-
Most Popular
From international drag superstar and pop culture icon RuPaul, comes his most revealing and personal work to date—a brutally honest, surprisingly poignant, and deeply intimate memoir of growing up Black, poor, and queer in a broken home to discovering the power of performance, found family, and self-acceptance.
A profound introspection of his life, relationships, and identity, The House of Hidden Meanings is a self-portrait of the legendary icon on the road to global fame and changing the way the world thinks about drag.
Central to RuPaul’s success has been his chameleonic adaptability. From drag icon to powerhouse producer of one of the world’s largest television franchises, RuPaul’s ever-shifting nature has always been part of his brand as both supermodel and super mogul.
Yet that adaptability has made him enigmatic to the public. In this memoir, his most intimate and detailed book yet, RuPaul makes himself truly known.
Stripping away all artifice, RuPaul recounts the story of his life with breath taking clarity and tenderness, bringing his signature wisdom and wit to his own biography. From his early years growing up as a queer Black kid in San Diego navigating complex relationships with his absent father and temperamental mother, to forging an identity in the punk and drag scenes of Atlanta and New York, to finding enduring love with his husband Georges LeBar and self-acceptance in sobriety, RuPaul excavates his own biography, uncovering new truths and insights in his personal history.
Here in RuPaul’s singular and extraordinary story is a manual for living—a personal philosophy that testifies to the value of chosen family, the importance of harnessing what makes you different, and the transformational power of facing yourself fearlessly.
If we’re all born naked and the rest is drag, then this is RuPaul totally out of drag. This is RuPaul stripped bare.
Read more
-
£26.20
£28.50How the World Made the West: A 4,000-Year History
£26.20£28.50 -
Most Popular
The #1 New York Times and Amazon Charts bestselling author Gregg Olsen solves a murder among the Amish and reveals the conspiracy to keep it a secret in a heartbreaking and horrifying true-crime story.
In 1977, in an Ohio Amish community, pregnant wife and mother Ida Stutzman perished during a barn fire. The coroner’s report: natural causes. Ida’s husband, Eli, was never considered a suspect. But when he eventually rejected the faith and took his son, Danny, with him, murder followed.
What really happened to Ida? The dubious circumstances of the tragic blaze were willfully ignored and Eli’s shifting narratives disregarded. Could Eli’s subsequent cross-country journey of death—including that of his own son—have been prevented if just one person came forward with what they knew about the real Eli Stutzman?
The questions haunted Gregg Olsen and Ida’s brother Daniel Gingerich for decades. At Daniel’s urging, Olsen now returns to Amish Country and to Eli’s crimes first exposed in Olsen’s Abandoned Prayers, one of which has remained a mystery until now. With the help of aging witnesses and shocking long-buried letters, Olsen finally uncovers the disturbing truth—about Ida’s murder and the conspiracy of silence and secrets that kept it hidden for forty-five years.
Read more
-
The Red on Revolution: Be Ready for Anything
Buy The Red on Revolution: Be Ready for Anything First Edition by Mike Chadwick (ISBN: 9781801509077) from Amazon’s Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.
£12.20£14.20The Red on Revolution: Be Ready for Anything
£12.20£14.20 -
Politics On the Edge: The instant #1 Sunday Times bestseller from the host of hit podcast The Rest Is Politics
A searing insider’s account of ten extraordinary years in Parliament from Rory Stewart, former Cabinet minister and co-presenter of breakout hit podcast The Rest Is Politics
‘The most exceptional political memoir I’ve ever read’ ALAN JOHNSON
‘An instant classic’ MARINA HYDE
‘At last a politician who can write’ SEBASTIAN FAULKSThe Times pick for *The Biggest Books of the Autumn*
Over the course of a decade from 2010, Rory Stewart went from being a political outsider to standing for prime minister – before being sacked from a Conservative Party that he had come to barely recognise.
Tackling ministerial briefs on flood response and prison violence, engaging with conflict and poverty abroad as a foreign minister, and Brexit as a Cabinet minister, Stewart learned first-hand how profoundly hollow our democracy and government had become.
Cronyism, ignorance and sheer incompetence ran rampant. Around him, individual politicians laid the foundations for the political and economic chaos of today. Stewart emerged battered but with a profound affection for his constituency of Penrith and the Border, and a deep direct insight into the era of populism and global conflict.
Uncompromising, candid and darkly humorous, Politics On the Edge is his story of the challenges, absurdities and realities of political life and a remarkable portrait of our age.
**A FINANCIAL TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, TIMES, NEW STATESMAN, CHURCH TIMES AND SCOTSMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023**
Read more
£9.60£10.40 -
Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing: ‘Funny, fascinating and compelling’ The Times
‘There’s never been a more honest or raw memoir … and it may just save lives’ Daily Mail
‘Funny, fascinating, compelling … also a wonderful read for fans of Friends’ The Times
The beloved star of Friends takes us behind the scenes of the hit sitcom and his struggles with addiction in this candid, funny, and revelatory memoir that delivers a powerful message of hope and persistence.
This is the riveting story of acclaimed actor Matthew Perry, who takes us along on his journey from childhood ambition to fame to addiction and recovery in the aftermath of a life-threatening health scare. Before the frequent hospital visits and stints in rehab, there was five-year-old Matthew, who travelled from Montreal to Los Angeles, shuffling between his separated parents; fourteen-year-old Matthew, who was a nationally ranked tennis star in Canada; twenty-four-year-old Matthew, who nabbed a coveted role as a lead cast member on the talked-about pilot then called Friends Like Us. . . and so much more.
