pass on the lessons learned to a new generation. Many of the interviews were conducted by children, and is designed for 9-14 year olds in this award-winning children's newspaper First News series. Presented with striking black and white contemporary photographs reproduced at full page size to really make you feel part of the story. Plus familiar images like Red Army soldiers raising the Soviet flag in Berlin 1945 and American infantrymen in Paris 1944. For all interested in military matters a big tribute in heavyweight softback, 320pp, 17.8 x 23cm. Hundreds of photos.

No country on earth has a higher concentration of churches and castles than Wales. The most famous date from the late 1200s and are rightly associated with Edward I of England who commissioned the construction of what is now often known as the 'Iron Ring' to act as a sign of dominance over the Kingdom of Gwynedd. Assisting Edward was his master mason, James of St George, probably of Crusader pedigree judging by the castles' appearance. It was in 1277 that Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, Prince of Gwynedd, met with Edward I in Aberconwy to finalise a treaty that would change the fate of both nations. His hand forced by Edward's invasion earlier that year, the acceptance of the terms confirmed not only short-term peace, but also that the rule of Wales would pass to Edward on Llywelyn's death. Both before and simultaneous to William the Conqueror's establishment of timber and stone fortresses in the south and borderlands, a process continued by many of his descendants, native structures also existed. Though often more palatial than protective, such constructions proved decisive to the ongoing wars, and were often chosen as sites for future castles. Many had begun as Roman forts whereas others date from more modern times and many now are romantic ruins, and others cherished family homes, hotels or museums. From blood-soaked heroes to long-lost legends, violent pirates to despotic Marcher lords, the book offers a fresh investigation into 69 castles and an extra Best of the Rest chapter covering another 30 with a paragraph or two each and a further 16 where gatehouses and ruins remain. 246pp, 16 pages of archive photos.
Click YouTube icon to see this book come to life on video.

On 30 January 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed the German Chancellor of a coalition government by President Hindenburg. Within a few months he had installed a dictatorship, jailing and killing his leftwing opponents, terrorising the rest of the population and driving Jews out of public life. He embarked on a crash programme on militaristic Keynesianism, reviving the economy and achieving full employment through massive public works, vast armaments spending and the cancellations of foreign debts. After the grim years of the Great Depression, Germany seemed to have been reborn as a brutal and determined European power. Over the course of the years from 1933 to 1939, Hitler won over most of the population to his vision of a renewed Reich. In these years of domestic triumph, cunning manoeuvres, pitting neighbouring powers against each other and biding his time, we see Hitler preparing for the moment that would realise his ambition. But what drove Hitler's success was also to be the fatal flaw of his regime: a relentless belief in war as the motor of greatness, a dream of vast conquests in Eastern Europe and an astonishingly fanatical racism. Oxford scholar Frank McDonough charts the rise and fall of the Third Reich under Hitler's hand "like a thrilling Scorsese-directed gangster movie." It takes you through all of the major events of those years; the night of the long knives, the death of Hindenburg, the 1936 Olympics, Kristalllnacht, talks with Neville Chamberlain, and more, as Europe marched, again, into war. The first volume, Triumph, ends after Germany's comprehensive military defeat of Poland in 1939. Lavishly illus, and fine design. 'What makes this volume really stand out is its stylish design and more than 80 coloured photographs' - Military History. 488 pages.