With the death of Edward the Confessor, the crown of England is hanging in the balance. And in the north Harald Hadrada, the Norwegian Viking leader, is determined to take his chance of capturing the country. But Harold will not let that happen without a fight. Charismatic and the leader of a mighty army, he is determined to make Hadrada the last Viking in England. And so the bloodiest battle yet fought on English soil is about to begin. At stake is sovereignty, freedom and honour.

Providing a behind-the-scenes look at national service in Great Britain up to 1963, this book analyses the effects it had on two and a half million young men who were given no choice about giving up two years of their lives to the armed forces.

Blitz survivor, ex-evacuee, veteran of five primary schools and product of a typical London suburb, Berwick Coates won a scholarship to a grammar school in 1944. All he knew about was German aircraft recognition, cricket and Hollywood films. During the following years, he had to deal with new surroundings, new subjects, new friends, V-2 rockets, his parents' broken marriage, adolescence and a post-war culture of shortage. Fortunately, he was taught by some memorable teachers, some of whom helped to shape his later life and teaching career. His account of life at a grammar school in the 1940s is interwoven with the historical context of this turbulent decade, which saw not only the devastation and deprivation of the Second World War, but also the hardships faced by a country rebuilding itself afterwards. The author's experiences will resonate with anyone who has followed a similar path.

No two people see anything the same way. No two people see even something so familiar as Christmas the same way. It all depends on your point of view. These verses - honest, sad, dry, touching, happy, angry, funny, tragic, contented, smug, mischievous, complacent, wistful, cocky, baffled, fatalistic, grateful, sceptical - tell us how people feel when Christmas comes, or what they do, or how they manage. They tell it as they see it. The drawings tell it as you may see it. It will give all of us some food for thought. The author: Berwick Coates was educated at Kingston Grammar School, and studied History at Cambridge. Since then, he has been at various times an Army officer, writer, artist, lecturer, careers adviser, games coach, and teacher of History, English, Latin, and Swahili. He has published eight books. He is now the archivist at West Buckland School in Devon.