Michael Symmons Roberts’s fourth book of poetry, Corpus, was the winner of the 2004 Whitbread Poetry Award, and was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, the Forward Prize, and the Griffin International Prize. His sixth collection, Drysalter, was the winner of both the Forward Prize and the Costa Poetry Prize in 2013. He collaborated with Paul Farley on Edgelands (Cape/Vintage) and will do so again in The Deaths of the Poets (Cape, 2017). He has also worked many times with the composer James MacMillan. He has published two novels, and is Professor of Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Michael Symmons Roberts

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Malcolm McPherson

Their mission was straightforward - to set up an Al Qaeda observation post in the south-eastern mountains of Afghanistan. No-one was expecting any difficulties. 
 
Instead three men - a Navy SEAL, an Air Force Combat Air Controller and an Army Ranger platoon commander - were pinned down by hostile fire on top of Takur Ghat mountain. Only one of them survived to recall the horrors of what became a truly terrible day . . . The resulting rescue mission turned into a seventeen hour battle that left seven soldiers dead. 
 
Roberts Ridge is the visceral story of those seventeen hours. With access to Pentagon generals, the SEALS and the survivors, Malcolm MacPherson takes the reader deep into the heart of the battle of Takur Ghat and brings us face to face with the reality of the new war against terrorism.

Roberts Ridge

Michael J Durant

In the autumn of 1993, American special forces were dispatched to the famine-stricken land of Somalia. Their intervention in this war-torn country was the most dramatic US military action since Vietnam. A routine mission went horribly wrong when Michael Durant's Black Hawk helicopter was shot down over Mogadishu and he was quickly surrounded by Somali troops and taken captive. The brutal torture he underwent was made all too clear to the world when his coerced statements were broadcast on live television and his battered face appeared on the cover of magazines around the globe. 
 
Michael Durant's ordeal was first described in Mark Bowden's international bestseller Black Hawk Down and the critically acclaimed film of the same name. This, his first-person gripping account tells of bravery under fire, torture, imprisonment, and the terrifying day by day reality for a soldier, unarmed and helpless in enemy hands, fighting to survive.

In The Company Of Heroes

Margaret Humphreys

THE BOOK THAT EXPOSED THE HEARTBREAKING SCANDAL OF BRITAIN'S FORGOTTEN AND ABUSED CHILD MIGRANTS - now a film, Oranges and Sunshine, starring Emily Watson. 
In 1986 Margaret Humphreys, a Nottingham social worker, investigated a woman's claim that, aged four, she had been put on a boat to Australia by the British government. At first incredulous, Margaret discovered that this was just the tip of an enormous iceberg. Up to 150,000 children, some as young as three years old, had been deported from children's homes in Britain and shipped off to a 'new life' in distant parts of the Empire, right up until as recently as 1970. 
 
Many were told that their parents were dead, and parents were told that their children had been adopted. In fact, for many children it was to be a life of horrendous physical and sexual abuse far away from everything they knew. Margaret and her team reunited thousands of families before it was too late, brought authorities to account, and worldwide attention to an outrageous miscarriage of justice.

Empty Cradles (Oranges and Sunshine)

Andy McNab

Tough, resourceful, ruthless - as an SAS trooper Nick Stone was one of the best. Now he's back on the streets, working for British Intelligence as a deniable operator. It's the dirtiest job in a very, very dirty world. 
 
Andy McNab's blistering Nick Stone thrillers are bestsellers whose landscape is so compellingly close to the truth that they had to be vetted by the Ministry of Defence, and could only be published as fiction. . .

Tough, resourceful and ruthless, ex-SAS trooper Nick Stone is now working for British Intelligence on deniable operations. And is desperately in need of cash. 
 
When he is offered a lucrative freelance job, Stone thinks his problems are over. All he needs to do is kidnap a Russian mafia warlord. 
 
And so Stone is thrust into the grim underworld of Estonia, with unknown aggressors stalking the Arctic landscape. Russia has launched a cyber-espionage attack, hacking into the West's most sensitive military secrets. Stone must stop them. But the mafia are waiting in the wings with their own chillingly brutal solution...

Firewall

(Nick Stone Thriller 3)

Clifford Irving

'I was down to my last chip, but it never occurred to me not to put it on the line, bet it, and roll the dice one more time . . .' 
 
In 1972 Clifford Irving pulled a sensational hoax involving Howard Hughes, a prestigious New York publishing house and over a million dollars. It made global newspaper headlines and was heralded as the biggest media scam of all time. Its dramatic events have now been made into an international blockbuster film starring Richard Gere. 
 
