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The Pirate Queen: The Life of Grace O'Malley
by Judith CookIn a life stranger than any fiction, Grace O’Malley, daughter of a clan chief in the far west of Ireland, went from marriage at fifteen to piracy on the high seas. She soon had a fleet of galleys under her commander, but her three decades of plundering, kidnapping, murder and mayhem came to a close in 1586, when she was captured and sentenced to hang.Saved from the scaffold by none other than Queen Elizabeth herself – another powerful woman in a man’s world – Grace’s life took another extraordinary turn, when it was rumoured she had become intelligencer for the queen’s spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham. Was this the price of her freedom?Judith Cook explores this and other questions about the life and times of this remarkable woman in a fascinating, thrilling and impeccably researched book.
The Long Way Home: The Other Great Escape
by John McCallumI couldn't stop turning the pages... a great tale with a deep message' George Robertson 'a thrilling escapade' Bournemouth Echo At the age of nineteen, Glasgow-born John McCallum signed up as a Supplementary Reservist in the Signal Corps. A little over a year later, he was in France, working frantically to set up communication lines as Europe once more hurtled towards war. Wounded and captured at Boulogne, he was sent to the notorious Stalag VIIIB prison camp, together with his brother, Jimmy, and friend Joe Harkin. Ingenious and resourceful, the three men set about planning their escape. With the help of Traudl, a local girl, they put their plan into action. In an astonishing coincidence, they passed through the town of Sagan, around which the seventy-six airmen of the Great Escape were being pursued and caught. However, unlike most of these other escapees, John, Jimmy and Joe eventually made it to freedom. Now, due to the declassification of documents under the Official Secrets Act, John McCallum is finally able to tell the thrilling story of his adventure, in which he recaptures all the danger, audacity and romance of one of the most daring escapes of the Second World War.
The Tartan Pimpernel
by Donald Caskie Caskie Donald Caskie, was born at Bowmore, Islay in 1902Donald Caskie was a minister of the Scots Kirk in Paris at the time of German invasion of France in 1940. Although he had the opportunity to flee, Caskie stayed behind to help establish a network of safe houses and escape routes for allied soldiers and airmen trapped in occupied territory. He was finally sentenced to death at a Nazi show-trial.
The Thirty-Nine Steps: Authorised Edition (The Richard Hannay Adventures - Selected as one of the 100 best novels in English in the Guardian)
by John BuchanRecently returned from South Africa, adventurer Richard Hannay is bored with life, but after a chance encounter with an American who informs him of an assassination plot and is then promptly murdered in Hannay’s London flat, he becomes the obvious suspect and is forced to go on the run. He heads north to his native Scotland, fleeing the police and his enemies. Hannay must keep his wits about him if he is to warn the government before all is too late.John Buchan was a Scottish diplomat, barrister, journalist, historian, poet and novelist. He published nearly 30 novels and seven collections of short stories. He was born in Perth, an eldest son, and studied at Glasgow and Oxford. In 1901 he became a barrister of the Middle Temple and a private secretary to the High Commissioner for South Africa. In 1907 he married Susan Charlotte Grosvenor and they subsequently had four children. After spells as a war correspondent, Lloyd George’s Director of Information and Conservative MP, Buchan moved to Canada in 1935. He served as Governor General there until his death in 1940.
The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich
by Callum MacdonaldSS-Obergruppenfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich rose through the ranks from relative obscurity in the 1920s to the pinnacle of power in the Third Reich by 1936. He was considered the most dangerous man in Nazi Germany after Hitler himself. He was Himmler's deputy, yet even Himmler feared him. He operated in secret, quietly devoting his time to organising the Holocaust. On 27 May 1942 a Czech agent, part of a team of parachutists trained by SOE, threw a bomb at a passing Mercedes Heydrich was travelling in. Eight days later he died in agony from his wounds. The assassination sent a shock wave through the Nazi leadership and provoked ferocious reprisals against Czechs and Jews, the most notorious of which was the total obliteration of Lidice and the massacre of its inhabitants. Based on original archive material and interviews with surviving members of SOE and Czech military intelligence, this story of danger and tragedy is as exciting and strange as a spy thriller.
