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‘Heroes’ is the story of an extraordinary generation of young men, mostly British, who came of age in the Second World War. These young men – and women – found themselves facing life-threatening danger and the kind of responsibility few would be prepared to shoulder today.Whether fighting in the jungles of Burma or on the D-Day beaches, as submariners, pilots, spies or prisoners of war, young soldiers in WWII displayed astonishing courage and resilience, united by honour and bound by the fellowship of their comrades.Those who made it home are now a passing generation, and for many this is the last chance for them to tell their stories – men like football legend Tom Finney, who saw action in southern Italy; or James Bond set-designer Ken Adam, a German Jew who flew as a fighter pilot for the RAF; or identical twins Tom and Dee Bowles, who landed together on Easy Red beach on D-Day.Many of these young men never returned home and those who did faced insurmountable challenges assimiliating back into civilian life. ‘Heroes’ is a moving and uplifting tribute to an remarkable generation.

It’s 1943 and Hitler’s Germany is a terrifying place to be.But Magda Ritter’s duty is the most dangerous of all…Assigned to The Berghof, Hitler’s mountain retreat, she must serve the Reich by becoming the Führer’s ‘Taster’ – a woman who checks his food for poison. Magda can see no way out of this hellish existence until she meets Karl, an SS officer who has formed an underground resistance group within Hitler’s inner circle.As their forbidden love grows, Magda and Karl see an opportunity to stop the atrocities of the madman leading their country. But in doing so, they risk their lives, their families and, above all, a love unlike either of them have ever known…Lose yourself in this sweeping, heroic love story fraught withdanger. The perfect read for fans of Dinah Jeffries and Gill Paul.

The definitive history of MI9's emergency escape and evasion mapping programme and the contribution the maps made to victory in 1945. Fascinating stories of secret maps used by prisoners of World War II.The creation of MI9 in December 1939, the rationale for the new military intelligence branch and the context of the history of military mapping on silk is outlined. The map production programme is described, together with its progress and the challenges faced. The various groups of maps are identified and described, together with the source maps on which they were based.The ingenious methods of smuggling the maps into the camps, with other escape aids, in apparently innocuous leisure items are described. The maps were then copied and reproduced to support the escapes. Coded correspondence with the camps is discussed, and a successful deciphering of some of that correspondence is provided. The implications for the escape and evasion programme were considerable, but so too were the implications of the passage of intelligence from the camps to aid the war effort, a factor apparently largely overlooked.• Historical Background and the Creation of MI9• The map production programme and the compilation of a carto-bibliography• Escape Aids and Communication with the Camps• Coded Correspondence• Airey Neave and the Schaffhausen Salient• the Baltic ports and maps produced in the camps

A thrilling account of treachery, loyalty and martyrdom in Elizabethan England from an exceptional new writer.As darkness fell on the evening of Friday, 28 October 1588, just weeks after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, two young Englishmen landed in secret on a Norfolk beach. They were Jesuit priests. Their aim was to achieve by force of argument what the Armada had failed to do by force of arms: return England to the Catholic Church.Eighteen years later their mission had been shattered by the actions of a small group of terrorists, the Gunpowder Plotters; they themselves had been accused of designing ‘that most horrid and hellish conspiracy’; and the future of every Catholic they had come to save depended on the silence of an Oxford joiner, builder of priest-holes, being tortured in the Tower of London.‘God’s Secret Agents’ tells the story of Elizabeth’s ‘other’ England, a country at war with an unseen enemy, a country peopled – according to popular pamphlets and Government proclamations – with potential traitors, fifth-columnists and assassins. And it tells this story from the perspective of that unseen ‘enemy’, England’s Catholics, a beleaguered, alienated minority, struggling to uphold its faith.Ultimately, ‘God’s Secret Agents’ is the story of men who would die for their cause undone by men who would kill for it.

