1st Battalion Royal Sussex Regiment. A personal memoir of the highs and the lows following Roy Rees during World War Two, his pre-war training and activities through to eventual retirement from the Army in 1946.

Michael Hafferty's memoirs of his National Service days in the RAF will strike a chord with any ex-serviceman (or woman ). He describes his RAF career from "Square Bashing" - Trade Training - Posting to Singapore and final "de-mob" in a light-hearted, at times laugh-out-loud style, which makes for easy reading. The characters he meets along his way will be recognised by anyone who served in the forces and evoke memories of the mid-50's and events now passed into history. His tales of hard-up conscripts, sent out to Singapore to serve their country make interesting reading for those curious as to what their fathers - or even grandfathers - got up to in their youth The descriptions of working with the Sunderland Flying Boats at RAF Seletar, both now sadly extinct, will prove fascinating to aircraft buffs and landlubbers alike. As a reminder of days gone by to "fellow sufferers," or as an insight to those born too late to experience the joys of National Service, it makes for a most enjoyable read. About the Author Michael was one of the last of many thousands of conscripts to go through the mill of National Service. Following his "de-mob" he joined the Police Force in which he served for 30 years.

William Marwood was a shoemaker from Horncastle who in 1869 made his mind up to become an executioner and eventually became the chief executioner for London and Middlesex from 1874 until 1883, he always said 'I am doing God's work according to the divine command and the law of the British crown. I do it simply as a matter of duty and as a Christian. I sleep soundly as a child in my bed and never am disturbed by phantoms. When I get out of bed on the morning of an execution I kneel down quietly and ask God's blessing on the work I have to do, and ask mercy for the prisoner, I have a sense of divine mission and a belief that regardless of what deeds the condemned man has perpetrated in his time, he deserves to be dispatched as painless as possible.' It was Marwood who set out a table of "drops", calculated by the weight of the condemned, of between six and 10 feet that, together with the careful placing of the knot under the left ear, would guarantee "almost instantaneous" unconsciousness with death following very rapidly thereafter. Marwood was the first English executioner to refine the "long drop" which was already being used in Ireland, it meant an end to the convulsions and struggling that witnesses saw before Marwood's time, when death occurred from strangulation. He was also credited with the invention of the split trapdoor. He dispatched one hundred and eighty men and women during his twelve years as executioner. Born of poor parents he became known throughout England and Ireland as the 'Gentleman Executioner'. He would tap his victims on the shoulder, shake them by the hand and say 'Come along with me I shall not hurt you'. In justice to Marwood it may, however, be stated that in many cases criminals are described as dying instantaneously by his method of execution; and instances are not wanting of the hard death by means of the short drop, as in Calcraft's day.

