The conflict between Christians and Muslims in the early medieval period is full of resonance for our own times. We are used to hearing the story from a British perspective, including the exploits of King Richard the Lionheart and other famous European crusaders, known as the Franks, but this readable book, published in 2010 and with a Foreword by the late, great Terry Jones, aims to place the crusades in a Muslim context and tell the story from the point of view of the culture of those who lived in the disputed territories. Both Muslim and Frankish accounts tend to emphasize the Frankish threat in terms of religion without considering the complex mix of commercial interests and personal rivalries which influenced the wars. Waterson tells the story of the famed leaders of the jihad the lives and deeds of Zangi, Nur al-Din, Saladin and Baybars are all recounted. Terry Jones suggests that our own labelling of Islam as continually being the aggressor in fact replicates the propaganda machine of a whole millennium ago, when the 1071 Battle of Manzikert created the chain of events that led to the First Crusade. Waterson points out that the First Crusade took the Muslims by surprise, as described in the chronicles of Ibn al-Qalanasi, so that they initially misinterpreted its aims and scope, but even more importantly there were two power blocs fighting for supremacy, the Fatimid empire of Egypt and the Saljq Turkish empire. Even the lofty-minded Turkish ruler Nur al-Din was not above allowing a Frankish raid on one of his fellow-sultans. This theme continued throughout the conflicts until Saladin united his forces to take Jerusalem. A long-term unforeseen result of Christianity's attack on Islam was to force the sultans to create an army that subsequently defended them against the ravages of Mongol armies that came from further east. Every important battle is described, with a wealth of political and operational detail. 206pp, 15.4 x 23.7cm, maps, black and white photos.

A pioneering study that looks at the 1914-18 War from the perspective of South Asia. 1.5 million Indians fought with the British in the First World War from Flanders to the African bush and the deserts of the Islamic world. They saved the Allies from defeat in 1914 and were vital to global victory in 1918. Beautifully written, the book uses previously unpublished veteran interviews to tell their story as never before and is of vital importance to understanding the war and our world today. Fluent and colourful, these interview transcripts were recorded in the 1970s and Morton-Jack has produced a multi-layered and rigorously researched and empathetic history told with an easy, flowing grace. The Indian Army was a war-winning machine, and his book exposes the cruel nature and sheer brutality of the British colonial regime and the Indian soldiers who served, and lays bare the endemic racism that they shamefully suffered. We meet an excellent cast of characters including the deserter brothers Mir Dast VC and Mir Mast, the tragic figure of General Willcocks, and many others in this highly original and dedicated history of the Indian experience. 595pp, paperback, maps and photos.

Sussex-born tour guide, teacher, history consultant and journalist Kevin Newman regularly escapes up on the South Downs on walks much shorter than Belloc managed. Many writers have written about the delights of the former kingdom of the South Saxons, its Downs, villages, countryside, people and their ways, but this is the first book to take readers on a tour of discovery of each of the county's historic eras in turn. It looks at Ancient, Roman, Saxon, Viking, Norman, Medieval, Tudor and Second Iron Age, Stuart, Civil War and Restoration, Georgian, Napoleonic and Regency, Industrial, Victorian, Resort and Railway Era, Edwardian and First World War, Interwar, Art Deco/Modernist and Second World War, Post and Cold War Sussex. Points of interest like Church Norton, Chichester Cathedral, Arundel Castle, Goodwood, all houses and points of interest and where to lunch are marked in bold text in a book celebrating the writers, painters, royalty, artists and millions who have enjoyed Sussex's changing coastline and verdant villages. Hundreds of black and white photos, line art and maps. A super and quirky slice of history in one heavyweight softback handbook, 198pp, 15.5cm x 23cm.

Perhaps the greatest book ever written about war. Oppression soldier von Clauswitz had witnessed at first hand the immense destructive power of French Revolutionary armies which swept across Europe between 1792 and 1815. His response was to write a comprehensive text covering every aspect of warfare - a philosophical and practical work with highly controversial passages. His arguments are illustrated with vivid examples from the campaigns of Frederick the Great and Napoleon Bonaparte. Abridged and with an Introduction by Louise Willmot. Translated by Constance Garnett, with an Introduction and Notes by Agnes Cardinal, Honorary Senior Lecturer in Comparative Literature at the University of Kent. 373 page paperback.

A history of the 24th (Pembroke & Glamorgan Yeomanry) Battalion, the Welsh Regiment from Pen & Sword military books. Soon after the Great War, following many years of part time soldiering as cavalry troops on home defence duties, the members of various British Yeomanry regiments were asked to volunteer for overseas service. In 1916, officered by well-known members of the landed gentry, two of the Welsh Yeomanry regiments, the Pembroke & Glamorgan, were amongst many who embarked for foreign service for the first time in their history. Spending the next 12 months in Egypt during the campaign against the Senussi tribesmen, the two regiments merged to form the 24th Battalion, Welsh Regiment, which joined the 74th (Yeomanry) Division to take part in the historic offensive into Palestine that ultimately led to the liberation of the Holy City of Jerusalem after 400 years of Ottoman rule. In May 1918, after two years of hard campaigning in the Palestinian desert, the 24th Welsh embarked for France with the rest of the 74th Division, joining the Allied forces in the victorious 100-day offensive against the Germans. This book sheds important new light on the battalion's almost forgotten campaign in Palestine which saw many of its troops killed and buried in the Holy Land and also tells the enthralling story of its short but arduous period in France. Appendices listing casualties by name, rank, number, regiment and date of death, officers, and Honours and Awards. Dozens of maps, archive photos and contemporary photos, 200 page large softback.

