Sub-titled 'The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1938-1941', this sweeping ground-breaking epic combines military with social history, the world-historically significant story of Britain at war. In looking closely at the military and political dimensions of the conflict's first crucial years, Alan Allport tackles questions such as: could the war have been avoided? Could it have been lost? Were the strategic decisions the right ones? How well did the British organise and fight? How well did the British live up to their own values? What difference did the war make in the end to the fate of the nation? He also looks intimately at the changes in wartime society and culture and draws on a large cast of characters from the leading statesmen and military commanders who made the decisions, to the ordinary men, women and children who carried them out and lived through their consequences, to present a comprehensible and compelling single history of 46 million people. What he tries to explain is how a country that got so many things catastrophically wrong in the early years of the conflict managed not just to hold out against Hitler, but in the second anniversary of the war's outbreak in September 1941, to have apparently halted the rout and even perhaps to be constructing a plausible theory of victory. It ends on a note of cautious hope. With maps including the battlefield of May to June 1940, the Battle of Britain, major Luftwaffe night attacks, the North Atlantic, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Imperial Crisis spring 1941 and Bomber Command targets September 1939 to December 1941. The British-born historian's book has been published in the USA, 590 roughcut pages which are highly desirable in the US. 2021 Alfred A. Knopf New York.

Sub-titled 'The True Story of a Serial Killer, The Great London Smog, and The Strangling of A City', this is a book about a killer fog and a killer loose amidst it. London was still recovering from the devastation of World War II when another disaster hit. For five long days in December 1952, a killer smog held the city firmly in its grip. Day became night, transport ground to a halt, criminals roamed the streets and some 12,000 people died from the poisonous air. In the chaotic aftermath, another killer was stalking the streets using the fog as a cloak for his crimes. All across London women were going missing - poor women, forgotten women, whose disappearance has caused little alarm. Each had one thing in common - the misfortune of meeting a quiet, unassuming man named John Reginald Christie who invited them back to his decrepit Notting Hill flat during that dark winter. They never left. The eventual arrest of the Beast of Rillington Place caused a media frenzy. Were there more bodies buried in the walls, under the floorboards, in the back garden of this house of horrors? Was it the fog that cause Christie to suddenly snap and what role had he played in the notorious double murder that happened in the same apartment, building not three years before, a murder for which another probably innocent man was sent to the gallows? Journalist Kate Winkler Dawson braids three strands together in a taut, readable, true crime thriller about a man who changed the fate of the death penalty in the UK, and an environmental catastrophe with implications that still echo today. In the words of Simon Winchester, who became asthmatic at the age of seven as a result of the Great Smog "she is to be commended for telling a terrible tale memorably and brilliantly." Kate certainly includes much first-hand reportage and we feel we are there in blackout with bodies in the mist and a madman on the loose who strangled at least seven women and a baby. Illustrations, 341 pages.

With plentiful literary references, quotations from visitors and boxes covering topics such as Jack the Ripper, Black analyses the pivotal moments in history that make London what it is today. From the influence of the Romans on the main roads, to the long, arduous battles for both royal and political leadership, from Shakespeare's influence on the written word to the impact of the Swinging Sixties, from the influx of those who arrived in the city by ship in the 1950s to the riots that set about change in the 1980s, the book is as much about economics and culture as it is about politics and society. It deals with migration, communications, empire and cultural energy. London's earlier period is covered, but the principal focus is on the last half millennium, the period during which London became a major trader with the trans-oceanic world, the ruler of trans-oceanic colonies, and the English language became an increasingly important cultural medium. Travel through history and jump on to the Tube to discover the tales of our great capital. 260pp, paperback.

During the Blitz, the very familiar sinuous shape of the Thames under moonlight directed waves of bombers to valuable targets like warehouses, industries, power stations, offices, docks and the associated housing. From 1940 to 1945, the German Airforce (the Luftwaffe) inflicted 101 daylight and 253 night-time air raids on London causing more than 80,000 fatalities or serious injuries and extensive devastation. In all that mayhem caused by high explosives, incendiaries, parachute mines, rockets and fire storms, the city was also faced with the very real possibility of major flooding whenever bombing seriously breached the river wall and its defences. This superbly researched and illustrated book describes the vital role and unsung achievements of the London County Council Emergency Repair Team, ably led by Chief Engineer Thomas Peirson Frank. Three rapid response units were formed and in the event undertook repairs to over 100 breaches of the flood defences. We also learn of the fate of London's docks and bridges, and of the ships, boats and barges lost in the estuary and tideway and the fieldwork of the Thames Discovery Programme, the community-based archaeological team working on the foreshore. The book catalogues incidents dealt with by each of the four regional T-F depots, located on the Isle of Dogs, in Southwark, Battersea and Greenwich, the work of the Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) later the National Fire Service. Some 80 years on the book pays tribute to the non-combatants who kept the major port running and saved London. 208pp, very well illustrated with hundreds of archive and modern images.

