Europe

Who invented the ‘House of Windsor’ as a royal name? Who founded Westminster Abbey? Which king had twenty-one illegitimate children? This book describes the most memorable features of the life and times of each king or queen – from Egbert, crowned in 802 and considered the first king of England, to Queen Elizabeth II.

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This fascinating and informative book looks at the Tilling Group of bus companies during the 1960s. These operated approximately half of the inter-urban and rural bus services in England and Wales, and were nationalised by Clement Attlee’s Labour Government in 1948 under the control of the British Transport Commission. Ownership passed to the Transport Holding Company Ltd in 1963, though the fleets remained under Tilling Group control. During the period covered by this book, the operators within the group had very standardised fleets, with the vast majority of their buses and coaches having Bristol chassis and Eastern Coachworks (ECW) bodywork. This was a result of these manufacturers also having been nationalised and controlled by the BTC and THC. However, some Tilling Group operators still had earlier vehicles with, for instance, AEC or Leyland chassis, which were acquired prior to the requirement for them to buy only Bristol products, whilst some also had coaches with Bedford or Ford Thames chassis built in the 1950s and 1960s. Unlike the BET fleets throughout England and Wales, most Tilling fleets also had highly standardised liveries, either of red with cream relief, or green with cream relief for their stage carriage buses, or the reverse of this for their coaches. There were some exceptions, though. The most obvious ones were Midland General and Notts & Derby, whose livery was an attractive dark blue and cream; as well as the Royal Blue coaches of Southern and Western National and the maroon and cream coaches of Thames Valley subsidiary South Midland. All Tilling Group companies became part of the National Bus Company in early 1969, and before long their traditional liveries became just a memory when the NBC imposed standard red or green liveries. Throughout most of the 1960s, Jim Blake travelled to these operators and photographed their vehicles, and spent many summer Saturdays at London’s Victoria Coach Station, where their service buses as well as express coaches could be seen. He was fortunate to capture much of this changing transport scene on film, and presents some of these photographs in this volume. Many have never been published before.

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The Metropolitan counties of South and West Yorkshire have some of the most intensive bus operations outside Birmingham and London. The former metropolitan counties include considerable amounts of rural terrain alongside densely populated urban areas. Author Peter Tucker takes us on a lively photographic tour of the region’s transport scene. The journey takes us everywhere from genteel towns like Horsforth, Ilkley and Wetherby down to areas of heavy industry such as the Don Valley in Sheffield. In between we visit places as contrasting as Barnsley, Dewsbury, Pontefract and Rotherham and Swinton. Yorkshire’s cosmopolitan cities are not forgotten either, as we explore Bradford, Leeds, Sheffield and Wakefield. Featuring operators such as Arriva, First and Stagecoach, this publication also looks back to the 1990s with photographs depicting buses of the now defunct Yorkshire Rider, Yorkshire Traction and West Riding.

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From Queen Elizabeth II to Prince George, there’s a lot of news to keep up with regarding the royal family. This fantastic compendium of fascinating facts and stories about the British monarchy will keep you in the know about your favourite modern royals. From iconic weddings, fashion moments, philanthropic events, and the birth of new royals, this book has the latest and most interesting tidbits perfect for any enthusiast. Inside you’ll find the royal scoop, including: The official line of succession to the throne, the royal family’s favourite designers and artists, amazing details about coronations, weddings, and other ceremonies, jaw-dropping facts about the Crown Jewels, and much more!

