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A A Gill

Andrew Swanston read law at Cambridge, but was inspired to write by his lifelong interest in early modern history. His Thomas Hill novels – The King’s Spy, The King’s Exile and The King’s Return – are set against the backdrops of the English Civil War, Cromwell’s Commonwealth and the early Restoration respectively. He is also the author of Waterloo: The Bravest Man and Beautiful Star and Other Stories. His first historical thriller set during the reign of Elizabeth I – Incendium (published in paperback as The Incendium Plot) – introduced readers to the academic, lawyer and intelligencer Dr Christopher Radcliff, whose adventures continue in Chaos. Andrew Swanston lives in Surrey.

A D Swanston

A E Langsford

A G Hopkins

A. J. BAIME is the New York Times best-selling author of The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War and Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans. Both books are in development for major motion pictures. Baime is a longtime regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Popular Science, and Men’s Journal. He lives in Granite Bay, California. Visit him at facebook.com/ajbaime and trumanbook.com.

A J Baime

A J Jacobs

A J P Taylor

Anthony James Pollard is a British medieval historian, specialising in the fifteenth century and in particular the Wars of the Roses. A leading authority in the field, he is profesor emeritus of Teesside University. His books include North-Eastern England during the Wars of the Roses, Richard III and the Princes in theTower, Imagining Robin Hood: the Late Medieval Stories in Historical Context and Warwick the kingmaker: Politics, Power and Fame.

A J Pollard

A J Rochester

A K Benjamin is a clinical neuropsychologist and the author of Let Me Not Be Mad: A Story of Unravelling Minds.

A K Benjamin

A. L. Berridge read English at Oxford, and taught for ten years before moving into television, where her production credits range from period drama and thrillers to long-running soaps. She has written two previous novels, Top Ten besteller Honour and the Sword and In the Name of the King. Into the Valley of Death is her third novel.

A L Berridge

Alison Gaylin's first job was as a reporter for a celebrity tabloid, which sparked a lifelong interest in writing about people committing despicable acts. More than a decade later, she wrote and published her Edgar-nominated first novel, HIDE YOUR EYES. 
 
She's since published nine more books, including the USA Today and international bestselling Brenna Spector suspense series, which has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony and Thriller awards and won the Shamus award. 
 
She lives in upstate New York with her husband, daughter, cat and dog.

A L Gaylin

A Maxwell-Hyslop

A McArthur

A P Wavell

A.S. Webb is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Daughter of Chaos, the first instalment of The Dark Pantheon Trilogy. She is inspired by stories rooted in history and mythology, that push the boundaries of imagination and urge us to reflect on what it means to be human.

A S Webb

A. A. Dhand is the author of six previous novels, and has been shortlisted for the CWA Steel Dagger Award. His DI Harry Virdee novels are currently being adapted for TV by the BBC. He was raised in Bradford and spent his youth observing the city from behind the counter of a small convenience store. After qualifying as a pharmacist, he worked in London and travelled extensively before returning to Bradford to start his own business and begin writing. The history, diversity and darkness of the city have inspired all his novels. For more information about A. A. Dhand and his books, follow him on X @aadhand, and on Instagram @aa_dhand.

A. A. Dhand

A. A. Gill

A. A. Milne

A. Anatoli

A. B. Poranek grew up sharing her time between Ontario, Canada and rural Poland, and eventually completed a veterinary degree at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. A lover of mythology and history, she enjoys exploring both in her writing. Her debut novel, Where the Dark Stands Still, an instant New York Times bestseller, is an ode to Poland's folktales, while A Treachery of Swans transports readers to a world inspired by 17th century France.

A. B. Poranek

A. Bradley

Professor A. C. Grayling is Principal of the New College of the Humanities at Northeastern University, London, and a Supernumerary Fellow of St Anne's College, Oxford. He has written and edited over thirty books on philosophy, history, science and current affairs. For several years he wrote columns for the Guardian newspaper and The Times and was the chairman of the 2014 Man Booker Prize.

A. C. Grayling

A.D. Miller is the author of Snowdrops, The Earl of Petticoat Lane and The Faithful Couple. Snowdrops was a bestseller and was shortlisted for many prizes including the Man Booker and the CWA Gold Dagger. It was translated into 25 languages. As Moscow Correspondent of The Economist A.D. Miller has travelled across the former Soviet Union and covered the Orange Revolution in Ukraine; he is now the magazine’s Culture Editor based in London. 
 
admillerbooks.com

A. D. Miller

A. E. Ellis

A. E. W. Mason

A. Humphreys

A. Igoni Barrett was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, in 1979 and lives in Lagos. He is a winner of the 2005 BBC World Service short story competition, the recipient of a Chinua Achebe Center Fellowship, a Norman Mailer Center Fellowship, and a Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency. His short story collection, Love is Power, or Something Like That, was published in 2013. In 2014 he was named on the Africa39 list of sub-Saharan African writers under 40. Blackass is his first novel.

