Aubrey Jones was born in Merthyr Tydfil the oldest son of a miner father and a teacher mother. He was educated at the local Cyfarthfa Castle school from where he won a scholarship to the London School of Economics. He left the LSE with a first class honours degree, as well as the Gladstone memorial prize and a Gerstenberg award for postgraduate studies. Shortly after leaving the LSE he joined the Times, departing his desk in Berlin just days before the outbreak of the Second World War. On return to London he served in the War Office and army intelligence, finally seeing theatre in North Africa and Italy. At the end of the war he returned to the Times but soon tired of journalism and took a post as assistant to the director of the British Iron and Steel Federation, eventually becoming its director. He was first elected to Parliament as an unlikely member of the Conservative party in 1950 and appointed first, Minister for Fuel and Power and then Minister of Supply under successive Conservative Prime Ministers. But Macmillan's re-election in 1959 saw him return to the back-benches and reinvigorate his industrial experience. From that time he was convinced that the UK should join the European Community, as it then was. He also took a strong position in support of technological development, believing the country would benefit from a Government policy encouraging closer cooperation between military and civil technology. When Harold Wilson won the 1964 election for Labour he and George Brown, surprisingly, picked Aubrey Jones to become chairman of the newly formed National Board for Prices and Incomes. He was selected for the role from a dozen names as the only candidate acceptable to both the TUC and the CBI. The decision to take the job saw him give up his Conservative seat and face a wider rejection by the Conservative party. George Brown told him there'd be a peerage at the end of his chairmanship of the NBPI but that was never Aubrey Jones' goal. Instead he returned to industry, taking up various directorships in the UK and he later spent time abroad, first consulting on reforming the civil service for the military Government of Nigeria and then acting in various consultancy roles for the Government of the Shah of Iran until just before the revolution in that country. Upon his return to the UK Aubrey Jones sought to return to the House of Commons. He fought and lost the 1983 General Election in the Birmingham constituency of Sutton Coldfield for the Liberal Alliance. He later joined the Social Democrats and eventually the Liberal party. He firmly believed there was a role for the State in civil society, more so than the politics of the Conservative party would allow. He also passionately believed that, with the Empire gone, the UK needed to be part of a much larger entity to make its voice heard in the world. That entity was, for Aubrey Jones, the European Community and the Liberal Party was the only political party of the day, which was firmly committed to membership of the Community. Unfortunately Aubrey Jones ended his memoirs when he departed from Iran but his views on Europe come across strongly in the selection of notes and letters he wrote subsequently. It's fair to say he would be deeply frustrated by the result of the 2016 EU referendum and the ensuing debacle about the manner and terms of the final withdrawal from the European Union.

An international bestseller which has sold over a million copies in the UK, Dreams From My Father is a refreshing, revealing portrait of a young man asking big questions about identity and belonging. The son of a Black African father and a white American mother, Barack Obama recounts an emotional odyssey, retracing the migration of his mother's family from Kansas to Hawai'i, then to his childhood home in Indonesia. Finally he travels to Kenya, where he confronts the bitter truth of his father's life and at last reconciles his divided inheritance. Written nearly fifteen years before becoming president, Dreams from My Father is an unforgettable read. It illuminates not only Obama's journey, but also our universal desire to understand our history and what makes us who we are.

A dedicated career soldier and excellent division and corps commander, Dominique Vandamme was a thorn in the side of practically every officer he served. Outspoken to a fault, he even criticized Napoleon, whom he never forgave for not appointing him marshal. His military prowess so impressed the emperor, however, that he returned Vandamme to command time and again.In this first book-length study of Vandamme in English, John G. Gallaher traces the career of one of Napoleon's most successful midrank officers. He describes Vandamme's rise from a provincial youth with neither fortune nor influence to an officer of the highest rank in the French army. Gallaher thus offers a rare look at a Napoleonic general who served for twenty-five years during the wars of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Empire. This was a time when a general could lose his head if he lost a battle. Despite Vandamme's contentious nature, Gallaher shows, Napoleon needed his skills as a commander, and Vandamme needed Napoleon to further his career. Gallaher draws on a wealth of archival sources in France - notably the Vandamme Papers in Lille - to draw a full portrait of the general. He also reveals new information on such military events as the Silesian campaign of 1807 and the disaster at Kulm in 1813. Gallaher presents Vandamme in the context of the Napoleonic command system, revealing how he related to both subordinates and superiors. Napoleon's Enfant Terrible depicts an officer who was his own worst enemy but who was instrumental in winning an empire.

Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience - classics which will endure for generations to come. Few books have had such an impact as Wild Swans: a popular bestseller which has sold more than 13 million copies and a critically acclaimed history of China; a tragic tale of nightmarish cruelty and an uplifting story of bravery and survival. Through the story of three generations of women in her own family - the grandmother given to the warlord as a concubine, the Communist mother and the daughter herself - Jung Chang reveals the epic history of China's twentieth century. Breathtaking in its scope, unforgettable in its descriptions, this is a masterpiece which is extraordinary in every way.