In his bestselling book The Hoax Clifford Irving recreates his own audacious literary sting when he and fellow conspirator, Dick Suskind, convinced US publisher McGraw-Hill that Howard Hughes, the reclusive billionaire, had commissioned Irving to write his authorised autobiography. A frantic year ensued while Irving forged letters and passports, faked interviews, set up a Swiss bank account and travelled thousands of miles to maintain his story, all the while desperately trying to juggle a wife, a mistress and an editor. Gradually the cracks in the plot started to appear and the nightmare began as Irving and Suskind realised they were set on a crash course towards indictment, conviction and jail.

The Hoax

Mike Curtis

Even by SAS standards Mike Curtis has had a remarkable career. A former coal miner and likely Welsh international, he served with 2 Para in the Falklands before going on to join the SAS. 
 
In C.Q.B. he describes his gruelling experience in the Falklands and also focus on two more of his major SAS operations; the first in Iraq where he spent several weeks behind enemy lines; the second in Bosnia where he worked closely with all factions and latterly led a close protection team guarding visiting heads of State. 
 
Goose Green, the first land battle of the Falklands conflict, was the longest, hardest-fought, and most controversial. The outcome there was to set the tone for the remainder of the war, affect international opinion and the morale and determination of both armies. 
 
The SAS infiltrated Iraq in two guises - as road-watch patrols and mobile fighting columns. Constituting the biggest SAS overland fighting force since the Second World War, Mike Curtis's troop constituted a coherent, mobile weapon able to operate round the clock and defend itself against surprise attack. 
 
C.Q.B. is also the first published account of the SAS's activities in former Yugoslavia by a Close Quarter Battle Specialist and John Major's personal bodyguard.

C.Q.B. (Close Quarter Battle)

EMPTY CRADLES is a powerful testament to an ordinary woman's astonishing dedication, compassion and stubborn courage. 
 
In 1986 Margaret Humphreys, a Nottingham social worker and mother of two, investigated the case of a woman who claimed that, at the age of four, she had been put on a boat to Australia by the British government. At first incredulous, Margaret Humphreys soon discovered that this woman's story was just the tip of an enormous iceberg. As many as an estimated 150,000 children had in fact been deported from children's homes in Britian and shipped off to a 'new life' in distant parts of the Empire - the last as recently as 1967. 
 
Many of the children were told that their parents were dead. Their parents, too, were often deceived; many believed that their children had been adopted in Britain. The reality was very different: for numerous children it was to be a life of horrendous physical and sexual abuse in institutions in Western Australia and elsewhere. 
 
Margaret Humphreys reveals how she gradually unravelled this shocking secret; how she became drawn into the lives of some of these innocent and unwilling exiles, how it became her mission to reunite them with their families in Britain, and how her lonely crusade led to the founding of the Child Migrants Trust. 
 
EMPTY CRADLES is a strong indictment of government, as well as charitable and religious organisations. It is a sad, harrowing story that will move the reader to anger and tears. Yet it offers a message of hope to all the victims of a shameful scandal that has been ignored for too long.

Empty Cradles

They were like a band of brothers... 
 
In 1983 Andy McNab was assigned to B Squadron, one of the four Sabre Squadrons of the SAS, and within it to Air Troop, otherwise known as SEVEN TROOP. 
 
This is Andy McNab's gripping account of the time he served in the company of a remarkable group of men - from the day, freshly badged, he joined them in the Malayan jungle, to the day, ten years later, that he handed in his sand-coloured beret and started a new life. The links they forged then bound them inextricably together, but the things they saw and did during that time would take them all to breaking point - and some beyond - in the years that were to follow. He who dares doesn't always win...

Seven Troop

Manda Scott

These spy thrillers set in Ancient Rome follow Sebastos Pantera and his return from the cold of a mission in Britannia to spy for Emperor Nero. Rome is burning, and only Sebastos can save it.

From bestselling author MC Scott, a heady, fast-paced and exciting historical adventure full of religious and political tensions, passion and intrigue. Perfect for fans of Simon Scarrow, Robert Harris and Conn Iggulden. 
 
“As exciting as Ben Hur, and far more accurate…” – The Independent. 
“A gripping tale…” – Daily Mail. 
“I was totally engrossed…” – Reader review. 
 
AD 64: Rome is burning. Only one man can save it. 
 
