As the world became embroiled in the second global conflagration in just over two decades, the women of Britain once more answered the call of duty. Many of the first volunteers had served in the Great War and now they offered their services again - this time bringing their daughters with them. During World War II women proved themselves indispensable to the war effort, serving in both military units abroad and in home-front organisations through the darkest hours of the Blitz. Illustrated with contemporary black-and-white and some rare colour photographs, documents and ephemera, this poignant and moving book tells the stories of these women.

Throughout the course of the Second World War, many millions of animals were enlisted to serve. Though they had no choice, yet they demonstrated loyalty, determination and bravery as they shared the burden of war with their human companions both on active service and on the Home Front. From the dogs trained to locate air-raid victims buried under rubble, to the mules that carried ammunition and supplies through the jungles of the Far East, each animal played a crucial role in the war effort. In fact, such was their contribution that those animals that showed exceptional gallantry or devotion to duty were recognised officially with the introduction of the Dickin Medal in 1943. This fascinating book draws from first-hand accounts and contemporary sources to reveal the wide-ranging contributions that animals made both on and off the battlefield.

Bram Stoker: Author of Dracula is an affectionate and revealing biography of the man who created the vampire novel that would define the genre and lead to a new age in Gothic horror literature. Based on decades of painstaking research in libraries, museums, and university archives and privileged access to private collections on both sides of the Atlantic, the private letters of Bram and the reminiscences of those who knew him not only shed new light on Stoker's ancestry, his life, loves and friendships they also reveal more about the places and people who inspired him and how he researched and wrote his books. Bram wrote numerous articles, short stories and poetry for newspapers and magazines, he had a total of eleven novels and two collections of short stories published in his lifetime, but he would only become known for one of them - Dracula. Tragically, he did not live long enough to see it as a huge success. In his heyday as Acting Manager for Sir Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theatre in the West End of London, Bram was a well-known figure in a golden age of British theatre. He was a big-framed, ebullient, genial, gentleman, with red hair and beard, who never lost his soft Irish brogue, was blessed with wit, and a host of entertaining stories fit for every occasion. Described as having the paw of Hercules and the smile of Machiavelli, above all he knew what it meant to be a loyal friend.

FOR 134 YEARS, THE MURDERS committed in London's East End by the infamous 'Jack the Ripper' have baffled the world. The Ripper murders commenced in August and continued freely until the beginning of November 1888 when inexplicably the murders stopped. Five women were brutally murdered and savagely mutilated in and around Whitechapel. The killer was never caught despite the very best intentions of the police and thousands of would-be detectives following his trail. Since 1888, much has changed and the crime scene locations known to the Ripper and his victims would be quite unrecognisable to them now. Equally, to the modern-day Londoner or visitor, the locations would remain largely unknown...until now. True crime and social historians Richard C Cobb and Mark Davis return to the Whitechapel of 1888 to see what remains from this dark time in London's history and to take the reader on a step-by-step tour of the modern world of Jack the Ripper. Using the original police reports, state of the art photographs, unseen images and diagrams, they present the truth about what actually happened in the autumn of 1888 and take a look at other victims that may have been killed by the same man. Cobb and Davis give the reader a real sense of how the past meets the present in arguably London's most vibrant and cultural quarter - where the shadow of the Ripper is never too far away.

The Little Book of Suffolk is an intriguing, fast-paced, fact-packed compendium of places, people and events from the county. Armed with this fascinating book, the reader will have such knowledge of the county, its landscape, pleasures and pursuits that they will never be short of some frivolous fact to enhance a conversation or quiz! A quick reference and a quirky guide, this can be dipped into time and again to reveal something new about the heritage, the secrets and the enduring fascination of Suffolk, making it essential reading for visitors and locals alike.

