In July 1940, Walter Schellenberg of the German Secret Service drew up a list of 2, 694 people believed to be living in Britain, who were known enemies of the Reich. In that month, the Wehrmacht was poised across the Channel ready to hit Britain with blitzkrieg, the terrible & hugely successful tactic that had already overwhelmed Pol&, Denmark, Norway, Holl&, Luxembourg, Belgium & France. The names on Schellenberg`s list represent the heart & soul of a nation that made the British what they were but the list also

Includes:: a diaspora from Europe
- the intellectuals, politicians & writers who had been driven out of their own homelands by the speed of the German conquests. All human life is there
- lives that were, to the Nazis, unworthy of life. Historians have found the list a curiosity. Surely, it cannot be real? It was. The Black Book is the first book to evaluate the list, & look at the chilling reality of what Hitler had in store for the nation.



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In the aftermath of Bangladesh`s bloody war of independence in 1971, as thousands of migrants from the countryside flood the capital, journalist Khaleque Biswas begins to feel the stirrings of disillusionment. The revolutionary spirit that had filled the air & united the people under the leadership of Sheikh Mujib, the ” Father of the Nation”, seems to be dissipating. The government`s response to the crisis is inadequate, & the country`s slow slide into political corruption seems inevitable. Uncompromising & undiplomatic, Khaleque soon loses his job. Then Nur Hussain turns up: a simple young man from a remote village, his welfare has been entrusted to Khaleque by a passing acquaintance. Unable to turn Nur away, Khaleque sets out to secure him a job, but discovers that the placid fellow has no skills whatsoever, nor much ambition. He seems adept only at impersonating Sheikh Mujib, to whom he bears some resemblance. When the masses begin flocking to him, the authorities take notice
- with shocking results. Neamat Imam`s debut is an intense tale told by a born storyteller, animated by humour as dark as the iconic outerwear that gives the novel its title. The tortured origins of modern Bangladesh are brought to life vividly, & provide a poignant backdrop to a central drama that Dostoyevsky & Kafka would have applauded.
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” Completely absorbing”. (Amanda Foreman). ” Enthralling”. (Guardian). ” The Three Musketeers! The Count of Monte Cristo! The stories of course are fiction. But here a prize-winning author shows us that the inspiration for the swashbuckling stories was, in fact, Dumas` own father, Alex
- the son of a marquis & a black slave... He achieved a giddy ascent from private in the Dragoons to the rank of general; an outsider who had grown up among slaves, he was all for Liberty & Equality. Alex Dumas was the stuff of legend”. (Daily Mail). So how did such this extraordinary man get erased by history? Why are there no statues of ` Monsieur Humanity` as his troops called him? The Black Count uncovers what happened & the role Napoleon played in Dumas` downfall. By walking the same ground as Dumas
- from Haiti to the Pyramids, Paris to the prison cell at Taranto
- Reiss, like the novelist before him, triumphantly resurrects this forgotten hero. ” Entrances from first to last. Dumas the novelist would be proud”. (Independent). ” Brilliant”. (Glasgow Herald).


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` The Black Door` explores the evolving relationship between successive British prime ministers & the intelligence agencies, from Asquith`s Secret Service Bureau to Cameron`s National Security Council. At the beginning of the 20th Century the British intelligence system was underfunded & lacked influence in government. But as the new millennium dawned, intelligence had become so integral to policy that it was used to make the case for war. Now, covert action is incorporated seamlessly into government policy, & the Prime Minister is kept constantly updated by intelligence agencies. But how did intelligence come to influence our government so completely? ` The Black Door` explores the murkier corridors of No. 10 Downing Street, chronicling the relationships between intelligence agencies & the Prime Ministers of the last century. From Churchill`s code-breakers feeding information to the Soviets to Eden`s attempts to assassinate foreign leaders, from Wilson`s paranoia of an MI5-led coup d`etat to Thatcher`s covert wars in Central America, Aldrich & Cormac entertain & enlighten as they explain how our government came to rely on intelligence to the extent that it does today. ...

