Despite being decorated with a German Service Cross, Willi Wegler is inwardly sickened by both Hitler’s genocidal war and the complicity of his fellow citizens in Third Reich brutalities. Wracked by guilt, he suddenly betrays his country in a profound gesture of protest and self-sacrifice: during the course of an air raid, he fashions an enormous arrow out of hay in an open field, then ignites it as a flaming signal to direct British bombers to the site of the factory where he works – an act that cannot fail to precipitate a series of dramatic events. The Cross and the Arrow – first published in 1944, during the latter stages of the war it describes – portrays a man’s struggle to retain his dignity in defiance of state-sponsored cruelty and explores the role and responsibility of the individual in the face of tragic global events. In its examination of an enemy’s complex heroism, it provides a life-affirming message of humanity’s ultimate capacity for good.

Poland, January 1945. Two women and four men escape from a Nazi death march. Each is from a different background and a different country, but all have endured the horrors of imprisonment in Auschwitz. They find refuge in an abandoned factory, and suddenly they realize that they are no longer mere numbers. Even in their wild euphoria at being free, however, they can have no certainty about their future. This is a tale of exploding joy within a hothouse of fear, a tale of human beings erupting into life after breaking free of the embrace of death – an unusual and moving tale that cements Albert Maltz’s reputation as a compassionate observer of character and one of the finest storytellers of his generation.

As time ticks along with indifference, the inmates of the Washington District Jail drag on their daily routine behind bars. Innocent at their birth, these frail creatures who have lost their way now spend their lives shut out of society, deprived of all freedom, with little prospect of being readmitted into the human fold. Each prisoner has a story: some of them are charged with crimes of assault, murder and manslaughter, others of forgery, robbery and larceny – others still are not guilty of anything other than having been born to certain parents at a certain time in a certain country. A Long Day in a Short Life – Maltz’s first novel to be published in the UK – is a powerful indictment of the penal system and a strong reminder about the underlying humanity of each individual.

Box set of eight classic Clint Eastwood films. In 'Play Misty for Me' (1971) Dave Garland (Clint Eastwood) is a Californian DJ who runs a late night call-in show, and receives regular requests from a female caller for Erroll Garner's 'Misty'. The fan, Evelyn Draper (Jessica Walter), turns out to be a maniacal stalker. In the western 'High Plains Drifter' (1973) the unwelcome arrival of a stranger (Eastwood) in the town of Lagos causes resentment and fear among the locals. However, when they come under threat from a band of escaped convicts, it is to the stranger that the townsfolk turn for salvation. In 'The Beguiled' (1970), during the American Civil War, a wounded Union soldier (Eastwood) is taken in by the all-female staff of a Confederate Louisiana girls' school as their 'prize'. However, the soldier cunningly plays the women off against each other, working on their sexual frustrations and biding his time until he can make an escape. 'Breezy' (1973) is an Eastwood-directed effort in which Breezy (Kay Lenz) is a teenage hippy hitchhiker taken advantage of by a ruthless rotter who wants to use her for sex. She escapes in a remote area and meets kindly middle-aged man Frank Harmon (William Holden) whom she hopes will take her in. Harmon is (rightfully) reluctant and his worst imaginable scenario comes true when the impressionable teen falls in love with him. In 'Joe Kidd' (1972) Eastwood plays a drunken tracker coerced by American business tycoon Robert Duvall to go in search of Mexican agitator John Saxon. The film is scripted by renowned crime writer Elmore Leonard. In 'Two Mules for Sister Sarah' (1969) a gold-digger (Eastwood) in old Mexico shows his fundamentally noble nature by saving a 'nun' (Shirley Maclaine) from being raped. She turns out in fact to be a prostitute, and the odd couple team up, facing continual confrontation with the French forces. In 'Coogan's Bluff' (1968) Eastwood is Arizona deputy Walt Coogan, sent to New York city to escort a prisoner home. The prisoner isn't ready to be transferred back to Arizona so Coogan cuts a few corners. This helps the prisoner escape and, after Coogan clashes with the Sherrif McElroy (Lee J. Cobb), he is ordered back to Arizona. In 'The Eiger Sanction' (1975) college lecturer Jonathan Hemlock (Eastwood) tops up his university paypacket by carrying out the occasional assassination. His latest assignment involves joining a climbing expedition up the Eiger, identifying the Russian killer amongst the group, and then neutralising his threat.

Box set comprising four classic Cary Grant films as well as a documentary about his life and work made in 2004, 'Cary Grant: A Class Apart'. 'Night and Day' (1946) is a fictionalized biography of Cole Porter, made while the composer was still alive, starring Grant in the title role. The film begins in the 1910s when Porter is at Yale University, then follows him through the First World War, in which he works as an ambulance driver in France and marries a nurse from an aristocratic family (Alexis Smith). Director Michael Curtiz then focuses on Porter's glittering career through the 1940s, and the film contains performances of many of his most famous songs. It is now generally conceded that many of the facts on which the film is based are wildly inaccurate: Porter was in fact gay and married a divorcee friend for convenience, and his much-feted military experiences were a hoax. 'Destination Tokyo' (1943) is a suspenseful wartime drama about a US submarine, USS Copperfin, sent into Tokyo harbour under secret orders in the early days of the Second World War. Cary Grant plays the submarine's commander, whose mission is to get the submarine and its crew into the harbour undetected and send a landing party ashore in order to obtain vital information for the planned Doolittle air raid on Tokyo. 'North By Northwest' (1959) is a masterful mix of comedy and suspense from Alfred Hitchcock. Advertising executive Roger Thornhill (Grant) is lunching in a restaurant with his mother when he mistakenly answers a page for one George Kaplan. He soon finds himself on the run across the country, being pursued by enemies of the government who are convinced that he is a secret agent. He finds a friend in Eve Kendall (Eve Marie Saint), who helps conceal him during a perilous train journey, but soon discovers that she is not all she seems. 'Arsenic and Old Lace' (1944) is a macabre comedy about the elderly Brewster sisters, who poison lonely old men to put them out of their misery and bury them in their basement. When their nephew Mortimer (Grant) calls to announce his engagement, he discovers the grisly family secret. To complicate matters, his evil sibling Jonathan (Raymond Massey) has just escaped from jail, and arrives at the family home with murderous intentions of his own.

This superb collection signals the long overdue return of Albert Maltz, one of the "Hollywood Ten" blacklisted during the McCarthy era, to the forefront of American letters. From "Afternoon in the Jungle" an unforgettable glimpse of the brutalization of poverty to the gripping adventure of "The Farmer's Dog," Maltz probes deep into the American consciousness, displaying a keen outrage at the injustices of poverty, prejudice and oppression. Yet, throughout, he remains true to a central vision of the essential dignity of man.