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.

Oliver Cromwell, born a middle-ranking nobody in a declining county family in an obscure part of the country, became the only non-royal ruler of Britain. He organised the only public trial and execution of a king, brutalised parts of the British Isles in an attempt to unite them, changed religious and political life forever, and still divides people today. This book is not a biography of Cromwell but rather follows in his footsteps, both physically and mentally, attempting to work out what was happening in Cromwell's mind as he passed through these physical and political landscapes, always aware of the danger of overreach. The second part of the book considers his reputation after death. Cromwell was both soldier and politician and his actions and ideas still have political and social consequences today. The book begins in Huntingdon in 1599, with the respectable but unimportant Cromwell family living under the shadow of richer relatives. Civil War and Cromwell's controversial successes at Marston Moor, Naseby, Basing House and Worcester transform him into the most powerful person in Britain, and moving him from a modest house in Ely to Hampton Court Palace. Cromwell is involved in the execution of King Charles I outside the Banqueting House, his own coronation in Westminster Hall, and bloody slaughter in Ireland. His death in 1658 does not end the controversy. His enemies take revenge on his corpse and the debate about his legacy begins. 151 page large softback, illus.

Rare photographs from wartime archives, many of which are very distressing showing heaps of dead bodies, elderly Jews, women and children, wearing the star of David waiting selection on the ramp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Sonderkommandos assisted the newly arrived transports. The other principal groups of 'helpers' were Kapos and Trawniki. The Nazis' vast concentration camp network and later the Final Solution programme made heavy demands on the SS whose responsibility it was. The use of 'overseers' minimised costs and enabled the camps to run with fewer SS personnel. The super commandoes' duties included unloading Jews from trains, collecting their possessions and sorting them for storage. Under the supervision of the SS, their main assignment was to run the gas chambers and crematoria. The Kapos oversaw the Sonderkommandos. Many were originally prisoner functionaries recruited from violent criminal gangs and they had a well-deserved reputation for brutality. The third group known as Trawniki or Trawnikimänner were Central and Eastern European collaborators recruited from Russian PoW camps. While some served in a military capacity, others played an instrumental role in the Holocaust programme, rounding up and transporting Jews from the ghettos to the concentration camps. Whilst the Sonderkommandos were forced to undertake various grisly tasks, with the added fear of being killed at any moment, the Kapos and Trawniki competed without scruple to maintain the favour of their SS masters while pitting victim against victim. Very little text, the book is in the Images of War series and reproduces approximately 200 rare contemporary archive images of forced labour, known personnel and very harrowing images such as skeletal corpses being dragged in irons by the head and pushed into the oven for incineration (which normally took 45 minutes to one hour). 114pp, large softback.

'With incredible photos from never-before-seen archives which show the SAS in all its remarkable dash and splendour, this is incisive commentary and a fine wartime history. Spiced with sexual and criminal statistics, Joshua Levine reveals a Britain of loose morals, opportunistic pilfering and cheating, and hedonistic pleasure alongside the familiar virtues of courage and community.' - Sunday Telegraph. The SAS began as a lie, a story of a British Parachute Unit in the North African desert to convince the Axis they were under imminent threat. The lie was so effective that soon a small band of men were brought together to make it real, and these recruits were the toughest and brightest of their cohort. Their first commanders, David Stirling and Paddy Mayne, would go down in history as unorthodox visionaries. This book tells much more than the usual origin story and seeks out less well-known leaders like Bill Fraser, who was essential in helping the SAS achieve fame for their devastating raids. Written with the full cooperation of the SAS, and with exclusive access to archives, Joshua Levine includes interviews with veterans and family members and each page gives a visceral sense of what it was like to fight and train in the SAS in both North Africa and Europe during the Second World War, focussing on their failures as well as their successes. Levine's background as an actor, barrister and historian makes him the ideal interlocutor putting his interviewees at ease. 310pp, masses of archive and colour photos.