A newly minted second lieutenant fresh from West Point, Hugh Lenox Scott arrived on the northern Great Plains in the wake of the Little Bighorn debacle. The Seventh Cavalry was seeking to subdue the Plains tribes and confine them to reservations, and Scott adopted the role of negotiator and advocate for the Indian "adversaries." He thus embarked on a career unique in the history of the U.S. military and the western frontier. Hugh Lenox Scott, 1853-1934: Reluctant Warrior is the first book to tell the full story of this unlikely, self-avowed "soldier of peace," whose career, stretching from Little Bighorn until after World War I, reflected profound historical changes. The taste for adventure that drew Scott to the military also piqued his interest in the tenacity of Native cultures in an environment rife with danger and uncertainty. Armand S. La Potin describes how Scott embraced the lifeways of the Northern Plains peoples, making a study of their cultures, their symbols, and most notably, their use of an intertribal sign language to facilitate trade. Negotiating with dissident bands of Indians whose lands were threatened by Anglo settlers and commercial interests, he increasingly found himself advocating federal responsibility for tribal welfare and assuming the role of "Indian reformer." La Potin makes clear that "reform" was understood within the context of Scott's own culture, which scaled "civilization" to the so-called Anglo race. Accordingly, Scott promoted the "civilization" of Native Americans through assimilation into Anglo-American society-an approach he continued in his later interactions with the Moro Muslims of the southern Philippines, where he served as a military governor. Although he eventually rose to the rank of army chief of staff, over time Scott the peacemaker and Indian reformer saw his career stall as Native tribes ceased to be seen as a military threat and military merit was increasingly defined by battlefield experience. From these pages the picture emerges of an uncommon figure in American military history, at once at odds with and defined by his times.

Find out who lived and who died in the incredible story of the founding father who made America modern and became the toast of Broadway. This richly illustrated biography portrays Alexander Hamilton's fascinating life alongside his key contributions to American history, including his unsung role as an early abolitionist. An immigrant from the West Indies, he played a crucial part in the political, legal and economic development of the new nation: He served as Washington's right-hand man during the Revolutionary War; he helped establish the Constitution; he wrote most of 'The Federalist Papers'; and he modernized America's fledgling finances, among other notable achievements. Noted Hamilton scholar and chairman of the Museum of American Finance, Richard Sylla, brings the flesh-and-blood man - the student, soldier, lawyer, political scientist, finance minister and politician - to life and reveals captivating details of his private life, as well as his infamous demise at the hands of Vice President Aaron Burr.

From challenging expectations as a bright and restless child of the Windrush generation to making history as the first elected Black female MP in the UK, Diane Abbott has seen it all.

A Woman Like Me takes readers through Diane’s incredible journey, painting a vivid picture of growing up in 1960s North London with her working-class Jamaican parents, before entering the hallowed halls of Cambridge University to study history. Ever since the day she first walked through the House of Commons as the first Black woman MP, she has been a fearless and vocal champion for the causes that have made Britain what it is today, whether it’s increasing access to education for Black children and speaking out against the Iraq war or advocating tirelessly for refugees and immigrants.

A unique figure in British public life, Diane has often had nothing but the courage of her convictions to carry her through incredibly hostile environments, from torrential abuse in the mainstream media and on social media, to being shunned by the political establishment, including by her own party. Written with frankness and wry humour, A Woman Like Me is an inspirational account that celebrates how one woman succeeded against massive odds and built an extraordinary legacy.

Following his explosive international bestseller Red Notice, Bill Browder returns with another gripping thriller chronicling how he became Vladimir Putin’s number one enemy by exposing Putin’s campaign to steal and launder hundreds of billions of dollars and kill anyone who stands in his way.

When Bill Browder’s young Russian lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was beaten to death in a Moscow jail, Browder made it his life’s mission to go after his killers and make sure they faced justice. The first step of that mission was to uncover who was behind the $230 million tax refund scheme that Magnitsky was killed over. As Browder and his team tracked the money as it flowed out of Russia through the Baltics and Cyprus and on to Western Europe and the Americas, they were shocked to discovered that Vladimir Putin himself was a beneficiary of the crime.

As law enforcement agencies began freezing the money, Putin retaliated. He and his cronies set up honey traps, hired process servers to chase Browder through cities, murdered more of his Russian allies, and enlisted some of the top lawyers and politicians in America to bring him down. Putin will stop at nothing to protect his money. As Freezing Order reveals, it was Browder’s campaign to expose Putin’s corruption that prompted Russia’s intervention in the 2016 US presidential election.

At once a financial caper, an international adventure and a passionate plea for justice, Freezing Order is a timely and stirring morality tale about how one man can take on one of the most ruthless villains in the world.