‘GARDEN OF STARS by Rose Alexander is a stunning debut novel, rich in detail and brimming with emotion.’ – Books of all KindsThe Alentejo, Portugal 1934I am Inês Bretão and I am 18 years old. Now that I am finally an adult and soon to be married, I feel like my real life is about to begin. I have decided to document everything that happens to me, for my children and my grandchildren…As Sarah Lacey reads the scrawled handwriting in her great-aunt's journal on a trip to Portugal, she discovers a life filled with great passion, missed chances and lost loves – memories that echo Sarah's own life. Because Sarah's marriage is crumbling, her love for her husband ebbing away, and she fears the one man she truly loves was lost to her many years ago…But hidden within the faded pages of the journal is a secret Inês has kept locked away her entire life, and one final message for her beloved niece – a chance for Sarah to change her life, if she is brave enough to take it.What reviewers are saying about Rose Alexander‘a beautifully written book’ – Maddy (Netgalley)‘Garden of Stars is a book that stayed with me after I turned the last page. I felt enriched after finishing the book.’ – Bookaholic Swede‘a beautifully written story of love and loss. It takes you on a journey to remember, seamlessly intertwining both the past and the present to make a moving tale that will stay with you long after the final page has been turned.’ – Cal’s Blog‘a beautifully poignant, richly-told story of love and loss’ – Becca’s Books‘I loved this book’ – Kate, Netgalley reviewer

From the international best-selling author of Longitude, Galileo’s Daughter is the fascinating story of the relationship between the great Italian scientist Galileo and his daughter, Virginia.Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was the foremost scientist of his day, ‘the father of modern physics – indeed of modern science altogether’ in the words of Albert Einstein. Though he never left the Italy of his birth, his inventions and discoveries were heralded around the world. His telescopes allowed him to reveal a new reality in the heavens and to defend the astounding proposition that the Earth actually moves around the Sun. For this belief he faced the Holy Office of the Inquisition and was subsequently tried for heresy and threatened with torture. Galileo is brought to life here as never before – a man boldly compelled to explain the truths he discovered, human in his frailties and faith, devoted to family and, especially, to his daughter. Since there could be no hope of marriage for his illegitimate daughter Galileo placed her, aged thirteen, in a convent near him in Florence. She proved to be his greatest source of strength through his most difficult years. Through letters, contemporary writings, their voices are brought to vivid life and woven into Dava Sobel’s compelling narrative. Galileo’s Daughter tells the story of the most dramatic collision in history between science and religion. Dava Sobel illuminates an entire era, when the flamboyant Medici Grand Dukes became Galileo’s patrons, when the Bubonic plague destroyed a generation and prayer was the most effective medicine, when one man fought to reconcile the Heaven he revered as a good Catholic with the heavens he revealed through his telescope. Galileo’s Daughter is a rich and unforgettable story.Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content that appeared in the original print version.

Renowned industrial expert Geoffrey Owen analyses the complex reasons behind the delayed modernisation of British industry.In 1945, following the economic hardship of the war years, British industry looked forward with confidence to re-establishing links with its traditional trading partners in the Empire, and in the years of reconstruction which followed enjoyed unprecendented growth and prosperity. But the emergence of an economically vigorous and fiercely competitive Europe forced Britain to come to terms with some fundamental industrial weaknesses and to question where her economic destiny lay as the ‘miracle economies’ of France and Germany began to overtake her own.Through case studies of key industries from textiles to pharmaceuticals, steel to electronics, Owen offers a vivid account of Britain’s industrial progress, and argues that since the late 1970s British industry has undergone a painful but necessary transformation which has rapidly modernised the UK economy.At the start of a new millennium, as Britain once again debates its relationship with an ever more unified Europe, Geoffrey Owen provides a timely appraisal of the often troubled path that Britain has taken from Empire to Europe.

Books 7-9 in George MacDonald Fraser’s uproarious bestselling Flashman series, now available in one ebook for the first time.FLASHMAN AT THE CHARGE: 1854-1855As the Light Brigade prepare to charge the Russian guns at Balaclava, Flashman assumes his characteristic battle position: sabre rattling, teeth chattering, bowels rumbling in terror. His flight from the dangers of Crimes will take him across the great Russian empire to Central Asia, where savage tribal hordes form a last line of resistance under the leadership of the Silk One, a lusty little baggage with one thing on her mind…FLASHMAN IN THE GREAT GAME: 1856-1858Flashman finds himself plumbing new depths of anxious knavery in his role as a secret agent extraordinaire. Cowering and sidestepping his way around Thug assassins, tsarist agents and rampaging hordes of Sepoy mutineers, Flashman somehow manages to keep his skin intact. until he meets his match in the voluptuous Princess Lakshmiba…FLASHMAN AND THE ANGEL OF THE LORD: 1858-1859Beating a hasty retreat from the boudoir would normally suffice when caught in flagrante with a wanton young wife, but when the husband turns out to be a high court judge, a change of continents is called for. And so Flashman embarks upon a voyage that will see him shanghaied and shipped off to America. His destination: the little Virginian town of Harper’s Ferry, where John Brown and his gang of fanatics plan to fire the first shot in the war against slavery – with Flashy as military adviser.

