1949: Egypt`s struggle against its British occupiers moves towards crisis; Israel declares its statehood, driving out the Arabs; Joe Roberts, an RAF sergeant, his wife Ailsa & daughter, Nia, leave Wales for Egypt. ” Into Suez” is a compelling human & political drama, set in the postwar period when Britain, the bankrupt victor of the Second World War, attempted to assert itself as an Imperial power in a world wholly altered. The novel is set in the run-up to the Suez Crisis, a template for future invasions (Iraq & Afghanistan being the most recent). In this moving story, Joe`s tragedy is that of an ordinary working man of his generation: he`s a lovely, humorous, emotional man in whom the common ration of racism & misogyny becomes a painful sickness. Ailsa, intelligent, curious & craving to explore the realities of the Egypt she enters, meets on the voyage out Mona, a Palestinian woman who excites in her yearning for a world beyond her horizons. When Joe`s closest friend is murdered by Egyptian terrorists, their relationship spirals towards tragedy. Through it all, love remains. Looking back in old age, their daughter Nia follows in their wake to sail the Suez Canal with the aged Mona. Nia has been told her father was a war hero: now she will face a more painful truth. ...

Six people lost their lives in the plane crash. Four men found theirs. On a wintry October night in 1984, a Piper Navajo commuter plane bound for remote communities in northern Canada set off into thick cloud & freezing rain. One hour later, the plane smashed headlong into a high ridge of rugged forest. Of the ten people on board, only four
- strangers from wildly different backgrounds
- survived the crash: Erik, the young pilot who had never wanted to fly in such bad weather in the first place. Larry, a respected politician & family man. Scott, a rookie cop who, against regulations, had unshackled the prisoner he was escorting to face charges. & Paul: a criminal, & the only one to escape the crash uninjured. The only one capable of keeping the other three alive
- should he choose to. Into the Abyss is an incredible story of tragedy & hope; of four lives changed for ever by the fierce crucible of a deadly night in the wilderness, & by the events that followed.


...

Why do explorers put themselves in dangerous situations? &, once the worst possible situation occurs, how do they find the resources to survive? In answering these questions, Benedict Allen weaves a series of tales from his own experience as well as that of other explorers including Columbus, Cortez, Scott, Shackleton, Stanley, Livingstone & their modern counterparts: Joe Simpson & Ranulf Fiennes. ...

Only four men survived the plane crash: The pilot, A politician, A cop.. . And the criminal he was shackled to. On a freezing October night in 1984, a Canadian commuter plane smashed headlong into a high ridge of remote, rugged forest. Among the survivors was a small-time criminal named Paul Archimbault, now free of his handcuffs & the only one to escape the crash uninjured. The only one capable of keeping the other three survivors alive -- should he choose to... ...

Into the Abyss is a fascinating collection of diving stories. It chronicles one man's all-consuming passion & takes us on a spellbinding journey beneath the waves. Packed full of drama, danger & excitement, this book charts both the successes & the tragic failures of Rod Macdonald's astonishing diving career. Macdonald invites us to experience with him his first, panic-stricken boat dive as a newly qualified novice & later his expert use of the latest technology to venture deeper than ever before. In vivid prose, he takes us to famous shipwreck sites around the world, from the sunken Japanese fleet at the bottom of Truk Lagoon & Palau in the South Pacific, to HMS Hampshire, on which Lord Kitchener perished. He describes the ordeal of diving the third-largest whirlpool in the world, the Corryvreckan Whirlpool in the west of Scotl&, & many other terrifying incidents in which he & his colleagues have come close to death beneath the sea. To many, the appeal of diving into hostile, powerful waters in search of virgin shipwrecks
- often in pitch darkness
- is incomprehensible. Macdonald invites us to confront & overcome some of our deepest fears as he takes us down into the abyss.

...