In an extraordinary story that only he could tell – and in the heartfelt, hilarious, and warmly familiar way only he could tell it – Matthew Perry lays bare the fractured family that raised him (and also left him to his own devices), the desire for recognition that drove him to fame, and the void inside him that could not be filled even by his greatest dreams coming true. But he also details the peace he’s found in sobriety and how he feels about the ubiquity of Friends, sharing stories about his castmates and other stars he met along the way. Frank, self-aware, and with his trademark humour, Perry vividly depicts his lifelong battle with addiction and what fuelled it despite seemingly having it all.
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is an unforgettable memoir that is both intimate and eye-opening – as well as a hand extended to anyone struggling with sobriety. Unflinchingly honest, moving, and uproariously funny, this is the book fans have been waiting for.
‘An unflinching and often harrowing must-read for 90s pop culture fans’ Guardian
‘Written with Chandler’s trademark sarcasm and self-deprecation’ Telegraph
‘A hopeful read … I started to think of [it] not as a celebrity memoir about addiction, but as an addiction memoir written by a man who understands his own history through the prism of showbiz’ Independent
Read more
£9.50£10.40 -
The Amish Wife: Unraveling the Lies, Secrets, and Conspiracy That Let a Killer Go Free
The #1 New York Times and Amazon Charts bestselling author Gregg Olsen solves a murder among the Amish and reveals the conspiracy to keep it a secret in a heartbreaking and horrifying true-crime story.
In 1977, in an Ohio Amish community, pregnant wife and mother Ida Stutzman perished during a barn fire. The coroner’s report: natural causes. Ida’s husband, Eli, was never considered a suspect. But when he eventually rejected the faith and took his son, Danny, with him, murder followed.
What really happened to Ida? The dubious circumstances of the tragic blaze were willfully ignored and Eli’s shifting narratives disregarded. Could Eli’s subsequent cross-country journey of death―including that of his own son―have been prevented if just one person came forward with what they knew about the real Eli Stutzman?
The questions haunted Gregg Olsen and Ida’s brother Daniel Gingerich for decades. At Daniel’s urging, Olsen now returns to Amish Country and to Eli’s crimes first exposed in Olsen’s Abandoned Prayers, one of which has remained a mystery until now. With the help of aging witnesses and shocking long-buried letters, Olsen finally uncovers the disturbing truth―about Ida’s murder and the conspiracy of silence and secrets that kept it hidden for forty-five years.
Read more
£7.90£8.50 -
Endgame: 2023’s new biography from the bestselling author telling the true story of the royal family and looking to the future for King Charles III after the death of Elizabeth II
The explosive new book from longtime royal journalist Omid Scobie and author of the international blockbuster Finding Freedom, Endgame a penetrating investigation into the current state of the British monarchy.
An unpopular king, a power-hungry heir to the throne, a queen willing to go to great lengths to preserve her image, and a prince forced to start a new life after being betrayed by his own family.
Queen Elizabeth II’s death ruptured the already-fractured foundations of the House of Windsor – and dismantled the protective shield around it. With an institution long plagued by incidents involving antiquated ideas around race, class and money, the monarchy and those who prop it up are now exposed and at odds with a rapidly modernizing world.
Relying on his vast experience as a royal reporter and over a decade of conversations and interviews with current and former Palace staff, trusted friends of the royals and even the family members themselves, Scobie pulls back the curtain on an institution in turmoil to show what the monarchy must change in order to survive.
This is the monarchy’s endgame. Do they have what it takes to save it?
Read more
£6.60 -
-
Keanu Reeves Is Not In Love With You: The Murky World of Online Romance Fraud
Online romance fraud is a problem across the globe. It causes financial and emotional devastation, yet many people refuse to take it seriously. This is the story of one middle-aged woman in a cardigan determined to understand this growing phenomenon.
No other woman has had so many online romances – from Keanu Reeves to Brad Pitt to Prince William – and Becky Holmes is a favourite among peacekeeping soldiers and oil rig workers who desperately need iTunes vouchers. By winding up scammers and investigating the truth behind their profiles, Becky shines a revealing, revolting and hilarious light on a very shady corner of the internet.
Featuring first-hand accounts of victims, examples of scripts used by fraudsters, a look into the psychology of fraud and of course plenty of Becky’s hysterical interactions with scammers, this is a must-read for anyone who needs a reminder that Keanu Reeves is NOT in love with them.
Read more
£9.60£10.40 -
Extraordinary Nurses Throughout History: In Honour of Florence Nightingale
Extraordinary Nurses Throughout History is a fascinating collection that includes insightful writings on eight notable nurses of the past and celebrates their brilliant contributions to medicine.
Many incredible women made invaluable improvements to modern nursing and this collection celebrates their lives and achievements through a series of essays. This volume sheds a light on the women who have helped create and improve the modern nursing we are familiar with today and demonstrates how the practice has evolved. Collated in honour of Florence Nightingale’s 200th birthday, this collection is an enlightening exposition of eight notable nurses including:
– Dorothea Dix
– Mary Seacole
– Florence Nightingale
– Clara Barton
– Sarah Emma Edmonds
– Linda Richards
– Edith Cavell
– Violetta Thursten
Republished Read & Co. Books as part of the Brilliant Women series, this beautiful volume features an introductory essay entitled ‘Representative Women – The Free Nurse’, by Ingleby Scott. An ideal book for those with an interest in the history of nursing, this collection is not one to be missed.
Read more
£14.20 -
Please, Nurse!: A Student Nurse in the 1950s
Joan Lock’s warm and nostalgic account of her three years of training as a young student nurse in the early 1950s. Perfect for fans of CALL THE MIDWIFE.
When Joan Lock began her formal training as a young nurse in the 1950s, she was unprepared for the strict discipline and long hours which were to follow and quickly realised she was no Florence Nightingale. Her honest and humorous account of the next three years reveals her most intimate experiences of being a nurse: from dealing with temperamental surgeons to fighting off flirtatious patients.
