This box set contains three classic movies of the legendary comedians Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy. 'In Great Guns' (1941), Stan and Ollie play a butler and chauffeur of wealthy young Dan Forrester (Dick Nelson). Tired of being pampered and coddled by his overprotective aunts, Dan is delighted when he is drafted into the Army. Stan and Ollie also don uniform and accompany Dan to US Cavalry training camp to make certain that no harm will befall their 'delicate' master. While the boys get mixed up in one disaster after another-at one point, Dan pursues a romance with photo-shop proprietor Ginger Hammond. Convinced that Ginger is a gold-digger, Stan and Ollie try to break up the romance, to no avail. 'Jitterbugs' (1943) is considered the best of the Laurel and Hardy projects filmed at Twentieth Century Fox. Stan and Ollie are stars of the Zoot Suit Band, who form an unlikely partnership with a genial con man (Bob Bailey) who allegedly can turn water into gasoline with an invented pill. When the trio joins a carnival, they meet Susan, a naive young singer (Vivian Blaine), whose mother has been swindled by fraudsters. Suddenly gallant, the three organise a sting operation, with Stan disguised as a wealthy elderly lady and Ollie as a rich Texan and aim to get the woman's money back. Although things don't go as planned, the inimitable comedy duo provides nonstop laughs from start to finish. In 'The Big Noise' 1944) Stan and Ollie play janitors of a detective agency who pose as super-sleuths and are hired to protect inventor Alva P. Hartley (Arthur Space). They move to his house which is loaded with crazy contraptions which entrap, baffle and bamboozle the protectors. Meanwhile Hartley's next door neighbors Charlton (Frank Fenton), Hartman (James Bush), Dutchy (Phil Van Zandt) and Mayme (Veda Ann Borg) reveal themselves as the biggest threat of all, a gang of crooks determined to get their hands on the inventor's deadly creation, a super-bomb called 'The Big Noise'. Stan and Ollie escape with the bomb to the War Department in Washington, D.C. just one step ahead of the criminals. Through a series of crazy misadventures, the heroic duo end up in a remote-controlled airplane, along with the bomb, and head straight for trouble.

The wit and wisdom of Benjamin Disraeli, British statesman and twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom - with a new foreword by Lord Lexden. Disraeli was one of the least orthodox of Prime Ministers. He was an adventurer who fought his way to 'the top of the greasy pole' in a blaze of controversy, and became Queen Victoria's favourite statesman. He was a novelist and a wit as well as politician. He was a brilliant orator. Like Byron he was both a romantic and a cynic. His aphorisms have become part of the discourse of political life. This collection is based on his novels, letters and speeches. He was never dull, but he was fundamentally serious behind the firework display, and he had a lasting influence on the course of party history. Seen by some of the founder of 'one-nation' conservatism, Disraeli is today one of the most co-opted political figures of history. For those seeking clarity on Disraeli's views, this collection will confound and surprise.

'Lively and entertaining... "Disraeli's Grand Tour"] concentrates on one colourful episode, or sequence of episodes, in the young Disraeli's life: the tour through the Mediterranean and Near East which he undertook with the man who was intended to become his brother-in-law. On the way they were joined by raffish Wykhamist James Clay, a friend of Disraeli's brother, and also by Tita Falcieri, who had formerly been a servant to Byron. Indeed... much of the tour might almost be considered a Byronic pilgrimage of a kind... Lord Blake suggests that Disraeli's] travels in the provinces of the Ottoman Empire inclined him, when in office many years later, to take a more favourable attitude to Turkish power than was common among Englishmen of his time. However, the author is more interested in tracing the effects of the visit to the Holy Land on Disraeli's view of his own position as a Jew converted to Christianity and an aspirant man-of-letters and politician.' Dan Jacobson, "London"" Review of Books"

Between the disintegration of the Liberal Party in 1915 and the election of Harold Wilson's Labour in 1964, Britain weathered a turbulent half-century including two world wars and many profound socio-political changes. What did not survive this tumult was Britain's sea-based Empire, as the great land-based USA and USSR now assumed dominance. With customary wit, scholarship and wisdom Robert Blake guides the reader through Britain's slow decline from the world's premier power to a nation with no military commitments East of Suez: still important, wishing to see itself as 'a cut above the rest', but now effectively no better than third-ranking.

' T]he most successful sections are] the four brilliant chapters on the Second World War... But it is not only for these that "The Decline of Power "should be read. It is a fair-minded book... fluently, even racily written...' Peter Pulzer, "London Review of Books"

In his preface Robert Blake writes, 'The title of this book is taken from a remark attributed to Asquith after he had attended Bonar Law's funeral in Westminster Abbey. ''It is fitting, '' he is reputed to have said, ''that we should have buried the Unknown Prime Minister by the side of the Unknown Soldier.'' I have used this phrase, not because I consider that Asquith's remark was either just or true, but because, however unfairly, it has come to be the verdict of most people today. Even in his own lifetime Bonar Law's origins, career, character, and the reasons for his success acquired something of an aura of mystery which the passage of time has done nothing to remove. It is my hope that this book may dispel that erroneous impression.'