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This book looks at the invaluable work carried out by members of the Air Transport Auxiliary during the course of the Second World War. Comprised of both men and women, it was a civilian organisation tasked with the collection and delivery of military aircraft from the factories to the RAF and Royal Navy stations. Men who undertook the role had to be exempt from having to undertake war time military service due to health or age, but other than that there were very few restrictions on who who could join, which accounted for one-legged, one-armed, one-eyed and short sighted pilots being accepted. Initially it was only men who were allowed to carry out this service, but by December 1939, British authorities were persuaded by Pauline Gower (the daughter of Sir Robert Vaughan Gower, a wartime Conservative MP, and an accomplished pilot in her own right), to establish a women’s section of the Air Transport Auxiliary, of which she was put in charge. The first eight women were accepted in to the service, but it would not be until 1943 that its male and female members received the same pay. By the end of the war 147 different types of aircraft had been flown by the men and women of the Air Transport Auxiliary, including Spitfire fighter aircraft and Lancaster bombers. These brave pilots were not just British, but came from 28 Commonwealth and neutral countries and their efforts sometimes came at a price: 174 Air Transport Auxiliary pilots, both men and women, died during the war whilst flying for the service.

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Reginald Jones was nothing less than a genius. And his appointment to the Intelligence Section of Britain’s Air Ministry in 1939 led to some of the most astonishing scientific and technological breakthroughs of the Second World War.

In Most Secret War he details how Britain stealthily stole the war from under the Germans’ noses by outsmarting their intelligence at every turn. He tells of the ‘battle of the beams’; detecting and defeating flying bombs; using chaff to confuse radar; and many other ingenious ideas and devices.
Jones was the man with the plan to save Britain and his story makes for riveting reading.

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A collection of in-depth interviews from one of Wales’ best rugby journalists, looking back on the careers of 26 of Welsh rugby’s finest players.

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THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER!

Military History Matters Book of the Year Bronze Award Winner
‘Compelling… sensitive, colourful and moving’ — Saul David, Telegraph
‘Fascinating and utterly gripping’ — James Holland
‘Absorbing’ — Daily Mail Book of the Week

The incredible story of the crack team of men and women who transformed RAF Bomber Command and helped the Allies deliver decisive victory over Nazi Germany.

The Pathfinders were ordinary men and women from a range of nations who revolutionised the efficiency of the Allies’ air campaign over mainland Europe. They elevated Bomber Command – initially the only part of the Allied war effort capable of attacking the heart of Nazi Germany – from an impotent force on the cusp of disintegration in 1942 to one capable of razing whole German cities to the ground in a single night, striking with devastating accuracy, inspiring fear and loathing in Hitler’s senior command.

With exclusive interviews with remaining survivors, personal diaries, previously classified records and never-before seen photographs, The Pathfinders brings to life the characters of the airmen and women – many barely out of their teens – who took to the skies in legendary British aircraft such as the Lancaster and the Mosquito, facing almost unimaginable levels of violence from enemy fighter planes to strike at the heart of the Nazi war machine.

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During the Irish Civil War eighty-three executions were carried out by the National Army of the emerging Free State government, including four prisoners not tried or convicted of any charge. After the war the trial records were destroyed and the execution policy became a bitter memory that was rarely discussed. In this groundbreaking work, Seán Enright examines how a climate emerged in which prisoners could be tried by rudimentary military courts and then executed, and how so many other prisoners were killed without any trial at all.

The government of the emerging state relied on the National Army to fight the war and implement policy, but the National Army was new and lacked discipline. More than 125 further prisoners were killed in the custody of the state; shot at the point of capture or killed in custody. ‘Shot while trying to escape’ became an all too familiar press release. Seventeen prisoners were killed in the Kerry landmine massacres alone.

In the struggle to survive, the new state turned a blind eye and the rule of law simply unravelled. Featuring new material from the Irish Military Archives, The Irish Civil War: Law, Execution and Atrocity examines the dark legacy of this chaotic and bitter conflict.

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‘Crime loomed large in the minds of Victorian Londoners. All over the city, watches, purses and handkerchiefs disappear from pockets, goods migrate from warehouses, off docks and out of shop windows. Burglaries are rife, shoplifting is carried on in West End stores and people fall victim to all kinds of ingenious swindles. ‘Pornographers proliferate and an estimated 80,000 prostitutes operate on London’s streets. The vulnerable are robbed in dark alleys or garroted, a new kind of mugging in which the victim is half-strangled from behind while being stripped of his possessions…’ Discover Victorian London’s grimy rookeries, home to thousands of the city’s poorest and most desperate residents. Explore the crime-ridden slums, flash houses and gin palaces from a unique street-level view and meet the people who inhabited them. Ross Gilfillan uncovers London’s lost criminal past in this fascinating account of nineteenth century low-life. Come face to face with pickpockets snatching pocket watches; pornographers peddling guides to lewd London; swindlers deluding the unwary and murderers whose deeds made the headlines and shocked their readers; right through to the consequences of their crimes – prison, transportation, or the gallows!