Labelled a trouble-maker, Joan and her friends tested their strict Sisters’ patience as they climbed through windows, slept through lectures and broke every thermometer that passed through their hands. But through it all, Joan found herself touched by the people she met and their heart-warming stories.
Read more
£7.50£8.50Please, Nurse!: A Student Nurse in the 1950s
£7.50£8.50 -
Centenary Babe – Nursing Days: Adelaide, South Australia 1952 to 1959
“These nursing experiences are TRUE TO LIFE!”If you are looking for facts, documented history, historical accuracy ………. this is not the book for you! This is a personal account by Janet Cornelius of her dream to become a children’s nurse and her experiences along the way, during the 1950’s. She writes with expression and bits of drama from her days. Her nursing friend Dorothy Kitto when reading the book stated “all I can say is these nursing experiences are VERY TRUE TO LIFE!”
Read, enjoy and be inspired that an ‘ordinary’ life is in fact an ‘extraordinary life’ when you look at it differently!
“Hurrah! I have finished with school days…….. All I now wished to do was to be a nurse, nursing babies and children. I was still only 15 years and 7 months old. I had to be 18 to begin training.
So I became the very first Casualty Porteress…………….. How proud I was of my blue cross-over overall. I remember changing in the Red Cross “Room” in Casualty itself. The room itself had only four walls, no roof, but still called a “room”. Each morning I started at 8.00a.m. and worked until 5.00p.m.”“How wonderful it was to learn to roll cotton wool swabs/balls. All the cotton wool came in large rolls and had to be rolled into small balls by hand, teasing the cotton wool out to make it light and then rolling it into balls in the palm of my hand.”
“Each day’s work was different. I never knew what I was going to do but I enjoyed this variety very much. Working with so many different people was a great lesson for me. I began to grow up as I saw more of the world. One of the people that I met was “Harry”. Yes, I do remember him. He was a mine of information. Any difficulties was a chance to go and see Harry. He was my original “Mr. Fix It”
“Most of these [baby] bottles went to Rose Ward…….. This was one of my favourite wards. We had babies from just born to three months old. It was a lovely ward to work in BUT OH SO BUSY. There were four cots to each cubicle and we were given a cubicle to look after. If we started at 7.00a.m. we had to “top and tail” (wash the face and bottom, and change the nappy, no throw away nappies) of each baby before feeding it. We had 1 1/4 hours to do this AND feed each one. We were not allowed to “prop” a bottle, that is leave it on the pillow so the baby could suck the teat, while we watched and fed another one. OH NO! definitely not allowed.”
Now three years of training were coming to an end. I was studying very hard. My final exams were approaching and I had to pass the University exam plus the Adelaide Children’s Hospital theory and practical exam. A group of us walked to the university exam together which was to take place at the university itself. Our last walk from the Children’s Hospital to the building where we had sat through so many lectures.”
So whether you are into nursing, history, or the social life during the 1950’s in South Australia, this could be the book for you!
There is no high drama, just the everyday experiences of not having the school grades and having to study again, being the first nurse on hand as a boy is hit by a train, and then the unexpected romance at 24 years of falling in love with an RAF man from England, and making the long 5 weeks’ sea journey to England where she knew no-one……. and all this in the years before mobile phones, internet and telephone calls across the Atlantic were direct dial without the operator listening in!
Read more
£4.30£7.60 -
Scientific Advertising: 21 advertising, headline and copywriting techniques
Understand and use the concepts of successful advertising
Whether you are considering a career in advertising or trying to find the best way to market your product, start with Hopkins and then move onto the rest.
In this powerful book he explains the process to get (and measure) results from your advertising.
Claude Hopkins wrote ‘Scientific Advertising’ in 1923, but his insight into consumer behaviour still holds. The aim was to explain the rules of advertising and what makes consumers buy, so that advertising returns would become a certainty and not a guess. Learn how to use his techniques to write adverts which sell with certainty.
Hopkins clearly shows how to write copy, provides methods for testing it and shows how evidence based advertising gets results in a measurable and cost effective way.
A must read if you are in business, sales or advertising. Hopkins shows what makes us buy and how you can make it happen.
This edition also includes examples of adverts produced by Claude Hopkins through his career.
Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times. It changed the course of my life. David Ogilvy
Within this book Hopkins shows a variety of tested techniques which he had used through his successful career in advertising, including:
- How advertising laws are established – What the professionals in advertising already know and how we can use this knowledge to develop better ads.
- Just salesmanship – What is advertising and how is it best used?
- Offer service – The best ways to offer service to increase sales.
- Mail order advertising – What it teaches us and how we can apply it to our own adverts.
- Headlines -A lot of headlines get a poor response in email marketing, websites and adverts. Learn how to increase your response rate.
- Psychology – Use Hopkins experience to direct people to buy and use your product.
- Being specific – Are you being specific enough in your advertising? Hopkins shows that by using specific facts you can increase sales and out perform your competitors.
- Tell your full story – How telling your story is important and why some advertisers make the mistake of missing out on this.
- Art in advertising – Should we use bespoke artwork or tried and tested visuals?
- Things too costly – What strategies are too costly to attempt in advertising.
- Information – How to give the consumer the best information to help them buy.
- Strategy – Rules for directing a campaign.
- Use of samples – How getting samples into peoples hands can increase sales.
- Getting distribution – Hopkins lays out how to get national distribution by starting small.
- Test campaigns – How to test different campaigns on the same audience.
- Leaning on dealers – Ways to get dealers to help your campaign
- Individuality – Set yourself apart from competitors and what your tone should be.