Western culture has a popular tradition of women who dressed as men and joined the military, often immortalised in books or on stage and screen. Julie Wheelwright soon discovered many of these accounts are highly fictionalised and the real experience of warrior women was frequently one of isolation as they strove to maintain their disguise or, latterly, having to prove their worth against the men in a mixed regiment. 'She brings their temperaments, talents, fancies, and foibles to life.' - Professor Joanna Bourke, Birkbeck, University of London. Sisters in Arms charts the evolution of women in combat, from the Scythian warriors who inspired the Amazonian myth, to the passing soldiers and sailors of the eighteenth century, and on to the re-emergence of women as official members of the armed forces in the twentieth century. The female warrior often endured judgement and poverty and although some managed to fight for a pension, make a living from memoirs or settle back into domestic life, the majority faced hardship, obscurity and worse. Wheelwright uses verifiable official documents, diaries, letters and memoirs from the mid-18th century on as she follows the evolution of women in combat, both clandestine and as recognised soldiers, and shows us shocking parallels between the two experiences, such as the fight for acceptance, for equal pay and against the threat of sexual assault, which both how much and how little things have changed. 16 pages of excellent b/w plates, 320pp.

First published by Oxford University Press in 1926, this paperback 2017 edition is a welcome reprint. The aim of the book is to give some idea of the French Revolution to the general reader who is not an historical student. The narrative is based on many years' study of contemporary documents such as the 40 volumes of Buchez and Roux's Histoire Parlementaire, containing much that is inaccessible elsewhere, and great books on the history of Paris during the Revolution, plus letters and memoirs and de Tocqueville's L'Ancien Regime et la Révolution. The 12 chapters begin with The Calling of the States-General 1787-1789, The Struggle with the King, The Rule of the Constituent Assembly, The King and the Constitution, The War 30th September 1791 to 3rd July 1792, The Struggle Between the Gironde and the Mountain, The Reign of Terror I, II and III, Famine and Vengeance and The End of the Convention. When picturing the infamous French Revolution most of us think of the guillotine, mass execution and terror. E. D. Bradby shows us the other side - the grand ideas of liberty, equality and fraternity. His portrayal of figures like Robespierre, who had come to be viewed as a butcher but who started out as a patriot, are fair and full of nuance. Likewise King Louis and Marie Antoinette are written not as innocent victims nor as cruel tyrants but as flawed people making difficult choices. A revelation for any reader, the history focuses on the potential for friend to turn against friend and Bradby shows us the legacy of the French Revolution and its lasting impact on modern society. 512pp, paperback.

Sub-titled 'The True Story of a Young Nurse in Wartime London'. In 1938, 18 year old Phyllis Ellsworth packs her bags, says goodbye to her anxious parents, and sets off from her quiet seaside home for Hackney Hospital in London's bustling East End. There she is to fulfil her dream to train as a nurse. At first it is a whirlwind of hard work, new friends and plenty of mischief, but just ten months later Britain declares war on Germany and life at the hospital is transformed. Phyll's days become an endless cycle of air-raid sirens, injured servicemen, and civilians anxiously waiting for news of loved ones. When she falls for a handsome young soldier, Phyll's work provides the only distraction from worrying about his safety. A true story of coming of age in terrible times, the blossoming of first romance, a life-long love affair and a young woman whose eagerness to do good in the world brought her suddenly face to face with death and drama in all its many guises. Published in Phyll's 95th year she lived to record the events of 75 years earlier recalling names, places and key events vividly, and the experience of fear and the sheer courage of a generation we are now losing. 325pp, paperback.

The epic story of history's most extraordinary evacuation, and one of the most famous episodes of the Second World War, this book is about the miracle on the beaches that saved a nation. In May 1940, British and Allied troops on mainland Europe were in a perilous situation - cut off and surrounded, they faced complete annihilation. It would be a devastating blow, handing Europe to the Nazis. But over a few frantic days the greatest evacuation in history managed to salvage hope, saving the army and hundreds of thousands of soldiers' lives. It was a pivotal and defining moment in the war, one Winston Churchill described as a 'miracle' in his 'We shall fight them on the beaches' speech. Best selling author John Harris describes in vivid detail how the evacuation developed on a day-by-day basis and destroys more than one myth associated with Dunkirk. Packed with authentic atmospheric and first-hand recollections, the desperate lifting of the weary British Expeditionary Force is seen in its tragic but spirited entirety, an epic of courage and confusion without parallel. First published in 1980 and here is facsimile reprint with quite large print. 267pp, paperback.

With novelistic flair, investigative journalist Simon Parkin shines a light on Operation Raspberry and these unsung heroines in this riveting true story of war at sea. Sub-titled 'The Secret Game that Revolutionised the War' here is a gripping narrative that shines fresh light on an important and little known facet of the war against the German U-boats. In his splendid new history of the war in the Atlantic, Parkin's book rips along at full sail and is full of personality and personalities. He celebrates the ingenuity of a British naval 'reject' and the accomplishments of the formerly faceless women never officially rewarded for their contribution to the Allied defeat of Germany. 1941 and the Battle of the Atlantic is a disaster. Thousands of supply ships ferrying vital food and fuel from North America to Britain are being torpedoed by German U-boats. Britain is only weeks away from starvation and with that, crushing defeat. In the first week of 1942 a group of unlikely heroes, a retired naval captain and a clutch of brilliant young women, gather to form a secret strategy unit. On the top floor of a bomb-bruised HQ in Liverpool, the Western Approaches Tactical Unit spends days and nights designing and playing war games in an effort to crack the U-boat tactics. As the U-boat wolf packs continue to prey upon the supply ships, the Wrens race against time to save Britain. With 16 pages of photos, index and notes, 307pp in paperback.