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During the Second World War, East Kent was at the forefront of the defence of the United Kingdom. In 1940 the ports of Dover, Ramsgate, Folkestone and Margate took part in the Dunkirk evacuation, while airfields such as Manston, Hawkinge and Lympne were active in refuelling aircraft involved in the Battle of Britain.

It was also from Dover that the first steps for D-Day were initiated, with commando raids on French beaches from Royal Navy motor launches. German signals were monitored and subsequently jammed by a series of experimental units. Balloons launched from Kingsdown carried leaflets to enemy territory, while others defended harbours and factories from dive bombers.

Throughout the remainder of the war, including the defence against the V1 flying bomb attacks of the summer of 1944 and the supply of both men and material to the allies as they advanced through Europe, East Kent played a vital role.

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An illustrated overview of the Hundred Years War, the longest-running and the most significant conflict in western Europe in the later Middle Ages.

There can be no doubt that military conflict between France and England dominated European history in the 14th and 15th centuries. The Hundred Years War is of considerable interest both because of its duration and the number of theatres in which it was fought.

Drawing on the latest research for this new edition, Hundred Years War expert Professor Anne Curry examines how the war can reveal much about the changing nature of warfare: the rise of infantry and the demise of the knight; the impact of increased use of gunpowder and the effect of the war on generations of people.

Updated and revised for the new edition, with full-colour maps and 50 new images, this illustrated introduction provides an important reference resource for the academic or student reader as well as those with a general interest in late medieval warfare.

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‘No dry history, Mosquito reads like a thriller… this outstanding book is hard to put down… Unreservedly recommended’ Aviation Historian

‘White immerses the reader in the action from the first page. A must read choice for total aviation people everywhere’ Flight International

‘A captivating history… Rowland White uses the history of these operations to weave stories of courage and fortitude into the story of a great machine’ Daily Telegraph
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Built of lightweight wood, powered by two growling Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, impossibly aerodynamic, headspinningly fast and armed to the teeth, the de Havilland Mosquito was the war-winning wonder that should never have existed: the aircraft the RAF didn’t think it wanted then couldn’t do without.

Flying on operations barely eighteen months after a single prototype was ordered off the drawing board, it was the answer to its pilots’ prayers: a stunningly versatile warplane capable of leaving the Luftwaffe in its wake to attack when and where the enemy was least expecting it.

Excelling as a spyplane, night-fighter and pathfinder for Bomber Command’s heavies the Mossie’s reputation was cemented by a series of daredevil bombing raids across occupied Europe, including on Berlin itself, where only surprise, speed and precision could ensure success.

So when Churchill’s top secret Special Operations Executive needed to destroy the Gestapo HQ in the centre of downtown Copenhagen to prevent a devastating Nazi last stand that might prolong the war for many months, there was only one machine for the job – the Mosquito.

This is the story of that legendary aircraft told through that one impossible mission.

Like Rowland White’s previous books, Mosquito is an unputdownable mix of utterly compelling storytelling, incredible human stories and fascinating technological detail, which sheds never-before-told light on a pivotal mission that helped bring the war to its bloody and brutal close.
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Praise for Mosquito

‘Wonderful detail, intricate research and most importantly, powerful & moving human testimony, ensure the reader is gripped from the first page to the last by this incredible story’ John Nichol

‘Stunning… This is history as it should be written: adrenaline-charged, exciting, impeccably and painstakingly researched with a cast of vividly-drawn characters. Riding through it is among the greatest, most extraordinarily brilliant aircraft of them all: the Mosquito. One of the most gripping works of history I’ve ever read’ James Holland