- Negative advertising – Will it help your sales?
- Letter writing – Hopkins shows how to write a sales letter.
- A name that helps – How does a product name impact sales?
- Good business – See how good business impacts on consumer behaviour.
Excerpts from the book
The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales.
I never ask people to buy. The ads all offer service, perhaps a free sample. They sound altruistic. But they get a reading and action. No selfish appeal can do that.
I set down these findings solely for the purpose of aiding others to start far up the heights I scaled.
Read more
£3.70 -
Football For Dummies, USA Edition
Learn how to tell a first down from a touchdown and get up to speed on the latest trends in the sport
Football For Dummies is a comprehensive fan’s guide to football and its many components. This updated edition includes coverage of new players, rules, and strategies. With deep explanations of every position, analysis of offense and defense, and detailed strategies for play, football legend Howie Long and established football analyst John Czarnecki present the basics of football for fans of all ages and experiences. Get the working knowledge that you need to follow the game of football and enjoy it with friends and family. The book covers everything you need to be the most knowledgeable spectator in the stadium!
- Learn the rules of football so you can follow what’s happening in the game
- Increase your enjoyment of football by discovering the nuances you don’t know
- Keep up with friends and family when you watch games together, in person, or on TV
- Get up to date on the latest players, rule changes, and top strategies
This fun Dummies guide is for everyone who is interested in football and wants to get familiar with the sport, including its history, so they can watch games in person and on television, follow all the action, and enjoy football games to the maximum. It’s also a great reference for fans who need to settle bets about the official rules of play!
Read more
£16.20£18.00Football For Dummies, USA Edition
£16.20£18.00 -
The First World War: An Illustrated History
A. J. P. Taylor was one of the most acclaimed and uncompromising historians of the twentieth century. In this clear, lively and now-classic account of the First World War, he tells the story of the conflict from the German advance in the West, through the Marne, Gallipoli, the Balkans and the War at Sea to the offensives of 1918 and the state of Europe after the war. Containing photographs and maps, this an essential history of the war that ‘cut deep into the consciousness of modern man’.Read more
£10.40£12.30The First World War: An Illustrated History
£10.40£12.30 -
The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East
Robert Fisk’s bestselling eyewitness account of the events that have shaped the Middle East is alive with vivid reporting and incisive historical analysis.
The history of the Middle East is an epic story of tragedy, betrayal and world-shaking events. It is a story that Robert Fisk has been reporting for over thirty years. His masterful narrative spans the most volatile regions of the Middle East, chronicling with both rage and compassion the death by deceit of tens of thousands of Muslims, Christians and Jews.
Robert Fisk’s remarkable history is also the tale of a journalist at war – learning of the 9/11 attacks while aboard a passenger jet, reporting from a bombed-out Baghdad, interviewing Osama bin Laden – and of the courage and frustration of a life spent writing the first draft of history.
Read more
£16.70£18.00 -
The Winter War: The Russo-Finnish War of 1939-40
On 30 November 1939, Soviet bombers unloaded their bombs on Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Stalin’s ultimatum, demanding the cession of huge tracts of territory as a buffer zone against Nazi Germany, had been rejected by the Finnish government, and now a small Baltic republic was at war with the giant Soviet military machine. But this forgotten war, fought under brutal, sub-arctic conditions, often with great heroism on both sides, proved one of the most astonishing in military history. Using guerrilla fighters on skis, even reindeer to haul supplies on sleds, heroic single-handed attacks on tanks, and with unfathomable endurance and the charismatic leadership of one of the 20th century’s true military geniuses, Finland not only kept at bay but won an epic, if short-lived, victory over the hapless Russian conscripts. Its surreal engagements included the legendary “Sausage Battle”, when starving Soviet troops who had over-run a Finnish encampment couldn’t resist the cauldrons of hot sausage soup left behind by their opponents – and were ambushed as they stopped to sup. Although by sheer attritional weight of numbers Stalin eventually prevailed over the Finns, their pointed resistance enabled their country to remain free, even as other countries fell one by one.
Read more
£9.50 -
Iron Spy: The True Story of the Greatest Double Agent in World War II
Known as Fritz to his German spy-handlers and Zig-Zag to the British secret service, Eddie Chapman was a man of many faces. While his early life was rife with petty crime, gang activity and a dishonourable discharge from the British military, Chapman’s unique skills were eventually sought out by Nazi Germany, and after convincing them he could use his criminal contacts to sabotage the English forces, he was quickly recruited.But Chapman’s loyalty to his country knew no limits. A talented, handsome, and reckless Englishman, Chapman was a traitor on the surface but a fearless patriot on the inside. After cracking Germany’s military code, the British sought Chapman for their own affairs, and Chapman was happy to oblige.
Eventually being awarded the prestigious Nazi Iron Cross for services to Germany while acting as a double agent for Britain, Chapman’s espionage efforts involved masterful deceit and feats which few men alive could ever boast of.
Eddie Chapman’s life story is an unbelievable journey of crime, jail-breaks, treachery, and love. He was responsible for saving countless lives during his career, cementing himself as the ultimate double agent during World War II.
Read more
£11.40 -
A Teenager’s War: The true story of an 18 year old lad from Huddersfield fighting during WW2 in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany with the 5th … the Liberation of Europe…
This book is a tribute to my Uncle Jim, Private James Watson 14428202 5th Black Watch, 51st Highland Division. All the stories are true as they are based on War Records, Soldiers Diaries, conversations with Veterans of 51st Highland Division and family and friends. You can learn more about the Black Watch at www.theblackwatch.co.uk. The Black Watch Museum is housed in the dramatic and historic Balhousie Castle. The Castle is set in its own beautiful gardens and grounds. A visit to this ancestral home of The Black Watch brings this glorious Regiment’s past vibrantly to life.Read more
£9.50 -
Waterloo: Wellington’s Victory and Napoleon’s Last Campaign
THE GREATEST OF BATTLES
The defining military engagement of the nineteenth century. The epic battle that forever ended one man’s dreams of a European empire unified under his rule.
