First published 10 years ago and still relevant, this study examines the progressive sidelining of the Royal Air Force since its decisive role in the Allied victory of World War II in which the RAF had developed quickly with the help of US and Canadian lend-lease money to form the front line of defence against a numerically superior force. Scaling down began in 1945 as the country contemplated a huge economic challenge following the cost of defeating the Axis powers, in contrast to the US which had not suffered bombing raids on housing and infrastructure. At the same time, in the post-war years, Britain started to negotiate the loss of empire which had constituted a major cost to the nation in administering and defending distant territories. Britain's retention of the nuclear deterrent depended on the special relationship with America as the world started to divide between the two superpowers. The RAF has shouldered a greater burden of defence cuts than the other two forces, particularly following the infamous 1957 white paper from Duncan Sandys which proposed the cutting and discontinuation of forces stationed in Germany. This exacerbated the on-off saga of the TSR2 project, opposed by Mountbatten who was chief of defence staff, and its cost-effective alternative, the F-111 with its variable geometry swing-wing designed by Barnes-Wallace. The "trip-wire" scenario of the fifties gave way to "flexible response" but the whole system and its political assumptions were overturned by the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989. The author follows the RAF from its establishment in 1918 with 22,000 aircraft to the Strategic Defence Review for the coalition government of 2010 with George Osborne as chancellor. Arguments for the disbanding of the RAF came from all political shades of opinion. Some elements would go to the Fleet Air Arm, but big planes such as transports, tankers and airborne warning and control would pose a challenge for the other services to operate, particularly the latter which was deployed in Afghanistan at the time of the book's publication. Here are fascinating tales of aerial adventure, sonic boom and iconic aircraft and the security the RAF brings us. 256pp, many photos.

Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson was a legend and a cult figure in his lifetime, an inspirational commander whose "band of brothers" knew that he would not ask them to do anything he would not undertake himself. Going to sea as a 12-year-old midshipman, he worked his way up and was enjoying semi-retirement with his wife Fanny when recalled to fight the French in the wake of the Revolution, culminating in the triumphant Battle of the Nile where not a single British ship was lost. His subsequent brutal persecution of revolutionaries in Naples was a low point, and by this time Nelson had embarked on his scandalous affair with Lady Emma Hamilton. Finally at Trafalgar in 1805 he defeated Napoleon decisively. This fascinating book examines Nelson's strengths and weaknesses as a commander and strategist. His patriotism was not of a jingoistic sort, but rather in line with Kennedy's famous words "ask what you can do for your country". He had a constant concern for the impact of war on his crews and on ordinary civilians. Nelson was not an effective commander in land or land-sea engagements, but he was a fast learner and rarely made the same mistake twice. He had initiative and moral courage, although the author wryly remarks that someone like Nelson with supreme self-confidence, upright (and sometimes uptight) ethics, insubordinate habits, a scandalous lifestyle, plus severe injuries and acute hypochondria, would never rise in the services to take senior command today. The author examines his strategic decisions in the context of the modern warfighting theory called Manoeuvre Warfare, where results are achieved by constant movement, as in the Battle of the Nile, rather than head-on confrontation. The Admiral's spiritual beliefs played an important role in his morale, and he often dismissed his enemies as atheistic mobs, particularly the French Revolutionaries. 250pp, paperback, glossary, orders of battle, illus.

During World War II around 50,000 German soldiers deserted from their units, of whom around 20,000 were executed by shooting, beheading or hanging. The British Army in World War I had executed 306 deserters, some as young as 16, young boys who panicked in the face of fire, and the author traces a direct link between this barbarity and the German judicial executions for desertion in World War II. He tells the poignant stories of many young men who were executed, but principal sources are the experiences of three who survived and suffered ostracism and discrimination for the whole of the rest of their lives. Their legal position remained equivocal because although the Nazi party was defeated and condemned, the execution of deserters had happened under the rule of law, even though these were the increasingly paranoid laws enacted by Hitler. Those who were unfit to serve through illness were executed as being a burden on the state, and the law did not allow for conscientious objection. 270 Jehovah's Witnesses were executed on account of their religious beliefs. In 1938 the statutes were tightened to allow no appeal. Only a handful survived to see the half-hearted rehabilitation law passed by the Bundestag more than half a century later. Peter Schilling, who at first embraced Nazi ideology, escaped to Switzerland over the border and was relegated to a refugee camp. Ludwig Baumann deserted from the French navy base in Bordeaux in June 1942 with his friend Kurt, stealing weapons and ammunition, but a border patrol picked them up. Tortured during interrogation they were condemned to death, but the sentence was commuted and Ludwig spent the war in military prison, suffering from diphtheria and forced to watch daily executions. Objector Helmut Kober was shocked by Hitler's book-burning and the complicity of the Nazi bishops. Following the war, former Nazis were elevated to high positions while those who had resisted faced a continuing stigma. 173 pp, case histories, photos.

