Sub-titled 'How Britain Played the Greater Game From Afghanistan To Africa', much has been written about espionage, secret agents and MI6 missions abroad, but what of the origins of British Intelligence as we know it today? This is the story of intelligence at the height of the British Empire, and the characters that shaped its narrative. Beaver writes with authority and spritely wit about the men who ensured that Victorian Pax Britannica was intelligence-based and intelligence-led and demonstrates convincingly how its gifted operatives influenced and even created imperial policy. He unveils the men who staffed the War Office's Intelligence Division, and above all looks at their tenacity and imagination. He looks at their shrewd observations and analysis of international events which provided the basis for modern military espionage and changed the landscape of the British Empire from India to South Africa. He focusses on the years between the Crimean War and the formation of MI5 and MI6 at the start of the 20th century and charts the Intelligence Division's course from a misunderstood army unit to an elite body, central to the British military. The book is a rollicking adventure into the minds behind the muscles of the British Army, their successes, sacrifices and expertise in weaving a global net of information. 340pp, paperback, photos.

The popular historian and author of 'The Berlin Airlift' turns his attention to September 1939. The British Home Front prepared itself for a massive air attack followed by German invasion, but Hitler was biding his time, and the people of Britain settled in to wait. With the Nazi threat in the background, daily life descended into false alarms and official incompetence, the Phoney War. Theatres and cinemas were closed and football matches cancelled, causing a plunge in morale. Thousands of women and children were evacuated to the countryside, only for many to flood back to the cities, preferring the dangers to being separated from their families. Control of the news was heavy-handed - by 1940 almost 30% of Britons were listening to German propaganda broadcasts, feeling that they gave a truer picture of the war. In fact the period from September 1939 to May 1940 was a time of intense political and military activity - the Blitzkrieg on Poland, the start of the U-boat menace, the disastrous Norwegian campaign, the political manoeuvrings that brought Churchill to power, the first evidence of Hitler's genocidal plans. Barry Turner skilfully weaves these events into a fresh and original tale of the British Home Front partly told with contemporary letters from his own collection, evoking the humour and the absurdities of everyday life in those dark days. Some of the 16 illustrations include evacuees returning home to London and villagers saying goodbye to the children they adopted for the war, instructional and propaganda posters, salvage of waste products, and the Essex farmer who had his herd of black cows painted with white stripes in case they should wander on the road after dusk, air raid trenches in St James's Park and an Austin Therm balloon car with a bag full of coal gas to fuel the car strapped to the roof! 370pp.

University of Oxford and Professor of History, University of Toronto, Margaret Macmillan's book is based on her 2018 Reith Lectures, The Mark of Cain. Despite the 'long peace' enjoyed by much of the world since 1940, there has been war somewhere in the world every year. Is war an essential part of being human? Macmillan explores the deep links between society and war and the questions they raise. As societies have changed and technologies have developed, we have fought wars differently and often over greater distances and for longer periods of time. In turn, war has brought huge changes to society, for better and worse. Economies, science, technology, medicine, culture - all are instrumental in war and have been shaped by it. Without war we would not have had centralised states, penicillin, radar or rockets. Throughout history, writers, artists, composers and philosophers have been inspired by war and we have tried again and again to limit and even outlaw war, but if we want to understand our own history and create a peaceful world, we must think about war. The writing style is crisp and there is an enviable clarity of thought as Macmillan cogently explains via colourful historical anecdotes how we understand what war means, our emotions, our ideas and capacity for good as well as cruelty. Winner of the Sunday Times Best Book for Autumn 2020. 328pp, colour and other photos.

Sub-titled 'What the World War Two Generation can teach us about how we live our lives', the late Her Majesty the Queen once said: 'We will overcome it [and] I hope in the years to come, everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge, and those who come after us will say the Britons of this generation were as strong as any.' The coronavirus pandemic forced the great British people to dig to the very depths of their resolve. It was during this crisis, the gravest the country faced since WW2, that members of the Greatest Generation - Captain Tom Moore, Dame Vera Lynn, the Queen - proved vital reminders of the self-effacing stoicism required in times of emergency - to summon our Blitz Spirit and to Keep Calm and Carry On. 12 qualities including fellowship, courage, integrity, vitality, liberality, ingenuity, self-discipline, duty and humour, the book draws on personal interviews with over 200 WW2 veterans from SAS officers to London firewomen. In Marlow, Buckinghamshire, some local women opened the 'Cosy Corner Club', one of many such organisations to spring up across Britain. It was for mothers and children who had lost their homes in the London Blitz and acted as a happy meeting ground and gave a hearty welcome to any evacuee of whatever nationality, race or religion, especially to those who were feeling lonely and in need of simple, helpful friendship. In this way the books shows how we can improve our individual character and our collective approach to life. 193pp, paperback.