Norwich in the Second World War is the story of the city and its people, both civilian and military, from the construction of the first air raid shelters in 1938 through to VE Day in 1945 and the return of Far Eastern prisoners of war in 1946. Featuring first-hand accounts of what happened when enemy bombers raided the city, notably during the notorious Baedeker Blitz of 1942, rare photographs and documents make this book a must for anyone who knows and loves the city of Norwich.

Discover the darker side of Norfolk with this remarkable collection of true-life crimes from across the county. Featuring tales of some of the most notorious, nefarious and murderous characters from the county’s past, including pirates, smugglers, highwaymen, poachers, thieves, murderers and bodysnatchers, all factions of the criminal underworld are included in this macabre selection of tales. Drawing on a wide variety of historical sources and containing many cases which have never before been published, Norfolk Villains will fascinate everyone interested in true crime and the history of Norfolk.

Norwich is a city that has seen it all. Its citizens have been murdered with poisoned dumplings, royalty and rogues have walked the same cobbled streets, and rioters have mustered outside its city gates. Quirky details and local anecdotes abound as this jam-packed compendium explores the UK's most easterly city, from its earliest origins to the present day. Looking at conflicts, sports, entertainment, traditions and all that makes Norwich special, this book will entertain and enthrall all those looking for some frivolous facts about this marvellous city.

The First World War was the conduit for some of the most dramatic changes in the role of women in British society. Suffragettes gave up their militant protests to support the war effort, and from the moment war broke out women were ready; many had already trained as military and Voluntary Aid Detachment nurses. As more and more men left to serve in the armed forces more and more jobs, most of them pre-war preserves of men, were taken over by women, from postal deliveries to tram clippies, and delivery drivers to land workers.
The public outcry over the 'Shells Scandal' of 1915 led to unprecedented pressure to employ more women. The women were willing and 30,000 of them voiced their demand in one of the largest protest marches through London under the banner of 'We demand the right to serve.' And so they did, as the munitions factories expanded, and by the end of the war new military units such as the WAAC, WReNS and WRAF were created.
Told through historical documents, memoirs, photographs, uniforms and ephemera the authors present a study in empathy of those dramatic times, from women serving as nurses both at home and on the frontlines, to serving in weapons and other factories throughout Britain, to the uniforms and legacies of these brave volunteers.

_Victorian Fashions_ _for Women_ explores the British styles and clothing throughout the long reign of Queen Victoria, from the late 1830s to the first years of the 20th century. Within are a superb overview of the dresses, hats, hair styles, corsetry, undergarments shoes and boots that combined to present the prevailing styles for each decade. From those who had enough money to have day and evening wear and clothes for sports and outdoor activities, to those with limited income and wardrobes or labouring folk with little more than the clothes they stood up in. All decades are illustrated with original photographs, adverts and contemporary magazine features from the authors' own remarkable collections, accompanied by a knowledgeable and informative text that describes the fashions, their social history context and influences reflected in the clothes of the time. Laid out in a clear and easy-to-follow chronological order, the key features of styles, decoration and accoutrements will help family historians to date family photographs and will provide a useful resource for students and costume historians or for anyone with a love of fashion and style to enjoy.

The Little Book of Norfolk is a repository of intriguing, fascinating, obscure, strange and entertaining facts and trivia about one of England's most colourful counties. It is an essential to the born and bred Norfolk folk or anyone who knows and loves the county. Armed with this fascinating tome the reader will have such knowledge of the county, its landscape, people, places, pleasures and pursuits they will be entertained and enthralled and never short of some frivolous fact to enhance conversation or quiz! A reference book and a quirky guide, this can be dipped in to time and time again to reveal something new about the people, the heritage, the secrets and the enduring fascination of the county. A remarkably engaging little book, this is essential reading for visitors and locals alike.