THE GREATEST OF RIVALS
Weaving together an immense array of original sources to reveal personalities, forces and nations, this epoch-defining conflict would ultimately be remembered for the showdown between two of history’s most legendary commanders: the Duke of Wellington, and Napoleon Bonaparte.
THE DEFINITIVE ACCOUNT
Divided into three parts, Christopher Hibbert masterfully depicts first Napoleon and his rise to power, then a portrait of Wellington and the allied armies, and lastly the steps leading up to and the battle itself, the final clash on the fields of Waterloo.
A gripping, succinct and panoramic survey of this legendary battle, the history surrounding the conflict, and the personalities that defined both the battle itself, and a generation.
Read more
£7.00£9.50 -
Belgium in the Second World War
When the Nazis invaded neutral Belgium in May 1940, defeat and occupation were inevitable but Belgian armed forces held out against a vastly superior enemy for 18 days. The elected Government went into exile in London but King Leopold III controversially remained with his people as a prisoner. As described in this authoritative book, Belgians continued the fight both outside and inside their country. There were eventually two complete Belgian RAF squadrons. The Colonial Army defeated the Italians in East Africa and the Belgian Brigade fought from Normandy to Germany. The Belgian Resistance organized escape routes, sabotaged their occupiers activities and spied for the Allies. 17,000 died or were executed and a further 27,000 survived detention. Meanwhile others collaborated and fought for the Nazis and large numbers were tried post-war for war crimes and treason. About half the Jews in Belgium in 1940 died in the Holocaust and there are many stirring stories of courage, as well as tragic ones. This is an overdue and honest account of one Nations very varied experiences during five years of Nazi occupation and oppression.Read more
£12.60£14.20Belgium in the Second World War
£12.60£14.20 -
The Princes in the Tower: Solving History’s Greatest Cold Case AS FEATURED ON CHANNEL 4
History re-written: has the 540-year-old mystery been solved?
‘The totality of evidence revealed is astonishing. Following the discovery of King Richard III’s grave in a car park in Leicester in 2012, The Missing Princes Project will again rewrite the history books, redrawing what we know about Richard III and Henry VII and pressing the reset button of history.’ – Philippa Langley
In the summer of 1483, two brothers were seen playing in the grounds of the Tower of London, where they’d been lodged by the King’s Council – their uncle, the future Richard III, its chief member. From there the boys seem to vanish from the historical record, and so one of the greatest and most intriguing mysteries of British history was born. Over the centuries, historians have debated tirelessly about the fate of Edward V and Richard, Duke of York: did they die in the Tower? Did they escape? Were they murdered?
After astonishing success in locating and laying to rest Richard III, Philippa Langley turns her forensic focus onto this enduring case, teaming up with criminal investigative experts, historians, archivists and researchers from around the world in her groundbreaking The Missing Princes Project. Following years of extensive research, investigation and formidable dedication, this landmark study has finally reached completion, with stunning conclusions.
In The Princes in the Tower: Solving History’s Greatest Cold Case, join Langley as she records the painstaking investigative work undertaken and lays out the evidence to reveal the remarkable untold story. Here she is able, finally, to address any injustice and solve the mystery surrounding the Princes in the Tower once and for all.
Compelling in breadth and detail, this book asks its readers to re-examine what they thought they knew about one of our greatest historical mysteries. Perfect for fans of the period and the likes of Dan Jones, Philippa Gregory and Janina Ramirez.
Read more
£19.60£23.80 -
The Volunteer: The True Story of the Resistance Hero who Infiltrated Auschwitz – Costa Book of the Year 2019
One of the Sunday Times paperbacks of the Year 2020
One of the Financial Times best books of 2020‘Totally gripping’– Simon Sebag Montefiore
‘Pilecki is perhaps one of the greatest unsung heroes of the second world war … this insightful book is likely to be the definitive version of this extraordinary life’ — Economist
Would you sacrifice yourself to save thousands of others?
In the Summer of 1940, after the Nazi occupation of Poland, an underground operative called Witold Pilecki accepted a mission to uncover the fate of thousands of people being interned at a new concentration camp on the border of the Reich.
His mission was to report on Nazi crimes and raise a secret army to stage an uprising. The name of the detention centre — Auschwitz.
It was only after arriving at the camp that he started to discover the Nazi’s terrifying plans. Over the next two and half years, Witold forged an underground army that smuggled evidence of Nazi atrocities out of Auschwitz. His reports from the camp were to shape the Allies response to the Holocaust – yet his story was all but forgotten for decades.
This is the first major account to draw on unpublished family papers, newly released archival documents and exclusive interviews with surviving resistance fighters to show how he brought the fight to the Nazis at the heart of their evil designs.
The result is an enthralling story of resistance and heroism against the most horrific circumstances, and one man’s attempt to change the course of history.
Read more
£10.40£12.30 -
Remarkable Women of the Second World War: A Collection of Untold Stories
They were told to hold the fort. They did far more than that.
When the Second World War broke out, the task of keeping society afloat fell on the shoulders of the women left behind. Women the world over stepped into boots they’d never worn before – becoming engineers, labourers and intelligence experts. Their houses were razed to the ground, they fled their enemy-occupied countries and they picked up guns to defend their homes, but their stories are rarely told.