Royalty was popular in Barnsley in the early 20th century, and in 1912 King George V and Queen Mary paid a highly successful visit, attracting masses of cheering crowds to the town centre. Featured in the Domesday Book, Barnsley became an important centre in the 13th century when a market was established by Royal Charter, and in later centuries it was a staging post for coaches travelling further north. In 1914 Barnsley's Territorial Army numbered 220 and when war was declared they headed for Rotherham to receive their orders after listening to a patriotic address form Barnsley's Mayor. As the Battle of the Marne commenced, a fundraising concert at the Barnsley Empire raised over £44 for the war effort. At this time only about 30 per cent of the workforce was female, and most were in domestic service, but from the start of hostilities women began to work in a larger range of jobs. In October Mrs W K Peace signalled her willingness to receive a wounded soldier during his recuperation, and soon afterwards a group of about 35 Belgian refugees arrived in the town. At Christmas the Barnsley Union Workhouse, housing 100 women, 144 men and 44 children, received Christmas treats including a threepenny piece for each child. In April 1915 an outbreak of pilfering from local shops was traced back to a gang of children who were put on probation except for one girl who was sent to a reformatory. In October a new Variety Theatre was opened in the presence of the local aristocracy and dignitaries. The town rose to the demands of warfare, but by 1917 women working in jobs such as engineering were being warned they would have to relinquish them to men when the war ended. 198pp, paperback, black and white photos from the Barnsley Chronicle.

The day after war broke out in 1914 a battalion of the Durham Light Infantry set up camp in the city centre, accompanied by the Royal Field Artillery trundling their heavy weaponry. A recruiting drive had begun which was ultimately to see 360 of Durham's young people killed in warfare. When Corporal Bellaby was wounded at Mons in October it made the local news, but by the end of 1914 tens of thousands of soldiers had lost their lives, including members of Durham's mining community. 1914 had been a great year for England's rugby team, and local hero Arthur Dingle, who graduated from Oxford and then returned to teach at his old school in Durham, was a rugby international player. By the end of the war, 11 of the 30 members of the pre-war team had been killed, including Dingle who died at Gallipoli. 1915 saw the death of colourful Durham coal-owner Charles Stewart Vane Tempest Stewart, the 6th Marquess of Londonderry, who had been Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and a Conservative politician. The Durham Light Infantry managed to raise a total of 43 battalions during the whole war, including a "bantam" battalion where the height requirement was reduced to five feet. In 1916 the Mayor of Durham took delivery of a captured German field gun, and although the purpose of the acquisition was unclear, the Dean of Durham Cathedral made a rousing speech. Many aspects of life went on as normal, and in 1917 two men were up before the magistrates charged with spitting on the floor of a train. Women were active in the town's two Voluntary Aid Detachment hospitals during the war, mainly in nursing and catering. 144pp, paperback, photos.

Soar with straight-wing jets and swept-wing fighters through the sky between 1944 and 1954. Through nearly 200 archive photographs, this book traces the development of British and American jet fighters over a decade, from the end of the Second World War to the advanced designs which were key during the Korean War. Admire the first operational Meteor squadron 616, which was introduced in July 1944, proving to be an adaptable airframe and produced in several versions, including a two-seater trainer, a photo reconnaissance vehicle and a night fighter. Read about how the onset of the Cold War and the threat of Soviet bombers armed with nuclear weapons pushed the United States to transform its 'virtually non-existent' air defence system, developing an interim jet all-weather fighter which supplemented the F-89 Scorpion. But the greatest assets for this book are the hundreds of photos of planes during the period, each accompanied by a detailed description. The book displays a publicity photo of an F-84E Thunderjet at Elgin in 1953 which carried two Tiny Tim 500lb warhead rocket bombs as well as 24 five-inch HVAR (although the normal operational load for this plane would only have been 16 HVAR). Study a shot of the Supermarine Type 508 prototype flying low at Chilbolton during early trials in 1951 with its clean lines and Vee tail. There is also a stunning image of a modified Meteor F.4 in September 1946 which raised the World Air Speed Record to 616mph, beating the F.3 model from November 1945 which flew at 606mph. Marvel also at a fantastic bird's eye view of a wartime Essex class carrier at sea with jets resting on it and note that, in 1953, the carrier USS Antietam was the first to incorporate the British concept of an angled. Paperback, black and white photographs, 134pp.

