The twin-engine Vickers Wellington was one of the outstanding RAF bomber aircraft of the Second World War as well as a capable maritime patrol aircraft & submarine hunter with Coastal Comm&. Centrepiece of this manual is Wellington Mk Ia N2980 'R' for Robert one of only two surviving examples of the Wellington in the world & restored to display condition at the Brooklands Museum Weybridge Surrey. Iain Murray gives a fascinating insight into operating flying & maintaining Barnes Wallis' geodetic wonder with the help of many rarely seen photographs & technical illustrations. ...

The world's first self-powered machine gun the Maxim gun became a potent symbol of Victorian colonialism in the closing years of the 19th century. It was the brainchild of Sir Hiram Maxim the American-born firearms inventor who founded the company bearing his name with financing from Albert Vickers who became the company's chairman; Maxim's company was absorbed by Vickers Sons & Company in 1897. Subsequent variants in British German & Russian service
- the. 303in Vickers (1912) 7.92mm MG 08 (1908) & 7.62mm PM M1910 respectively
- dominated both the Eastern & Western Fronts during World War I & soldiered on into World War II while the Vickers remained in front-line British service essentially unchanged until 1968. Featuring specially commissioned full-colour artwork & written by a noted authority this is the engaging story of the Maxim & its descendants the innovative rapid-fire weapons that saw combat with British German Russian & other forces in the late Victorian era & throughout the world wars.

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You look as if you've seen a ghost!' Jade is so used to living in the shadow of Vicky her loud confident best friend that when a tragic accident occurs she can hardly believe that Vicky's no longer around. But Vicky's a sparky girl who's not going to let a small thing like being dead stop her from living life to the full! Whether Jade is in lessons out running or tentatively trying to make new friends Vicky is determined to make her presence felt.. . ...

Life is looking bleak for Frankie Mitchell
- not only has she lost custody of her two children to their sadistic gypsy-bred father
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Suicide? Or murder? Marilyn Monroe's death in August 1962 apparently a suicide shocked the world. A Hollywood star a global icon why would she have killed herself? Yet the coroner's report stated her death was due to a massive overdose of 47 Nembutal capsules. But what about the discrepancies between the official report & the scene of her death? What about the forensic evidence that went missing shortly after she died? Matthew Smith has constructed a startling new version of events. His interpretation is based not only on the full & true forensic evidence from the time but also on the tapes that Marilyn made for her psychiatrist in the days & weeks before her death tapes that portray a woman in full charge of her life & looking forward to a bright busy successful future. Forty years after her death Marilyn remains an icon & a mystery. Matthew Smith's investigation into her death will lead to a new understanding of what really happened on the night of August 5th 1962 & in the weeks leading up to it. ...

The Handley Page Victor was the third of the three V Bombers & the most long lasting serving in the RAF until 1993 & still doing invaluable service in the first Iraq war. Moreover in 1982 it was only the Victor tanker fleet based on Ascension Island that made possible the Vulcan Black Buck bombing of Port Stanley airfield & the long-range reconnaissance of Argentina by Nimrods. Victor Boys" tells the story of all the great things that were achieved recounted first hand by the operators themselves aircrew & ground crew. Starting with accounts by test pilot Johnny Allam who undertook the major development of the aircraft through its work as a nuclear bomber during the cold war testing Blue Steel in Australia to its superb work during the Falklands war & later as a first class air-to-air refuelling tanker & vital support tool for fighters & other aircraft. Published to co-incide with the Victors 60th anniversary the gripping text is superbly illustrated with photographs from the operators themselves never released before. The stories are collated & set in context by Tony Blackman ex chief test pilot of Avros who helped develop the Vulcan & initiated the development of the Victor K2 tanker. For him initially the Victor seemed a competitor but he now readily admits what a wonderful aircraft the Victor became." ...

Of all the personalities associated with Anne Frank the most important figure without whom Anne Frank would never have been able to write her diary is perhaps the least known. He is Victor Kugler the Mr Kraler of the diary. The principal business partner of Otto Frank Victor Kugler assumed managerial control of the Franks' Amsterdam spice-importing business when Nazi persecution forced the Frank family into hiding. It was Victor Kugler who kept the business going & obtained food rations under what was the harshest German wartime occupation in all of Western Europe. Without Victor Kugler Anne Frank & her family would have starved to death a month after going into hiding. For this heroism Victor Kugler himself was arrested & sent to a series of German labour camps in Holland where he survived by his wits & finally escaped a few weeks before the end of the war. Several years after the end of the war when the Dutch spice business collapsed following the Indonesian revolution that nationalised Dutch holdings Victor Kugler emigrated to Toronto Canada. There he led a quiet life where nobody knew who he was & what he had done during the war. Only twenty years later he began to reveal his story. The modern-day saga of this Righteous Gentile who was honoured as such at Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' & Heroes' Remembrance Authority is told here in semi-documentary style largely in his own words as told to Torontonian Eda Shapiro herself of Eastern European Jewish background; & by many others who knew him as compiled by well-known Toronto writer-journalist Rick Kardonne. ...

The Tough of the Track was The Victors most popular hero having instilled the competitive spirit into millions of British lads for over 50 years. A welder who worked under railway arches Alf Tupper survived on a diet of fish & chips. He was always the underdog running against posh toffs who devised underhand ways of keeping him off the winners rostrum. Although Alf often looked beaten he nearly always came through in the final few strides exclaiming Ive run him!" as he breasted the winning tape in a photo-finish. Published in the year the Olympic Games returns to Britain this nostalgic anthology will not only be the perfect gift for the millions of men whose love of sport was kindled in their youth by Alf Tupper but will also enthrall & inspire a new generation of boys to go & win against all the odds." ...

Of the three jet bombers that formed the RAFs V-Force in the early years of the Cold War (1946-1991) the Victor was perhaps the most technologically advanced. First flown on December 24 1952 the Victor entered service in B 1 configuration in November 1957. Further improvements were introduced with the B 2 which was optimized for high altitude. Most B 2s were equipped to carry the Blue Steel st&-off missile but eight were modified in the strategic reconnaissance role because the Victor 2 was then the longest-ranging aircraft in the RAF. The Victor ceased to be a low-level bomber after the nuclear mission was taken over by the Royal Navys Polaris submarine force in the late 1960s. Thereafter Victor 1s & 2s continued in frontline service as airborne tankers supporting operations such as the Falklands War & the Gulf War until the last Victor flight took place on November 30 1993. ...

The tall handsome Abdul Karim was just twenty-four years old when he arrived in England from Agra to wait at tables during Queen Victorias Golden Jubilee. An assistant clerk at Agra Central Jail he suddenly found himself a personal attendant to the Empress of India herself. Within a year he was established as a powerful figure at court becoming the queens teacher or Munshi & instructing her in Urdu & Indian affairs. Devastated by the death of John Brown her Scottish ghillie the queen had at last found his replacement. But her intense & controversial relationship with the Munshi led to a near-revolt in the royal household. Victoria & Abdul" examines how a young Indian Muslim came to play a central role at the heart of the empire & his influence over the queen at a time when independence movements in the sub-continent were growing in force. Yet at its heart it is a tender love story between an ordinary Indian & his elderly queen a relationship that survived the best attempts to destroy it." ...