Nostalgic recollections of wartime Britain often forget that when the blackout was enforced at night in an attempt to foil Nazi bombers a crime wave, cloaked by the inky black darkness, ensued on many of our streets. There were petty crimes, robberies, sexual assaults and, as The Blackout Murders reveals, some horrific murders took place on our home front during the Second World War. Some of them still rank among the most shocking crimes in modern British history. Some of the murders recounted within the pages of this book remain infamous, others are almost forgotten and some remain unsolved to this day. Several cases have new light shed on them from recently released archives and records uncovered by the author. Every case has been carefully selected for its reflection of wartime conditions and each one has a powerful, poignant and tragic story to tell. Readers will gain insights into the darker narrative of our home front and learn about some of the men and women who strove to maintain law and order under the most challenging circumstances. Others innovated and developed ground-breaking forensic techniques to identify bodies, recognise if foul play had occurred and as a direct result brought murderers to justice who may otherwise have gone undetected and unpunished. Anyone reading The Blackout Murders will never look at Britain's Home Front during the Second World War in the same way again.

Beating the Invader is a revealing and disturbing exploration of the darker history of Nazis, spies and 'Fifth Columnist' saboteurs in Britain and the extensive top secret counter-measures taken before and during the real threat of invasion in 1940. The author's research describes the Nazi Party organisation in Britain and reveals the existence of the Gestapo headquarters in central London. The reader gains vivid insights into Nazi agents and terrorist cells, the Special Branch and MI5 teams who hunted them and investigated murders believed to have been committed by Third Reich agents on British soil. Accessing a host of recently de-classified files the book explores the highly classified measures taken for the protection of the Royal Family, national treasures and gold reserves. The British government made extensive plans for the continuation of government in the event of invasion including the creation of all-powerful Regional Commissioners, 'Black Lists' of suspected collaborators and a British resistance organisation. We also learn of the Nazis' own occupation measures for suborning the population and the infamous Sonderfahndungsliste G.B, the Nazi 'Special Wanted List'. The result is a fascinating insight into the measures and actions taken to ensure that Great Britain did not succumb to the gravest threat of enemy invasion and occupation for centuries.

Over the centuries Norfolk's coastline has changed constantly and dramatically, a process that continues today. With a blend of engravings and photographs, fact, folklore, and social history, Neil R. Storey offers a fascinating and evocative look back at what we have lost.

An illustrated introduction to how British industries, supported by thousands of newly recruited women, strove to meet the nation's wartime need for munitions, armour, shipping, uniforms and aircraft. During the Second World War (1939-45), Britain stretched every sinew of its industrial might to fend off a Nazi invasion. As the nation stood alone against Fortress Europe, it harnessed, coordinated and maximised its resources, firstly to defend itself and then to help liberate Axis-occupied countries. Wartime Industry uses informative text and beautiful illustrations to show how the men and women of Britain met this unprecedented demand for military and home-front materials. It explores the work of Lord Beaverbrook's highly organised Ministry of Aircraft Production; the 'Shadow Factories' that enabled manufacturers such as Vauxhall and Rootes to make tanks and aircraft; the Royal Ordnance Factories that produced firearms and explosives; the 'Bevin Boys' conscripted to work in the coal mines; the Women's Timber Corps; and war workers - who, together, helped the nation to make it.

The whole of Britain's coastline was involved in the struggle against the Nazis. In the early days invasion was the main threat.Dover and the South East suffered grievously from aerial attacks and were also shelled by German artillery from across the Channel, the area was dubbed 'Hell Fire Corner.' Cities and towns all around the coast such as Plymouth, Portsmouth, Hull and Great Yarmouth were the targets of devastating air raids. The coast and lochs of Scotland became a key training area for commandos and assault troops for D-Day and its ports saw the return of crews of sunk vessels of both sides. The East Coast was pivotal to North Sea operations against enemy mining and E-boat operations. The Western ports, particularly Liverpool, were crucial to the vital Atlantic convoys and the defeat of the U-boat threat. The final months of training and preparation for D-Day centred on the South Coast when disaster struck during Exercise Tiger off Slapton Sands. Britain's coastal ports continued to attract 'Tip and Run' raids and the attention of V rockets that changed the character of many these towns and cities forever. Neil Storey's superbly researched work brilliantly describes all this and more in words and images.