It does. Neither flamboyant nor possessed of the statesmanship of Lloyd George or Winston Churchill, Bonar Law nevertheless was a remarkably successful politician, especially a party politician. Before his brief Premiership in 1922-23, he had been the Leader of the Conservative Party for eleven years from 1911 and in that time had played a vital part in almost every political issue. During the 1914-18 war his role was crucial. It was his decision which brought about the first coalition of 1915 and the exclusion of Winston Churchill from the Admiralty. He was largely responsible for the withdrawal from the Dardanelles and the overthrow of Asquith in 1916. It was his support that allowed Lloyd George to become Prime Minister and it was the withdrawal of that support that led to the end of the Coalition Government in 1922. The fact that the Conservative Party survived the chaotic war years, unlike the Liberal Party, and survived with an outlook sufficiently enlightened to cope not inadequately with the problems of the post-war era, was the achievement of Bonar Law more than any other single person.

By nature melancholy, this disposition was aggravated by personal tragedy: first his wife died and then his two elder sons were killed in 1917. For all that he remained someone who inspired affection in such otherwise diverse characters as Lloyd George, F. E. Smith (Lord Birkenhead), John Maynard Keynes, Edward Carson and Lord Beaverbrook.

First published in 1966, Robert Blake's biography of Disraeli remains not only unchallenged but one of the supreme political biographies of the last one hundred years.

Disraeli's story is an extraordinary one. Born in 1804, the grandson of an immigrant Italian Jew, he became leader of the Conservative Party and was twice Prime Minister (1868 and from 1874 to 1880). Famous for the 1867 Reform Act, his purchasing of the Suez Canal and his diplomatic triumphs at the Congress of Berlin, he was also the creator of the political novel and in "Sybil" wrote the major 'Condition of England' work of fiction. He was an outsider, a nationalist, a European, Romantic and Tory and, in Michael Foot's words 'He was without any rival whatever, the first comic genius who ever installed himself in Downing Street.'

To say Robert Blake does justice to all this and more merely hints at the scale of his achievement; the reviews speak more eloquently.

'One of the very great political biographies . . . ' John Vincent, "Observer"

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' . . . This new book is by far the best. It is outstanding. Robert Blake is a great historian - sympathetic, exhaustive and with a light touch withal. He has not attacked; he has defended. He has portrayed, with delicacy and penetration, the most exciting and, in a curious way, the most modern of all Victorian statesmen. A great book.' Harold Macmillan

'An outstandingly successful biography . . . Disraeli has never been brought so vividly to life, and his consistent champagne-like sparkle, equalled only by that of Churchill, but unsurpassed by any statesman, invests these 800 colourful pages with a beguiling attribute of timelessness.' Sir Philip Magnus, "Daily Telegraph "

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' . . . it is his emotional identification with his subject that makes this such a remarkable and sensitive work . . . a wholly satisfying biography.' Robert Rhodes James, "Spectator"

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'A huge, scholarly and remarkably readable work which makes us revise vast tracts of our assumptions about nineteenth-century politics.' Sir Michael Howard, "Sunday Times"

' A book that people will still be reading in fifty years time and long after.' "Times Literary Supplement"

There" "was no more appropriate person to write this book. Robert Blake was the doyen of Tory historians being most famous for his unsurpassed biography of Disraeli (to be reissued in Faber Finds). His history of the Conservative Party was first published in 1970. It then went as far as Churchill. A subsequent edition took it up to Thatcher and the final edition, the one being reissued by Faber Finds, to Major. For the span it covers, it remains the definitive one-volume history.

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""'His consummate insight into the whole of the political scene, and his power to communicate the enjoyment of it, makes this exciting reading for anyone remotely interested in British political and social history, or even in the English character.' "Sunday Times"

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""'This book is full of insights and enriched throughout by sparkling commentary' "Evening Standard"

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""'An up-to-date history of the Party was wanted. Mr Blake supplies it with lucidity, scholarship and serene worldliness' "Guardian"

Winston Churchill is probably still the best-known Prime Minster of Great Britain. Born at Blenheim Palace, he joined the army after Harrow, but in 1899 resigned his commission to report on the Boer War. Elected to Parliament in 1900, he served in both Conservative and Liberal governments, and became Chancellor of the Exechequer under Baldwin, A period in the political wilderness was ended by the declaration of the Second World War and his appointment to the Admiralty; after Chamberlain's resignation in 1940 he led a coalition government. He worked closely with Roosevelt and to a lesser degree with Stalin throughout the war. He lost the election of 1945 but became Prime Minister again from 1951 to 1955. His last years saw a return to writing, including his memoirs of the Second World War.