Remarkable Women of the Second World War is a collection of twelve of these stories, all carefully gathered and retold by Victoria Panton Bacon. These are the stories of Galina Russian navigator who flew on the front line for the Red Army alongside the feared Night Witches; Ena, an ATA engineer who didn’t think much of the Spitfires and Hurricanes she worked on; and Lee, a Jewish girl who fled Frankfurt and arrived in Coventry on a Kindertransport train. These women weren’t remarkable because of high rank or status, but because of their grit, resilience and determination. These are the tales of ordinary women who did extraordinary things.
Read more
£14.10£18.00 -
Too Thin for a Shroud: 8 June 1982, Falklands: Britain’s Most Lethal Day of Combat Since World War II
How 10 minutes can change the course of history…
In May 1982, eight young officers of the Welsh Guards-whose colonel-in-chief is the King-found themselves despatched at short notice to fight 8000 miles away in the Falklands. Until now, no one has told their story which included the fiercest attack on British troops since World War II when Britain lost half a battalion and the Argentine air force successfully bombed four navy ships at the tail end of the conflict. With gripping recollections from his peers, Crispin Black casts an entirely new light on this dramatic part of the campaign that is often overlooked. Using for the first time a trove of formerly secret Ministry of Defence documents, Crispin Black captivatingly brings to life how the outcome was decided in ten critical minutes and that the Falklands War remains to this day one of the most misunderstood episodes in modern British history.
Read more
£18.90 -
Stakeknife’s Dirty War: The Inside Story of Scappaticci, the IRA’s Nutting Squad and the British Spooks Who Ran the War
In this sensational exposé of British Intelligence’s top informer in the upper ranks of the IRA, Richard O’Rawe delivers the most definitive account yet of the Troubles’ most enigmatic, notorious and sinister figure, Freddie Scappaticci.
Codenamed Stakeknife, from the late 1970s through to his eventual exposure in 2003 he was the ‘jewel in the crown’ of a British infiltration system designed to cause mayhem and chaos in the IRA’s military operations. O’Rawe gained unprecedented access to Scappaticci’s former comrades, who reveal extraordinary details of the inner workings of the IRA’s Internal Security Unit. Headed by Scappaticci, this secretive group was known locally as the ‘Nutting Squad’ owing to its fearsome reputation for the abduction, interrogation, torture and execution of volunteers suspected of working for the British or the RUC. The political scandal at the heart of this story is that Scappaticci’s intelligence handlers were aware of almost every abduction and execution he carried out prior to it taking place; a scandal that became the subject of the British government sponsored inquiry, Operation Kenova.
In this compelling and extraordinary story of state-sanctioned murder and extreme moral ambiguity in the overriding quest for the protection of ‘national security’, the truth is truly stranger than fiction.
Read more
£14.20£17.10 -
The Man Who Never Was: The Remarkable Story of Operation Mincemeat (Now the subject of a major new film starring Colin Firth as Ewen Montagu)
Now the subject of a major new film starring Colin Firth as Ewen Montagu in Operation Mincemeat.
In the early hours of 30 April 1943, a corpse wearing the uniform of an officer in the Royal Marines was slipped into the waters off the south-west coast of Spain. With it was a briefcase, in which were papers detailing an imminent Allied invasion of Greece. As the British had anticipated, the supposedly neutral government of Fascist Spain turned the papers over to the Nazi High Command, who swallowed the story whole. It was perhaps the most decisive bluff of all time, for the Allies had no such plan: the purpose of ‘Operation Mincemeat’ was to blind the German High Command to their true objective – an attack on Southern Europe through Sicily. Though officially shrouded in secrecy, the operation soon became legendary (in part owing to Churchill’s habit of telling the story at dinner). Ewen Montagu was the operation’s mastermind, and in his celebrated post-war memoir, The Man who Never Was, he reveals the incredible true story behind ‘Operation Mincemeat’.
Read more
£7.60£12.30 -
The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II
The astonishing, never before told story of the greatest rescue mission of World War II–when the OSS set out to recover more than 500 airmen trapped behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia…During a bombing campaign over Romanian oil fields, hundreds of American airmen were shot down in Nazi-occupied Yugoslavia. Local Serbian farmers and peasants risked their own lives to give refuge to the soldiers while they waited for rescue, and in 1944, Operation Halyard was born. The risks were incredible. The starving Americans in Yugoslavia had to construct a landing strip large enough for C-47 cargo planes–without tools, without alerting the Germans, and without endangering the villagers. And the cargo planes had to make it through enemy airspace and back–without getting shot down themselves.
Classified for over half a century for political reasons, the full account of this unforgettable story of loyalty, self-sacrifice, and bravery is now being told for the first time ever. The Forgotten 500 is the gripping, behind-the-scenes look at the greatest escape of World War II.
“Amazing [and] riveting.”–James Bradley, New York Times bestselling author of Flags of Our Fathers
Read more
£12.10 -
The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939
The bestselling author of STALINGRAD and BERLIN: THE DOWNFALL on the Spanish Civil War, drawing on masses of newly discovered material from the Spanish, Russian and German archives.
The civil war that tore Spain apart between 1936 and 1939 and attracted liberals and socialists from across the world to support the cause against Franco was one of the most hard-fought and bitterest conflicts of the 20th century: a war of atrocities and political genocide and a military testing ground before WWII for the Russians, Italians and Germans, whose Condor Legion so notoriously destroyed Guernica.
Antony Beevor’s account narrates the origins of the Civil War and its violent and dramatic course from the coup d’etat in July 1936 through the savage fighting of the next three years which ended in catastrophic defeat for the Republicans in 1939. And he succeeds especially well in unravelling the complex political and regional forces that played such an important part in the origins and history of the war.