A. Igoni Barrett

The short life of A.J.A. Symons (1900-41) was described by his biographer as an intricate and largely harmless confidence trick. His many interests included the collection of musical boxes and rare books as well as the study and practice of forgery; they left him time to edit an anthology of Edwardian verse and compose studies of H.M. Stanley and other notable figures. He is remembered for The Quest for Corvo, one of the most remarkable biographies ever written, and for co-founding the Wine and Food Society.

A. J. A. Symons

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Carol Ann Lee

Soon to be an ITV drama starring Lucy Boynton, A Cruel Love is the definitive story of Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in Britain. Previously published as A Fine Day for a Hanging. 
 
'A forensically researched book that casts a haunting new light on the last woman to be hanged in Britain.' —DAILY MAIL 
 
In 1955, former nightclub manageress Ruth Ellis shot her lover, David Blakely, dead. A two-day trial followed, but despite huge public outcry, she was found guilty and sentenced to death. At 28, Ruth became the last woman executed in Britain, her hanging one of the most notorious under prolific hangman Albert Pierrepoint. 
 
Carol Ann Lee examines the facts behind the headlines surrounding this infamous case, which many believe led to the dismantling of the death penalty a decade later. Drawing on interviews and in-depth research into the full range of sources, she reveals the woman behind the crime. 
 
Previously published as A Fine Day for a Hanging, this is the acclaimed biography that inspired the ITV drama, A Cruel Love – a portrait of 1950s club life in all its seedy glamour, and a tragic true tale of murder, class, love and betrayal. 
 
'Wonderful . . . it will become the standard reference on Ruth Ellis' Stewart P. Evans, crime historian

A Cruel Love

The Real Ruth Ellis Story

Maggie Craig

'Deftly told' The Herald 
 
They were modern men, the soldiers of the '45: doctors and lawyers, students and teachers, gardeners and weavers. These are the men often written out of history, or else depicted as gallant but misguided fools. 
 
 But in reality they were children of the Age of Reason, they wrote poetry, discussed the latest ideas in philosophy and science - and rose in armed rebellion against the might of the British crown and government. 
 
 Many faced agonising personal dilemmas before committing themselves to Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobite Cause. Few had any illusions about the consequences of failure. Many met their date with destiny on Culloden Moor, players in a global conflict that shaped the world we live in today. 
 
 Combining meticulous research with entertaining and stylish delivery, Maggie Craig tells the dramatic and moving stories of the men who were willing to risk everything for their vision of a better future for themselves, their families and Scotland. 
 
 'A superbly structured work, written with passion and conviction' Scots Magazine

Bare-Arsed Banditti

The Men of the '45

'A racily written, well-researched and heart-warming account' Scots Magazine 
 
Too many historians have ignored the role of women in the '45. 
 This book aims to redress the balance. 
 
 Damn' Rebel Bitches takes a totally fresh approach to the history of the Jacobite Rising by telling fascinating stories of the many women caught up in the turbulent events of 1745-46. 
 
 Drawn from original documents and letters, Maggie Craig brings their stories to life in this often touching and always engrossing reframed history. 
 
'A modern classic' The Herald 
 
 'Bold and argumentative...resounds with authority' Scotland on Sunday

Damn' Rebel Bitches

The Women of the '45

Philip Carlo

WITH EXCLUSIVE DEATH ROW INTERVIEW 
 
Years after Richard Ramirez left thirteen dead and brought the city of Los Angeles to a standstill, his name is still synonymous with fear, torture and sadistic murder. 
 
Based on three years of meticulous research and extensive interviews with Ramirez himself, Philip Carlo's US bestseller The Night Stalker reveals the killer and his horrifying crimes to be even more chilling than anyone could have imagined. 
With an exclusive death row interview, The Night Stalker is a spellbinding descent into the very heart of human evil. 
 
'WITH BRUTAL HONESTY, CARLO WRITES FROM THE HEART ' ROBERT DE NIRO

The Night Stalker

The hunt for a serial killer

Budd Schulberg

Ringside is a bountiful collection of the most memorable boxing stories by legendary fight-game writer Budd Schulberg. 
 
