Liz Hammond and her mother Blanche are returning to the rubber plantation they were forced to abandon at the outbreak of war. The beautiful Malayan jungle and exotic estate of her childhood have remained in Liz's heart even after she was forced to leave it for the security of England in the war years. But as Liz and Blanche travel out to Singapore they are met with tales of Communist uprisings, violence, banditry and, most ominously, Liz’s father’s disappearance. Under the military protection of Major Sturgess and a young guardsman, Alan, they try to track Mr Hammond down. Liz quickly falls for Alan, but she knows she can’t let her love for him overshadow her concern for her missing father. She struggles with reconciling the treacherous country she now finds herself in with the paradise of her youth. And she no longer knows who she can trust. Old friends are called into question and new friends are shadowed with doubt as this tense plot unwinds with love, heartache and action.

    . .While their men are at war the women of Great Paxford have fought hard to keep the home fires burning, but a new arrival threatens everything . . .Pat Simms has a secret she needs to keep, but the close scrutiny of her husband is near impossible to escape.Frances Barden has overcome every challenge these troubled times have thrown at her, but a new threat, one very close to home, has arisen.Steph Farrow made a vow, she promised to protect her farm and family while her husband was at war, but she never imagined this . . .Meanwhile, Teresa faces a tragedy she's powerless to stop.Even during the hardest times the women of the WI have prevailed, finding new love, happiness and purpose, but can they survive the enemy at their door?Don't miss any part of the story. Keep the Home Fires Burning - Part One: Spitfire Down! is available now. Search 9781785763588.The story's not over. An all-new novel is coming in 2018! To pre-order your copy now search 9781785764295.Perfect for fans of Call the Midwife, Granchester and Foyles War. If you adore the novels of Nadine Dorries, Diney Costello and Daisy Styles then this is an unmissable series for you.

    Through fourteen years of trouble and heartache from a stagnant domestic life, the struggle for civil rights, and the stigma of interracial relationships, a bond forms between the two that changes both of their lives forever.It’s 1958, a time when women and Negroes are deemed second-class and are being second-guessed, from there arises the perfect storm for change, and the perfect time for an unlikely friendship.Beatrice “Beanie” Peterson, forced to marry at fifteen and live with two sister wives, six children, and an abusive husband twenty years her senior, is looking for a way out. Adeline “Liddie” Garrison, friend of Jack Kennedy, wife of a prominent Boston business man, and resident of Beacon Hill has already found her way in.

    Marine Corps units in urban combat in Hue City during the 1968 Communist Tet Offensive. The focus of the story is on small units and individual fighting men as they grapple with advancing through the unfamiliar terrain across an urban battlefield. Fire in the Streets spent many years on official U.S. Marine Corps professional reading lists as the best example of modern military operations in urban terrain.

    As he grows to manhood, he witnesses the atrocities and deprivations of the Japanese occupation and is himself drawn into the Communist resistance activities. The book ends when the Japanese surrender and Nicholas is reunited with what remains of his family.

    Every day, thousands more pour in on ships from France. But only the most dangerous are sent to Camp 21 - 'black' prisoners - SS diehards who've sworn death before surrender. Nothing will stop their war, unless it's a bullet.As one fanatic plots a mass breakout and glorious march on London, Max Hartmann dreams of the oath he pledged to the teenage bride he scarcely knows and the child he's never met. Where do his loyalties really lie? To Hitler or to the life he left behind in the bombed ruins of his homeland?Beneath the wintry mountains, in the hell of Black Camp 21, suspicion and fear swirl around like the endless snow. And while the Reich crumbles - and his brutal companions plan their assault - Max's toughest battle is only just beginning.Inspired by terrifying actual events, Black Camp 21 takes readers on a gut-wrenching journey from the battlefields of France to its shocking climax in a camp which still stands today.