The Emperor: Nero, Emperor of Rome and feared by his subjects for his temper and cruelty, is in possession of an ancient document predicting that Rome will burn. 
 
The Spy: Sebastos Pantera, assassin and spy for the Roman Legions is ordered to stop the impending cataclysm. He knows that if he doesn’t, his life – and that of thousands of others – is in terrible danger. 
 
The Chariot Boy: Math, a young charioteer, subject to the wiles and schemes of the Emperor and the Spy. 
 
Who will win this game, where death stalks the drivers – on the track and off it.

Rome: The Emperor's Spy (Rome 1)

A high-octane historical adventure guaranteed to have you on the edge of your seat…

Simon Hughes

Following the success of Simon Hughes’ Red Machine and Men in White Suits, books which depicted Liverpool FC’s domination during the 1980s and its subsequent fall in the 1990s, Ring of Fire focuses on the 2000s and the primary characters who propelled Liverpool to the forefront of European football once again. With a foreword by Steven Gerrard, this is the third edition in a bestselling series based on revealing interviews with former players, coaches and managers. 
 
For Liverpool FC, entry into the 21st century began with modernisation and trophies under manager Gérard Houllier and development was then underpinned by improbable Champions League glory under Rafael Benítez. Yet that is only half of the story. The decade ended with the club being on the verge of administration after the shambolic reign of American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett. 
 
In Ring of Fire, Hughes’ interviewees – including Jamie Carragher, Xabi Alonso and Michael Owen – take you through Melwood’s training ground gates and into the inner sanctum, the Liverpool dressing room. Each person delivers fascinating insights into the minds of the players, coaches and boardroom members as they talk frankly about exhilarating highs and excruciating lows, from winning cups in Cardiff and Istanbul to the political infighting that undermined a succession of managerial reigns. 
 
Ring of Fire tells the real stories: those never told before by the key players who lived through it all.

Ring of Fire

Liverpool into the 21st century: The Players' Stories

David Hall

Fred Dibnah was a man born out of his time. His era should have been the 'magnificent age of British engineering' - the nineteenth century - and his heroes were the great industrial engineers of the period whose prolific innovations and dedicated work ethic inspired a national mood of optimism and captured the hearts of the British public. 
 
Fred Dibnah's Victorian Heroes tells the stories of some of these men - including George and Robert Stephenson, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Joseph Whitworth - and what it was that made them such inspirational figures to Fred. What were their backgrounds? Where did their drive and vision come from? What sort of people were they at work and at home? And what was their contribution to the history of industry and engineering? 
 
Most of them - like Fred - were colourful, larger-than-life characters for whom no challenge was too great. Taking these fascinating characters as inspiration, Fred Dibnah's Victorian Heroes gets to the very heart of what allowed nineteenth-century Britannia to rule the waves . . .

Fred Dibnah's Victorian Heroes

James Nelson

If you like Patrick O'Brian and Bernard Cornwell, you will love this exciting, action-packed maritime adventure from bestselling author James Nelson. 
 
"A master both of his period and of the English language" -- PATRICK O'BRIAN 
"Brilliant...Readers will gladly be swept along by a wonderful plot" -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 
"Don't just buy this one to see if you like it, get the three at once and cancel any engagements for the next several days." -- ***** Reader review 
"Read it far too quickly" -- ***** Reader review 
"Superb" -- ***** Reader review 
 
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WHEN THE PAST THREATENS TO CATCH UP WITH HIM, CAN HE MUSTER THE STRENGTH HE NEEDS? 
 
When Thomas Marlowe decides to renounce his life as a pirate - and keep it a secret, he uses the bounty he has amassed to purchase a fine Virginia plantation from a beautiful young widow, Elizabeth Tinling. 
 
While defending her honour, he kills the favourite son of one of the colony's most powerful families. But in a clever piece of manoeuvring, he manages to win command of the Plymouth Prize, the colony's decrepit guardship, and is charged with leading the King's sailors in battle against the cutthroats who infest the waters off Virginia's shores. 
 
A threat from his illicit past appears, however, as an old pirate enemy plots to seize the colony's wealth, forcing Marlowe to choose between losing all - or facing the one man he fears. 
 
The Guardship is the first book of the Brethren of the Coast trilogy. Marlowe's story continues in The Blackbirder.