A heartbreaking, inspirational and uplifting true story of hope and bravery. Only those who have been prisoners have any concept of the horrors of incarceration or the ineffable joy of release. In mid-1943, a British PoW in Germany began cryptic communication back to England with one goal in mind - to establish a secret trust fund that prisoners of war could use in order to purchase their very own Spitfire to soar above them in the skies over occupied Europe. It was to be named Unshackled Spirit, and this aircraft, along with this one man's selfless act, epitomised the courage and strength of thousands of men. The accounts compiled are from a collection of original YMCA personal wartime logs as issued to RAF prisoners of war in 1944. The book draws out the story of each aviator, how they became a prisoner and life in the various camps. Extensive and amazingly detailed pieces of artwork are taken from the logs and illustrated in the book. An important aspect is how agencies helped by supplying all manner of equipment to the thousands of men behind barbed wire. The role of MI9 is revealed and how it participated in those agencies exploring efforts taken to smuggle escape material into camps without breeching the Geneva Convention and finally the extraordinary measures taken to secure intelligence during the process of prisoner repatriation. Shoot the proofreader for some glaring errors in an otherwise interesting book with chapters on Wing Commander Douglas Bader and Warrant Officer Sydney Eric Hamblin and Bernard Howard Nutt among them, the RAF in Buchenwald and Stalag XII. 320pp, well illus.

Following the horrors of the Great War, people wanted to forget its horrors and have fun in any way they could. A young man from a far-off feudal world found entertainment in royal palaces, on battleships and in brothels. During his few months in London, high society and affairs of state were to collide with a city's underworld and a ring of globe-trotting conmen. The scandal that followed rocked the world and its aftermath remains to this day. The young man was Rajah Sir Hari Singh, heir to the Maharajah of Kashmir. His downfall was to meet an adventuress called Maud, and her associates, the Mayfair Mob. When the Rajah came to London in 1919, his first time in Europe, between visits to the King and Queen and the Prince of Wales, he was introduced by his aide de Camp to Mrs Maud, Maudie Robinson. They became lovers and spent Christmas in Paris where they were 'discovered' in bed together. The Rajah parted with cheques to the equivalent today of £14 million in hush money to stop Maudie's husband citing him in a divorce action. The plot was planned by his trusted friend and aide Charles Arthur, an Irish nobleman, along with Monty Newton, a notorious card sharp, and William Cooper Hobbs, a crooked solicitor's clerk and the Mr Big of the London underworld. But were Maudie and her husband also in on the plot? And if so, how were they cheated out of all but £21,000 of the blackmail pay-out? When they found out, the ensuing court case gave Sir Hari a nickname that haunted him forever: 'Mr A'. The British Government imposed the greatest secrecy on the case, keeping files closed for 70 and 100 years rather than the usual 30. Records only recently released by the National Archives throw new light on the court case that gripped the world for eight days in 1924 and which was to have repercussions that last to this day in the fraught relations between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Monty was saved by the intervention of his partner in crime Lemoine, a German working for French Intelligence who, in 1931, bought the working manuals of the new German Enigma encoding machine from a clerk so that, in 1932, a young Polish mathematician could crack the code. This is five years before Alan Turing even thought of studying cryptology. The book follows Newton and Lemoine around the world from Monte Carlo to Mexico, always staying in the best hotels, as they con the rich and gullible out of their millions. 288pp, photos.

'Personal Encounters With An Architect of Genocide', this is a chilling portrait of Radovan Karadzic, giving us an eye-opening new context not only for the Bosnian War, but also how fear can be harnessed and diverted to violent political ends. A remarkable blend of biography, history and psychiatry, the book is based on extraordinary access to a notorious Serbian leader and is scrupulously researched by this skilled interviewer. Stern explores the boundaries of good and evil through hours of interviews with the convicted mass murderer and complex emotions are unleashed on both sides as the interviewer circles a wily subject charmed at skill, obfuscation, misdirection and intimidation. It is an investigation into the nature of violence, terror and trauma. Between October 2014 and November 2016, global terrorism expert Jessica Stern held this series of conversations in a prison cell in The Hague with the Bosnian Serb former politician who had been indicted for genocide and other war crimes. The encounter would alter her understandings of the mechanics of fear, motivations of violence and the psychology of those who perpetrate mass atrocities on a state level who target non-combatants in violation of ethical norms and international law. How do leaders persuade ordinary people to kill their neighbours? What happens when an ethnic or racial group loses its dominant position in society? How do leaders harness fear and weaponize it and target minorities with violence? What is the 'eco system' that creates and nurtures genocidal leaders and could anything about their personal histories, personalities or exposure to historical trauma shed light on their behaviour? Karadzic was once a brilliant and often charming psychiatrist and poet who spent 12 years in hiding, disguising himself as an energy healer. A deeply insightful and chilling book. 304pp.