With a preface by Lord Richard Attenborough, a collection of accounts from some of the 10, 000 children rescued from the Nazi Regime & brought to the UK by the Kinderstransport scheme In November 1938, international public opinion was shocked by the news of Kristallnacht
- the anti-Jewish pogrom that led to the burning of synagogues & the first mass arrests of Jewish men. Twelve days later, the British government implemented the Kindertransport plan, which allowed many children to leave the horrors of the Nazi regime & find temporary refuge within British families & hostels. By the time war was declared in September 1939, this brave undertaking had saved 10, 000 lives. This book, based on the Academy Award-winning feature documentary of the same name, reveals what it was like to grow up in the shadow of the Nazi threat, to escape danger & fear, but also to leave family & friends, perhaps for ever. It is poignantly told in the words of those directly involved. It is both an astonishing insight into a remarkable moment of history & a timely reminder of how welcoming our country has been in the past to those who need welcome, shelter & hope.
...

Still unsolved, still baffling, still claiming new victims
- Here are the untold stories. A pilot reports a strange haze enveloping
...

On 12th April 1981 a revolutionary new spacecraft blasted off from Florida on her maiden flight. NASA`s Space Shuttle Columbia was the most advanced flying machine ever built
- the high watermark of post-war aviation development. A direct descendant of the record-breaking X-planes the likes of which Chuck Yeager had tested in the skies over the Mojave Desert, Columbia was a winged rocket plane, the size of an airliner, capable of flying to space & back before being made ready to fly again. She was the world`s first real spaceship. On board were men with the Right Stuff. The Shuttle`s Commander, moonwalker John Young, was already a veteran of five spaceflights. Alongside him, Pilot Bob Crippen was making his first, but Crip, taken in by the space agency after the cancellation of a top secret military space station programme in 1969, had worked on the Shuttle`s development for a decade. Never before had a crew been so well prepared for their mission. Yet less than an hour after Young & Crippen`s spectacular departure from the Cape it was clear that all was not well. Tiles designed to protect Columbia from the blowtorch burn of re-entry were missing from the heatshield. If the damage to their ship was too great the astronauts would be unable to return safely to earth. But neither they nor mission control possessed any way of knowing. Instead, NASA turned to the National Reconnaissance Office, a spy agency hidden deep inside the Pentagon whose very existence was classified. To help, the NRO would attempt something that had never been done before. Success would require skill, pinpoint timing & luck.. . Drawing on brand new interviews with astronauts & engineers, archive material & newly declassified documents, Rowland White, bestselling author of Vulcan 607, has pieced together the dramatic untold story of the mission for the first time. Into the Black is a thrilling race against time; a gripping high stakes cold-war story, & a celebration of a beyond the state-of-the-art machine that, hailed as one of the seven new wonders of the world, rekindled our passion for spaceflight. With a foreword by Astronaut Richard Truly.
...

This is the story of Benedict Allen`s extraordinary quest to immerse himself in the heart of New Guinea, & learn the secrets of the people`s harmonious communion with the forest. Living among missionaries in West Papua, he heard talk of the mysterious Obini, & set out on an arduous journey to meet them
- only to find himself fleeing for his life in the jungle. Undeterred, he sought out members of a tribal crocodile cult who would permit him to take part in their traditional initiation rites into manhood, & finally became the first white man to be honoured with this privilege. But this was the beginning of a punishing ordeal, as Allen joined his fellow initiates in seclusion for weeks, enduring crocodile markings being carved into their skins, until finally, pushed to the limits of endurance, they came to embody the ”crocodile spirit”.
...

What is it really like to be a firefighter? How does it feel to respond to an emergency call, to know that someone`s life hangs in the balance & every second is critical? What is it like to fight a fire, to battle through the heat & the smoke, to put your own life in danger to save others? How does it feel to rescue survivors, & what is it like to recover the bodies of those who you didn`t reach in time? & what is it like at the end of the day when you are alone with your thoughts, & your thoughts turn to those who you couldn`t save? How do you cope with the trauma of a life spent facing death? INTO THE FIRE offers an unforgettable insight into the highs & lows of the fire service. Edric Kennedy-Macfoy has spent over a decade serving in the London Fire Brigade, attending many of the capital`s biggest incidents, from the blaze at Grenfell Tower to the Croydon tram derailment. This is his remarkable story. ...