From foxes and ravens attacking new-born lambs to weasels eating game-bird chicks, predators compete with us, putting them directly into the firing line. Buzzards, crows, badgers, seals, kites - Britain and Ireland's predators are impressive and diverse, and they capture our collective imagination, but some people may even consider them our enemies. Farming, fishing, sport and leisure industries want to see numbers of predators reduced, and conservation organisations also worry that predators are threatening some endangered species. So what do we do? Mary Colwell travels across the UK and Ireland to encounter the predators face to face and watches their lives in the wild and discovers how they fit into the landscape. She talks to the scientists studying them and the wildlife lovers who want to protect them and also meets the people who want to control them to protect their livelihoods or sporting interests. Hers is a thoughtful and reasoned analysis of the debates surrounding the human story of living with predators, already soaked in blood and passion. She touches on religion and the philosophy of predation, children's literature, Christianity and the necessity of killing to eat which has become a sign of humanity's sinfulness. 312pp, rather lovely illustrations.

Brown is a brilliant master of ceremonies as he brings the history of these fine institutions to life and demonstrates their importance in working-class communities across the country. Blending vivid reportage and candid autobiography, he illuminates these arts centres, debating halls and palaces of carefree delight with love and care. The intoxicating history begins with the movement's founding by a teetotal social reformer to its booze-soaked mid-century heyday when more than 4 million Brits were members. Often dismissed as relics of a bygone age, Pete Brown reminds us that long before the days of Phoenix Nights 3000 seat venues routinely played host to stars like Shirley Bassey, Louis Armstrong, and the Bee Gees. Britain's best-known comedians made reputations through thick miasma of smoke from Sunniside to Skegness. For a young man growing up in the pit town of Barnsley, this was a radiant wonderland that transformed those who entered. They were a vehicle for social mobility and self improvement, run for working people by working people. Brown looks at the club and himself, the clubs as an institute, the pub, music hall, the radicals, the ups and downs, women, change and the future. A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK, 290 pages.

"A recently born seal pup. It's mother, resting a few meters away, is ignoring it, pebble and kelp surrounds also smeared with blood. Another few meters further on, a mob of grey black-backed gulls attacks the afterbirth, pulling it out of its steak-like shape into a stringier form, gorging torn off scarlet strands, then tug-of-warring with the remains. The pup appears to make an attempt towards its mother, but only manages to flop on to its side, exposing a pink inch of umbilical cord worming from its belly fur... Once familiar with its smell and henceforth assured of recognising it, she strokes its head with her clawed front flipper. Willing her on, I watch her finally assume a feeding position..." There are fewer grey seals in the world that endangered African elephants, and the British Isles host almost half of this global population. Every year, these charismatic animals with their expressive eyes, and whiskers more sensitive than our fingertips, haul out on our shores to breed and raise their pups. Susan Richardson has always been entranced by seals. They comforted her as an anxious child and brought joy when she began to spread her wings as a writer and helped her find her way after the loss of her mother. Now she sets out to trace the rhythm of their lives, travelling the coast clockwise from Cornwall to Norfolk, in line with the autumn pupping season. She explores the myths surrounding seals, from the shape-shifting selkie skins to the claims that they decimate fish populations, and she discovered that the greatest dangers they face come from humankind. Her book is a lyrical tale of memory, rescue and rehabilitation, and the recurring theme is the human-seal connection. She sees the life of the sea as a mirror of ourselves and vice versa. 376 pages.

