Albert Balls individuality & his insistence on fighting alone set him apart from other fighter pilots during World War One. His invincible courage & utter determination made him a legend not only in Britain but also amongst his enemies to whom the sight of his lone Nieuport Scout brought fear. In 1914 he enlisted in the British army with the 2/7th Battalion (Robin Hoods) of the Sherwood Foresters Notts & Derby Regiment. By the October of 1914 he had reached the rank of Sergeant & then in the same month was made a Second-Lieutenant to his own battalion. In June 1915 he paid for private tuition & trained as a pilot at Hendon. In October 1915 he obtained Royal Aero Club Certificate & requested transfer to the Royal Flying Corps. The transfer granted he further trained at Norwich & Upavon being awarded the pilots brevet on 22 January 1916. On 16 May 1916
- flying Bristol Scout 5512
- he opened his score shooting down an Albatros C-type over Beaumont. On 29 May 1916 he shot down two LVG C-types whilst flying his Nieuport 5173. Captain Albert Ball made his final flight on 7 May 1917 when he flew SE5 A4850 as part of an eleven-strong hunting patrol into action against Jagdstaffel 11 led by Lothar Von Richthofen. It was a very cloudy day. Albert was pursuing Lothars Albatros Scout who crash-landed wounded. Then Albert was seen by many observers to dive out of a cloud & crash. He died minutes later in the arms of a French girl Madame Cecille Deloffre. He rose from obscurity to the top rank of contemporary fighter pilots in only 15 months. In that period he had been awarded the MC DSO & two Bars & was credited with at least 44 victories. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. Colin Pengelly served in the RAF between 1958 & 1963. He then worked for the Admiralty from 1964 to 1997 & took early retirement. His interest in military aviation history started in 1952 & in the 1960s he assisted in the researches for Air Vice Marshal Collishaws work into British Air Casualties 1914/18. He has previously published The First Bellerophon in 1965. He lives in Weston-super-Mare

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Although he is mostly remembered for his part in the campaign in Italy from 1943 to 1945 Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring was also chief of staff of the Luftwaffe in 1936-37 playing a crucial role in the shaping of the service for the coming war. As commander of Luftflotte 1 in Poland & Luftflotte 2 in France & the Low Countries he was responsible for supporting the armoured spearheads of the German Army as they undertook their Blitzkrieg campaigns. With the Fall of France the Battle of Britain began & Luftlotte 2 was the main force in the air attack against the British air defences with Kesselring planning many raids. Following the war Kesselring was tried & convicted of war crimes following a number of massacres of civilians in Italy. He was sentenced to death later commuted to life imprisonment before being released on the grounds of ill health in October 1952. Here Pier Paolo Battistelli provides a detailed study of one of the most famous German commanders of World War II. ...

An uplifting story about a bear without a smile from the bestselling creator of Percy the Park Keeper. When Albert le Blanc arrives in Mr Jollys toy shop the other toys think hes the saddest-looking bear they have ever seen. They decide to put on a show to cheer him up. Albert tries to tell them hes not sad he just looks sad but they are all too busy making preparations! As a finale Sally the hippo puts on a lipstick & performs ballet but she falls on top of Albert & leaves a huge lipstick grin on his face. Everyone laughs!especially Albert! ...

This is a story of the Australian Outback a duck-billed platypus on a quest & what it means to be a hero. Albert is a duck-billed platypus who has escaped from a zoo in Adelaide to look for somewhere that may or may not exist: Old Australia a place where humans never venture & animals still rule. Albert knows its somewhere in the middle of the Outback
- not the ideal habitat for a water-loving animal
- but now hes lost & close to death. Hes saved though by Jack a pyromaniac sardine-loving wombat who promptly gets him into even worse trouble taking him to a marsupial-only bar run by a kangaroo called OHanlin getting him drunk & then burning the bar down. & this is just the beginning of Alberts adventure...A glorious romp of a novel Albert of Adelaide" is a story of friendship loyalty & heroism. & marsupials. Pacy & poignant its completely original
- a book for people (and animals) of all ages."


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Albert Speer was Hitlers architect before the Second World War. Through Hitlers great trust in him & Speers own genius for organisation he became effectively from 1942 overlord of the entire war economy making him the second most powerful man in the Third Reich. Sentenced to twenty years imprisonment in Spandau Prison at the Nuremberg Trails Speer attempted to progress from moral extinction to moral self-education. How he came to terms with his own acts & failures to act & his real culpability in Nazi war crimes are the questions at the centre of this book. The author had access to Speer his family & friends & his private papers. ...

