Dedicated to 'that great family of merry, mean yet magnificent mercenaries, the men of the French Foreign Legion', Edmund Murray was chosen in 1950 to protect Sir Winston Churchill MP, then Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons. 'I was to remain with Sir Winston as his constant companion for the next 15 years, accompanying him wherever he went on land, on sea and in the air... I was just outside his bedroom when he died on 24th January 1965, leaving behind an emptiness that will never be filled.' Having written his autobiography in 1987, he decided to give much more detail about his life in the French Foreign Legion to which he signed up at aged just 19 in 1937 armed with little more than schoolboy French and a desire for a life of adventure. Murray travelled through France and on to the Legion's headquarters in Algeria where he completed a gruelling three month basic training programme. He went on to serve in Morocco and Indochina (now Vietnam) where, towards the end of the War, his regiment were forced to retreat from invading Japanese forces into China where his service ended after eight years as a Legionnaire. Throughout WW2, Murray's overwhelming sense of duty compelled him to try to leave the Legion and join the Allied forces, but he was thwarted at every attempt. He was an Englishman in a French organisation, by definition a home for 'the men with no names', where battle lines and countries' boundaries changed almost daily. He was a diplomatic puzzle, but as such his was an extraordinary wartime experience, and this book which borrows from his earlier autobiography and includes rare insights into Legion life from drills and manoeuvres to feast-days and festivals as well as accounts of friendships forged in exceptional circumstances which would last a lifetime. 151pp, colour photos, badges and decorations.

Quiet, dutiful and shy, Princess Mary born at Sandringham on 25th April 1897, and would grow to become one of the most respected senior members of the royal family. Anyone with an interest in the Great War will surely have heard of her, and of the brass box that carries her image and her Christmas Gift Fund of 1914. Aged just 17, Mary was engaged with the London Needlework Guild, a focus of activity with her mother. A combination of her interest and empathy undoubtedly led her to desire to develop her own gift for the Sailors and Soldiers of the Empire. The book is the remarkable story of the Princess's Christmas Gift, a simple appeal to the nation which began on 16th October 1914 in the Daily Mirror the Press Notice Announcement. The appeal was designed to provide a mark of recognition of the sacrifices being made by the armed forces and some way of providing comfort to them under challenging circumstances in that first Christmas in the First World War. The contents of the gifts varied depending on the town or village who had gathered sufficient funds for the 5,481 parcels that were sent out in time for Christmas Day. Subscribers rich and poor made their donations. For example the generous parcels from the people of Nottingham contained much of value to the average man on active service. They included the inevitable Christmas plum pudding, chocolate, woollen mittens, cigarettes, booklets of greetings, plain postcards, pencils, tins of Meloids, tins of peppermints, tablets of soap, caramels, tins of boric ointment, laces, tins of dubbin, tins of Vaseline and all together no fewer than 130,844 articles were packed and despatched 'as a token of appreciation of the services of those undertaking the hardships and risking the dangers of the great conflict.' Each gift was provided with a specially produced Christmas booklet that carried the message 'With most cordial Christmas Greetings from the people of Nottingham and Nottinghamshire' together with portraits of the King and Queen, the Prince of Wales, and Princess Mary. Set against the backdrop of the Christmas Truce of 1914, the book is the first time the full story of the Princess's gift has been told. It is lavishly illustrated with surviving artefacts, archive records, letters and newspaper reports and the full contents of the gift and its many variants, the design and manufacturer of the gift box, as well as the meaning of the gift to many of its recipients. It also covers gifts for the Indian Army, nurses and non-smokers and a look at those in the Colonies and also casualties of 1914. Glamorous first edition, 320 glossy pages packed with colour and archive images.