Books 4-6 in George MacDonald Fraser’s uproarious bestselling Flashman series, now available in one ebook for the first time.FLASHMAN AND THE MOUNTAIN OF LIGHT: 1845-1846Given the choice between defending Britannia’s frontier against the mighty Sikh army and pleasuring a ravishing maharani in the Court of the Punjab, Flashman knew where he’d rather be. Of course, that was before he found out about the torture chambers or the malevolent influence of the Mountain of Light…FLASH FOR FREEDOM!: 1848-1849Flashman seems destined for the House of Commons, until his political ambitions are scuppered by a crooked game of pontoon with Disraeli (with someone else, doing the cheating for a change!) Forced to flee London, he boards a vessel bound for the United States – via the African slave coast. Before the odyssey ends, Flashy will encounter an assortment of interesting Yanks including a New Orleans madam and a young Mr Lincoln…FLASH AND THE REDSKINS: 1849-50 / 1875-76With charges of slave-stealing, slave-trading, false pretences and murder hanging over him, Flashman is desperate to leave New Orleans. So desperate that when a besotted brothel keeper invites him to lead a wagon train of whores bound for the California goldfields, he jumps at the chance.

Hitler’s top-secret Directive No. 16 set a precondition for a landing operation: ‘The English air force must have been beaten down to such an extent … that it can no longer muster any power of attack worth mentioning against the German crossing.’ Reissued by William Collins, ‘Fighter’ is Len Deighton’s thrilling telling of the ensuing Battle of Britain – the aerial combat between the RAF and the Luftwaffe that was fought between July and October 1940.Deighton has written a compelling account of this all-important action: a balanced study of strategies and tactics that also expertly recounts the development of the aeroplanes that fought each other in the skies – the Spitfires and Messerschmitts – and of radar. And behind the strategies and tactics, and in the cockpits of the aeroplanes, are the men brought vividly to life by Deighton’s skill as a novelist.

Described as ‘a masterpiece’ by critics, this remarkable book tells the story of war through the lives and deaths of a single family. Absolutely unforgettable new writing.If you loved The English Patient or Rohinton Mistry’s Fine Balance or Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers, you will love this book.Three young men gazed at him from silver-framed photographs in his grandmother’s house, ‘beheld but not noticed, as angels are in a frieze full of mortal strugglers’. They had all been in the Second World War, a fact that surprised him. Indians had never figured in his idea of the war, nor the war in his idea of India – and he thought that he had a good idea of both.One of them, Bobby, even looked a bit like him, but Raghu Karnad had not noticed until he was the same age as they were in their photo-frames. Then he learned about the Parsi boy from the sleepy south Indian coast, so eager to follow his brothers-in-law into the colonial forces and onto the front line. Manek, dashing and confident, was a pilot with India’s fledgling air force; gentle Ganny became an army doctor in the arid North-West Frontier. Bobby’s pursuit would carry him as far as the deserts of Iraq and the green hell of the Burma battlefront.The years 1939-45 might be the most revered, deplored and replayed in modern history. Yet India’s extraordinary role has been concealed, from itself and from the world. In riveting prose, Karnad retrieves the story of a single family – a story of love, rebellion, loyalty and uncertainty – and with it, the greatest revelation that is India’s Second World War.Farthest Field narrates the lost epic of India’s war, in which the largest volunteer army in history fought for the British Empire, even as its countrymen fought to be free of it. It carries us from Madras to Peshawar, Egypt to Burma – unfolding the saga of a young family amazed by their swiftly changing world and swept up in its violence.