 Schulberg takes us all the way back to an epic bare-knuckle contest in England 200 years ago; draws a revealing portrait of 'Uncle' Mike Jacobs, the promotional impresario of boxing in its golden age; expertly places Joe Louis and Muhammad Ali in the social context of their times; brings followers up to date on the careers of the great names of recent decades - Tyson, Holyfield, de la Hoya, Hopkins, 'Chico' Corrales; and much more. 
 
 Throughout this book, Schulberg provides the perfect blend of great writing on great fighters, laced with a realistic sense of boxing's wrongs as well as its rights. With prose that sparkles with authority and insight, Ringside is a main event in the world of sports literature.

Ringside

A Treasury of Boxing Reportage

Mickey Vann

Richard Coomber

Micky Vann is one of the world's top boxing referees. He has been involved in more than 350 championship fights, over 100 of which were world title fights. Outspoken and brutally honest, his hard-hitting views have often found him at the centre of controversy. The biggest night of his career - the 'Battle of Britain' world heavyweight clash between Frank Bruno and Lennox Lewis - saw him on the mat for a four-letter outburst broadcast across the world. 
 
Vann is the son of showman Hal Denver and the grandson of The Silver King, who included the Elephant Man in his sideshows. In Give Me A Ring, he pulls no punches as he reveals the truth about his unusual childhood, spent between a Dickensian foster home and the circus; the bribe he was accused of taking from Don King; and the sleazy side of the fight game. 
 
Give Me A Ring covers Vann's professional career in all it's glory, from his time as a journeyman pro fighter to the fame he has found as a star-grade referee. in this frank and often hilarious autobiography, Vann candidly comments on personalities such as Lennox Lewis, Prince Naseem Hamed, Nigel Benn, Don King, Barry McGuigan and Frank Bruno. He gives his views on the game's rackets and its future. Give Me A Ring is a compelling read, sure to be a revelation to the boxing world and its followers

Give Me A Ring

The Autobiography of Star Referee Mickey Vann

Mark Perryman

The good, the bad, the beautiful game: a mix that few can explain and yet whenever football hooliganism breaks out, the government, the football authorities, the police and journalists are all too ready to offer quick-fix solutions - solutions that rarely consider the underlying causes of the violence. 
 
Is it about boys becoming men? Racism and the hatred of all things foreign? Or about a defence of territory and national pride? Hooligan Wars looks behind the easy answers by comparing England's fan culture to football supporters' experience in France, Germany and Holland. The role of fascist groups is investigated. The effect of media coverage of hooliganism is analysed. And the impact of all-seater stadiums reviewed. A separate chapter considers the fans' experiences at the recent World Cup in South Korea and Japan. 
 
Rivalry with 'the other lot' and winding up those we love to put one over on will always be a big part of what it means to be a football fan. Is the connection between this and violence something that can never be broken? What would football be like free of hooliganism? In trying to rid the game of its ugly underbelly, are we in danger of softening too many of those rough edges that makes it so special? 
 
This is a book that takes risks by asking awkward questions. Football violence is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's time to break the spell.

Hooligan Wars

Causes and Effects of Football Violence

Loung Ung

A major film, co-written and directed by Angelina Jolie 
 
Until the age of five, Loung Ung lived in Phnom Penh, one of seven children of a high-ranking government official. She was a precocious child who loved the open city markets, fried crickets, chicken fights and being cheeky to her parents. 
 
When Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge army stormed into Phnom Penh in April 1975, Loung's family fled their home and were eventually forced to disperse to survive. Loung was trained as a child soldier while her brothers and sisters were sent to labour camps. The surviving siblings were only finally reunited after the Vietnamese penetrated Cambodia and started to destroy the Khmer Rouge. 
 
Bolstered by the bravery of one brother, the vision of the others and the gentle kindness of her sister, Loung forged on to create for herself a courageous new life. 
 
First They Killed My Father is an unforgettable book told through the voice of the young and fearless Loung. It is a shocking and tragic tale of a girl who was determined to survive despite the odds.

First They Killed My Father

Film tie-in

A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers

Philip Carlo's successful and acclaimed books reveal the truth about notorious characters such as LA serial killer Richard Ramirez, Mafia contract killer Richard Kuklinski and crime-family boss Anthony Casso. Working closely with the DEA , Carlo also wrote the definitive account of Bonanno Mafia family assassin Tommy 'Karate' Pitera. 
 
Carlo's investigative achievements were remarkable, but what wasn't known to his readers was that, while working on The Ice Man, he learned he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a form of motor neuron disease. Suddenly, after years of penetrating the minds of killers, Carlo was himself being pursued by the grim reaper. But rather than lying down and succumbing to the disease, Carlo continued to work right up until his death in 2010. 
 