    He first saw conflict on Crete in May 1941, during the only large-scale parachute invasion in wartime history. Just four days later, Bill was wounded and eventually captured.Twice he tried to escape his internment — with horrific consequences. He suffered greatly but found courageous support from his fellow prisoners.His new wife Myra and his large family thought he was dead until news of his capture finally reached them.Back home, Myra too was a prisoner of sorts, with her own secrets. Then, fifty years after the war, unhealed wounds unexpectedly opened for Bill and Myra, testing them once again.Private Bill is a classic heart-warming story — as told by their son — of how a loving couple prevailed over the adversities of war to live an extraordinarily ordinary, happy life.

    Born in Iran and educated in France, his works were influenced by the sense of alienation and self-destruction that pervaded post-WWI European literary circles. He was also known as a gifted intellectual and essayist in his native country. His interest in Persian culture led him to detest the Arabization of Iran, and so he traveled to India to live among the Parsees, Zoroastrians whose ancestors had chosen to leave Iran rather than submit to conversion to Islam. It was in India, away from Iranian government censors and political pressures, that Hedayat finished the book that is widely considered his masterpiece, "The Blind Owl."This collection of essays and travelogues, the title of which can be translated as "Commentary on the Vohuman Hymn," reflects his experiences in India from 1936 until about 1941. It was written in the Zoroastrian Middle Persian and later translated into Modern Persian by the author.

    He volunteered for the job well aware that hanging out of slow-moving choppers over hot LZs blazing with enemy fire was not conducive to a long life. But that wasn’t going to stop Specialist Sever.From Da Nang to Cu Chi and the Mekong Delta, Sever spent thirty-one months in Vietnam, fighting in eleven of the war’s sixteen campaigns. Every morning when his gunship lifted off, often to the clacking and muzzle flashes of AK-47s hidden in the dawn fog, Sever knew he might not return. This raw, gritty, gut-wrenching firsthand account of American boys fighting and dying in Vietnam captures all the hell, horror, and heroism of that tragic war.From the Paperback edition.

    seasoned with the terror of war. We Escaped plunges the reader into the extraordinary World War II escapades of an ordinary couple and their children as they first escape from Nazi-occupied Holland; and then deal with the war years by leavening danger and stress with the joy and love of everyday family life. It is the song and dance of The Sound of Music seasoned with the terror of guns and blood. The story begins in the Netherlands, a peaceful nation protected by a treaty of neutrality and kinship with Hitler's Germany. The calm is shattered by the cacophony and confusion of battle as, under the guns of panzers, German troops overrun Holland's lines. The ter Weele family's subsequent exodus from their home is told from the points of view of the father, Lieutenant Carl ter Weele, a Dutch reservist called up to defend the Grebbeberg; his wife Margery, an American citizen raised in Boston, who delivers her third child in a hospital not far from the Grebbeberg as war threatens; their oldest son, six-year-old Jan, whose dark eyes and hair lead Nazis to suspect he is Jewish; and their second son, Alex, a blond and fair-skinned imp, who at the age of two charms a German border guard into allowing the family to cross into Switzerland. Within weeks of Germany's conquest of Holland, the family has to flee the dragnet of the Gestapo, which is arresting all Dutch military officers. As far as Carl can see, the only way out is through Germany, and from there it's a tortuous and terrifying journey through Switzerland, Vichy France, Spain, and Portugal, with the Gestapo a threat at every turn.

    Revenge has armed his hand. His name is Octavian. Perfect for fans of Simon Scarrow and Ben Kane.Though little more than a boy, Cesar's heir is determined to avenge his adoptive father, despite the imposing figures from Rome's long political history who stand in his way: Mark Antony, Cicero, Lepidus, Brutus and Cassius. Despite some initial failures, Octavian does not give in, and gathers about him a group of allies who are just as determined as he himself: Maecenas, Agrippa and Rufus. With them and a few others on his side, he forms a sect dedicated to vengeance, with the aim of punishing, one by one, all those who have Caesar's blood on their hands.Octavian has resolved to overturn the established order, and to finish what Caesar had begun...