Churchill 1940-1945: Under Friendly Fire
by Walter ReidMagnificent. This is a meticulously researched history, but it is also a very moving human story' - Harry Reid, The Herald. 'This is an outstanding account and to be recommended to all students of the high strategy of the Second World War without reservation' - British Army Review. In April 1945 Churchill said to Sir Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, 'There is only one thing worse than fighting with allies, and that is fighting without them!' When he became Prime Minister on 10 May 1940 Churchill was without allies. Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain saved Britain from immediate defeat, but it was evident that Britain alone could never win the war. Churchill looked to America. He said that until Pearl Harbor 'no lover ever studied every whim of his mistress as I did those of President Roosevelt'. But would Roosevelt have entered the war if Pearl Harbor had not taken place? Until then his actions were ambivalent, and even afterwards America's policy was largely shaped by self-interest and her idea of what a post-war world should be like. Lend-Lease, for instance, was far from what Churchill publicly described as 'the most unsordid act in the history of any nation', but rather a tool of American policy. Churchill's account of relations with his allies and associates was sanitised for the historical record and has been accepted uncritically. In reality he had to battle with the generals and the CIGS, Tory backbenchers and the War Cabinet, de Gaulle and the Free French and - above all - the Americans. Even his wife, Clementine, could on occasions be remarkably unsupportive. He told his secretary, 'The difficulty is not in winning the war; it is in persuading people to let you win it - persuading fools'. Walter Reid, the author of several acclaimed works on 20th-century military history, brings together the result of recent research to create a powerful narrative which reveals how much time and energy was devoted to fighting the war that was excluded from the official accounts, the war with the allies.
The Flowers of the Forest: Scotland and the First World War
by Trevor RoyleTrevor Royle has done First World War History a great service' - Gary Sheffield 'Graphic, ably controlled...the power of imaginative storytelling is Royle's endeavour' - The Guardian 'His exceptional talents at narration produce a work that is both through-provoking and engaging. This is a vivid, solidly-written book, drawing upon the best in recent scholarship' - International Review of Scottish Studies On the brink of the First World War, Scotland was regarded throughout the British Isles as 'the workshop of the Empire'. Not only were Clyde-built ships known the world over, Scotland produced half of Britain's total production of railway equipment, and the cotton and jute industries flourished in Paisley and Dundee. In addition, Scots were a hugely important source of manpower for the colonies. Yet after the war, Scotland became an industrial and financial backwater. Emigration increased as morale slumped in the face of economic stagnation and decline. The country had paid a disproportionately high price in casualties, a result of huge numbers of volunteers and the use of Scottish battalions as shock troops in the fighting on the Western Front and Gallipoli - young men whom the novelist Ian Hay called 'the vanished generation'. In this book, Trevor Royle provides the first full account of how the war changed Scotland irrevocably by exploring a wide range of themes - the overwhelming response to the call for volunteers; the performance of Scottish military formations in 1915 and 1916; the militarisation of the Scottish homeland; the resistance to war in Glasgow and the west of Scotland; the boom in the heavy industries and the strengthening of women's role in society following on from wartime employment.
Architect of Victory: Douglas Haig
by Walter ReidA thoughtful reassessment' - Stand To! 'Sharp and clear...swift and surefooted' - The Scotsman 'A careful biographer' - Times Literary Supplement 'Those new to the Haig debate will receive a good introduction. Those already familiar with the subject matter will enjoy Reid's writing style and reflective moments' - The British Army Review 'An outstanding success. The argument is beautifully presented and written in very clear English. This is a substantial work which follows the rules of classical biography' - Politique étrangère Douglas Haig's popular image as an unimaginative butcher is unenviable and unmerited. In fact, he masterminded a British-led victory over a continental opponent on a scale that has never been matched before or since. Contrary to myth, Haig was not a cavalry-obsessed, blinkered conservative, as satirised in Oh! What a Lovely War and Blackadder Goes Forth. Fascinated by technology, he pressed for the use of tanks, enthusiastically embraced air power, and encouraged the use of new techniques involving artillery and machine-guns. Above all, he presided over a change in infantry tactics from almost total reliance on the rifle towards all-arms, multi-weapons techniques that formed the basis of British army tactics until the 1970s. Prior re-evaluations of Haig's achievements have largely been limited to monographs and specialist writings. Walter Reid has written the first biography of Haig that takes into account modern military scholarship, giving a more rounded picture of the private man than has previously been available. What emerges is a picture of a comprehensible human being, not necessarily particularly likeable, but honourably ambitious, able and intelligent, and the man more than any other responsible for delivering victory in 1918.