In his foreword to this book Prof Christopher Andrew makes a poignant observation. In 1946 the White House was made publicly aware of US decryption of Japanese coded messages, so it was difficult for GCHQ to understand why, for 30 years, no historian had posed the rather obvious question of whether German ciphers had been cracked in WWII, and by whom. The answer was that all involved had been sworn to secrecy for life and all who either took part or who had discovered the truth had kept to their oaths and it was not until 1975 that the government acknowledged the facts and the amazing story of the codebreakers of Bletchley Park began to emerge. Perhaps the most prominent of them was Alan Turing and it is his nephew Dermot, author of many other volumes on codebreaking and early computing, that provides us with rather excellent "Who's Who" of the entire Bletchley Park operation - not just those who worked in the huts, but also the US, French, Polish and British government officials involved. Turing narrates the story from its beginnings Room 40 in the Old Admiralty Building in Whitehall in 1914. As Britain woke up to the threat of Hitler it was decided that the codebreakers needed a new home - out of town, big enough to accommodate a rapidly growing staff, good communications and not too obvious to enemy spies. In 1938 Bletchley Park came onto the market and was snapped up and "Captain Ridley's Shooting Party", the first group of spies and codebreakers, moved in. As the story progresses, Turing provides potted biographies of all who feature, both famed and less well-known, bringing to life the stories of these dedicated men and women who toiled day and night in the service of their country. With many b/w photos and plenty of delightful asides and anecdotes, here is the human face of one of our greatest wartime achievements. 256pp paperback.

A moving and sombre exploration of reality under Hitler's regime. People's fight against censorship, prejudice, beatings, imprisonment and murder are recounted and celebrated as victories against the violence of the Nazi rule, from the 'free university' in Brussels which saw students and teachers setting up underground classes in the face of Nazi 'guest professors' in 1941, to the Danish underground who were unique in seeking the approval of the workers affected by their sabotage. Read about the Nazi's execution of 60,000 people in Poland who were the country's intellectual élite and political and religious leaders, lament the murder of 1,300 civilians and the decimation of two villages in Czechoslovakia after a small group of Czech rebels assassinated Reinhard Heydrich in 1942, and understand further the violence of the Nazis against Dutch soldiers and workers who decided to strike against the invaders in 1943. In the end the Germans shot 180 strikers dead, wounded 400 more and arrested a further 900 who were transported to concentration and forced labour camps. This historical companion includes tragic diary extracts from Anne Frank which describe how, at any time of night or day, Jewish people were dragged out of their homes and families were torn apart. Photographs include a portrait of an unnamed French resistance fighter from Life magazine in 1944, a picture of a detachment of German troops crossing the river Vlatava in Prague on 23rd March 1939, and a snapshot of the Duke of Windsor visiting a stock factory on 11th October 1937 and sitting beside Robert Ley, whom Hitler liked to mock for his speech defect. Travel from Germany and France, to Denmark, Holland and Norway as you understand the far-reaching, tragic actions of the Nazis and how people stood up against them. Paperback, photographs, 224pp.

True stories of seduction, subterfuge and state secrets, all's fair in love at war, at least the Nazis thought so. They deployed sex like no other weapon to achieve their goal of world domination, and were prepared to go to amazing lengths to gain Allied secrets. This book contains unforgettable but little-known stories featuring the likes of Princess Stephanie Juliane von Hohenlohe, a close friend of Hitler who used her relationship with Lord Rothermere the press baron to try to encourage the Daily Mail to support the Nazis. Here are the murky secrets of the Russian Tea Room in London's South Kensington, and fashion designer Coco Chanel's plans to persuade Winston Churchill to end the war. There are cases from a time when brothels became hotbeds of bugging and blackmail and pillow talk was used to topple nations. We meet La Jana, a dancer and actress who spearheaded the Nazis' attempts to replicate Hollywood rituals, seen in a saucy shot on page 8; blacklisting, liaisons ending in unwanted children, spies like 'Vera' learning Morse code, radio transmission, microphotography and simple sabotage in Operation Hummer Nord, intelligence provided by 'Ruth' the peach of Pearl Harbor and US Naval intelligence, Edgar Hoover and the FBI, Wild Bill Donovan and the OSS and Swastika swishery, lesbian vices, a right royal scandal and more. 256pp in illustrated paperback.