The Guardship

A thrilling, rip-roaring naval adventure guaranteed to keep you gripped

Val Wood

Rosa grew up an orphan in a remote, watery island fastness on the wild East coast of Yorkshire. Taken in as a small child by the motherly Mrs Drew, she realised as she grew up that this large and seemingly close farming family contained many troubled souls. Mr Drew, whose religious fervour held a dark secret; Jim, the eldest son, who was terrified of something from his past; Delia, longing to escape from the island; and tall, handsome, confident Matthew, who wanted only one thing - Rosa herself. 
 
But Rosa's background was one of mystery. Her mother, before she drowned in the dyke near their home, had always promised that one day Rosa's father would return to her - a handsome Spaniard, with jewels and silks in treasure chests, sailing in on a ship with golden sails. Mr Drew knew the secret of Rosa's past - and so did the two mysterious Irishmen, who came back to the island after many years and who threatened everything which Rosa held most dear. 
 
Other novels by Valerie Wood include: The Hungry Tide, winner of the Catherine Cookson Prize for Fiction, Annie, Children of the Tide, The Romany Girl, Emily, and Going Home.

Rosa's Island

Tom Abraham

Tom 'Bud' Abraham was one of the very few Englishmen to serve in Vietnam. As an officer in the 1st Cavalry Division during 1967/8, he saw combat in some of the fiercest encounters of the war. His gallantry earned him a chestful of medals, including the Silver Star, one of the highest decorations awarded by the American Army. 
 
During the Tet Offensive, Tom was captured by the Vietcong. The suffering he endured during his interrogation and torture tested him to the limits, and yet his daring escape into the surrounding jungle was the beginning of a new ordeal. His struggle to survive, naked and alone, would drag him down to the level of a primitive beast. 
 
After he returned to England from Vietnam, Tom made a new life. He married, became a father, and started a successful career in business. It seemed that he had forgotten the nightmare of the past. But more than thirty years later, a trivial encounter with the police began a catastrophic chain of events. He lost everything - his family, his home, his self-respect. It became all too obvious that the psychological and emotional wounds he received in Vietnam were still festering. 
 
In trying to rebuild his life, Tom had once more to confront those traumatic memories that he had buried so deep. If he were to have any chance of a future, he would have to relive the past. His terrifying yet inspiring journey is the story of this book.

The Cage

Jon Steele

Jon Steele is a war junkie. Soon after starting work as an ITN cameraman, he began to feel strangely at home in the kind of places ordinary people get evacuated from. Before long, he was living for the rush which comes as bullets fly past your head and bombs explode at your feet. Normal life just couldn't compete... 
 
In Georgia, Jon filmed on the last flight out of the besieged airport at Sokhumi, as the plane took off in the dead of night, all lights extinguished, going the wrong way down the runway, directly towards the nearby steep and virtually invisible mountain range while Abkhazian soldiers fired off random anti-aircraft shells in their general direction. 
In Moscow, he filmed in the midst of chaos as armed rebels and Militia fought bloodthirsty, hand-to-hand battles on the streets around him. 
In Rwanda, he filmed the horrific aftermath to the most brutal massacre of modern times - and his own neck got far too close to the edge of a machete for comfort. 
In Zaire, he filmed endless fields full of young children deranged by hunger and ravaged by cholera. 
In Bosnia, Jon realised that he had, in fact, seen and filmed more than he could cope with, and finally spiralled out of control, deep into emotional meltdown. 
 
But somehow War Junkie is also an incredibly funny and exhilarating book. The humour is dark but sharp as broken glass. The action comes so thick and fast you can forget to breathe. 
 
War Junkie is shocking, hilarious, deeply moving and, ultimately, it packs a powerful psychological punch. It will challenge everything you thought you knew about modern warfare as it shines an unforgiving spotlight into some of the darkest recesses of recent history.

War Junkie

Douglas Jackson

The Roman grip on Britain is growing weaker and Druids are on the rise. Emperor Nero has turned away. Boudicca is preparing to lead tribes to war. 
 
Standing in her way is Gaius Valerius Verrens, commander of the veterans legion. In this battle he earns the accolade of Hero of Rome - but where will that title lead him next?

Bestselling author Douglas Jackson expertly brings the Roman Empire to life in this riveting historical adventure of fire, blood and battle. Perfect for fans of Simon Scarrow, Ben Kane and Conn Iggulden. 
 
Readers are loving Gaius Valerius Verrens! 
 
"Storytelling of the highest order" - 5 STARS 
"Glorious Roman adventure." - 5 STARS 
"The drama never lets up - it is gripping" - 5 STARS 
"I'm just gutted to have finished it!" - 5 STARS 
"Verrens rules, ok?" - 5 STARS 
 
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BETRAYED, BANISHED BUT NOT BROKEN... 
 