Jostling for position in this cornucopia of the criminal and the curious are diverse tales of baby farmers, garrotters, murderers, poisoners, prostitutes, pimps, rioters and rebels. Other tales tell of those who walked the poverty-stricken streets of 'the abyss', trying to earn a few honest coppers by the most unusual and desperate occupations, from tater man to tosher. This colourful cast of characters is accompanied by accounts of prisons and punishments, as well as a liberal smattering of funerals, executions, disasters and bizarre events. If it's horrible, if it's ghastly, if it's strange, its here - and if you have the stomach for it, then read on.

The military heritage of Northumberland is without doubt one of the richest in all the British Isles. By nature of it being England's most northern county, its borders have seen many bloody clashes and battles since the earliest times. Hadrian's Wall stretches along the south of the county and is dotted with forts, garrisons and fortified settlements along its length. The first Viking raid was carried out upon Lindisfarne in 793. There were clashes with the Scots for centuries and from the thirteenth century and for 400 years afterwards there were border raids by reivers. The Battle of Newburn in 1640 was one of the flashpoints that led to the English Civil War, and many a noble Northumberland family was ruined in the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. It is hardly surprising that within the boundaries of the county there can be found more castles than anywhere else in Britain and, as a breed of fighting men, the steel of the Northumbrians is like no other. The men of the North were the backbone of the British Army; a number of regiments have recruited here, including the Coldstream Guards, King's Own Scottish Borderers and, of course, our very own Northumberland Fusiliers, 'The Fighting Fifth'. They all served with distinction wherever they fought - from the Peninsular War to South Africa, through two world wars, and beyond. Award-winning military historian Neil R. Storey knows and loves Northumberland and this book will interest anyone keen to know more about its remarkable military history.

North Walsham & District IOP: A Second Selection

This is the story of those who ended up on the end of the hangman's rope at Norwich Castle Prison, Norwich City Prison on Earlham Road and the later Victorian Norwich Prison on Knox Road. The executions included in this book range from some of the earliest recorded in the county during the thirteenth century, then down the years including two gallows survivors and the execution of Kett and many of his rebels in 1549, to the last execution conducted in the county in 1951, when two young men went to the gallows for separate incidents but having committed the same crime - they both murdered their pregnant sweethearts. Recorded here are executions for a host of forgotten cases and a cornucopia of crimes as diverse as highway robbery, housebreaking, riot, arson and theft of livestock. Norwich was the location for the hangings of such notorious criminals as Frances Billing and Catherine Frary 'The Burnham Poisoners' - the last public double execution and last women to hang in the county; James Blomfield Rush, the Stanfield Hall Murderer; William Sheward, the murderer who confessed almost eighteen years after the murder and dismemberment of his wife; and Herbert Bennett, the Yarmouth Bootlace Murderer who may, or may not, have been guilty of his crime. Norwich Castle Prison was also the scene of one of the most infamous incidents in the history of British hangings and recalled with trepidation by all executioners who came after as 'The Goodale Mess'.

Despite - or perhaps because of - the privations of war, the 1940s was one of the greatest decades for fashion in Britain. The designs and fashions of the 1930s would linger on through the early years of the Second World War but with shortages and rationing firmly in place, the Utility clothing available in the shops had to overcome these restrictions and still look new and vivid. Because so much of the war effort depended on Britain's women, fashion was considered important for morale. Fashion in the 1940s ranged from military uniforms (for men and women) to siren suits to be worn to keep warm in air raid shelters at night and the demob suits issued to those leaving the services at the end of the war. The mantra of 'make-do and mend' would spawn a decade of creativity, and a generation who would not let austerity prevent them from looking good. Transatlantic and military influences were everywhere, and after the war was over Dior's 'New Look' set the scene for the fashions of the prosperous 1950s. This book is part of the Britain's Heritage series, which provides definitive introductions to the riches of Britain's past, and is the perfect way to get acquainted with 1940s fashion in all its variety.