In 1939, ever increasing numbers of budding cryptanalysts started reporting for wartime duty at a country house in north Buckinghamshire. Musicians, society debutants and novelists were among the women and tweedy, owlish young men, their heads filled with astounding equations and barely comprehensible calculations. The 10,000 men and women who worked at Bletchley Park had to sign the Official Secrets Act and they kept their vow of silence implacably for decades afterwards. Some died without the satisfaction of even their own families knowing about their crucial work breaking the German and Japanese codes. Belatedly however the secret was lifted, and now Sinclair McKay chooses a hundred of Bletchley Park's alumni to tell the stories of their whole lives, and not just the wartime interlude. Sometimes the distinction as chess players, musicians or linguists was what saw these young people selected. For others the intense intellectual crucible seems to have galvanised their ambition and widened their horizons, and sent them out into the post-war world determined to make a difference with their lives. Here then are the historians and archaeologists, novelists and naturalists, but also classics masters, a Nuremberg prosecutor and an associate of Andy Warhol - everyone from Roy Jenkins to the man who wrote the music for the Dracula films, and from the woman who saved St Pancras Station to Prince Philip's first girlfriend, and even those unfairly judged during their lives not to have amounted to much at all. 250pp, eight pages of photos.

Brilliantly contrasting the Old World of wartime France with the hopeful New World epitomised by Christian Dior's New Look, the book revolves around his younger sister Catherine Dior, a Resistance heroine. Picardie explores the relationship between the visionary designer and his beloved sister who inspired his most famous perfume and shaped his vision of femininity. Picardie's journey takes her to wartime Paris, where Christian honed his couture skills while Catherine dedicated herself to the French Resistance and the battle against the Nazis, until she was captured by the Gestapo and deported to the German concentration camp of Ravensbrück. Catherine's story shines - the quiet Dior who preferred flowers to fashion, the unsung heroine who survived the abuse of the Third Reich to help liberate France. The final section of the book covers in depth the British royal family including a wonderful full page colour photograph of Princess Margaret wearing her Dior gown for her 21st birthday portrait in 1951, photographed by Cecil Beaton. Packed with archive and colour photographs, fashion shoots, illustrations, dress designs, the salon of the Worth Couture House Paris 1910 and even a doll with a shaved head made by a prisoner at Ravensbrück, contrasting the exhaustion, starvation and torment by thirst and abusive guards and snarling dogs with fashion and wealth. 438pp in large softback 17.4 x 23.5cm beautifully designed and extremely well illustrated throughout in both colour and black and white.

In searing detail and immediacy, all the violence, grief, pathos, black humour and courage of conflict emerges in this collection of first-person accounts. Reflecting bestselling historian Max Hastings's lifetime of studying war, his book rings the changes through the centuries. Nearly 350 stories illustrate what it is like to fight in wars, to live and die as a warrior, from Greek and Roman times through to recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here you will meet Jewish heroes of the Bible, Rome's captain of the gate, Queen Boudicca, Joan of Arc, Cromwell, Wellington, Napoleon's marshals, Ulysses S. Grant, to a Vietnamese woman holding her child during conflict and SAS troops storming the Iranian Embassy. There are tales of great writers who served in uniform including Cobbett and Tolstoy, Edward Gibbon and Siegfried Sassoon, Proust and Waugh, Orwell and George MacDonald Fraser. Here are also stories of the female 'abosi' fighters of Dahomey, and heroic ambulance drivers of World War One, together with the new-age women soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. The stories reflect a change of mood towards warfare through the ages: although nations and movements continue to inflict terrible violence upon each other, most of humankind has retreated from the old notion of war as a sport or pastime, to acknowledge it as the supreme tragedy. We enter now the 21st century which some are already calling 'the Post-Heroic Age'. 517 magnificent pages with a gallery of photographs in black and white and colour.

Blending biography and history this is a highly readable account of Winston Churchill's adventures as a young war correspondent from the jungles of Cuba and the mountains of the North-West Frontier to the banks of the Nile and the plains of South Africa. Enthralled by combat, cigars and whisky, young Winston showed extraordinary courage and tenacity under fire. He was the brazen foreign correspondent covering wars of empire in Cuba, India, the Sudan, and South Africa and in those far-flung corners of the world he reported from the front lines between 1895 and 1900. He mastered his celebrated command of language and formed strong opinions about war. He thought little of his own personal safety, so convinced was he of his destiny, jumping at any chance to be where bullets flew and canons roared. Based on his private letters and war reportage, the book intertwines young Winston's daring exploits in combat, adventures, and rise as a major literary talent, experiences that shaped the world leader he was to become. The huge public interest generated by his South African activities, his capture and subsequent escape provided the final boost Churchill needed to edge his way as a Conservative into the formerly Liberal parliamentary seat of Oldham. 309 exciting pages, photos.

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.