In The Killer Within, Carlo provides an intimate account of his relationships with Ramirez, Kuklinski and Casso and reveals intriguing information about writing his bestsellers while simultaneously coping with ALS as it slowly began to steal his life away.

The Killer Within

In the Company of Monsters

John Randall

M J Trow

In 1945, John Randall was the first Allied officer to enter Bergen-Belsen – the concentration camp that would reveal the horrors of the Holocaust to the world. Randall was one of that league of extraordinary gentlemen handpicked for suicidally dangerous missions behind enemy lines in North Africa, Italy, France and Germany throughout the Second World War. 
 
He was a man of his class and of his times. He hated the Germans, liked the French and was unimpressed by the Americans and the Arabs. He was an outrageous flirt, as might be expected of a man who served in Phantom alongside film stars David Niven and Hugh Williams. He played rugby with Paddy Mayne, the larger-than-life colonel of the SAS and winner of four DSOs. He pushed Randolph Churchill, son of the Prime Minister, out of an aeroplane. He wined and dined in nightclubs as part of the generation that lived for each day because they might not see another. 
 
This extraordinary true story, partly based on previously unpublished diaries, presents a different slant on that mighty war through the eyes of a restless young man eager for action and adventure.

The Last Gentleman of the SAS

A Moving Testimony from the First Allied Officer to Enter Belsen at the End of the Second World War

Hugh G. Allison

Culloden was the last battle on British soil. It marked the end of clan culture and was the harbinger of the Highland Clearances. It ensured the inevitability of the American Revolution and increased the outpouring of Scots across the globe. It is the only battle that British Army regiments are not permitted to include in their battle honours; the only battle that Bonnie Prince Charlie ever lost; and the only battle that the Duke of Cumberland ever won. 
 
Culloden is a battlefield, a graveyard and an iconic site that draws people from all parts of the world. And as they come, they bring with them their stories and their father's father's stories. 
 
These stories tell of civil war, of love, of the unexpected and even of the supernatural. They are peopled by the second-sighted, by clan chiefs and by others who have kept family secrets for centuries. 
 
The battlefield is a poignant location, resonant with past deeds and emotive memories. These Culloden tales are offered as a unique record to the power of the place.

Culloden Tales

Stories from Scotland's Most Famous Battlefield

Phil Scraton

This is the definitive, unique account of the disaster in which 96 men, women and children were killed, hundreds injured and thousands traumatised. It details the appalling treatment endured by the bereaved and survivors in the immediate aftermath, the inhumanity of the identification process and the vilification of fans in the national and international media. 
 
In 2012, Phil Scraton was primary author of the ground-breaking report published by the Hillsborough Independent Panel following its new research into thousands of documents disclosed by all agencies involved. Against a backdrop of almost three decades of persistent struggle by bereaved families and survivors, in this new edition he reflects on the Panel’s in-depth work, its revelatory findings and their unprecedented impact – an unreserved apology from the Prime Minister; new criminal investigations; the Independent Police Complaints Commission’s largest-ever inquiry; the quashing of 96 inquest verdicts; a review of all health and pathology policies. Paving the way for truth recovery and institutional accountability in other controversial cases, he details the process and considers the impact of the longest ever inquests, from the preliminary hearings to their comprehensive, devastating verdicts. 
 
Powerful, disturbing and harrowing, Hillsborough: The Truth exposes the institutional complacency that led to the unlawful killing of the 96, revealing how the interests of ordinary people are marginalised when those in authority sacrifice truth and accountability to protect their reputations.

Hillsborough - The Truth

Steven Preece

Steven Preece was a Royal Marine Commando from 1983 to 1990, serving first at entry-level and then as a lance-corporal. Amongst the Marines is Steven's first-hand account of his years as an elite soldier, focusing directly on the excessive and often shocking lifestyle of the Marines during this time, and impact this had on his own personality and behaviour. 
 
Preece fulfilled his childhood ambition by earning the coveted Green Beret when he was 18. He was unaware, however, of the brutal rite of passage that awaited him and all the other 'pieces of skin' [new recruits]. Violence in the Marines, as Steven discovered, was not limited to the battlefield but a continual part of a pervasive culture of bullying and aggression. 
 
It did not take long for Preece to be accepted into this culture and to adopt it as his own. On duty he was fit, committed and loyal, while off duty he displayed a mammoth capacity for drinking, fighting and womanising. On home leave, Steven found it increasingly hard to adapt to civilian life. His drinking sessions in local pubs frequently ended in fights with the locals and even in violence against members of his own family. Preece earned a reputation amongst his fellow Marines for pranks and dangerous behaviour; and this eventually led him to be court-maritialled. To his relief and surprise, however, Preece was fully acquitted by the court. 
 