The extraordinary untold story of Ernest Hemingway's dangerous secret life in espionage A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A finalist for the William E. Colby Military Writers' Award "IMPORTANT" (Wall Street Journal) - "FASCINATING" (New York Review of Books) - "CAPTIVATING" (Missourian) A riveting international cloak-and-dagger epic ranging from the Spanish Civil War to the liberation of Western Europe, wartime China, the Red Scare of Cold War America, and the Cuban Revolution, Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy reveals for the first time Ernest Hemingway's secret adventures in espionage and intelligence during the 1930s and 1940s (including his role as a Soviet agent code-named "Argo"), a hidden chapter that fueled both his art and his undoing. While he was the historian at the esteemed CIA Museum, Nicholas Reynolds, a longtime American intelligence officer, former U.S. Marine colonel, and Oxford-trained historian, began to uncover clues suggesting Nobel Prize-winning novelist Ernest Hemingway was deeply involved in mid-twentieth-century spycraft -- a mysterious and shocking relationship that was far more complex, sustained, and fraught with risks than has ever been previously supposed. Now Reynolds's meticulously researched and captivating narrative "looks among the shadows and finds a Hemingway not seen before" (London Review of Books), revealing for the first time the whole story of this hidden side of Hemingway's life: his troubling recruitment by Soviet spies to work with the NKVD, the forerunner to the KGB, followed in short order by a complex set of secret relationships with American agencies. Starting with Hemingway's sympathy to antifascist forces during the 1930s, Reynolds illuminates Hemingway's immersion in the life-and-death world of the revolutionary left, from his passionate commitment to the Spanish Republic; his successful pursuit by Soviet NKVD agents, who valued Hemingway's influence, access, and mobility; his wartime meeting in East Asia with communist leader Chou En-Lai, the future premier of the People's Republic of China; and finally to his undercover involvement with Cuban rebels in the late 1950s and his sympathy for Fidel Castro. Reynolds equally explores Hemingway's participation in various roles as an agent for the United States government, including hunting Nazi submarines with ONI-supplied munitions in the Caribbean on his boat, Pilar; his command of an informant ring in Cuba called the "Crook Factory" that reported to the American embassy in Havana; and his on-the-ground role in Europe, where he helped OSS gain key tactical intelligence for the liberation of Paris and fought alongside the U.S. infantry in the bloody endgame of World War II. As he examines the links between Hemingway's work as an operative and as an author, Reynolds reveals how Hemingway's secret adventures influenced his literary output and contributed to the writer's block and mental decline (including paranoia) that plagued him during the postwar years -- a period marked by the Red Scare and McCarthy hearings. Reynolds also illuminates how those same experiences played a role in some of Hemingway's greatest works, including For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Old Man and the Sea, while also adding to the burden that he carried at the end of his life and perhaps contributing to his suicide. A literary biography with the soul of an espionage thriller, Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy is an essential contribution to our understanding of the life, work, and fate of one of America's most legendary authors.

People interested in the history of India's partition invariably ask the same question: Why did Pakistan happen? Or, what was the Pakistan idea? Focusing on M. A. Jinnah's political career, this book addresses the issue of whether he had a secular or religious vision for Pakistan, or perhaps something in between? Pakistan as a country has yet to find its proper place in the world. Logically, it is assumed that if we can reach a consensus on Jinnah's thought, then we can also resolve the long-standing question of what kind of state Pakistan was meant to be, and thus how it should develop today. Pakistanis are tired of self-serving politicians, landlordism, nepotism, the rise of religious fundamentalism, corruption, economic instability, and the semi-predictable cycle between incompetent bureaucratic and military regimes. Hence for Pakistanis more than anyone else, the debate over Jinnah is a highly emotive subject, and at its heart is a battle of ideas. Pakistanis are really trying to work out something much bigger than Jinnah's place in history. They are trying to find their own historical identity as well. A well researched and thoroughly-indexed book that has earned its place amongst the leading political commentaries on contemporary Pakistan.

The gripping, vividly told story of the largest POW escape in the Second World War - organized by an Australian bank clerk, a British jazz pianist and an American spy. In August 1944 the most successful POW escape of the Second World War took place - 106 Allied prisoners were freed from a camp in Maribor, in present-day Slovenia. The escape was organized not by officers, but by two ordinary soldiers: Australian Ralph Churches (a bank clerk before the war) and Londoner Les Laws (a jazz pianist by profession), with the help of intelligence officer Franklin Lindsay. The American was on a mission to work with the partisans who moved like ghosts through the Alps, ambushing and evading Nazi forces. How these three men came together - along with the partisans - to plan and execute the escape is told here for the first time. The Greatest Escape, written by Ralph Churches' son Neil, takes us from Ralph and Les's capture in Greece in 1941 and their brutal journey to Maribor, with many POWs dying along the way, to the horror of seeing Russian prisoners starved to death in the camp. The book uncovers the hidden story of Allied intelligence operations in Slovenia, and shows how Ralph became involved. We follow the escapees on a nail-biting 160-mile journey across the Alps, pursued by German soldiers, ambushed and betrayed. And yet, of the 106 men who escaped, 100 made it to safety. Thanks to research across seven countries, The Greatest Escape is no longer a secret. It is one of the most remarkable adventure stories of the last century.