Read more
£9.70£14.20 -
The Complete War Walks
This one-volume edition comprises both Richard Holmes’ well-loved War Walks and War Walks 2. Dates such as 1066 and names such as Dunkirk often strike a chord of nostalgia, but the details of the historic events associated with them are forgotten. In The Complete War Walks Richard Holmes takes us on fascinating journey through time to visit twelve battlefields throughout Britain, Northern France and Belgium that mark crucial moments in Britain’s bloody and turbulent history. From Hastings to Dunkirk, Agincourt to The Somme, Richard vividly recreates the atmosphere of these key battles in our history. With his expert knowledge of weapons and warfare and using specially commissioned maps, Richard Holmes provides a brilliantly clear picture of the events which led up to each battle, the conflicts themselves, and the people who fought them. Using practical ‘views of the field’, he travels the battlefields as they exist today, pointing out their places of interest, paying tribute to the men who fought there, and bringing history to life. This book focuses on a selection of battles, six fought in Britain – or, in one case, on a struggle that straddled the Channel. A further six are set in a few hundred square miles of northern France and southern Belgium, a space so confined that a single day’s drive could take us across all our battlefields. Choosing the battles from a long list of potential candidates was far from easy, but a certain logic prevails. Battles that had far-reaching consequences, historically and politically, were brought to the forefront of the possible choices. In some cases, because of a battle’s importance, it entered part of an enduring mythology that demands attention. There were other obvious considerations that favoured certain battles over others: battles that were particularly decisive, or ones that were well documented, or have battlefields that remain striking today. I shied away from some battles that had already been described so well in print or on film, that I felt there was nothing new to add. In the twentieth-century France: Hastings, Agincourt, Bosworth, Naseby, The Boyne, Waterloo, Mons and Le Cateau, the Somme, Arras, Dunkirk, the Blitz and Operation Goodwood.Read more
£13.60£16.10The Complete War Walks
£13.60£16.10 -
The Walls Have Ears: The Greatest Intelligence Operation of World War II
A history of the elaborate and brilliantly sustained World War II intelligence operation by which Hitler’s generals were tricked into giving away vital Nazi secrets“A great book.”―Michael Goodman, BBC History Magazine
“An astonishing story of wartime espionage.”―Robert Hutton, author of Agent JackAt the outbreak of World War II, MI6 spymaster Thomas Kendrick arrived at the Tower of London to set up a top secret operation: German prisoners’ cells were to be bugged and listeners installed behind the walls to record and transcribe their private conversations. This mission proved so effective that it would go on to be set up at three further sites―and provide the Allies with crucial insight into new technology being developed by the Nazis.
In this astonishing history, Helen Fry uncovers the inner workings of the bugging operation. On arrival at stately-homes-turned-prisons like Trent Park, high-ranking German generals and commanders were given a “phony” interrogation, then treated as “guests,” wined and dined at exclusive clubs, and encouraged to talk. And so it was that the Allies got access to some of Hitler’s most closely guarded secrets―and from those most entrusted to protect them.
Read more
£8.90£10.40 -
The English Civil War: A People’s History
This popular history of the English Civil War tells the story of the bloody conflict between Oliver Cromwell and Charles I from the perspectives of those involved.
The compelling narrative draws on new sources such as letters, memoirs, ballads and plays to bring to life the Roundheads and Cavaliers, the foot soldiers, war widows and witchfinders of one of the most significant turning points in British history, culminating in Oliver Cromwell s triumph and the execution of Charles I.
By blending the political and the personal, Diane Purkiss illuminates both the ideologies behind the English Civil War and the fears of those who fought in it; the men who were destroyed by the conflict and those, such as Oliver Cromwell, who were defined by it.
Read more
£9.70£14.20The English Civil War: A People’s History
£9.70£14.20 -
Red Devils: The Trailblazers of the Paras in World War Two
‘Riveting . . . Full of daring action, standout characters and cutting edge operations, this is unputdownable’ Damien Lewis
‘Gripping and authoritative. Family men, circus performers, solicitors, communists, and reactionaries all fought together and shed blood for their country – a true and moving story of war’ Andy McNab
————————————
Their German enemies called them the ‘Red Devils’. Montgomery described them as ‘men apart – every man an Emperor’. The cards they received on qualifying began: ‘You are the elite of the British army’.
The Parachute Regiment.
In this gripping, authorized account, bestselling historian Mark Urban tells the story of the wartime creation and development of Britain’s elite airborne infantry – who ranged from circus performers to solicitors, policemen to gravediggers, Christians and Jews to communists.
Through the fates of six men – including recently widowed Geoffrey Pine-Coffin, who had to leave his little boy at home to head to the front, and Mike Lewis, whose photographs became iconic images of war – Urban vividly shows what it took to succeed in this new regiment. All six men would shed blood for their country in daring actions at D-Day, Arnhem and across the Second World War; two would not survive, and one would face disgrace.
Based on deep archival research, British and German sources and new material from the men’s families, and giving overdue recognition to the North African campaign, Urban’s unvarnished history is a compelling and moving depiction of the highs and lows of battle.
Read more
£9.00£10.40 -
The Very Young Person’s Guide to Ballet Music
Discover the world’s most famous ballets, including Swan Lake, Don Quixote, The Nutcracker, Spartacus, and The Firebird accompanied by 10 sound clips of child-friendly pieces.
“The perfect way to discover the stories behind famous ballets and introduce the melodies to your children. Simply adorable.” Myleene Klass
Learn about the music and stories of ballet in the second book of The Very Young Person’s Guide To… series.