The hydrogeologist author is a member of the Western Front Association with a special interest in the First World War. Few soldiers on the Western Front had heard of the Australian Electrical and Mechanical Mining and Boring Company, even after it had been renamed the 'Alphabet Company' by an AIF wag, yet many knew the work of this tiny unit which numbered fewer than 300 at full strength. Its influence was enormous and spanned the entire British sector of the Western Front, from the North Sea to the Somme. This is the story of the 'Alphabeticals' who, led by Major Victor Morse DSO, operated and maintained pumps, generators, ventilation fans, drilling equipment and other ingenious devices in the horrendous conditions of the trenches in which the troops lived and fought. These quiet achievers provided unsung services and here is the story of the three Australian tunnelling companies which resulted following the disbandment in May 1916. Many of the uses had never been imagined by the manufacturers and much of these front-line tunnelling activities were generally secret undertakings. The bulk of records relating to the unit were destroyed in a fire just months before they were due to be handed to the War Office so Morse hastily typed up the Unit's history based on his recollections and remnants of records salvaged from the fire. The Alphabet Company arrived in France with 13 electric generating sets, underground ventilation and water pumping equipment, also 40 portable drilling machines and large, steam-powered drilling machines, and their work became increasingly prized and more and more equipment was purchased and more men trained in its operation. Their workplaces were frequently hot, cramped, smelly little dugouts, cellars or roughly constructed lean-tos. The book seeks to do justice to the work of this dynamic little unit. 329pp in large well illustrated softback including archive photos and maps. Please note contents same as code 93260.

A startling, gripping portrait of what it was like to be alive in Britain during the Blitz, and what it was like to be around Winston Churchill. On Winston Churchill's first day as Prime Minister, Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next 12 months, the Nazis would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons and destroying two million homes. In this book, Erik Larson gives a new and brilliantly cinematic account of how Britain's most iconic leader set about unifying the nation at its most vulnerable moment, and teaching 'the art of being fearless.' Set in the shelled streets of London, the book traces the fraught decisions, personal clashes and intimate affairs that defined Churchill's first tempestuous months in power. Larson's deft portraits show the essential connection that words created between the powerful and the powerless, and the reader turns the pages with his gripping prose. There are narrative arcs, heroes, villains and suspense aplenty. Drawing on once-secret intelligence reports and diaries, the bestselling author takes us to Churchill's own chambers, giving a vivid vision of true leadership and perseverance bound a country together. 585pp, paperback.

From the Wars of the Roses and the Earl of Essex losing his head, London turning against Charles I, Wellington and Nelson crossing paths, Russell's despatches from the Crimean War, spies in World War One, women wearing the trousers in industry and services, World War Two and queueing becoming a pastime, weekly allowances, nylons, whiskey, knicker elastic, digging for victory, eating out, bombing casualties, Ian Fleming taking his naval role with zeal, hospitals, the BBC, over five million books destroyed in the Paternoster Row hit, Penguin revolutionising paperbacks, tensions developing between US troops and Londoners, the ATS and the Home Guards, here are stories of mighty battles, heroic deeds and staunch determination in the face of adversity. A rich history of our remarkable capital city in times of war, an absorbing collection of stories and trivia. 142pp, well illus. with line art and photos.

The sound of silence - even the Heckler & Koch 'sound dampened' is not completely silent because when a gun is fired there are actually two noises - the explosion of the cartridge, and the high-velocity crack of the bullet if it breaks the sound barrier. This authoritative illustrated historical reference guide to military, law enforcement and antique firearms from around the globe contains the world's most important small guns. From the medieval hand cannon and the matchlock handgun to the Luger P08 and today's FN P90, here are famous small arms including the Colt .45, the Browning High-Power M1935, the Smith & Wesson and the Sten Machine Gun. This magnificent volume has 180 specially commissioned photographs and artworks including cutaway diagrams to show internal components and gun operation and is expertly written by leading professionals in their field. Old weapons are often objects of beautiful craftsmanship both in their workings and their ornate inlay, carvings and metalwork. Just as impressive are the sleek, light and efficient modern designs. Grouped according to country of origin, the entries focus on the salient features of each gun with a full specification, manufacturer, calibre, magazine, action, total length, barrel length, and weight unloaded together with a close-up colour photograph. 256 large pages, 22 x 28cm.