Born into working class poverty in the North of England in 1925, Eddie Davies' personal account illustrates the remarkable and colourful lives led by many 'ordinary people'. From a succession of dead-end and downright dangerous jobs, through a ferocious (though often hilarious) World War II, back to Blighty and then off to central Africa for more hair-raising adventures. All this well before I even met the man who was to become father-in-law and grand-dad to my kids. We should be grateful that there are those prepared and able to describe their journey through a rapidly changing world - a world that has all but disappeared as we hurtle towards an uncertain future. No doubt there will be similar shared memories for many of the older ones amongst us, and a damn good read for the rest!

Jeff Struecker, a "Black Hawk Down" hero, the Army's Top Ranger, now an Army Chaplain, relates his own tales from the frontlines of every U.S. initiative since Panama, and tells how God taught him faith from the front in fear-soaked times. As readers go on-mission with Struecker through his harrowing tales, they will learn how to face their own fears with faith in a mighty God. Just as he told one of his charges in Mogadishu: "The difference between being a coward and a hero is not whether you're scared, it's what you do "while" you're scared."

Georges Sada was one of Saddam's top generals and foremost military advisors. A truth-teller in a government that made the truth dangerous. A devout Christian in a Muslim country. And a man who would stand up for what was right―even at the risk of his own life.

In this eye-opening expose, General Sada shares his bizarre yet amazing journey as an insider to one of history's most sinister regimes. He also, for the first time, reveals the disturbing truth about Saddam's plots to destroy Israel, hide weapons of mass destruction and overtake the Arab world. As an eye witness to history, Sada paints a painfully truthful picture of Hussein and his country that is at once personal and alarming, truthful and compelling, candid and sobering. It is a story guaranteed to send shock waves around the world.

A gripping royal saga of charmed lives in a changing world. The Jaipurs were India's mid-century golden couple; its answer to the Kennedys, or Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip. Jai and Ayesha, as they were known to friends like Frank Sinatra, Truman Capote and 'Dickie' Mountbatten, entertained lavishly at their magnificent palaces and hunting lodges in Rajasthan-and in the nightclubs of London, Paris and New York. But as the Raj gave way to the new India, Jaipur-the most glamorous and romantic of the princely states-had to find its place. The House of Jaipur charts a dynasty's determination to remain relevant in a democracy set on crushing its privileges. Against the odds, they secured their place at the height of Indian society; but Ayesha would pay for her criticism of Indira Gandhi during the Emergency. From the polo field and politics to imprisonment and personal tragedy, the Jaipurs' extraordinary journey of transformation mirrors the story of a rapidly changing country.

"Lady Pamela Hicks's joyously entertaining new memoir, arguably the poshest book that ever has or will be written" ("Newsweek"), is a privileged glimpse into the lives and loves of some of the twentieth century's leading figures.
Pamela Mountbatten entered a remarkable family when she was born in Madrid at the very end of the "Roaring Twenties." Daughter of the glamorous heiress Edwina Ashley and Lord Louis Mountbatten, Pamela spent much of her early life with her sister, nannies, and servants--not to mention a menagerie of animals that included, at different times, a honey bear, chameleons, a bush baby, and a mongoose. Her parents' vast social circle included royalty, film stars, celebrities, and politicians. Noel Coward invited Pamela to watch him film, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. dropped in for tea.
However when war broke out Pamela and her sister were sent to New York to live with Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, while the prime minister appointed her father to be the last Viceroy of India. Amid the turmoil, Pamela came of age, meeting the student leaders who had been released from jail, working in the canteen for Allied forces and in a clinic outside Delhi. She also developed a close bond with Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.
"If you are addicted to "Downton Abbey," chances are that you will relish "Daughter of Empire," a British aristocrat's memoir of her childhood and coming of age...She is also a keen observer of a way of life now vanished, except on PBS" ("The Wall Street Journal"). "Not many people remain who can tell stories like Lady Pamela Hicks" ("Vanity Fair").