    Famed for his dictatorial style, his political cunning and admired – initially – by Hitler, Mussolini led the National Fascist Party and ruled Italy as Prime Minister from 1922 until his ousting in 1943. In so doing, he paved the way towards Italy’s defeat in World War Two, and some of the 20th century’s most destructive ideologies and practices.Following expulsion from Italian Socialist Party, Mussolini denounced all efforts of class conflict, and instead later commanded a Fascist March on Rome to become the youngest Prime Minister in Italian history. Thereafter he set about dismantling the apparatus of democracy and initiated what would become known as the one-party totalitarian state. With World War II came defeat, humiliation and his bloody deposing. Explaining his ideologies, policies, actions and flaws, ‘Mussolini: History in an Hour’ is the concise life of the man whose ideas helped create some of the worst horrors of the modern history.Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour…

     Launched in 1918, she spent the interwar years cruising the oceans of the world, the largest vessel afloat and a proud symbol of the Royal Navy. ‘The greatest and most graceful ship of her time, perhaps of any time, she was the last of the Leviathans — those mighty ships, whose movement upon the high seas had determined policy since the last quarter of the 19th century. A generation of British seamen had been trained in her. To millions of people she had represented British sea power and imperial might. With her passed not only a ship, but a whole era swept away on the winds of the world.’ Bradford tells the fascinating story of two ships coming out — the new Prince of Wales, and the old, world-famous Hood, whose history remained in the memories of all those who sailed on her. Their silhouettes visible now against the lines of the sea and the islands: the long sweep of their foredecks, the banked ramparts of their guns, and the hunched shoulders of bridges and control towers. We shall never see their like again, but no one who has ever watched them go by will forget the shudder that they raised along the spine. The big ships were somehow as moving as the pipes heard a long way off in the hills. There was always a kind of mist about them, a mist of sentiment and of power. Unlike aircraft, rockets, or nuclear bombs, they were a visible symbol of power allied with beauty — a rare combination. The thrilling history of a ship who battled the infamous Bismarck, inspired alliances and revenge in a time of great uncertainty and went out with a bang when her one fatal flaw was exploited... Ernle Bradford (1922-1986) was an historian who wrote books on naval battles and historical figures. Among his subjects were Lord Nelson, the Mary Rose, Christopher Columbus, Julius Caesar and Hannibal. He also documented his own voyages on the Mediterranean Sea.

    Charlotte is ecstatically in love with Geoffrey; Peter prepares for the day when he will inherit the family distillery, while Andrew, gregarious and fun-loving, is already turning heads and hearts. Nell, the youngest, contents herself with daydreams of a handsome highlander. The Great War, however, has no respect for family life. As those carefree pre-war days fade, with death and devastation brought in their wake, the Drummonds are plunged into the horrors of the trenches in France. Yet those who survive discover that love can transcend class, creed, and country.

    Constantine, the son of an emperor, the Roman officer leading this raid, tells his men to halt - something is wrong. Have they been seen in the pre-dawn light? Before long, the battle rages. Eventually he frees a slave named Juliana. She is half Persian and half Roman. As they are pursued to Britannia over land and sea, he learns that she can see the future - his future.It is 306A.D., long before Constantine the Great converted to Christianity and became the first Christian emperor.To ensure he survives, he must now eliminate his enemies. But who must die first? The priestess, Sybellina, who joined them in Rome and practices dark and seductive magic? Or the brutal legion commanders who surround his father? Or, as Juliana suspects, are those who want him dead even closer?An electrifying historical novel about Constantine’s bloody rise to power, the woman who helped him, and the real reason he supported a persecuted Christian minority, a decision which changed the world into the one we know.Reviews of previous books by the author:“A delight,” Yorkshire Evening Post.'… superbly executed…' Irish Examiner.'Well written, beautifully descriptive, and with smart dialogue and a compelling air of menace throughout,' The Lancashire Evening Post.'A brisk plot…which draws the reader into a conspiratorial rapport,' Telegraph.