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 bodies are found in towns & cities around Puget Sound. The young women who are the victims had nothing in common
- except the
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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." ...

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." ...

VICTORIA CROSS HEROES tells the stories of over 150 individuals whose bravery has earned them the Victoria Cross Britains most prestigious medal for courage in action. The book is introduced by Michael Ashcroft who owns over ten per cent of all VCs ever awarded. He explains the history of the medal & the story of his fascination with it. The main text of the book tells the stories of both those recipients whose medals are in his collection & those whose stories featured in the television series. Each chapter covers a different conflict from the Crimean War to Iraq. ...

Millions of people travel on Londons tube every day yet we usually give our fellow passengers only a cursory glance. But each one of these nameless passengers has their own story to tell. At Notting Hill the mysterious secretary harbouring her secrets travels to work; at Highburyand Islington Adam has a sudden change of heart; & at Holborn a disastrous reunion is about to take place... With her characteristic mix of compassionate humour & biting realism this vintage collection of stories is Maeve Binchy at her very best. ...

The Music Fairies desperately need Rachel's & Kirsty's help! Jack Frost & his naughty goblins have stolen the fairies' Magical Musical Instruments which means that music is being ruined for everyone! Jack Frost plans to use the instruments to help him win a national talent competition in the human world & with the help of the enchanted instruments he's bound to win. If this happens humans will find out about Fairyland & then all the fairies will be in danger! Victoria must find her violin
- how can Rachel & Kirsty help her?
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One night Arthur Bryant witnesses a drunk middle-aged lady coming out of a pub in a London backstreet. The next morning she is found dead at the exact spot where their paths crossed. Even more disturbing the pub has vanished. Bryant is convinced that he saw them as they were over a century before but the elderly detective has already lost the funeral urn of an old friend. Could he be losing his mind as well? Then it becomes clear that a number of women have met their ends in London pubs. It seems a silent secret killer is at work striking in full view...and yet nobody has a clue how or why
- or where hell attack next. The likeliest suspect seems to be a mental patient with a reason for killing. But knowing who the killer is & catching him are two very different propositions. As their new team at the Peculiar Crimes Unit goes in search of a madman the octogenarian detectives ready themselves for the pub crawl of a lifetime & come face to face with their own mortality.
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