Six Months Without Sundays: The Scots Guards in Afghanistan
by Max BenitzMax Benitz reports from the frontline of a highly controversial war in a perceptive and revealing account of several months spent in Afghanistan with this world-famous infantry battalion. Training with them and living amongst them as they undertake their tour in Helmand province, Benitz gives a unique insight into the pressures faced by those who risk their lives every second of the day in one of the most dangerous places on earth. Fascinating and illuminating, The Scots Guards in Afghanistan reveals new insights into the war raging in Afghanistan and the men and women who bravely serve there for the British forces.
A Time of Tyrants: Scotland and the Second World War
by Trevor RoyleIn this book acclaimed military historian Trevor Royle examines Scotland's role in the Second World War from a wide range of perspectives. Throughout the conflict the country's geographical position gave it great strategic importance for importing war matériel and reinforcements, for conducting naval and aerial operations against the enemy and for training regular and specialist SOE and commando forces. Scotland also became a social melting pot with the arrival of Polish and numerous European refugees, whose presence added to the communal mix and assisted post-war reconstruction. The role played by women was also essential to the war effort: for the first time they were conscripted and worked on the land, in forests and in munitions factories such as the huge Rolls-Royce complex at Hillington. In addition to the important military aspects - the exploits of the Army's renowned 15th Scottish, 51st Highland and 52nd Lowland Divisions in Europe and North Africa and the role played by the RAF and the Royal Navy from Scottish bases, for example - Scotland was also vital as an industrial powerhouse and acted as the nation's larder. Culture, too, flourished, with a new generation of poets supporting Hugh MacDiarmid's Scottish Renaissance movement, which promoted the aims of Scots as a literary language. At the end of the war the new sense of internationalism encouraged the creation of the Edinburgh International Festival, which encapsulated the optimism that a brave new world was emerging. The war had a huge impact on politics, with national centralization achieved through the Scottish Office and the Scottish Grand Committee under the able guidance of Secretary of State Tom Johnston, who launched numerous initiatives to help the war effort and to create jobs. With the emergence of the post-war Labour government and the welfare state, nationalism went into decline and the dominance of socialism, especially in the west, paved the way for the command politics which dominated Scotland for the rest of the century. Based on previously unseen archives in the National Archives of Scotland, A Time of Tyrants is the first comprehensive history of the unique part played by Scotland and the Scots in the global war to defeat Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
River of Fire: The Clydebank Blitz
by John MacLeod"MacLeod is a splendid and elegiac narrator of neglected patches of Scotland's history and brings his poetic gifts again to this, the single most dreadful event in our nation's story" - The Observer "An unflinching record of what remains of Scotland's greatest human disaster in modern history" - The Herald Vibrating with endeavours for Britain's effort against the might of Nazi Germany, Clydebank was - in hindsight - an obvious target for the attentions of the Luftwaffe. When, on the evening of 13 March 1941, the authorities first detected that Clydebank was 'on beam' - targeted by the primitive radio-guidance system of the German bombers - no effort was made to raise the alarm or to direct the residents to shelter or flight. Within the hour, a vast timber-yard, three oil-stores, and two distilleries were ablaze, one pouring flaming whisky into a burn that ran blazing into the Clyde itself in vivid ribbons of fire. And still the Germans came; and Clydebank, now an inferno, lay illuminated and defenceless as heavy bombs of high-explosive, as land-mines and parachute blasters began to fall ...With reference to written sources and the memories of those who survived the experience, John MacLeod tells the story of the Clydebank Blitz and the terrible scale of death and devastation, speculating on why its incineration has been so widely forgotten and its ordeal denied any place in national honour.