Amongst the Marines is an unflinching exposé of the culture of the Marines, from foul practical jokes and rough justice to the off-duty orgies of drink, sex and violence. It is a no-holds-barred account of the many shocking incidents Preece witnessed and participated in, from his first day as a new recruit to his exit from the Marines with his reputation intact and his scores settled once and for all.

Amongst the Marines

The Untold Story

Simon Low

As a former fighter in the legendary French Foreign Legion, Simon Low thought he had seen it all. Then he was posted to Iraq. Employed as a private military contractor - a 'hired gun' - his assignment was to guard the deadly convoy routes out of Baghdad. 
 
Once there, Simon quickly realised that no one could be trusted, including the US military. Whether sending him on perilously haphazard missions or, in one terrifying incident, knowingly opening fire on him, the Americans often proved as dangerous as the insurgents. 
 
Simon and his staunch 'oppo' Dave faced the daily terror of suicide bombers, armed ambushes and grenade attacks, and also had to keep a close watch on their ill-prepared Iraqi comrades. Incompetence or betrayal from within could be fatal, but a far greater fear was that of capture, with prisoners subjected to torture and slow death. 
 
Commissioned to courier a large quantity of cash through bandit country, Simon lost patience with his high-handed paymasters and devised a plan of his own for the money . . . 
 
The Boys from Baghdad is an action-packed account of life as a soldier of fortune in the most controversial conflict of our age. With grim, earthy humour, Simon's eyewitness descriptions of Iraq as it spirals into bloody chaos provide a unique, uncompromising insight into the theatre of war.

The Boys from Baghdad

From the Foreign Legion to the Killing Fields of Iraq

Aaron Edwards

Aden, 20 June 1967: two army Land Rovers burn ferociously in the midday sun. The bodies of British soldiers litter the road. Thick black smoke bellows above Crater town, home to insurgents who are fighting the British-backed Federation government. Crater had come to symbolise Arab nationalist defiance in the face of the world’s most powerful empire. 
 
Hovering 2,000 ft. above the smouldering destruction, a tiny Scout helicopter surveys the scene. Its passenger is the recently arrived Commanding Officer of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, Lieutenant-Colonel Colin Mitchell. Soon the world’s media would christen him ‘Mad Mitch’, in recognition of his controversial reoccupation of Crater two weeks later. 
 
Mad Mitch was truly a man out of his time. Supremely self-confident and debonair, he was an empire builder, not dismantler, and railed against the national malaise he felt had gripped Britain’s political establishment. Drawing on a wide array of never-before-seen archival sources and eyewitness testimonies, Mad Mitch’s Tribal Law tells the remarkable story of inspiring leadership, loyalty and betrayal in the final days of British Empire. It is, above all, a shocking account of Britain’s forgotten war on terror.

Mad Mitch's Tribal Law

Aden and the End of Empire

Alan Pattullo

He was one of the hardest, most controversial footballers of his generation: the £20million man who became the first professional player to go to jail for an offence committed on the field of play. He was the fans’ hero who disappeared. 
 Duncan Ferguson was an old-fashioned Scottish centre-forward who went from a boarding house in Dundee to the marble staircase of Rangers in a record-breaking transfer. 
 
 His £4m move from Dundee United to Ibrox made him British football’s most expensive native player. But he would also become one of the most notorious footballers in the land. Sent to prison after head-butting an opponent during a Scottish Premier Division match between Rangers and Raith Rovers, Ferguson made history all over again. 
 
 He served half of a three-month sentence in Glasgow’s infamous Barlinnie Prison. A twelve-match ban from the Scottish Football Association was later overturned following a long appeal process. Bruised by the experience, he turned his back on Scotland’s national team and the media. 
 
 Ferguson reaped the riches of the Sky era. He was a folk hero at Everton, where he spent ten years either side of an injury-hit spell at Newcastle United. Although the game made him a millionaire, he rejected its new culture of celebrity and remained a fiery figure, racking up a Premiership record of eight red cards. And then, after scoring in the final minute of the last game of his career, he turned his back on football completely – or so it seemed.

In Search of Duncan Ferguson

The Life and Crimes of a Footballing Enigma

Paul Howard

Sex, Lies and Handlebar Tape is the astonishing biography of French cycling star Jacques Anquetil. For the first time since his death in 1987, it reveals the extraordinary truth behind the legend, the man and the cyclist. 
 
His list of 'firsts' alone makes him worthy of a place in the cycling pantheon: the first man to win the Tour de France five times; the first man to win all three grand tours - the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España; and the first man to win both the Tour and Vuelta in the same year. 
 