In 1907, H.G. Wells published a science fiction novel called The War in the Air. It proved to be portentous. In the early years of the First World War, German lighter-than-air flying machines, Zeppelins, undertook a series of attacks on the British mainland. German military strategy was to subdue Britain, both by the damage these raids caused and by the terrifying nature of the craft that carried them out. This strategy proved successful. The early raids caused significant damage, many civilian casualties and provoked terror and anger in equal measure. But the British rapidly learnt how to deal with these futuristic monsters. A variety of defence mechanisms were developed: searchlights, guns and fighter aircraft were deployed, the British learnt to pick up the airships' radio messages and a central communications headquarters was set up. Within months aerial strategy and its impact on the lives of civilians and the course of conflict became part of human warfare. As the Chief of the Imperial German Naval Airship Division, Peter Strasser, crisply put it: 'There is no such thing as a non-combatant any more. Modern war is total war.' Zeppelin Blitz is the first full, raid-by-raid, year-by-year account of the Zeppelin air raids on Britain during the First World War, based on contemporary official reports and documents.

The burden of the Great War was not shouldered by soldiers alone: the tasks, the camaraderie, the day-to-day life and the devastation were all shared with the animals that accompanied the forces abroad. The horses that took part in the last cavalry charges or hauled heavy guns are the most famous examples, but were far from alone: pigeons carried vital messages, dogs sniffed out wounded soldiers, camels were used as beasts of burden in the desert, and even ships' cats and baby orang-utans had their parts to play. From noted historian Neil R. Storey, this book looks at all the practical ways in which animals were essential to the war effort, but is equally interested in their roles as companions, mascots and morale boosters - on land, in the air and at sea. Neil R. Storey is a social and military historian specialising in the impact of war on society. He has written over twenty-five books, countless articles and has given lectures across the UK, including at the Imperial War Museum. He has acted as a consultant on a number of television documentaries and dramas.

Norfolk's military heritage dates back to the earliest times, from Iron Age forts, Iceni strongholds and Boudica's rebellion against Roman occupation to its front-line role with coastal defences and numerous airbases during the Second World War. The Romans left their mark with fortifications, garrisons and shore forts. The county was shaped by Anglo-Saxon and Viking invasions and the Normans, whose castles still stand dominant in the county. Norfolk was the scene of uprisings and rebellions, including the Peasants' Revolt, Kett's Rebellion and Civil War conflicts. The men of the county led and filled the ranks of the local volunteers, militias and yeomanry during the Napoleonic Wars and was famed for its great maritime commander of the day - Admiral Lord Nelson. The county played a vital part in both world wars, not least suffering direct attacks by German battleships, Zeppelin air raids during the First World War and becoming a target during the Baedeker Blitz in 1942. The Royal Norfolk Regiment has a proud history, serving with distinction wherever they fought - from the Peninsular War to South Africa, through two world wars and beyond. Award-winning historian Neil R. Storey is a born-and-bred Norfolk man. He has published on military and social history themes for thirty years and knows and loves his county well. Norfolk's Military Heritage will interest anyone keen to know more about the county's remarkable military history.

Around Norwich is not just another book on this fine city. Combining many previously unpublished photographs of outstanding quality and interest with well-researched captions, including many new facts and stories, one of the county's foremost local historians has created a fascinating narrative of the city, suburbs, people, shops and events of the past. Some images will be reassuringly familiar, some have changed or are lost beyond recollection. In one of its most turbulent centuries, the city has lived through the coming of the trains and the tram system, the Baedeker Blitz of 1942 and the construction of the inner link roads in the 1960s. It also takes a look at some of the sports and entertainment; from Norwich City FC playing at 'The Nest' to The Hippodrome Theatre. This book will be an enduring and nostalgic record, of interest to anyone who knows and loves the City of Norwich.