World War II: Scottish Tales of Adventure
by Allan BurnettAcclaimed children's author Allan Burnett turns his attention to the Second World War in a book of explosively exciting and emotionally charged tales of bravery and adventure. Featuring the true exploits of soldiers, spies, pilots, sailors and many others, these stories, all based on interviews with these heroes themselves or their descendants, offer a unique, personal insight into the Second World War that no conventional history book can ever hope to match.
World War I: Scottish Tales of Adventure
by Allan BurnettAcclaimed children's author Allan Burnett turns his attention to the First World War in a book of explosively exciting and emotionally charged tales of bravery and adventure. Featuring the true exploits of soldiers, spies, pilots, sailors and many others, these stories, all based on interviews with these heroes themselves or their descendants, offer a unique, personal insight into the First World War that no conventional history book can ever hope to match.
Arras, 1917: The Journey to Railway Triangle
by Walter Reid'A splendid book' - Niall Ferguson To Arras, 1917 is a biography of the author's uncle, Ernest Reid, who died in 1917, an officer in the Black Watch, of wounds sustained in the Battle of Arras. Born and raised in Paisley, educated at Paisley Grammar School, then Glasgow University, Ernest Reid intended to become a lawyer before he volunteered for war service. The author the climate in which he grew up, and the influences which formed him and his generation, the generation which supplied the subalterns of the Great War. As a result, although the book remains primarily a biography of its subject, it also explored the spirit in which Britain, still essentially Victorian, went to war in 1914. This is the true and poignant account of a young Scottish officer, pinned down and fatally wounded in No-man's land on the first day of the Battle of Arras, on Easter Monday 1917. The gripping narrative creates a mood of sombre inevitability. It does not simply set out the events of Captain Ernest Reid's life, but puts Ernest's life into its moral as well as its historical context and describes the cultural influences - the code of duty, an unquestioning patriotism - that moulded him and his contemporaries for service and sacrifice in the killing fields of France and Flanders. In retrospect, he and they seem almost programmed for the role they were required to play, and in this lies the pathos at the heart of this moving book.
Shallow Graves in Siberia (Battleground Europe Ser.)
by Michael KrupaMichael Krupa was born into a poor family in south-west Poland, and in his teens was accepted into a Jesuit seminary. He ran away before taking his final vows and joined the army. Soon afterwards, the German tanks rolled into Poland and easily defeated her antiquated forces - the Polish cavalry were armed with sabres. Krupa survived Hitler's invasion, but was arrested in Soviet-occupied eastern Poland and accused of spying. After enduring torture in Moscow's notorious Lubianka prison, he was sentenced to ten years' corrective labour and deported to the Pechora Gulag. Most prisoners there were worked and starved to death within a year. But Krupa managed again to escape, and in the chaos following the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union made one of the most extraordinary journeys of the war - from Siberia to safety in Afghanistan. Krupa's Jesuit training had given him an inner strength and resilience which enabled him to survive in the face of appalling brutality and cruelty. Luck and the kindness of strangers helped him complete his epic journey to freedom.
Wings: The RAF at War, 1912-2012
by Patrick BishopThe Royal Air Force is synonymous with its heroic achievements in the summer of 1940, when Winston Churchill's 'famous few' - the Hurricane and Spitfire pilots of RAF Fighter Command - held Goering's Luftwaffe at bay in the Battle of Britain, thereby changing the course of the war. For much of the twentieth century, warplanes were fixed in the world's imagination, a symbol of the perils and excitements of the modern era. But within the space of a hundred years, military aviation has morphed from the exotic to the mundane. An activity which was charged with danger - the domain of the daring - is now carried out by computers and pilotless drones. Aviators have always seemed different to soldiers and sailors - more adventurous, questing and imaginative. Their stories gripped the public and in both wars and air aces dominated each side's propaganda, capturing hearts and dreams. Writing with the verve, passion and the sheer narrative aplomb familiar to many thousands of readers from his bestselling Second World War aerial histories, Fighter Boys and Bomber Boys, Patrick Bishop's Wings is a rich and compelling account of military flying from its heroic early days to the present.