However, the extraordinary life of Anquetil does not stop at his achievements on a bike. He candidly admitted to using drugs, offended legions of fans by confessing that his only motivation for riding was financial and infamously indulged his enthusiasm for the high life. He also seduced and married his doctor's wife, had a child with her daughter and then sustained a ménage à trois with both wife and stepdaughter under the same roof for 12 years. When this 'family' eventually imploded, he attempted to inspire jealousy in his former lovers by having a child with his stepson's ex-wife. 
 
Containing exclusive contributions from Anquetil's family, friends, teammates and rivals, Sex, Lies and Handlebar Tape untangles myth from reality and confirms that fact is definitely stranger than fiction.

Sex, Lies and Handlebar Tape

The Remarkable Life of Jacques Anquetil, the First Five-Times Winner of the Tour de France

Lofty Large

Lofty Large is, quite simply, an SAS legend. 
 
 He joined the army aged 15 in February 1946 and soon saw service in Germany and Hong Kong. By early 1951 the thundering engines of the Empire Orwell were transporting him and hundreds of others towards their first taste of war at the sharp end: Korea. He was wounded in action and captured as a prisoner-of-war by the enemy at the battle of the Imjin River. On his release two years later he was declared 'unfit for further military service'. Lofty Large refused to give up on his military career and defied the odds, passing the SAS selection course and going on to enjoy a long and eventful career with the Special Air Service. 
 
 With that elite group Lofty served all over the world: in the mind-numbing cold, in the blazing desert heat and in sweat-drenched jungle warfare. He faced minefields , traps and ambushes, as well as bombs, bullets, rockets and napalm. He is the first to admit he also experienced a lot of luck, not the kind which wins money in gambling or business but the kind which means, when the smoke clears, that you are the bastard still standing. 
 
 In his introduction to SAS Soldier Against The Odds, Andy McNab says Lofty was a survivor, 'but it's not just about luck. He is too modest to say that it's also about guts, thinking faster than the enemy and being willing to go further than they will to survive. That takes courage and skill." This book shows that Lofty Large, in winning his legendary SAS status, had more than his share of both those attributes.

Soldier Against The Odds

From Korean War to SAS

Nicholas Bishop

Alun Carter

What made Pontypool such a great seam of talent for the Welsh national team? Why were they hated and feared in equal measure by other clubs in Wales and across the Severn? What made Ray Prosser a coach ahead of his time? 
 
In this engrossing book, Alun Carter and Nick Bishop recount the dramatic story of the rise and fall of one of the great enigmas of Welsh club rugby: Pontypool RFC. They chart the glories and violence of the amateur era in the 1970s and ’80s before the club entered a period of steady decline in the age of professionalism, reaching the point of bankruptcy after a crippling legal battle with the Welsh RU. It is a symbolic tale of the disintegration of the social fabric that held a once-great club together, both on and off the playing field – often irresistibly funny, eventually tragic, but always larger than life.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

The Rise and Fall of Pontypool RFC

Jim Craig

Pat Woods

Celtic Football Club’s story is laced with drama and excitement, featuring a host of colourful individuals and a social history matched by few, if any, football clubs. 
 
In Celtic: Pride and Passion, Lisbon Lion Jim Craig and Pat Woods, a historian of the club, take a fresh look at several lesser-known episodes in Celtic’s history, including: the fascinating link between Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show and a dramatic Ne’erday match at Celtic Park; the unforgettable night the ‘playboy of the Eastern world’ lit up Parkhead with a performance that helped to sow the seeds for a revolution at the club; the remarkable story of a trophy that was such a source of friction that the club kept it locked in a safe; and the pivotal year in which the rivalry between Celtic and Rangers took on a darker hue. They also recount the revealing story, told through the eyes of the European press, of how Celtic captivated a continent in the annus mirabilis of 1967. 
 
Celtic: Pride and Passion is a book that no discerning fan of Celtic Football Club will want to be without.

Celtic: Pride and Passion

Simon Hughes

During the 1980s, Liverpool Football Club dominated English football, winning six league titles, two European Cups, two FA Cups and four League Cups. In Red Machine, Simon Hughes interviews some of the most colourful characters to have played for the club during that period. The resulting interviews, set against the historical backdrop of both the club and the city, provide a vivid portrait of life at Liverpool during an era when the club’s unparalleled on-pitch success often went hand in hand with a boozy social scene fraught with rows, fights and wind-ups. 
 
