Two months into a planned solo source-to-sea navigation of the Amazon River, adventure Davey du Plessis was ambushed and shot within the isolated jungles of Peru.

The adventure turned into an intense moment-to-moment struggle to survive as he made his way, wounded, through the dense jungle, seeking rescue and safety.

Choosing To Live is Davey's personal account of his Amazon experience. He retells the remarkable story with an endearing openness, while sharing unique insights into the power of compassion and his ability to maintain motivation in his balance between life and death.

The incredible true story of Louis Zamperini, now a major motion picture directed by Angelina Jolie. THE INTERNATIONAL NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER In 1943 a bomber crashes into the Pacific Ocean. Against all odds, one young lieutenant survives. Louise Zamperini had already transformed himself from child delinquent to prodigious athlete, running in the Berlin Olympics. Now he must embark on one of the Second World War's most extraordinary odysseys. Zamperini faces thousands of miles of open ocean on a failing raft. Beyond like only greater trials, in Japan's prisoner-of-war camps. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini's destiny, whether triumph or tragedy, depends on the strength of his will ... Now a major motion picture, directed by Angelina Jolie and starring Jack O' Connell.

In the terrifying summer of 1942 in Belgium, when the Nazis began the brutal roundup of Jewish families, parents searched desperately for safe haven for their children. As Suzanne Vromen reveals in Hidden Children of the Holocaust, these children found sanctuary with other families and schools--but especially in Roman Catholic convents and orphanages.
Vromen has interviewed not only those who were hidden as children, but also the Christian women who rescued them, and the nuns who gave the children shelter, all of whose voices are heard in this powerfully moving book. Indeed, here are numerous first-hand memoirs of life in a wartime convent--the secrecy, the humor, the admiration, the anger, the deprivation, the cruelty, and the kindness--all with the backdrop of the terror of the Nazi occupation. We read the stories of the women of the Resistance who risked their lives in placing Jewish children in the care of the Church, and of the Mothers Superior and nuns who sheltered these children and hid their identity from the authorities. Perhaps most riveting are the stories told by the children themselves--abruptly separated from distraught parents and given new names, the children were brought to the convents with a sense of urgency, sometimes under the cover of darkness. They were plunged into a new life, different from anything they had ever known, and expected to adapt seamlessly. Vromen shows that some adapted so well that they converted to Catholicism, at times to fit in amid the daily prayers and rituals, but often because the Church appealed to them. Vromen also examines their lives after the war, how they faced the devastating loss of parents to the Holocaust, struggled to regaintheir identities and sought to memorialize those who saved them.
This remarkable book offers an inspiring chronicle of the brave individuals who risked everything to protect innocent young strangers, as well as a riveting account of the "hidden children" who lived to tell their stories.

An incredible tale of one man's adversity and defiance, for readers of The Tattooist of Auschwitz. Horace Greasley escaped over 200 times from a notorious German prison camp to see the girl he loved. This is his incredible true story. A Sunday Times Bestseller - over 60,000 copies sold. Even in the most horrifying places on earth, hope still lingers in the darkness, waiting for the opportunity to take flight. When war was declared Horace Greasley was just twenty-years old. After seven weeks' training with the 2/5th Battalion, the Royal Leicestershire Regiment, Horace found himself facing the might of the German Army in a muddy field south of Cherbourg, in northern France, with just thirty rounds in his ammunition pouch. Horace's war didn't last long. . . On 25 May 1940 he was taken prisoner and so began the harrowing journey to a prisoner-of-war camp in Poland. Those who survived the gruelling ten-week march to the camp were left broken and exhausted, all chance of escape seemingly extinguished. But when Horace met Rosa, the daughter of one of his captors, his story changed; fate, it seemed, had thrown him a lifeline. Horace risked everything in order to steal out of the camp to see his love, bringing back supplies for his fellow prisoners. In doing so he offered hope to his comrades, and defiance to one of the most brutal regimes in history.

It is January, 1978. Groups of nervous, dutiful white conscripts begin their National Service with Rhodesia's security forces. Ian Smith's minority regime is in its dying days and negotiations towards majority rule are already under way. For these inexperienced eighteen-year-olds, there is nothing to do but go on fighting, and hold the line while the transition happens around them. Dead Leaves is a richly textured memoir in which an ordinary troopie grapples with the unique dilemmas presented by an extraordinary period in history - the specters of inner violence and death; the pressurized arrival of manhood; and the place of conscience, friendship and beauty in the pervasive atmosphere of futile warfare.

Based on a series of fascinating interviews, this extraordinary book relates real stories of conflict from the people who lived through it. In vivid detail, and genuinely moving accounts, this unique publication draws the reader into a hugely significant period of history; capturing surprising and emotional stories first hand, before they disappear forever. These are more than just memories, they are the events that marked the world and an entire generation.