False God of Rome: Tribune Of Rome, Rome's Executioner, False God Of Rome (Vespasian #3)
by Robert FabbriRome, AD 34: Vespasian is serving as a military officer on the outskirts of the Empire. But political events in Rome - Tiberius's increasing debauchery, the escalating grain crisis - draw him back to the city. When Caligula becomes Emperor, Vespasian believes that things will improve. Instead, the young emperor deteriorates from Rome's shining star to a blood-crazed, incestuous, all-powerful madman. Caligula's most extravagant project is to bridge the bay of Neapolis and ride over it wearing Alexander's breastplate. And it falls to Vespasian to travel to Alexandria and steal it from Alexander's mausoleum. Vespasian's mission will lead to violence, mayhem and theft - and in the end, to a betrayal so great it will echo through the ages.THE THIRD INSTALMENT IN THE VESPASIAN SERIES______________________________________________Don't miss Robert Fabbri's epic new series Alexander's Legacy
The Furies of Rome (Vespasian #7)
by Robert FabbriAD 58: Rome is in turmoil once more. Emperor Nero has set his heart on a new wife but to clear a path for her, he must first assassinate his Empress, Claudia Octavia. Vespasian needs to tread carefully here - Nero's new lover, Poppaea Sabina, is no friend of his and her ascent to power spells danger. Meanwhile, Nero's extravagance has reached new heights, triggering a growing financial crisis in Britannia. Vespasian is sent to Londinium to rescue the situation, only to become embroiled in a deadly rebellion, one that threatens to destroy Britannia and de-stabilise the empire...THE SEVENTH INSTALMENT IN THE VESPASIAN SERIES______________________________________________Don't miss Robert Fabbri's epic new series Alexander's Legacy
Rome's Lost Son: Vespasian Vi (Vespasian #6)
by Robert FabbriBritannia, 45 AD: Vespasian's brother is captured by druids. The druids want to offer a potent sacrifice to their gods - not just one Roman Legate, but two. They know that Vespasian will come after his brother and they plan to sacrifice the siblings on Midsummer's Day. Vespasian must rescue his brother whilst completing the conquest of the south-west of the haunted isle, before he is drawn back to Rome and the heart of Imperial politics. Claudius' three freedmen remain at the focus of power. As Messalina's time as Empress comes to a bloody end, the three freedmen each back a different mistress. Who will be victorious? And at what price for Vespasian?THE SIXTH INSTALMENT IN THE VESPASIAN SERIES______________________________________________Don't miss Robert Fabbri's epic new series Alexander's Legacy
Masters of Rome (Vespasian #5)
by Robert FabbriRome, AD 51: After eight years of resistance Vespasian captures Rome's greatest enemy, the British warrior Caratacus. But even Vespasian's victory cannot remove him from politics. Emperor Claudius is a drunken fool and Narcissus and Pallas, his freedmen, are battling for control of his throne. Separately, they decide to send Vespasian east to Armenia to defend Rome's interests. Rumours abound that Claudius' wife Agrippina is involved in a plot to destabilise the East. Meanwhile, a new Jewish cult is flourishing and its adherents refuse to swear loyalty to the Emperor. In Armenia, Vespasian is captured. Immured in the oldest city on earth, how can he escape? And is a Rome ruled by Agrippina any safer than a prison cell? THE FIFTH INSTALMENT IN THE VESPASIAN SERIES______________________________________________Don't miss Robert Fabbri's epic new series Alexander's Legacy
Between Enemies
by Andrea MolesiniNovember 1917. When Austrian forces advance into Northern Italy, the aristocratic Spada family find their estate requisitioned by enemy soldiers. A cruel act of violence against a group of local village girls sparks their desire for revenge. The whole family - from the eccentric grandparents to the secretive servants - have their own ideas about how to fight the enemy, but their courage is soon put to the test and it seems that some are willing to compromise. Seventeen-year-old Paolo Spada, the youngest member of the family, is forced to bear witness as his once proud family succumbs to acts of love and hate, jealousy and betrayal.