The players featured here include John Barnes, Bruce Grobbelaar, Howard Gayle, Michael Robinson, John Wark, Kevin Sheedy, Nigel Spackman, Steve Staunton, David Hodgson and Craig Johnston, as well as first-team coach Ronnie Moran. Their candid, ribald and sometimes scathing recollections provide an antidote to the media-coached, on-message interviews given by today’s players and combine to offer a unique insight to this exciting time in the club’s history.

Red Machine

Liverpool FC in the '80s: The Players' Stories

Martha Long

On hearing that Jackser, her childhood abuser, is seriously ill, Martha is elated, thinking that finally she will be able to watch him suffer. But in the hospital she sees a frightened, lonely old man and realises with a shock that he seems to regret his earlier actions. 
 
During her vigil, she is joined by Charlie, her beloved little brother, then the ma and some of her other siblings. All of them have suffered greatly and it is clear that no one connected to Jackser has escaped unscathed. 
 
But as she sits with him during his dying days, other memories of Jackser come back to Martha – fleeting moments of concern and kindness, and a sense of closeness as he recalled his own tormented past in one of Ireland’s industrial schools. It is a vicious cycle of cruelty and loss that has played out, from which only her own tenacity and wit has provided an escape. 
 
Poignant, ribald, poetic and defiant, with its resolution of many unanswered questions about her life this is Martha at her best.

Ma, Jackser's Dyin Alone

Graham Johnson

'The young bloods did not care whether they killed criminals or civilians . . .’ 
 
 The Cartel is Britain’s biggest drugs gang, a global corporation employing thousands of criminals and flooding Britain with cocaine and heroin. Yet the established order is under threat: street gangs are overwhelming the old-school Cartel godfathers with a campaign of violence, intimidation and mayhem, heralding a series of events that has had devastating consequences for the whole of society. 
 
 In Young Blood, the explosive follow-up to The Cartel, bestselling true-crime author Graham Johnson reveals how the brutal assassination of drug baron Colin ‘King Cocaine’ Smith in 2007 by a group of young bucks triggered the rise of the foot soldier, and exposes the bitter struggle that has spread throughout Europe as various factions battle to seize control of the most lucrative crime syndicate in British history.

Young Blood

The Inside Story of How Street Gangs Hijacked Britain's Biggest Drugs Cartel

George Willis

On 28 July 1997, in the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield engaged in what would become the most infamous fight in boxing history. After the third round of a heavyweight championship match, Tyson was disqualified for biting each of Holyfield's ears in what is now commonly called ‘the Bite Fight’. 
 
But what drives a man to viciously bite another man? Was it a mental breakdown? Was it fear? Was it retaliation? In Twice Bitten, renowned sports columnist George Willis not only details what triggered Tyson to explode into a rage that led to him biting off and spitting out a chunk of Holyfield's ear but also exposes the panic that engulfed MGM's corridors in the aftermath. 
 
It also reveals the answers to the following questions: what happened to the piece of ear that Tyson chewed off and spit out? Why didn’t Holyfield reattach it? And was it popping champagne bottles or gunshots that caused a near-riot in the MGM corridors and casinos that night? 
 
Twice Bitten will enlighten readers on how that night has affected both boxers as they reach middle age. Fifteen years later, the Bite Fight still leaves its marks.

Twice Bitten

The Untold Story of Holyfield–Tyson II

Kathy O'Beirne

'I feel my story had to be told. So much evil was done there was a voice inside me shouting, "Justice".' 
 
With no one to confide in, Kathy suffered in silence as she was battered by her father and molested by local boys. 
 
At the age of eight, she was torn from her family and incarcerated in a series of Catholic homes. When she was sent to a psychiatric unit, she suffered terrifying electric- shock therapy and further cruelty at the hands of her supposed carers. 
 
After ending up in a Magdalen laundry, she fell victim to sexual abuse and gave birth to baby Annie just weeks before her fourteenth birthday. Don't Ever Tell is Kathy's harrowing account of her ruined childhood and of her subsequent fight for justice.

Don't Ever Tell

Kathy's Story: A True Tale of a Childhood Destroyed by Neglect and Fear

Stewart McKinney

Roars from the Back of the Bus is an absorbing, amusing and at times moving collection of tales that give a rare insight into the camaraderie that exists between players at the top of their game, showing that relationships forged through experiences on a Lions tour last a lifetime. 
 
From the first Tour in 1888, it showcases characters with immense personality who fought together in wars or on rugby pitches in foreign lands, and who shared a bond developed through touring as representatives of the home nations. Despite the changes to the game after the advent of professionalism, the experiences of Jamie Heaslip, Brian O’Driscoll and Joe Worsley are still similar in some ways to those of earlier intrepid tourists like Blair Mayne, Lewis Jones, Sir Carl Aarvold or David Rollo. 
 