Maybe it was time I forgot about Nico Peterson, & his sister, & the Cahuilla Club, & Clare Cavendish. Clare? The rest would be easy to put out of my mind, but not the black-eyed blonde.. . It is the early 1950s. In Los Angeles, Private Detective Philip Marlowe is as restless & lonely as ever, & business is a little slow. Then a new client arrives: young, beautiful, & expensively dressed, Clare Cavendish wants Marlowe to find her former lover, a man named Nico Peterson. Soon Marlowe will find himself not only under the spell of the Black-Eyed Blonde; but tangling with one of Bay City`s richest families
- & developing a singular appreciation for how far they will go to protect their fortune.. .
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Beginning in the summer of 1903, an insidious crime wave filled New York City, & then the entire country, with fear. The children of Italian immigrants were kidnapped, & dozens of innocent victims were gunned down. Bombs tore apart tenement buildings. Judges, senators, Rockefellers, & society matrons were threatened with gruesome deaths. The perpetrators seemed both omnipresent & invisible. Their only calling card: the symbol of a black h&. The crimes whipped up the slavering tabloid press & heated ethnic tensions to the boiling point. Standing between the American public & the Black Hand`s lawlessness was Joseph Petrosino. Dubbed the ” Italian Sherlock Holmes, ” he was a famously dogged & ingenious detective, & a master of disguise. As the crimes grew ever more bizarre & the Black Hand`s activities spread far beyond New York`s borders, Petrosino & the all-Italian police squad he assembled raced to capture members of the secret criminal society before the country`s anti-immigrant tremors exploded into catastrophe. Petrosino`s quest to root out the source of the Black Hand`s power would take him all the way to Sicily-but at a terrible cost. Unfolding a story rich with resonance in our own era, The Black Hand is fast-paced narrative history at its very best. ...

Snowy has sniffed out another mystery, but also discovers a taste for Scottish whisky! After a terrifying chase through the skies, Tintin sets out to investigate the infamous Black Isl&. But can Tintin & Snowy escape the terrible `beast` that devours every man bold enough to go near? ...

In 1789 the West Indian colony of San Domingo supplied two-thirds of the overseas trade of France. The entire structure of what was arguably the most profitable colony in the world rested on the labour of half a million slaves. In 1791 the waves of unrest inspired by the French Revolution reached across the Atlantic dividing the loyalties of the white population of the isl&. The brutally treated slaves of Saint Domingo seized at this confusion & rose up in rebellion against masters. In thisclassic work, CLR James chronicles the only successful slave revolt in history & provides a critical portrait of their leader, Toussaint L` Ouverture, `one of the most remarkable men of a period rich in remarkable men`. ...

Amid the lush abundance of Java`s landscape, two boys spend their days exploring the vast lakes & teeming forests. But as time passes the boys come to realize that their shared sense of adventure cannot bridge the gulf between their backgrounds, for one is the son of a Dutch plantation owner, & the other the son of a servant. Inevitably, as they grow up, they grow estranged & it is not until years later that they meet again. It will be an explosive & emblematic meeting that marks them even more deeply than their childhood friendship did. ...

In ruins on the outskirts of Gaza, the war-torn Palestinian city that had been a metropolis since the times of the pharaohs, a plucky young female archaeologist has made a remarkable find: possibly the earliest known image of the Virgin Mary, created during her lifetime. But before she can reveal it to the world, it is stolen from her in a brutal personal assault amidst the chaos of an Israeli airstrike. But who has stolen it & why? What dark hidden secret did it conceal? With her former lover, an Oxford professor of comparative historiography
- the science of comparing alternative versions of the past
- she sets out on a dangerous quest to some of the holiest sites in Christendom, from the plains of Bavaria to the mountains of central Spain & an ignored ancient temple in the heart of London. In a tale of murder, treason, intrigue & geopolitics, they uncover a web of conspiracy, cover-ups, confused mythology & interlinked religion that dates back to the last pagan Roman emperor, & maybe even to the very origins of life on earth. Astonishingly well-researched, this is a gripping yarn that is at the same time intellectually challenging.A book to make Dan Brown turn green with envy.

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