From one of our most acclaimed new biographers--the first full life of the leader of Lincoln's "team of rivals" to appear in more than forty years.
William Henry Seward was one of the most important Americans of the nineteenth century. Progressive governor of New York and outspoken US senator, he was the odds-on favorite to win the 1860 Republican nomination for president. As secretary of state and Lincoln's closest adviser during the Civil War, Seward not only managed foreign affairs but had a substantial role in military, political, and personnel matters.
Some of Lincoln's critics even saw Seward, erroneously, as the power behind the throne; this is why John Wilkes Booth and his colleagues attempted to kill Seward as well as Lincoln. Seward survived the assassin's attack, continued as secretary of state, and emerged as a staunch supporter of President Andrew Johnson, Lincoln's controversial successor. Through his purchase of Alaska ("Seward's Folly"), and his groundwork for the purchase of the Canal Zone and other territory, Seward set America on course to become a world empire.
Seward was not only important, he was fascinating. Most nights this well-known raconteur with unruly hair and untidy clothes would gather diplomats, soldiers, politicians, or actors around his table to enjoy a cigar, a drink, and a good story. Drawing on hundreds of sources not available to or neglected by previous biographers, Walter Stahr's bestselling biography sheds new light on this complex and central figure, as well as on pivotal events of the Civil War and its aftermath.

Sarah Heckford, born a Victorian lady in 1839, defied convention. Despite disability and the confines of upper-class expectations, she broke all boundaries; first to volunteer at a cholera hospital; then to start a children’s hospital in London’s East End with her husband. Newly widowed, she left first for Italy and India, and then for South Africa.

Arriving at Durban in 1878, Sarah set out for the Transvaal. Here she became a governess and then a farmer; later she became a transport-rider, trading goods with hunters and miners in the Lowveld. She made a life for herself in Africa despite considerable drawbacks, all the while trying to find ways of bettering the lives of those around her.

Author Vivien Allen has brought this remarkable woman to life in a riveting biography.

They say you are what you eat--but apparently, with whom you eat is pretty important too. Current medical research bears this out. But wellness was not what motivated mil-blogger/Navy wife and mom Sarah Smiley to invite one guest every week for 52 weeks to have dinner with herself and her three young sons.
Sarah's motivation was to fill a void in her family life: that empty chair at the dining room table while her Navy pilot husband, Dustin, was deployed overseas for a year. But what started as a gesture meant to distract the boys from missing their Dad became a joyous journey as the unlikeliest people accepted the invitations... and brought dessert. The Smiley family discovered that a surprising number of people really are available for dinner. You just have to ask.
Each dinner guest taught them about life, and the importance of sharing something simple and intimate--like a meal--to cement these valuable lessons in place.
From a state senator (she baked brownies) to sports superstars (ice cream), from the boys' teachers (cookies) to their 94-year old neighbor--with R2-D2 making a very special visit--each Smiley dinner guest leaves an indelible impression. Throughout the book, Sarah Smiley's unvarnished detailing of the emotional ebb and flow of being a "single mom" to three irrepressible boys while trying to balance career, car pool and dinner prep is Bombeck-esque at times, deeply moving at others. DINNER WITH THE SMILEYS transformed the family, so much so that even upon Dad's return home, the dinners have continued... one new guest every week.
DINNER WITH THE SMILEYS shows how one family made a difference not only in their own lives, but the life of each guest as well. Full of humor and heart, this memoir will remind readers how nice it is to sit down, break bread, and connect, as well as surely inspire many invitations to the dinner table.