From the shattered land of Israel and Occupied Palestine comes a vivid account of anguish and determination. In his passionate essays penned during the violence of the Second Intifada, writer Henry Ralph Carse, practical theologian, pilgrim and scholar, seeks meaning in the seemingly senseless conflict. Living in the heart of East Jerusalem, Carse is an educator and the father of four children growing up in the midst of the mayhem. Driven by hope and concern, he chronicles his daily ventures into No-One Land, engaging both Israelis and Palestinians in the terrible and inspiring realities of their lives in the crossfire.

'This is an urgent and compelling account of great bravery and passion. Delphine Minoui has crafted a book that champions books and the individuals who risk everything to preserve them.' Susan Orlean, author of The Library Book In 2012 the rebel suburb of Daraya in Damascus was brutally besieged by Syrian government forces. Four years of suffering ensued, punctuated by shelling, barrel bombs and chemical gas attacks. People's homes were destroyed and their food supplies cut off; disease was rife. Yet in this man-made hell, forty young Syrian revolutionaries embarked on an extraordinary project, rescuing all the books they could find in the bombed-out ruins of their home town. They used them to create a secret library, in a safe place, deep underground. It became their school, their university, their refuge. It was a place to learn, to exchange ideas, to dream and to hope. Based on lengthy interviews with these young men, conducted over Skype by the award-winning French journalist Delphine Minoui, The Book Collectors of Daraya is a powerful testament to freedom, tolerance and the power of literature. Translated from the French by Lara Vergnaud.

Imagine waking up and a wall has divided your city in two. Imagine that on the other side is your child...

Lisette is in hospital with her baby boy. The doctors tell her to go home and get some rest, that he’ll be fine.

When she awakes, everything has changed. Because overnight, on 13 August 1961, the border between East and West Berlin has closed, slicing the city - and the world - in two.

Lisette is trapped in the east, while her newborn baby is unreachable in the west. With the streets in chaos and armed guards ordered to shoot anyone who tries to cross, her situation is desperate.

Lisette's teenage daughter, Elly, has always struggled to understand the distance between herself and her mother. Both have lived for music, but while Elly hears notes surrounding every person she meets, for her mother - once a talented pianist - the music has gone silent.

Perhaps Elly can do something to bridge the gap between them. What begins as the flicker of an idea turns into a daring plan to escape East Berlin, find her baby brother, and bring him home....

Based on true stories, The Silence in Between is a page-turning, emotional epic that will stay with you long after you finish reading.

The extraordinary story of how a Derbyshire coal miner survived as an escaped POW in occupied Poland by posing as a deaf-mute for three years. A few years before Colin Marshall died in 1993 he wrote his story and gave it to his daughter Hazel. She knew he'd had an extraordinary life but she read things he had never talked about, and it seemed part of another world. Years later, after Hazel's mother Nancy died, Hazel found tucked away in a cupboard, unseen letters, postcards and photographs that her mother had saved from Colin's time in Poland during WWII. As a tribute to her dad and the Polish people who helped him, Hazel decided to turn it into a book. This true story takes the reader from Colin growing-up in a Derbyshire mining village in the 1920s: starting work at the local colliery, joining the Lincolnshire Regiment of the Royal Engineers, being called-up at the outbreak of war, captured at Dunkirk and escaping from a POW camp in Poland - to being befriended by a Polish family, in a village occupied by German soldiers. Unable at that time to speak Polish, he posed as a deaf-mute for three years to avoid capture. Any slip-up and Colin knew that his Polish friends would be shot. It is a story of courage and determination and of two Polish families who risked their lives in order to save others.

With the outbreak of World War I, whilst thousands of men were being swallowed up in the patriotic surge of volunteering for the Army, large numbers of physically fit men were being rejected out of hand. These were those who were less than the mandatory height for acceptance, five feet three inches. Six young men from very different walks of life found that when they tried to volunteer, they were summarily rejected because they were not tall enough. All this would change in December, 1914 when "Bantam" units were raised in order to tap this otherwise wasted source of manpower. These six men who enlisted at the same time and recruiting office made a pact that if they could manage to do so, they would stay together as a group whilst they were in the Army. The narrative sees them through their training in the Yorkshire Dales and on Salisbury Plain thence to France in the winter of 1916 where they are introduced to the hardships of trench warfare in the flooded battlefields of French Flanders. Ultimately, they move to the Somme where their luck runs out. Having recovered from their wounds, two of the survivors take part in the mining operations at Messines Ridge, before moving on to Passchendaele and all its horrors. One of them is shipped back to England after more wounding. As a result of his experiences catching up with him, he will not return to active service in France. This story is based on facts, the service history of the author's father.