Pen & Sword Military Books presents a comprehensive history of Leeds during the Second World War. The book starts with the optimistic state of the city in 1939 before the war began, noting that there was a sense of enterprise as advertisements in local press read 'Leeds is Prosperous' alongside images of modern factories with the sign 'Factory sites available'. From there, the book looks at the city's experience during the war, including the first of the bombing raids on Leeds in March 1941 during which time, the author's own grandfather, Joe Schofield was an ARP warden in Beeston. The lives of citizens are shared in the book, whether that is their choice to shelter in coal sheds rather than public shelters, their eagerness to engage in the football season between 1940 and 1941 (even if Leeds lost to Middlesbrough), and the naivety of children who would use the roads for cricket, football, hopscotch, piggy as 'nobody in the area had a car'. Learn about the important role of the Women's Voluntary Service in Leeds which helped with a request for clothes for Dutch and Belgian refugees in Rotherham and was so successful that the branch not only sent a full lorry to the main Leeds Refugee Headquarters but also stored large quantities at the Public Assistance Board Centre. Discover the life of Sue Ryder, one of Leeds' most famous women who volunteered with the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry at the age of 15 and took care of Polish flying aces. The photographs in the book offer fantastic insight into life in Leeds, including shots of aircraft production bungalows for Yeadon workers in Nunroyd, children from Guiseley at a VJ Day party organised by the British Legion and a gas car owned by Gillroyd Mills from Morley which was driven by gas pumped into the container from a roof. Paperback, black and white photos, 152pp.

First published in 1936, these 12 stories of daring battles by sea and air have a vividness that can only come from eyewitness accounts. Picking up 16 men from the wreckage left by a submarine attack, Gordon Campbell, Commander of the armed Decoy Q ship Pargust, knew there was imminent danger, and soon a torpedo tore through his engine room. A carefully rehearsed panic party descended to the lifeboats, complete with stuffed parrot, while the rest of the crew lay silent and invisible. The periscope of the sub was seen circling the boat, then broke surface, but Campbell held fire while the bogus "Master", pretending to escape with his crew in a lifeboat, led the sub even closer. Finally, half an hour after being torpedoed, they opened fire and sank the sub, managing to rescue only two crew of what proved to be a minelayer. For their uniform gallantry the Victoria Cross was awarded to the whole of HMS Pargust. In another cliff-hanging chapter, Captain Carpenter gives his account of the celebrated attack on the Zeebrugge Mole, designed to divert attention from the simultaneous blowing up of a railway bridge by submarines and the deliberate sinking of blockships across the entrance to the canal. Rain and off-course smokescreens impeded progress but that gave even more of an element of surprise when Vindictive reached the Mole. The resulting bombardment resulted in the deaths of many brave men but the heroic action on the viaduct is a breathtaking story. In the thick of Gallipoli the novelist Compton Mackenzie recounts an unexpected meeting with a fan, the second battle of Ypres is described by one of the pilots providing air cover, while a commander at the battle of Jutland describes with unsparing realism the psychological realities of close fighting. 168pp, paperback, photos.

The Bombing of GHQ Boulogne by Edward Ardizzone, Dunkirk: Embarkation of Wounded by Edward Bawden, An Old Battleground by Richard Seddon, Dangerous Work At Low Tide by Eric Ravilious and September 3rd 1939 by Henry Moore with barely human half drowned figures staring wildly are among the colour plates chosen for this collection of nine stories of courage, tenacity, inventiveness and persistence. During WWII, British artists produced over 6,000 works of war art, the result of a government scheme partly designed to prevent the artist being killed. The book tells the story of these nine war artists who ventured closer to the frontline than any others in their profession. In addition to the above mentioned were Barnett Freedman, Anthony Gross, Thomas Hennell, Albert Richards, and John Worsley who all travelled abroad into the dangers of war to chronicle events by painting them. They formed a close bond, yet two were torpedoed, two were taken prisoner, and three died, two in 1945 when peace time was at hand. Men who had previously made a comfortable living painting in studios were transformed by military uniforms and experiences that were to shape the rest of their lives, and their works significantly influenced the way in which we view war today. Some of the artists paintings and sketches have been included such as Henry Moore's Swimming Off the Southcoast on the Day War Broke Out - the stark coming together of a blue late summer's day and the looming blood-filled threat of war as a sky in the near distance, the first sight of the war the reader gets in this pictorial record of those six tragic years. The sequence of dates and locations provides a different kind of diary or journal. Full of biographical detail and so many aspects caught through the fine artists' eyes and into paint - the phoney war, evacuees harvesting, portraits of the great and the good, and the ordinary like gun manufacture, aerodrome runways, tanks rumbling through France, small boats at Dunkirk, anti-aircraft defences and bomb damage. 'John Worsley stood disconsolately near the wire, hands in pockets, eyes fixed on a point beyond the perimeter fence. That was dauntingly high, well over a man's height, with concrete posts at regular intervals... To his right was a wooden watchtower, under whose shadowy roof were more guards, crouched over machine-guns, watching him as he stared at the point where freedom began.' 240pp, well illustrated paperback, colour plates.