70 AD: Disgraced, dishonoured and banished on pain of execution if he ever returns to Rome, Gaius Valerius Verrens makes his way East through the death and destruction of the savage Judaean rebellion. He knows his only hope of long term survival lies with his friend Titus, commander of the Army of Judaea and son of the newly crowned Emperor Vespasian. 
 
But when he reaches the Roman camps that surround the seemingly impregnable city of Jerusalem he finds Titus a changed man. Gone is the cheerful young officer he knew; in his place, a tough, ruthless soldier under pressure from his father to end the insurrection at any cost. 
 
Soon, Valerius finds himself at the centre of a web of intrigue spun by Titus' lover, Queen Berenice of Cilicia, and her sometime ally, the general's turncoat adviser, Flavius Josephus, who together have an ulterior motive for wanting the siege to end quickly. 
 
Yet the laurels Valerius needs in order to regain his honour cannot be won in the tunnels that run beneath Jerusalem. Only in the heat and blood of battle can he find the glory that brought him the title Hero of Rome. 
 
Gaius Valerius Verrens' adventures continue in Saviour of Rome.

Scourge of Rome

(Gaius Valerius Verrens 6): a compelling and gripping Roman adventure that will have you hooked to the very last page

Wes Davis

In the bleakest years of the Second World War when it appeared that nothing could slow the advance of the German army, Hitler set his sights on the Mediterranean island of Crete, the ideal staging ground for domination of the Middle East. But German command had not counted on the strength of the Cretan resistance or the eccentric band of British intelligence officers who would stand in their way, conducting audacious sabotage operations in the very shadow of the Nazi occupation force. 
 
The Ariadne Objective tells the remarkable story of the secret war on Crete from the perspective of these amateur soldiers who found themselves serving because, as one of them put it, they had made 'the obsolete choice of Greek at school'. John Pendlebury, a swashbuckling archaeologist with a glass eye and a swordstick; Xan Fielding, a writer who would later produce the English translations of books like Bridge on the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes; Sandy Rendel, a future Times reporter, who prided himself on a disguise that left him looking more ragged and fierce than the Cretans he fought alongside; and Patrick Leigh Fermor, the future travel-writing luminary who, as a teenager in the early 1930s, walked across Europe, a continent already beginning to feel the effects of Hitler's rise to power. 
 
Having infiltrated occupied Crete, these British gentleman spies teamed with Cretan partisans to carry out a cunning plan to disrupt Nazi manoeuvres, culminating in a daring, high-risk plot to abduct the island’s German commander. In this thrilling and little known episode of Second World War history, Wes Davis paints a brilliant portrait of some extraordinary characters and tells a story of triumph against all the odds.

The Ariadne Objective

Patrick Leigh Fermor and the Underground War to Rescue Crete from the Nazis

Bestselling author James Nelson brings us another gripping and absorbing maritime adventure. Perfect for readers of Julian Stockwin, CS Forester and Alexander Kent. 
 
"Brilliant...Readers will gladly be swept along by a wonderful plot" -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 
"A master both of his period and of the English language" -- PATRICK O'BRIAN 
"Many threads, at sea and at home, combine to make this a thrilling, un-put-downable period story." -- ***** Reader review 
"It is difficult to put this book down right from the start" -- ***** Reader review 
"A terrifically exciting adventure!" -- ***** Reader review 
 
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ONE MISSION THAT COULD CHANGE EVERYTHING... 
 
Thomas Marlowe, former pirate and captain of the Guardship, lives prosperously on his tobacco plantation near Williamsburg with his lovely wife Elizabeth. 
But when King James, the huge ex-slave who is in command of Marlowe's sloop, kills the crew of a slaveship - a blackbirder - and makes himself the most wanted man in Virginia, Marlowe is forced to go and hunt him down. 
 
Setting off in pursuit of the blackbirder, struggling to maintain control over his crew - rough privateers, set only on plunder - Marlowe follows James's trail of destruction all the way to the shores of Africa. 
 
There, in the slave port of Whydah, James and Marlowe face a common threat - and their final showdown. 
 
The Blackbirder is the second book of the Brethren of the Coast trilogy. Marlowe's story continues in The Pirate Round. Have you read The Guardship, the first adventure of the trilogy?

