Gerald Coates wife, Babs, arrives home drunk from a day racing with a disreputable man. She is always getting drunk. They argue and in the struggle she is stabbed to death. Gerald panics and hides the body.3 women, 6 men

''A story of intrigue to equal anything by John Le Carre…one of the most remarkable examples of a 'black operation' ever revealed.''
'Observer'

'A brilliant piece of historical investigation. Not only has Christy Campbell uncovered an Irish terrorist plot to assassinate Queen Victoria on the day of her Golden Jubilee in 1887, but the 'Jubilee Plot' was actually masterminded by the British Government and (Prime Minister) Lord Salisbury.'
Jane Ridley, 'Spectator'

In a masterpiece of historical detective work, Christy Campbell exposes the true instigators behind one of the most serpentine of all the attempts on Queen Victoria's life. Irish-American bombers had waged a five-year campaign of dynamite attacks against British cities; now they seemed poised to bring off the most spectacular outrage imaginable. But the conspiracy's real target was not the Queen but the entire cause of Irish Home Rule…

'Extraordinary and engrossing…a scrupulously accurate piece of research which tells a dramatic tale but also provides a valuable insight into little-known aspects of the 19th-century relationship between Britain and Ireland.'
Conor Brady, 'Irish Times'

'A real page turner…makes 'The Day of the Jackal' look placid by comparison.'
Professor J.R. Vincent

'Enthralling…the pace never slackens.'
Andrew Lycett, 'Sunday Times'

'Terrific'
'Time Out'

A historical investigation into the mysterious bug that wiped out the vineyards of France and Europe in the 1860s - and how one young botanist eventually 'saved wine for the world'. In the early 1860s, vines in the lower Rhone valley, and then around Bordeaux, inexplicably began to wither and die. Panic seized France, and Jules-Emile Planchon, a botanist from Montpellier, was sent to investigate. Magnifying glass in hand, he discovered the roots of a dying vine covered in microscopic yellow insects. The tiny aphid would be named Phylloxera vastatrix - 'the dry leaf devastator'. Where it had come from was utterly mysterious, but it advanced with the speed of an invading army. As the noblest vineyards of France came under biological siege, the world's greatest wine industry tottered on the brink of ruin. The grand owners fought the aphid with expensive insecticide, while peasant vignerons simply abandoned their ruined plots in despair. Within a few years the plague had spread across Europe, from Portugal to the Crimea. Planchon, aided by the American entomologist Charles Riley, discovered that the parasite had accidentally been imported from America. He believed that only the introduction of American vines, which appeared to have developed a resistance to the aphid, could save France's vineyards. His opponents maintained that this would merely assist the spread of the disease. Meanwhile, encouraged by the French government's offer of a prize of 300,000 gold francs for a remedy, increasingly bizarre suggestions flooded in, and many wine-growing regions came close to revolution as whole local economies were obliterated. Eventually Planchon and his supporters won the day, and phylloxera-resistant American vines were grafted onto European root-stock. Despite some setbacks - the first fruits of transplanted American vines were universally pronounced undrinkable - by 1914 all vines cultivated in France were hybrid Americans. Phylloxera is an entertaining, revealing and frequently astonishing account of one of the earliest and most successful applications of science to an ecological disaster.

The dramatic story of the men who fought a new and terrifying kind of war amidst the carnage of the trenches in World War I: the British pioneer volunteers who were the first tank-men into battle.

Inspired by a visit to northeast France to witness the excavation of a remarkably intact First World War tank from beneath a suburban vegetable plot near the town of Cambrai, Christy Campbell then defence correspondent of the Sunday Telegraph began to piece together the little-known story of the young men who formed the British Tank Corps.

Very few of them had been professional soldiers; they were motoring enthusiasts and mechanics, plumbers, motorcyclists, circus performers and polar explorers. One officer declared: 'I have never seen such a band of brigands in my life.' They had trained in conditions of great secrecy in the grounds of a mock-oriental stately home in East Anglia and were originally known as the 'Heavy Branch, Machine Gun Corps'. The word 'tank' itself was deliberately chosen to mislead.

Men in tanks saw the face of battle at its most brutal. Their task was to crush and burn the enemy out of his fortifications, and to carve a path for the infantry so they could finish the job with bayonet and grenade. Captured tank crews were beaten up or sometimes shot out of hand by the Germans. They fought in their stifling armoured boxes packed with petrol and explosives, aware that at any moment a shell-hit might incinerate them all.

Christy Campbell has combed contemporary diaries and letters and later recollections to tell properly for the first time the robust yet harrowing story of how the first men in tanks went to war. The time frame is 1916-18, with a coda on how German blitzkrieg ideas developed from an English root."