Part One This book is based on the true story of Jesse Fredrick Warren a 24 year old French Polisher by trade who was living in Bethnal Green, East London with his wife Amelia and their two young daughters Elizabeth and Beatrice. The start of the Great War in 1914 brought with it an end to regular employment and the beginning of great hardships for Jesse and his young family. By the February of 1915 they were destitute and starving. There was no money for food, gas or coal. Like so many other young men who found themselves in the same situation, there was only one option open to him: without telling his wife he signed on and volunteered for Kitchener's Army. It was not for King and Country that he joined up but to put food on the table for his wife and children. For this he was taken to France where he walked through the gates of hell. Part Two This is the continuing story of Jesse and Amelia Warren now living in Walthamstow, East London from the end of the Great War which against all odds he survived, until their deaths many years later...but firstly it takes the reader back to the meeting of a young couple who were to survive many hardships including two World Wars. It tells of their family, the good times they shared together and the bad times but also it tells of many hilarious moments that will certainly make the reader smile.

My grandfather, Frank Carollo, was a prisoner of war in the infamous POW camp Stalag 17 B during World War II. During these dark days, he managed to keep a diary of his experiences, depicting everyday life within, through beautiful short stories, poetry, and drawings. Now years later, I've taken his accounts, adding background details from friends and family, to create a memoir of hope, love, and survival; a story of one man's life before, during, and after being confined within one of the most notorious of Nazi camps. 20% of the profits from each book sold will be donated to the national Alzheimer's Association, in memory of Frank Carollo.

Foreword by Dan Snow. Ten holders of the Victoria Cross, the highest British military honour - for 'valour in the face of the enemy' - are associated with the Borough of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, UK. They include the very first VC to be awarded (in the Crimea, 1856).

'This is Doro and he is beautiful.' So begins the extraordinary story of Doro Goumaneh, who faced an unimaginable series of adversities on his journey from persecution in The Gambia to refuge in France. Doro was once a relatively prosperous fisherman, but in 2014, when the country's fishing rights were stolen and secret police began arresting Gambian fishermen, Doro left home, fleeing for his life. From Senegal to Libya to Algeria and back to Libya, Doro fell victim to the horrific cycle of abuse targeted at refugees. He endured shipwreck, torture and being left for dead in a mass grave. Miraculously, he survived. In 2019, during one of his many attempts to reach Europe, Doro was rescued by the boat Sea-Watch 3 in the Mediterranean, where he met volunteer Brendan Woodhouse. While waiting out a two-week standoff - floating off the coast of Sicily, as political leaders accused Sea-Watch, a German organisation that helps migrants, of facilitating illegal entry to Europe - a great friendship formed. Told through both Doro's and Brendan's perspectives, Doro touches on questions of policy and politics, brutality and bravery, survival and belonging - issues that confront refugees everywhere. But ultimately it is one man's incredible story - that of Doro: refugee, hero, champion, survivor and friend.

A Times History Book of the Year 2022 From Sunday Times bestselling historian Saul David, the dramatic tale of the first American troops to take the fight to the enemy in the Second World War, and also the last. The 'Devil Dogs' of K Company, 3/5 Marines, were part of the legendary first Marine Division. They landed on the beaches of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in 1942 - the first US ground offensive of the war - and were present when Okinawa, Japan's most southerly prefecture, finally fell to American troops after a bitter struggle in June 1945. In between they fought in the 'Green Hell' of Cape Gloucester on the island of New Britain, and across the coral wasteland of Peleliu in the Palau Islands, a campaign described by one K Company veteran as 'thirty days of the meanest, around-the-clock slaughter that desperate men can inflict on each other.' Ordinary men from very different backgrounds, and drawn from cities, towns, and settlements across America, the Devil Dogs were asked to do something extraordinary: take on the victorious Imperial Japanese Army, composed of some of the most effective soldiers in world history - and defeat it. This is the story of how they did just that and, in the process, forged bonds of brotherhood that still survive today. Remarkably, the company contained an unusually high number of talented writers, whose first-hand accounts and memoirs provide the colour, emotion, and context for this extraordinary story. In Devil Dogs, award-winning historian Saul David sets the searing experience of K Company into the broader context of the brutal war in the Pacific and does for the U.S. Marines what Band of Brothers did for the 101st Airborne. Gripping, intimate, authoritative and far-reaching, this is a unique and incredibly personal narrative of war. Saul David's previous book SBS -Silent Warriors was in the Sunday Times Bestseller Chart in the 35th and 36th week of 2021.