The Blackbirder

A captivating and thrilling adventure set on the high seas

Robert Goddard

The Wide World series sees James 'Max' Maxted, war pilot and man of action, searching for answers about his father's death, and finding all the danger and adventure he should have waved goodbye to at the conclusion of the hostilities of WW1. What will Max find at the end of the road?

1919. The eyes of the world are on Paris, where statesmen, diplomats and politicians have gathered to discuss the fate of half the world’s nations in the aftermath of the cataclysm that was the Great War. A horde of journalists, spies and opportunists have also gathered in the city and the last thing the British diplomatic community needs at such a time is the mysterious death of a senior member of their delegation. So, when Sir Henry Maxted falls from the roof of his mistress’s apartment building in unexplained circumstances, their first instinct is to suppress all suspicious aspects of the event. 
 
But Sir Henry’s son, ex Royal Flying Corps ace James ‘Max’ Maxted, has other ideas. He resolves to find out how and why his father died – even if this means disturbing the impression of harmonious calm which the negotiating teams have worked so hard to maintain. In a city where countries are jostling for position at the crossroads of history and the stakes could hardly be higher, it is difficult to tell who is a friend and who a foe.And Max will soon discover just how much he needs friends, as his search for the truth sucks him into the dark heart of a seemingly impenetrable mystery.

The Ways of the World

(The Wide World - James Maxted 1)

John Man

The Ninjas today are the stuff of myth and legend in comics, film and electronic games. But once they were real, the medieval equivalent of the SAS: spies, saboteurs, assassins. In their secrecy, under-cover skills and determination to survive, they were the opposite of the overt, self destructive samurai. Could they fly? Make themselves invisible? Of course not.It was just that their skills gave them a magical aura. As a result, martial artists and story-tellers have turned them into fantasy creatures, from James Bond to Mutant Turtles. 
 
In Ninja John Man goes in search of the truth. In a journey to the heartland of the ninjas, he takes us from their origins over 1,000 years ago, through their heyday in the civil wars that ended with Japan’s unification in 1600. But that was not the end of the ninja ethos. That re-emerged in World War Two as a little-known counterpart to Japanese militarism. Ninja ways live on in the real ‘last of the ninjas’, Hiroo Onoda, who held out in the Philippine jungle for 30 years.

Ninja

Robert Lomas

In 1660 a small group of men, led by Sir Robert Moray, met in London with a secret plan to reshape the world. They were members of the 'Invisible College', better known today as the Freemasons 
 
Emerging from the horrors of the Civil War, Britain was a society torn apart by political difference, religious ferment and was still immersed in medieval superstition. It was a country which burnt alive at least one hundred elderly women a year on suspicion of witchcraft. Yet this group, who had recently been sworn enemies, managed to bridge their social and cultural differences to found a new organization dedicated to the scientific study of nature, the Royal Society. 
 
Robert Lomas reveals in compelling detail how the secret tenets and traditions of the Freemasons laid the groundwork for a new revolution, that gave the world modern, experimental science and founded what is still, 350 years later, the pre-eminent scientific institution in the world.

The Invisible College

Robert Mason

'I read this as a young pilot about to embark on a career flying military helicopters. It should have put me off for life. Robert Mason tells a gripping account of the relentless courage and heroism amidst the insanity of the Vietnam war. The final few pages are the most shocking I have read in any book.' Tim Peake 
________ 
 
A stunning book about the right stuff in the wrong war. 
 
As a child, Robert Mason dreamed of levitating. 
 
As a young man, he dreamed of flying helicopters - and the U.S. Army gave him his chance. 
 
They sent him to Vietnam where, between August 1965 and July 1966, he flew more than 1,000 assault missions. In Chickenhawk, Robert Mason gives us a devastating bird's eye-view of that war in all its horror. 
 
He experiences the accelerating terror, the increasingly desperate courage of a man 'acting out the role of a hero long after he realises that the conduct of the war is insane,' says the New York Times. 
 
'And we can't stop ourselves from identifying with it.' 
 
CHICKENHAWK contains the most vivid, astoundingly intense descriptions of flying ever written. It is a devastating account of men at war, of courage and cowardice, boredom and exhilaration, lasting friendship and sudden death. It is not a book for weak stomachs, but its powerful message will stay in the memory long after the last page is turned.

Chickenhawk

Giles Kristian

'So beautiful, so haunting . . . bitingly real . . . Giles has given us a vital, glorious story: rich, rewarding, and utterly revealing of our times' MANDA SCOTT 
 
Following the acclaimed Sunday Times bestselling Lancelot, Giles Kristian's new novel returns us to the Arthurian legend . . . 
 