Bowman is one of Britain's leading aviation authors and here presents an unparalleled account of events as they unfolded in the skies above Holland during Operation 'Market-Garden' in September 1944. It was a heroic failure conducted at great cost combining both airborne and ground losses and killed, wounded and the missing amounted to more than 17,000. The airborne part of the operation spanned ten allied lists in a calamitous nine days of operations, often in foul weather. 4,050 aircraft saw employment - most of them towed the 1,205 Hamilcar and Horsa gliders, and were confronted by an unknown number of Luftwaffe aircraft. Stories of individual heroism punctuate this narrative, such as that of David Lord, an RAF Dakota pilot who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. Here is the valorous contribution of the RAF Dakota, Stirling, Halifax, Albemarle, Horsa, Hamilcar, and Glider Pilot Regiment Crews together with those of the USAAF C-47 Troop Carrier Group of the IX US Troop Carrier Command, the Waco and Horsa Gliders, and the B-24 Liberator Re-Supply Crews. All of their incredible, illuminating and often understated accounts of extraordinary courage, camaraderie, shared terror and encounters with the enemies offer a more personalised view of 'Market'. With the author's background information of each air operation, many photos, 330pp.

Sub-titled 'Medieval to Post-Modern Fortifications in the Lands of the Former Roman Empire', this substantial book focusses on key examples in the High and Late Middle Ages in Italy, Wales, Iberia, England, France and the Low Countries. It traces the evolution of castles and fortified sites during the later medieval period from the 12th to the 15th centuries, a period in which fixed fortifications shaped military thinking in a turbulent world. The book begins with a brief history of the Iberian peninsula, the Aragonese/Catalan front, Córdoba and Islamic Iberia before going on to Paris fortified, the Hundred Years War (1337-1153), war in Brittany and Vincennes. The Hundred Years War resumes in the 15th century, Henry V is victorious and there is the French resurgence and conquests by cannon. There is a look at castles on the fringe, west of the Rhine, Italian Renaissance architects to military engineers, the Braye and boulevards, Italian wars in the age of Machiavelli, and how fortifications were of direct strategic and tactical importance wherever there was an attempt to take or hold territory. The factors that influenced their location, layout and construction are analysed and the way they were modified to meet the challenges of new tactics and weapons. 248pp, over 100 colour photos, maps and illustrations.

From the invasion of the Franks and Mongols, this remarkable collection of artifacts and structures tells the story of the conflicts which shaped the nature of the Western World we know today, both in spiritual and geographical terms. Throughout almost the entire Medieval period, the Catholic church sanctioned military campaigns against what it perceived as its enemies. The rise of Islam and its spread across large parts of the Middle East, Asia, North Africa and even the peripheries of Europe saw Muslim warriors seize the Holy Land, occupy Jerusalem and threaten Constantinople. In response, Pope Urban II called for a crusade to retake the Holy Land, the first of nine military campaigns that continued for the next 200 years. Other lesser-known crusades were mounted with the aim of Christianising the more remote regions of northern and north-eastern Europe, as well as against the Cathars in Southern France. The advance of the Ottomans into the Balkans saw further crusades to halt the Muslims in Bosnia and Serbia, the reconquest of Spain from the Muslim Moors, and such diverse theatres of conflict have resulted in an equally diverse number of relics still to be found. Artillery, coats of arms, Crusader-struck coins, the pen boxes of prolific Muslim writers, Yemen and Saladin's bolt holes, camels carrying projectile weapons in Afghanistan, the invention of trebuchets, reliquary caskets decorated with colourful rock crystal, beautifully decorated minbars in the Court of the Mosque, Karak Castle in Jordan, Pisa Cathedral, Europe's oldest active synagogue in Prague, the Bayeux tapestry showing Duke William leading a charge of his Knights, the murder depicted from a 14th century illuminated manuscript and the Great Mosque of Córdoba, we enter a world of emperors, caliphs and sultans. Beautifully written by an acknowledged expert of the period, 100 objects of never seen before. 251 glossy pages, over 200 colour images.

'A beautiful, poignant book about the darkest period in modern Dutch history.' - David de Jong. Nina Siegal gives us a day-to-day narrative of the Holocaust in the Netherlands by splicing together excerpts from a few of the hundreds of diaries stored in an Amsterdam archive. She helps us understand how 75% of the 140,000 Jews in Holland, a prosperous and cultivated Western European country, could have been murdered 'posing a warning for our own deeply fractured country.' - Joseph Berger. The diary journals of collaborators, resisters and the persecuted - a Dutch Nazi police detective, a Jewish journalist imprisoned at the Westerbork Transit Camp, a grocery store owner who saved dozens of lives - are made into a non-fictional narrative of the Nazi occupation and the Dutch Holocaust. Siegal provides the context, both historical and personal, while trying to make sense of her own relationship to this past. As a 'second generation survivor' born and raised in New York, she attempts to understand what it meant for her mother and maternal grandparents to live through the war in Europe. When Siegal moved to Amsterdam those questions came up again. Why did 75% of the Jewish community perish and how did this square with the narratives of Dutch Resistance she had heard so much about? She takes us into the lives of seven diary writers and follows their pasts into the present through interviews with those who preserved and inherited these diaries. The past is rewritten. Rigorous research and intimate storytelling. 527pp, photos and colour images.