The French Art of War
by Mnsr Alexis JenniIt was the beginning of the Gulf War. I watched it on TV and did little else. I was doing badly, you see. Everything was going wrong. I just awaited the end. But then I met Victorien Salagnon, a veteran of the great colonial wars of Indochina, Vietnam and Algeria, a commander who had led his soldiers across the globe, a man with the blood of others up to his elbows. He said he would teach me to paint; he must have been the only painter in the French Forces, but out there no one cares about such things. I cared, though. In return, he wanted me to write his life story. And so he talked, and I wrote, and through him I witnessed the rivers of blood that cut channels through France, I saw the deaths that were as numberless as they were senseless and I began finally to understand the French art of war.
The Commanders: The Leadership Journeys of George Patton, Bernard Montgomery and Erwin Rommel
by Lloyd ClarkBorn between 1885 and 1891, George Patton, Bernard Montgomery and Erwin Rommel all participated in the First World War and, like millions of others, were so affected by their wartime experiences that it became a fundamental influence on their lives. Yet none of the men were dissuaded by the carnage from seeking military careers when the guns finally fell silent. Each became wholly dedicated to the profession of arms and, being exceptional officers and leaders, they prospered.Despite the broad similarities between them, there were some marked differences in their approach to leadership due to the individuality bestowed on them from their genes, upbringing, life experience and relationships. Triumph reveals how these stimuli created three unique personalities which, in turn, each man came to draw from when they became among the most prominent officers in their armies.Exploring the many and various influences that shaped these three officers as men, as soldiers and, principally, as leaders, Lloyd Clark tracks their progress - through war and peace - all the way up to their final confrontation on the battlefields of the Second World War.
The Crossroads Brotherhood: A Crossroads Brotherhood Novella from the bestselling author of the VESPASIAN series (A Crossroads Brotherhood Novella #1)
by Robert FabbriRome, AD 25: Marcus Salvius Magnus, Patron of the Crossroads Brotherhood, has a problem. In fact, he has two. One of the brothels under his protection has been raided by a rival Brotherhood, and valuable merchandise has been stolen. He can't lose face and let the attack go unpunished, but how can he retaliate without igniting a gang war? At the other end of the social spectrum, Lady Antonia - the emperor's sister-in-law - has let Senator Gaius Vespasius Pollo know that she has a score that only blood will settle, and Magnus owes the Senator a favour. Now, a simple assassination wouldn't be a problem for a man like Magnus, but the instruction is that this death has to be a little more... inventive... than the usual knife-in-the-back-in-a-dark-alley. Perhaps the Patronus of the Crossroads Brotherhood can kill two birds with one stone?A VESPASIAN NOVELLA______________________________________________Don't miss Robert Fabbri's epic new series Alexander's Legacy
Noah's Child
by Eric-Emmanuel SchmittFrom one of the world's biggest selling authors comes another million-copy worldwide bestseller: A beautiful and tender fable seen through the eyes of a Jewish child living in Belgium under the Nazi occupation. It is 1942 and the Jews are being deported from Belgium. Separated from his parents, seven-year-old Joseph must go into hiding. He is taken in the dead of night to an orphanage, the Villa Jaune, where the benign and enigmatic Father Pons presides over a motley assortment of children. With the ever-present threat of the Gestapo growing closer, Joseph learns that the secret of survival is to conceal his Jewish heritage. Soon Joseph also discovers that Father Pons has a secret of his own: he is risking his life not only for the boys in his care, but for the Jewish faith itself. Sensitive, funny and deeply humane, Noah's Child is a simple fable that reveals the complexities of faith, bravery and the human condition.