` That time is upon us. I can feel it coming. That evil barbarian will not be satisfied until he has engulfed the whole world in war & death. I fear for us all.` In a triumphant return to his much-loved Courtney series, Wilbur Smith introduces us to the bravest new member of the famed family, Saffron Courtney. Saffron grows up on a sprawling Kenyan estate, under the watchful eye of her father, prominent businessman & distinguished war veteran Leon Courtney. Her childhood is idyllic, until a family tragedy forces her to grow up much faster than necessary. As she grows into a spirited teenager, her thirst for knowledge & adventure leads her to Engl&, where she finds herself inevitably drawn into the heart of the gathering storm in the lead up to World War II. Gerhard von Meerbach is the privileged & idealistic younger brother of Konrad von Meerbach, heir to an industrial fortune, & vocal supporter of the Nazi Party. Gerhard struggles to stay true to his principles in an increasingly cruel world. His friendship with a Jewish man places him in danger, & forces him to take a stand against the forces of evil that have overtaken his country & his family. But, unknown to him, he is caught in a trap that could cost him everything he holds dear. As the Second World War looms over them all, Saffron & Gerhard`s worlds will collide
- but will there be more to unite them than tear them apart? A love story in the time of heroes, War Cry is the latest breath-taking episode in Wilbur Smith`s epic account of one beloved family.
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` That time is upon us. I can feel it coming. That evil barbarian will not be satisfied until he has engulfed the whole world in war & death. I fear for us all.` In a triumphant return to his much-loved Courtney series, Wilbur Smith introduces us to the bravest new member of the famed family, Saffron Courtney. Saffron grows up on a sprawling Kenyan estate, under the watchful eye of her father, prominent businessman & distinguished war veteran Leon Courtney. Her childhood is idyllic, until a family tragedy forces her to grow up much faster than necessary. As she grows into a spirited teenager, her thirst for knowledge & adventure leads her to Engl&, where she finds herself inevitably drawn into the heart of the gathering storm in the lead up to World War II. Gerhard von Meerbach is the privileged & idealistic younger brother of Konrad von Meerbach, heir to an industrial fortune, & vocal supporter of the Nazi Party. Gerhard struggles to stay true to his principles in an increasingly cruel world. His friendship with a Jewish man places him in danger, & forces him to take a stand against the forces of evil that have overtaken his country & his family. But, unknown to him, he is caught in a trap that could cost him everything he holds dear. As the Second World War looms over them all, Saffron & Gerhard`s worlds will collide
- but will there be more to unite them than tear them apart?A love story in the time of heroes, War Cry is the latest breath-taking episode in Wilbur Smith`s epic account of one beloved family.
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The classic children`s book about the first world war & the Christmas Day cease-fire football match in no-mans-l&. * A special lavish new edition of a modern classic
- winner of the Smarties Grand Prize * Contains a special new introduction from michael Foreman, additional new illustrations & 4 pages of extra background material on the First World War & football during the war. * An informative & heartfelt story of the first world war & the famous Christmas cease-fire & football match in no-man`s-land * Beautifully illustrated & reproduced using Michael Foreman`s original watercolour paintings ”A masterpiece”
- The Times Literary Supplement ” The work of a major children`s author at his peak”
- The Daily Telegraph ” An unforgettable experience”
- The Guardian Approx. 2, 500 words Age range: 7+



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A journey through the most unlikely of gardens: the oases of peace people create in the midst of war In this millennium, we have become war weary. From Afghanistan to Iraq, from Ukraine to South Sudan & Syria, from Kashmir to the West Bank, conflict is as contagious & poisonous as Japanese knotweed. Living through it are people just like us with ordinary jobs, ordinary pressures & ordinary lives. Against a new landscape of horror & violence it is up to them to maintain a modicum of normality & colour. For some, gardening is the way to achieve this. Working in the world`s most dangerous war zones, freelance war correspondent & photographer Lally Snow has often chanced across a very moving sight, a testimony to the triumph of the human spirit in adversity, a celebration of hope & beauty: a war garden. In Kabul, the royal gardens are tended by a centenarian gardener, though the king is long gone; in Camp Bastion, bored soldiers improvise tiny gardens to give themselves a moment`s peace; on both sides of the dividing line in Jerusalem families tend groves of olives & raise beautiful plants from the unforgiving, disputed landscape; in Ukraine, families tend their gardens in the middle of a surreal, frozen war. War Gardens is a surprising, tragic & beautiful journey through the darkest places of the modern world, revealing the ways people make time & space for themselves & for nature even in the middle of destruction. Illustrated with Lally Snow`s own award-winning photography, this is a book to treasure. ...