In the popular imagination informed as it is by Hogarth Swift Defoe & Fielding the eighteenth-century underworld is a place of bawdy knockabout rife with colourful eccentrics. But the artistic portrayals we have only hint at the dark reality. In this new edition of a classic collection of essays renowned social historians from Britain & America examine the gangs of criminals who tore apart English society while a criminal law of unexampled savagery struggled to maintain stability. Douglas Hay deals with the legal system that maintained the propertied classes & in another essay shows it in brutal action against poachers; John G. Rule & Cal Winslow tell of smugglers & wreckers showing how these activities formed a natural part of the life of traditional communities. Together with Peter Linebaugh s piece on the riots against the surgeons at Tyburn & E. P. Thompson s illuminating work on anonymous threatening letters these essays form a powerful contribution to the study of social tensions at a transformative & vibrant stage in English history. This new edition

Includes:: a new introduction by Winslow Hay & Linebaugh reflecting on the turning point in the social history of crime that the book represents

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Durers prints & drawings inspired centuries of artists both during his life & after his death. Yet his talent as a painter & colourist & his enthusiasm for the scientific world have not been widely appreciated. Durers influence was both international & intergenerational; indeed Picasso claimed to have been inspired by the sixteenth-century artist. Reproduced in stunning detail & including illustrations of Durers most famous prints & drawings a catalogue raisonne of his paintings & biographical research this book presents a Durer for the twenty-first century. Producing more self-portraits than any other artist of his day; mass marketing his best-selling prints; even inventing his own monogram logo; Albrecht Durer was commercially astute long before todays generation of slick self-promoters & savvy mega-bucks artists. There are 55 extant Durers of which 17 are in dispute. Using the very latest scientific research this book puts all arguments to bed resulting in the definitive catalogue raisonne of the paintings. Not since 1971 has such a feat of painstaking research been attempted. After an almost 40-year wait the truth behind the man & his art can finally be revealed. ...

Malaisea the unhealthiest town in the whole of Zamonia is home to Echo the Crat a multi-talented creature resembling a cat in appearance but capable of speaking any language under the sun human or animal. When his mistress dies Echo finds himself out on the street. Dying of starvation he is compelled to sign a contract with Ghoolion the Alchemaster Malaiseas evil alchemist-in-chief. This fateful document gives Ghoolion the right to kill Echo at the next full moon & render him down for his fat with which he hopes to brew an alchemical concoction that will make him immortal. In return he promises to regale the little Crat with the most exquisite gastronomic delicacies until his time is up. But Ghoolion has reckoned without Echos talent for survival & his ability to make new friends. These include the Leathermice the Cogitating Eggs the Golden Squirrel the Cooked Ghost Theodore T. Theodore the one-eyed Tuwituwu & above all Izanuela Anazazi the last Uggly in Malaisea. Walter Moerss magnificent translation of Optimus Yarnspinners novel introduces us to yet another of Zamonias hotbeds of adventure: Malaisea a place where sick is healthy up is down right is wrong & Ghoolion the Alchemaster reigns supreme
- until Echo crosses his path.
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A global phenomenon The Alchemist has been read & loved by over 62 million readers topping bestseller lists in 74 countries worldwide. Now this magical fable is beautifully repackaged in an edition that lovers of Paulo Coelho will want to treasure forever. Every few decades a book is published that changes the lives of its readers forever. This is such a book
- a beautiful parable about learning to listen to your heart read the omens strewn along life's path & above all follow your dreams. Santiago a young shepherd living in the hills of Andalucia feels that there is more to life than his humble home & his flock. One day he finds the courage to follow his dreams into distant lands each step galvanised by the knowledge that he is following the right path: his own. The people he meets along the way the things he sees & the wisdom he learns are life-changing. With Paulo Coelho's visionary blend of spirituality magical realism & folklore The Alchemist is a story with the power to inspire nations & change people's lives.
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THE 1 BESTSELLER Ben Hope lives on the edge. A former elite member of the SAS Ben is tortured by a tragedy from his past & now devotes his life to finding kidnapped children. When Ben is recruited to locate an ancient manuscript which could save a dying child he embarks on the deadliest quest of his life. The document is alleged to contain the formula for the elixir of life discovered by the brilliant alchemist Fulcanelli decades before. But it soon becomes apparent that others are hunting this most precious of treasures
- for far more evil ends. When the secrets of alchemy hidden within the pages remain impenetrable Ben teams up with beautiful American scientist Dr Roberta Ryder to crack the code. It seems that everyone
- from the Nazis during WW2 & powerful Catholic organisation Gladius Domini
- wants to unearth the secrets of immortality. The trail leads Ben & Roberta from Paris to the ancient Cathar strongholds of the Languedoc where an astonishing secret has lain hidden for centuries...


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