Containing defining memories and private insights from across the tours and the decades, Roars from the Back of the Bus shows that the Lions ethos remains strong at the heart of every team.

Roars from the Back of the Bus

Rugby Tales of Life with the Lions

Gerry Docherty

James MacGregor

Think you know about British history and the causes of the First World War? Think again. This fascinating and gripping study of events at the turn of the Twentieth Century is a remarkable insight into how political and social factors that we widely accept to be the causes of The Great War, were really just a construct put together by a very small, but powerful, political elite... 
 
'Thought-provoking . . . Docherty and Macgregor do not mince their words . . . their arguments are powerful' -- Britain at War 
'Simply astonishing' -- ***** Reader review 
'Very illuminating' -- ***** Reader review 
'You simply MUST read this book' -- ***** Reader review 
'This is a page-turner' -- ***** Reader review 
*********************************************************************************** 
Hidden History uniquely exposes those responsible for the First World War. It reveals how accounts of the war's origins have been deliberately falsified to conceal the guilt of the secret cabal of very rich and powerful men in London responsible for the most heinous crime perpetrated on humanity. For ten years, they plotted the destruction of Germany as the first stage of their plan to take control of the world. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand was no chance happening. It lit a fuse that had been carefully set through a chain of command stretching from Sarajevo through Belgrade and St Petersburg to that cabal in London. 
 
 Our understanding of these events has been firmly trapped in a web of falsehood and duplicity carefully constructed by the victors at Versailles in 1919 and maintained by compliant historians ever since. The official version is fatally flawed, warped by the volume of evidence they destroyed or concealed from public view. 
 
 Hidden History poses a tantalising challenge. The authors ask only that you examine the evidence they lay before you . . .

Hidden History

a compelling and captivating study of the causes of WW1 that turns everything you think you know on its head

Paul Mason

Paul Mason’s father was a policeman. He was also a member of a sadistic paedophile ring. He would keep Paul locked up and naked in a tiny cupboard under the stairs of their home before sexually abusing him. This cycle of abuse continued for several years and also affected his brother. The cupboard became a horrific prison where fear and terror filled his every moment. 
 
The Cupboard Under the Stairs is a story of abuse at the mercy of adults whom Paul should have been able to trust. There followed a life almost destroyed by their actions. It is the harrowing story of one man’s fight for justice and an end to the horrific memories that still haunt him daily.

The Cupboard Under the Stairs

A Boy Trapped in Hell...

A global workforce. Billions in sales. But, unlike Tesco or BP, few have heard of it. The Cartel is Britain’s biggest drugs organisation, a shadowy network stretching from the freezing, fog-banks of the Mersey to the glittering marinas of Marbella, from the coffee shops of Amsterdam to the trading floors of Canary Wharf. 
 
Run by godfathers as rich as Branson but kept in line by a new generation of teenage killers. Here is the inside story.

The Cartel

The Inside Story of Britain's Biggest Drugs Gang

Graham Ratcliffe

On the night of 10-11 May 1996, eight climbers perished in what remains the worst disaster in Everest's history. Following the tragedy, numerous accounts were published, with Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air becoming an international bestseller. But has the whole story been told? 
 
A Day to Die For reveals the full, startling facts that led to the tragedy. Graham Ratcliffe, the first British climber to reach the summit of Mount Everest twice, was a first-hand witness, having spent the night on Everest's South Col at 26,000 ft, sheltering from the deadly storm. For years, he has shouldered a burden of guilt, feeling that he and his teammates could have saved lives that fateful night. His quest for answers has led to discoveries so important to an understanding of the disaster that he now questions why these facts were not made public sooner. 
 
History is dotted with high-profile disasters that both horrify and capture the attention of the public, but very rarely is our view of them revised to such devastating effect.

A Day to Die For

1996: Everest's Worst Disaster - One Survivor's Personal Journey to Uncover the Truth

The year is 1Q84. This is the real world, there is no doubt about that. But in this world, there are two moons in the sky. Discover the 1Q84 Trilogy by Haruki Murakami.

1Q84

365 Days of Art

A BBC Christmas

A Black Book Thriller

A Box Full of Murders

A Cal Leandros Novel

A Christmas Mystery

The intelligent and capable police commissioner Guido Brunetti confronts crime in and around his home town of Venice.

A Commissario Brunetti Mystery

A DC Smith / Kings Lake Investigation Series

A Daisy Story

Chronicling the lives of over three hundred characters, unrivalled for its scope and humour, this is a unique evocation of life in twentieth-century England.

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