"'The Maharajah's Box'… set Campbell on the trail of one of the most extraordinary characters in the history of the British Raj… a readable, entertaining and well researched biography of a flamboyant but ultimately tragic figure caught between two cultures."
CHRISTOPHER ANDREW, 'Observer'

In June 1997 the Swiss Bankers' Association published a list of over 1700 'dormant accounts', untouched for over fifty years. Among the names – supposedly those of Jewish victims of the holocaust – was an Indian princess, 'last heard of in 1942 living in Penn, Buck'. Intrigued, Christy Campbell began a search which took him to India, France and Russia and was to uncover a remarkable tale of conspiracy, deceit and imperial 'realpolitik.' The story of how the ten-year-old Maharajah Duleep Singh was deprived of the Punfjab by the British in 1849, lost the world famous Koh-i-Noor diamond to Queen Victoria, was bought to London and became a Christianised country gentleman, then plotted to recover his kingdom while being spied on by the British foreign secret service, is a marvellously enthralling real-life historical thriller.

"In this gaslit swirl of sinister Russians, Fenian plotters, British spies, French Intriguers and Indian Schemers, no to mention the great game and Queen Victoria, the story seems right up the great detective [Sherlock Holmes]'s street. The sleuth, however, is the author, who takes us entertainingly through the labrynth."
TREVOR FISHLOCK, 'Sunday telegraph'

"A splendidly readable and illuminating book."
ANTHONY CRONIN, 'Sunday Independent' (Dublin)

"Succeeds eminently as a racy thrilling account."
NEVTEJ SARNA, 'Times Literary Supplement'

In Bonzo's War, Clare Campbell told the fascinating story of what it was like for Britain's pets when the world was at war. This time, she follows the incredible journey of the dogs who conscripted to fight for their country, with some even returning with medals for their bravery. During the most dangerous days of the Second World War, the British government set out to recruit an army of canines - a 'Guard Dog Unit'. This experimental team of brave hounds would later use their incredible sense of smell to sniff out the anti-personnel mines that barred the way to reclaiming Europe. Dog owners countrywide shed tears as they bid farewell to their beloved 'Brian', 'Rex', or 'Molly' and packed them off to the War Dogs Training School to learn the skills they'd need to 'do their bit for Britain' on the very frontiers of the Third Reich. The soldiers waiting out in the field to greet their canine counterparts were under strict instructions: do not get too attached to your new four-legged companion. That bit proved disastrously impossible. Based on original documents, first-hand accounts and interviews, Dogs of Courage tells a story of human determination, heartbreak and uncompromising canine courage that has never been told before.

During the darkest days of the Second World War, the Allies listened intently to the messages of the enemy. Every whisper built a picture of the threat to come - weapons that were terrifying in their murderous capabilities. Target London is the dramatic tale of the inception of the German V-weapons, the Allies' epic race to discover the truth about them and the rockets' effects on the streets of London. Investigative historian Christy Campbell brilliantly interweaves the many strands of this gripping episode. At the heart of this tale is London - the target of Nazi Germany's plan to crush British morale.

In Please Take Me Home, Clare Campbell takes us on a journey with the nation's rescue cats, from being treated as pests throughout history to being the pet of choice today. For a long time, stray cats in Britain were seen as a nuisance and hunted down as vermin. Having invited this wild, independent creature into our homes, humans did not extend their welcome for long. Over time, thousands of cats were subsequently abandoned and left to live on the margins of survival. There were, however, the kind few who sought to help. But these good spirited people were often scorned, even derided as 'mad'. A Princess of Wales was even told to stop helping lost cats in order to avoid a royal scandal; the story was kept a secret of state for years. It would take over a century for strays to become the beloved rescue cats of today, with some now gaining celebrity status, such as Downing Street's Larry or Street Cat Bob. Please Take Me Home is a fascinating and insightful history through the ages of the struggle for cats to exist in domesticity alongside mankind.

From its birth in 1959, the Mini grew to become a national treasure and huge success: Princess Margaret owned one, as did Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, the Beatles, Peter Sellers and Marianne Faithfull. Its popularity with women in particular marked it out from the crowd, and sales soared as the car was taken up by the new urban elite and took a starring role in The Italian Job. But there was trouble - the basic Mini sold for less than it cost to produce, and by the early eighties the miracle machine had become a symbol of manufacturing incompetence. The end came in 2000, but a new generation of Mini was just around the corner, and today this motoring pin-up is as iconic as ever. Mini features contributions from those who have known and loved this troubled star, as well as its scornful critics. Full of fascinating facts and vivid stories, this is a fabulous celebration of a living national treasure that reads more like the life story of a wayward royal than a machine.