The Saxons have returned and their war bands stalk the land. The lords of Britain look only to their own survival, unable or unwilling to unite as they once did under Arthur. 
 
And in a monastery hidden in the marshlands of Avalon, a novice monk prepares to take his vows. However, two strangers - the wild-spirited, Saxon-killing Iselle and the ageing warrior Gawain - will pluck him from his sheltered existence and his world will be turned upside down. 
 
Together they will go in search of the last druid, to find the cauldron of a god, and to raise an army to hold the darkness at bay. 
 
And as they journey, so the novice will cast aside his training and embrace his legacy. 
 
For he is a warrior born. 
 
His name is Galahad. And he is the son of Lancelot . . .

Camelot

Christabel Bielenberg

Following the extraordinary success of her wartime memoirs, The Past Is Myself, Christabel Bielenberg received thousands of letters from readers begging her to describe what happened next. The Road Ahead takes up the story at the moment the first volume left off - with the outbreak of peace. 
 
Germany was devastated by war and its aftermath, while Britain seemed grey and exhausted to Christabel. She was soon appointed the Observer's special correspondent in Germany, and, reunited with her husband, Peter (technically an enemy alien), she joined the struggle for reconciliation with, and the rebuilding of, a defeated nation. It was Peter's near-fatal accident and her own illness which decided the young couple to turn their backs on England and Germany and make a new start farming in Ireland. 
 
Life was harsh at first, but predictably Christabel found humour in the accidents of poverty and the many mishaps of country life. The beautiful scenery of the Wicklow Mountains provided a haven for the family and for the hosts of young people from all over the world who joined them each summer. Christabel became involved with the Peace Women of Northern Ireland and learned as much as she could about the adopted country she had grown to love so passionately. Taking her seventieth birthday as a stopping point for a life that even now, some fourteen further years on, is as rich and full as it ever was, she looks back with characteristic modesty and gratitude. Her readers will be enchanted by this second volume of memoirs, as clear-sighted and generous, as honest, funny, touching and brave as The Past Is Myself.

The Road Ahead

Matt Gallagher

Iraq, late 2007. Lieutenant Matt Gallagher arrives just as US policy shifts from lethal operations to counter-insurgency. He encounters a world where nothing is as it seems. Friends are enemies, reconciliation is war, roads are bombs and silence is deadly. Nothing left to do except 'embrace the suck'... 
 
...and blog about it. Matt Gallagher's response was to write an on-line journal (called Kaboom) which quickly went viral. Read by thousands of soldiers who recognised its unflinchingly honest portrayal of the real war, as well as high-ranking Pentagon officials and interested parties around the world, Kaboom was shut down by the US Army in June 2008. Now you can read the whole story, based on that brilliant, acerbic, banned blog. Kaboom paints a shockingly original and uncompromising portrait of a savage war the world is still struggling to understand.

Kaboom

Owen Matthews

'Outstanding' SUNDAY TIMES 
 
'A stunning debut thriller . . . utterly terrifying . . . absolutely riveting' DAILY MAIL 
 
'Fascinating . . . fearsome' FREDERICK FORSYTH 
 
'Enthralling' FINANCIAL TIMES 
 
'Thrilling . . . compelling' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE 
 
1961. Hidden deep within central Soviet Russia is a place that doesn't appear on any map: a city called Arzamas-16. Here dedicated scientists and technicians are building the most powerful nuclear device the world will ever see - three thousand times more powerful than Hiroshima. 
 
But days before the bomb is to be tested, a young physicist is found dead. His body contains enough radioactive poison to kill thousands. The authorities believe it is suicide - they want the corpse disposed of, the incident filed and forgotten. But Moscow is alarmed by what's going on in this strange, isolated place. 
 
And so KGB major Alexander Vasin is sent to Arzamas to investigate. What he finds there is unlike anything he's experienced before. His wits will be tested against some of the Soviet Union's most brilliant minds - eccentrics, patriots and dissidents who, because their work is considered to be of such vital importance, have been granted the freedom to think and act, live and love as they wish. For in Arzamas, nothing can be allowed to get in the way of the project. Not even murder . . . 
 
Intricately researched, cunningly plotted and brilliantly told, Black Sun is a fast-paced and timely thriller set at the height - and in the heart - of Soviet power from the acclaimed author of An Impeccable Spy. 
 