‘Weaving together the story of its evolution with vivid accounts of the crews that flew it and the Special Operations Executive on the ground, Mosquito is both a tribute to the finest aircraft Britain produced during the war and a page-turning thriller about its use as the world’s first precision aerial weapon’ Tom Petch, author of Speed Aggression Surprise: The Secret Origins of the SAS

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In the second half of the fifteenth century, for over thirty years, civil war tore England apart. However, its roots were deeper and its thorns were felt for longer than this time frame suggests. The Wars of the Roses were not a coherent period of continual warfare. There were distinct episodes of conflict, interspersed with long periods of peace. But the struggles never really ceased. Motives changed, fortunes waxed and waned, the nature of kingship was weighed and measured and the mettle of some of England’s greatest families was put to the test. Matthew Lewis examines the people behind these events, exploring the personalities of the main players, their motives, successes and failures. He uncovers some of the lesser-known tales and personal stories often lost in the broad sweep of the Wars of the Roses, in a period of famously complex loyalties and shifting fortunes.

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Gardening became a popular pastime in Victorian Britain with the rise of suburban gardens, and improvements in technology made gardening more accessible to amateurs. New introductions from abroad brought a greater variety of plants, leading to fashions for massed bedding, exotic glasshouse displays, rock gardens and rhododendrons. The large and prestigious gardens of country houses were emulated in suburban settings as gardening spread to the masses, and the creation of public parks introduced green spaces to grey cities. Caroline Ikin here explores the many aspects of Victorian gardens and gardening and introduces some of the most influential people of the age, including Joseph Paxton, John Loudon and Gertrude Jekyll.

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This is the second book by Martin Jenkins and Charles Roberts, about transport in the Isle of Man. The first volume covered the railway network, where as this new volume covers all other forms, road, rail, sea and air operations. The book is illustrated, using previously unpublished rare early colour pictures, from the Online Transport Archive, which holds over a million transport images. Both the authors have managed to collect together some truly interesting and often stunning pictures, from a period when colour coverage of transport subjects was almost non existent.

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The Sunday Times bestseller

‘One of the most dramatic forgotten chapters of the war, as told in a new book by the incomparable Max Hastings’ DAILY MAIL

In August 1942, beleaguered Malta was within weeks of surrender to the Axis, because its 300,000 people could no longer be fed. Churchill made a personal decision that at all costs, the ‘island fortress’ must be saved. This was not merely a matter of strategy, but of national prestige, when Britain’s fortunes and morale had fallen to their lowest ebb.

The largest fleet the Royal Navy committed to any operation of the western war was assembled to escort fourteen fast merchantmen across a thousand of miles of sea defended by six hundred German and Italian aircraft, together with packs of U-boats and torpedo craft. The Mediterranean battles that ensued between 11 and 15 August were the most brutal of Britain’s war at sea, embracing four aircraft-carriers, two battleships, seven cruisers, scores of destroyers and smaller craft. The losses were appalling: defeat seemed to beckon.
This is the saga Max Hastings unfolds in his first full length narrative of the Royal Navy, which he believes was the most successful of Britain’s wartime services. As always, he blends the ‘big picture’ of statesmen and admirals with human stories of German U-boat men, Italian torpedo-plane crews, Hurricane pilots, destroyer and merchant-ship captains, ordinary but extraordinary seamen.

Operation Pedestal describes catastrophic ship sinkings, including that of the aircraft-carrier Eagle, together with struggles to rescue survivors and salvage stricken ships. Most moving of all is the story of the tanker Ohio, indispensable to Malta’s survival, victim of countless Axis attacks. In the last days of the battle, the ravaged hulk was kept under way only by two destroyers, lashed to her sides. Max Hastings describes this as one of the most extraordinary tales he has ever recounted. Until the very last hours, no participant on either side could tell what would be the outcome of an epic of wartime suspense and courage.

Max Hastings’ book ‘Abyss’ was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 15-05-2023.

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