A stunning wartime classic. In the deadly chaos of the First World War, one horse witnesses the reality of battle from both ...

The bestselling diaries of WWII in Tuscany, with a new introduction by writer & social historian Virginia Nicholson, & stunning ...

The author, an Anglo-American married to an Italian landowner in 1924, found herself raising a family during the civil war & foreign invasion in the remote Tuscan countryside. This diary records her concerns to keep her household & sixty orphans together & save a rural community from annihilation. It is a story of confusion & bewilderment as a peasant society is confronted by disaster when, in the space of a few months, a whole way of life is changed completely beyond recognition. It is also a story of tragedy & suffering, of individual courage, generosity & heroism. ...

Clive Aslet's War Memorial: The Story of One Village's Sacrifice from 1914 to 2003, is a powerful story of those who died in war. Who were the men & women whose names are commemorated on war memorials around the country? Where did they live
- & how & why did they die? Such questions usually go unanswered, but this book for the first time unravels the story of one war memorial, in the Dartmoor village of Lydford. Through original documents, Clive Aslet traces in vivid detail the lives of the twenty-two men, & one woman, who made the supreme sacrifice fighting for Britain in the two World Wars, the Falklands & Iraq. The result is an intimate portrait of one corner of the countryside in the twentieth century, & an extraordinary tale of the endurance & bravery of otherwise ordinary people
- farmers, masons, railway-workers, landowners, schoolchildren
- who, but for the war memorial, would be forgotten. The perfect book for those who loved The Real Dad's Army by Colonel Rodney Foster, War Memorial is about the people who laid down their lives for us, & who will always be remembered. Praise for War Memorial: With this book Aslet makes an important contribution to social history.. .the stories are not tidy portraits of heroism but achingly real portraits of wartime loss experienced by a changing rural community. (Daily Express). Leaves one with a profound sense of the vagaries & cruelties of fate, particularly during times of war. (Country Life). [A] fascinating history... Aslet tells their stories with great elegance, & though the period has been gone over in exhaustive detail, he still manages fresh insights that bring it to vivid life. (Daily Telegraph). Clive Aslet is an award-winning journalist & former Editor of Country Life who has spent his career observing Britain & its ways. An authority on British life, he has written several books on the subject
- including The Last Country Houses, Landmarks of Britain, & Villages of Britain.



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Clive Aslet`s War Memorial: The Story of One Village`s Sacrifice from 1914 to 2003, is a powerful story of those who died in war. Who were the men & women whose names are commemorated on war memorials around the country? Where did they live
- & how & why did they die? Such questions usually go unanswered, but this book for the first time unravels the story of one war memorial, in the Dartmoor village of Lydford. Through original documents, Clive Aslet traces in vivid detail the lives of the twenty-two men, & one woman, who made the supreme sacrifice fighting for Britain in the two World Wars, the Falklands & Iraq. The result is an intimate portrait of one corner of the countryside in the twentieth century, & an extraordinary tale of the endurance & bravery of otherwise ordinary people
- farmers, masons, railway-workers, landowners, schoolchildren
- who, but for the war memorial, would be forgotten. The perfect book for those who loved The Real Dad`s Army by Colonel Rodney Foster, War Memorial is about the people who laid down their lives for us, & who will always be remembered. Clive Aslet is an award-winning journalist & former Editor of Country Life who has spent his career observing Britain & its ways. An authority on British life, he has written several books on the subject
- including The Last Country Houses, Landmarks of Britain, & Villages of Britain. Praise for War Memorial: ” With this book Aslet makes an important contribution to social history.. .the stories are not tidy portraits of heroism but achingly real portraits of wartime loss experienced by a changing rural community”. (Daily Express). ” Leaves one with a profound sense of the vagaries & cruelties of fate, particularly during times of war”. (Country Life). ”[A] fascinating history... Aslet tells their stories with great elegance, & though the period has been gone over in exhaustive detail, he still manages fresh insights that bring it to vivid life”. (Daily Telegraph).



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War memorials are a feature of Britain`s landscape, often taken for granted, & part of the fabric of its history as a nation. The Imperial War Museum`s National Inventory has sixty thousand war memorials spanning two millennia. They include works of art & the artless, the sacred & the secular, vernacular & abstract forms, all redolent with symbolism ancient & modern. The examples shown here are an eclectic mix with, perhaps, a few surprises. They are intended as a tribute to the victims of war & as tangible reminders of significant events, deserving remembrance & necessitating their conservation as part of the national heritage. ...