By April 1939, Edinburgh had 6,000 air raid wardens recruited and under training together with demolition squads, later renamed rescue squads, who had responsibility for demolishing structures which had been damaged and rendered dangerous and also in extricating those who had been trapped beneath rubble. Scotland was of grave strategic importance during the war because of its geographical position, and its capital was the location of a significant number of important military and civil organisations. Edinburgh Castle became the HQ of the Scottish Home Forces, whilst the Forth was a vitally important port and was heavily protected even before the start of the war. Its importance was marked by its attracting the first air raid of the war on mainland Britain, when a force of German bombers were sent to attack naval shipping on 6th October 1939. The raid was intercepted by the RAF which shot down at least two bombers, and the entire action was witnessed by many civilians on the ground. The raid also caused the first civilian casualties when two women were injured in Edinburgh, and two men machine-gunned in Portobello. Thousands lined the streets days later for the funeral of two of the Luftwaffe airmen. No member of the population of Edinburgh escaped the war and huge numbers came forward for service in the military or in roles such as the Home Guard, ARP Services, nursing, working in vital war industries, and struggling to maintain households under strict rationing and the stresses of wartime life, or children evacuated from the city to the rural areas of Scotland to escape the expected bombing. Edinburgh was also home to a sizeable Italian community which was badly affected by internment, and subsequent tight restrictions on movement and civil rights and was subjected to violent attacks when rioting mobs attacked their businesses throughout the city, although one family business was spared because they supported Hibs. The book poignantly commemorates the efforts and achievements of workers, fighters, and families divided. 216pp in well illustrated large softback.

What became known as the Great War began on 4th August 1914. It triggered a wave of patriotism. Scotland led the way with 320,589 men voluntarily enlisting before conscription began in 1916. Scots were in the forefront of many of the costliest battles and campaigns with the outcome that, per head of population, it is estimated by the University of Edinburgh that Scotland lost more men than all the belligerent nations apart from Turkey and Serbia. Anyone with a German sounding accent soon came under suspicion of being a spy. Railways were taken under government control and local businesses asked to supply motor vehicles for use by the Army or to supply horses, of which hundreds of thousands died during the conflict. 'Young men belonging to Edinburgh and the East of Scotland may enrol in the Edinburgh Battalion which is now being formed. All young men in the professional and commercial classes, university graduates, clerks, warehousemen, skilled artisans and athletes (between the ages of 19 and 35 inclusive), who are medically fit and whose height is 5ft 3" and upwards, with chest measurements of 34" at least, are invited to enrol their names now, and those of any friends who may wish to drill and train in the same battalion.' This book covers the historic city's involvement to the armistice in November 1914, describing in great detail what happened to the city and its people, their everyday lives, entertainment, spies and the internment of aliens living within the city. Edinburgh played a key role in supplying not only men but vital munitions and a role in caring for the many wounded soldiers returning from the Front. Of poor quality but nevertheless very interesting are dozens of archive photographs, including a procession of little girls in white dresses and tartan sashes parading along Princes Street carrying banners stating 'We are doing our little bit', a picture of the arrival of Christmas puddings at the Front, and a Shetland pony to be sold for the Red Cross, a sports day for wounded soldiers and the visiting American Ambassador. 141pp, large softback.

In the summer of 1914, Lancaster, the ancient county town of what is properly the County Palatine of Lancaster, remained essentially the market town it had been for centuries, having been granted a borough charter in 1193 by King John. A key town on the main road from London to Carlisle (the modern A6), the Lancaster Canal opened in 1797, the railway had come early to Lancaster, there was an ancient grammar school and the Royal Lancaster Infirmary. and since the 18th century the castle had been a prison. At the outbreak of the First World War panic buying led to price rises for sugar in particular and many grocers rationed their supplies. The first news of the war was referred to the 5th (Territorial) Battalion of the King?s Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, which was due to begin its annual training near Kirkby Lonsdale on 2nd August. Training was cancelled and all units recalled to base, directed to guard the docks and warships in Barrow-in-Furness. Then they were sent by train to Didcot to guard the GWR line between Reading and Didcot and moved on to Sevenoaks before they embarked for France in February 1915. All those serving in the first two years of the war were volunteers and they suffered quite disproportionate losses. The 1st Battalion of the King?s Own formed part of the initial British Expeditionary Force and was soon in action at Mons and Le Cateau. Among the first to lose his life was their Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel Alfred McNair Dykes, a veteran of the Boer War, along with three officers and 83 other ranks including Private John Carney of Ridge Street among many other Lancaster men. The town was out of range for shelling from the sea or aerial bombardment, but did experience an explosion at its munitions factory in 1917. Apart from this the Mayor and council endeavoured to continue with their primary duties as far as possible in running the town. The Lancaster men received many awards for gallantry. 116pp in large softback with many archive photos and posters.