Jared Matthews is embarking on a journey which started with a well-deserved furlough from his duties as a foreign war correspondent and pilot during World War II. Everything changes for him after experiencing a vision which seems to portray parallels of the Nazi regime he had witnessed in the 1930s, to what is yet to come in the 21st century. At the outset, he meets a beautiful girl the night he has the vision, but they part ways, possibly never to see each other again. Will he find this woman he felt so drawn to? He also seeks the help of his war buddies, and a priest who offers insightful counsel and warnings about his vision. He returns to Europe and the war, while continuing to experience more dreams and visions, along with the devastation of battle. His destiny seems certain: to warn others of what is yet to come after the war is over. The future? Another dictator, but one of pandemic and prophetic proportions.

Holed up in a frigid New York City basement lair, Ben Blackshaw gets a coded distress call from his former commanding officer. The new mission takes Blackshaw on an international manhunt for a mysterious sniper. To launch the mission, Blackshaw is secretly flown across the country in an unmanned drone. When the UAV's encrypted guidance system is hacked by a sleeper cell of terrorists, the plane crashes, delivering Blackshaw into the hands of gunmen intent on killing him. He barely survives this opening skirmish, only to come under fire on a Los Angeles rooftop from the rogue sniper. His former CO, and two innocent bystanders are cut down in the barrage of bullets. Racked with grief, driven by guilt, Blackshaw reconnects with his old friend, Knocker Ellis Hogan, and together they try to lead the murderer away from populated areas before making the kill. The chase leapfrogs from the high Chilean desert to the icy wastes of northern Canada. At every turn, the killer slips away from their traps like a ghost. Along the way, Blackshaw learns that the sniper's deadly work is directed from the highest offices of the United States Government, and is part of a larger conspiracy to ignite a genocidal war-for-profit in South America. After Ellis is gravely wounded, Blackshaw makes a final stand on a wrecked ship in the Chesapeake Bay, only to discover that the killer's identity could make completing the mission next to impossible

Diving the frigid Chesapeake Bay for oysters soon after a late season hurricane, former Navy SEAL Ben Blackshaw discovers the fresh wreck of a speedboat mired on the bottom. It is jammed to the gunwales with crates of gold bullion worth millions. Blackshaw opens one last box from the wreck and finds a nuclear dirty bomb, its timer racing down toward zero just twenty-four hours away. If this were not enough, the final shock of the day comes when he recognizes the corpse bobbing at the helm of the wreck; a man who has been missing for fifteen years. Blackshaw's father. Piecing the shreds of evidence together, Blackshaw reckons that his irascible old man intercepted and stole both the gold and the nuke from an Iran-Contra style government black-ops deal brokered between two Islamist extremist cells by a corrupt U.S. Government cabal. Maynard Chalk was the agent who let the transaction go south in a moment of unforgiveable distraction. He's got to recover the cargo as soon as possible, but to finish the job, he must temporarily throw in with one of the terrorist crews from the deal gone wrong; it's the only way he can conceal his failure from a vengeful boss and save his own skin. Chalk and his jackal henchmen descend on the quiet, god-fearing people of Blackshaw's isolated Smith Island home, determined to take back what's theirs no matter what the cost in innocent blood. Blackshaw and his wily Smith Island neighbors must set aside a growing mistrust of each other in order to survive and repel Chalk's invasion. Green-eyed suspicion naturally follows an influx of untold wealth and ultimate power; this might play into Chalk's hands, inciting murder and mutiny within Blackshaw's ranks. After a rocky start, Blackshaw finally persuades a small cadre of neighbors that their recent hardscrabble times could be set right if they manage to keep this orphaned gold for themselves, and somehow stop that nuclear bomb before it blows them out of the Chesapeake. To accomplish all this, they reluctantly tap into Smith Island's darker heritage from the distant past as home to marauding pirates in the Chesapeake. Hundreds of years before they became good Methodists, the Smith Islanders emigrated from Cornwall, England. There, more than a few of their ancestors earned their keep by pillaging what they needed from merchant ships unlucky enough to sail without armed escort. Regrettably, the practice lasted long after settling Smith Island. The present dire circumstances set these good people at odds with their newfound and deeply held religious teachings; they must connect with their inner brigand or die. Mortally outgunned, and not seventy miles from Washington, D.C., Blackshaw and his cohort are pitted in a desperate last stand against Chalk and his bloodthirsty goons. If Blackshaw fails, his gamble will go down in history as the opening skirmish of World War III.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to ensure edition identification: ++++ The Dictionary Of National Biography, Volume 6; The Dictionary Of National Biography; Robert Blake Stephen (Sir Leslie), Robert Blake, Christine Stephanie Nicholls Sir Sidney Lee Oxford University Press, 1908 Great Britain

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