An instant "New York Times "bestseller, this "explosive biography" ("People") of one of the most beloved and mysterious figures of the twentieth century is "as close as we'll ever get to being inside J.D. Salinger's head" ("Entertainment Weekly").
This "revealing" ("The" "New York Times") and "engrossing" ("The" "Wall Street Journal") oral biography, "fascinating and unique" ("The Washington Post") and "an unmitigated success" ("USA TODAY"), has redefined our understanding of one of the most mysterious figures of the twentieth century.
In nine years of work on "Salinger," and especially in the years since the author's death, David Shields and Shane Salerno interviewed more than 200 people on five continents, many of whom had previously refused to go on the record about their relationship with Salinger. This oral biography offers direct eyewitness accounts from Salinger's World War II brothers-in-arms, his family members, his close friends, his lovers, his classmates, his neighbors, his editors, his publishers, his "New Yorker" colleagues, and people with whom he had relationships that were secret even to his own family. Their intimate recollections are supported by more that 175 photos (many never seen before), diaries, legal records, and private documents that are woven throughout; in addition, appearing here for the first time, are Salinger's "lost letters"--ranging from the 1940s to 2008, revealing his intimate views on love, literature, fame, religion, war, and death, and providing a raw and revelatory self-portrait.
The result is "unprecedented" (Associated Press), "genuinely valuable" ("Time"), and "strips away the sheen of Salinger's] exceptionalism, trading in his genius for something much more real" ("Los Angeles Times"). According to the "Sunday Times" of London, "Salinger" is "a stupendous work...I predict with the utmost confidence that, after this, the world will not need another Salinger biography."

In the middle of 2019, Rishi Sunak was an unknown junior minister in the local government department. Seven months later, at the age of thirty-nine, he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, grappling with the gravest economic crisis in modern history. Michael Ashcroft's new book charts Sunak's ascent from his parents' Southampton pharmacy to the University of Oxford, the City of London, Silicon Valley - and the top of British politics. It is the tale of a super-bright and hardgrafting son of immigrant parents who marries an Indian heiress and makes a fortune of his own; a polished urban southerner who wins over the voters of rural North Yorkshire - and a cautious, fiscally conservative financier who becomes the biggest-spending Chancellor in history. Sunak was unexpectedly promoted to the Treasury's top job in February 2020, with a brief to spread investment and opportunity as part of Boris Johnson's levelling-up agenda. Within weeks, the coronavirus had sent Britain into lockdown, with thousands of firms in peril and millions of jobs on the line. As health workers battled to save lives, it was down to Sunak to save livelihoods. This is the story of how he tore up the rulebook and went for broke.

In Dead Presidents, public radio host and reporter Brady Carlson takes readers on an epic trip to presidential gravesites, monuments, and memorials from sea to shining sea. With an engaging mix of history and contemporary reporting, Carlson explores the death stories of our greatest leaders, and shows that the ways we memorialize our presidents reveal as much about us as they do about the men themselves.

A TIME TO BETRAY
This exhilarating, award-winning memoir of a secret double life reveals the heart-wrenching story of a man who spied for the American government in the ranks of the notorious Revolutionary Guards of Iran, risking everything by betraying his homeland in order to save it.
Reza Kahlili grew up in Tehran surrounded by his close-knit family and friends. But the enlightened Iran of his youth vanished forever, as Reza discovered upon returning home from studying computer science in the United States, when the revolution of 1979 ushered in Ayatollah Khomeini's dark age of religious fundamentalism. Clinging to the hope of a Persian Renaissance, Reza joined the Ayatollah's elite Revolutionary Guards. As Khomeini's tyrannies unfolded, as fellow countrymen turned on each other, and after the deeply personal horrors he witnessed firsthand inside Evin Prison, a shattered and disillusioned Reza returned to America to dangerously become "Wally," a spy for the CIA.
In "A Time to Betray," Reza not only relates his razor's-edge, undercover existence from moment to heart-pounding moment as he supplies vital information from the Iran-Iraq War, the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, the Iran-Contra affair, and more; he also documents a chain of incredible events that culminates in a nation's fight for freedom that continues to this very day, making this a timely and vital perspective on the future of Iran and the fate of the world.

Robert W. Merry presents a fresh, playful, and challenging way of playing America's favorite game, "Rating the Presidents," by pitching historian's views and experts' polls against the judgment and votes of the presidents' contemporaries.