Pull on your pointe shoes and follow our heroes as they explore beautiful scenes inspired by some of ballet’s most loved music, including Swan Lake, Giselle, The Nutcracker, Spartacus, and The Firebird. Young readers can discover iconic moments including Swan Lake’s Dance of the Cygnets, The Clog Dance from La Fille Mal Gardée, and Don Quixote’s Dance of the Matadors. Original illustrations capture the beautiful story of the ballet, while the sound button brings the composer’s dazzling pieces to life. Every spread features fascinating facts about the ballet, performers, the composer, and the music.
Ideal for young children starting music and dance lessons, The Very Young Person’s Guide to Ballet Music is guaranteed to delight and inspire.
Read more
£14.90£19.00The Very Young Person’s Guide to Ballet Music
£14.90£19.00 -
The Windsor Diaries: A childhood with the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret
**SPECTATOR BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2020**
**TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2020**
**SUNDAY EXPRESS BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2020**‘A must if you love The Crown’ Good Housekeeping
‘For a glimpse into the lives of the young princesses these diaries are riveting’ Daily Mail, Christmas Books 2020
‘A wonderful book’ A. N. Wilson, Spectator, Books of the Year 2020
‘A new perspective on “Lilibet” as she fell for her future husband’ Sunday Express, Books of the Year 2020
‘Funny, astute, poignant and historically fascinating’ The Times
‘A compelling and revealing insight into the teenage life of the then Princess Elizabeth and her sister Princess Margaret’ Richard Kay, Daily Mail
‘I loved reading this, so reminiscent of my own childhood’ Anne Glenconner, author of Lady in Waiting
‘Alathea found herself living in Windsor with the Princesses throughout the Second World War. She captures that tiny, peaceful island in a world on fire’ Charles Moore, Spectator
‘This is an enthralling book . . . often funny and sometimes truly moving’ The Oldie
‘Fascinating insight into Elizabeth as a teenager’ OK! Magazine
************************
The Windsor Diaries are the never-before-seen diaries of Alathea Fitzalan Howard, who lived alongside the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret at Windsor Castle during the Second World War.
Alathea’s home life was an unhappy one. Her parents had separated and so during the war she was sent to live with her grandfather, Viscount Fitzalan of Derwent, at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park. There Alathea found the affection and harmony she craved as she became a close friend of the two princesses, visiting them often at Windsor Castle, enjoying parties, balls, cinema evenings, picnics and celebrations with the Royal Family and other members of the Court.
Alathea’s diary became her constant companion during these years as day by day she recorded every intimate detail of life with the young Princesses, often with their governess Crawfie, or with the King and Queen.
Written from the ages of sixteen to twenty-two, she captures the tight-knit, happy bonds between the Royal Family, as well as the aspirations and anxieties, sometimes extreme, of her own teenage mind.
These unique diaries give us a bird’s eye view of Royal wartime life with all of Alathea’s honest, yet affectionate judgments and observations – as well as a candid and vivid portrait of the young Princess Elizabeth, known to Alathea as ‘Lilibet’, a warm, self-contained girl, already falling for her handsome prince Philip, and facing her ultimate destiny: the Crown.
Read more
£8.40£23.80 -
Princess Margaret: A Life Unravelled
Elegant and sophisticated biography of Princess Margaret, the controversial sister of Queen Elizabeth II, the Princess Diana of her day
‘A fascinating insight into the life of the party girl who became an icon in postwar Britain’ DAILY EXPRESS
‘She was a witty, intelligent, stimulating companion – happily Tim Heald captures all these qualities in his admirably well-balanced biography’ LITERARY REVIEW
The almost universal conception is that the life of Princess Margaret (1930-2002) was a tragic failure, a history of unfulfilment.
Tim Heald’s vivid and elegant biography portrays a woman who was beautiful and sexually alluring – even more so than Princess Diana, years later – and whose reputation for naughtiness co-existed with the glamour. The mythology is that Margaret’s life was ‘ruined’ by her not being allowed to marry the one true love of her life – Group Captain Peter Townsend – and that therefore her marriage to Lord Snowdon and her well-attested relationships with Roddy Llewellyn and others were mere consolation prizes. Margaret’s often exotic personal life in places like Mustique is a key part of her story.
The author has had extraordinary help from those closest to Princess Margaret, including her family (Lord Snowdon and her son, Lord Linley), as well as three of her private secretaries and many of her ladies in waiting. These individuals have not talked to any previous biographer. He has also had the Queen’s permission to use the royal archives.
Heald asks why one of the most famous and loved little girls in the world, who became a juvenile wartime sweetheart, ended her life a sad wheelchair-bound figure, publicly reviled and ignored. This is a story of a life in which the private and the public seemed permanently in conflict. The biography is packed with good stories. Princess Margaret was never ignored; what she said and did has been remembered and recounted to Tim Heald.
Read more
£9.60£10.40Princess Margaret: A Life Unravelled
£9.60£10.40 -
The Duke: 100 Chapters in the Life of Prince Philip
The Archbishop of Canterbury called him ‘bloody rude’, courtiers feared he was ‘a foreign interloper out for the goodies’, daughter-in-law Sarah Ferguson found him ‘very frightening’ and the Queen Mother labelled him ‘the Hun’. Journalists have continually portrayed him as a gaffe-prone serial philanderer, with European outlets going way off-piste and claiming he has fathered 24 illegitimate children. Prince Philip says ‘the impression the public has got is unfair’, though there is no self-serving autobiography and his interviews with broadcasters or writers are done grudgingly. The Duke sets out to explore the man behind the various myths, drawing on interviews with relations, friends and courtiers and the Duke’s own words. It brings to life some rare aspects of his character, from a love of poetry and religion to his fondness for Duke Ellington and his fascination with UFOs. It also explains why for over seven decades he has been the Queen’s ‘strength and stay’ – and why he is regarded by many as a national treasure.
Read more
£7.10£15.20