What readers are saying: 
'Woven around real events, people and places, it's genuinely terrifying stuff' ***** 
 
'The twists and turns and intrigue kept me on tenterhooks' ***** 
 
'Brings alive one of the most fascinating periods of Soviet history' *****

Black Sun

Based on a true story, the critically acclaimed Soviet thriller

Simon Sebag Montefiore

Winter, 1916. In St Petersburg, snow is falling in a country on the brink of revolution. Beautiful and headstrong, Sashenka Zeitlin is just sixteen. As her mother parties with Rasputin and her dissolute friends, Sashenka slips into the frozen night to play her role in a dangerous game of conspiracy and seduction. 
 
Twenty years on, Sashenka has a powerful husband and two children. Around her people are disappearing but her own family is safe.But she's about to embark on a forbidden love affair which will have devastating consequences. 
 
Sashenka's story lies hidden for half a century, until a young historian goes deep into Stalin's private archives and uncovers a heart-breaking story of passion and betrayal, savage cruelty and unexpected heroism - and one woman forced to make an unbearable choice ...

Sashenka

Martin Pearce

'I cannot think of a better biography of a spy chief' 
Richard Davenport-Hines, The Spectator 
 
Sir Maurice Oldfield was one of the most important British spies of the Cold War era. A farmer’s son from a provincial grammar school who found himself accidentally plunged into the world of espionage, Sir Maurice was the first Chief of MI6 who didn’t come to the role via the traditional public school and Oxbridge route. 
 
Oldfield was the voice of British Intelligence in Washington at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis and the assassination of JFK, and was largely responsible for keeping the UK out of the Vietnam War. Working his way to the top of the secret service, he took on the job of rebuilding confidence in the British Secret Service in the wake of the Philby, Burgess and Maclean spy scandals. 
 
This is the fascinating life story, told in detail for the first time, of a complex, likable character as well as a formidable intelligence chief.

Spymaster

The Life of Britain's Most Decorated Cold War Spy and Head of MI6, Sir Maurice Oldfield

Perfect for fans of Simon Scarrow and Ben Kane, this heart-stopping historical thriller from bestselling author Douglas Jackson will have you on the edge of your seat! 
 
"Rightly hailed as one of the best historical novelists writing today" -- DAILY EXPRESS 
 
Readers are loving Gaius Valerius Verrens! 
"This was probably the best book that I have read of this genre." - 5 STARS. 
"As good as Scarrow, Riches or Scott." - 5 STARS. 
"Valerius is quite addictive..." - 5 STARS . 
 
************************************************************** 
AD 59: Rome's grip on Britain is weakening. Roman cruelty and exploitation has angered their British subjects; the Druids are on the rise; the warrior queen Boudicca will lead the tribes to war. 
 
The Roman Tribune, Gaius Valerius Verrens must lead the veteran legions at Colonia in a last stand against the rising tide of rebellion and the unstoppable horde of Boudicca's rebel army. 
 
Can he defend his honour and the Empire he represents? 
 
Hero of Rome is the first in Douglas Jackson's Gaius Valerius Verrens series. His story continues in Defender of Rome.

Hero of Rome (Gaius Valerius Verrens 1)

An action-packed and riveting novel of Roman adventure…

From bestselling author Douglas Jackson, a gripping and visceral novel of the Roman invasion of Britain, for fans of Conn Iggulden and Simon Scarrow. 
 
"What stands out are Jackson's superb battle scenes. I lost myself in the riveting depictions of combat . . . I was gripped from start to finish." -- Ben Kane. 
"You will be reading this and saying to yourself, "Just one more page!"..." - ***** Reader review. 
"THIS is the story I was waiting on!" - ***** Reader review. 
 
******************************************************************** 
 
EMPEROR OF ROME. CONQUEROR OF BRITAIN. 
 
43 AD. Southern England. Caratacus, war chief of the Britons, watches as the scarlet cloaks of the Roman legions spread across his lands like blood. 
 
In Rome, Emperor Claudius desires total conquest and dreams of taking his place in history alongside his illustrious forebears Caesar and Augustus. 
 
Among the legions marches Rufus, keeper of the Emperor's elephant. War is coming and the united tribes of Britain will make a desperate stand against the might of Rome in their fight for freedom. 
 
The Emperor has a very special purpose for Rufus and his elephant in the midst of the battle - will the Gods favour him? 
 
Have you read Caligula - where Rufus's adventures begin?

Showing results for: ‘Michael Symmons Roberts’

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