At 2 a.m. on the morning of the 3rd of June 1940 General Harold Alexander searched along the quayside holding onto his megaphone & called Is anyone there? Is anyone there? before turning his boat back towards Engl&. Tradition tells us that the dramatic events of the evacuation of Dunkirk in which 300 000 BEF servicemen escaped the Nazis was a victory gained from the jaws of defeat. For the first time rather than telling the tale of the 300 000 who escaped Sean Longden reveals the story of the 40 000 men sacrificed in the rearguard battles. On the beaches & sand dunes besides the roads & amidst the ruins lay the corpses of hundreds who had not reached the boats. Elsewhere hospitals full of the sick & wounded who had been left behind to receive treatment from the enemys doctors. & further afield
- still fighting hard alongside their French allies
- was the entire 51st Highland Division whose war had not finished as the last boats slipped away. Also scattered across the countryside were hundreds of lost & lonely soldiers. These evaders had also missed the boats & were now desperately trying to make their own way home either by walking across France or rowing across the channel. The majority however were now prisoners of war who were forced to walk on the death marches all the way to the camps in Germany & Poland where they were forgotten until 1945.

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Charles (Charlie to his comrades) Murrell kept detailed diaries of his service with the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards throughout the Second World War as Guardsman (later Sergeant). This book starts on 10 May 1940 with the Blitzkrieg on Arras & the retreat to Dunkirk. The Dunkirk beaches & his own undignified evacuation are described in some detail & occasional humour. The second part begins on 20 June 1944 when the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards set sail for Normandy & they take part in the Battle for Caen with engagements at Cheux Cagny & Colombelles & thence to the Bocage country with a particularly bloody fight at Montchamp. The final element covers the race for & liberation of Brussels a fiercely fought engagement at Hechtel
- Operation MARKET GARDEN Nijmegen & the Island winter in Belgium & Holland & the Rhineland Battle. As a member of the Intelligence Section the Author was aware of the big picture. Very observant he has a literary style or ability unusual in a ranker. He often writes in his trench whilst under mortar or shell fire & one experiences the fear that he (and millions of others) felt. He describes several near death experiences & the casualties & deaths of his comrades & other horrors of war sometimes in graphic detail. There are descriptions of hair-raising motor-cycle rides the fanaticism of the SS the sadness of lettering crosses of his dead comrades the ecstatic receptions in liberated villages & towns culminating in the liberation of Brussels the uneasy relationship with American troops the importance of alcohol in his (and others) war & the joy of returning to Engl&. The many sketches are an important accessory to the journals.C S Murrell trained as an artist but enlisted in the Welsh Guards in 1933. He served throughout the War (as told in this book). He later worked for the Ordnance Survey. He died in 1987. The Editor Nick Murrell (C S Murrells son) lives at Pevensey East Sussex.
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Perfect for day trips & short breaks the OS Landranger Map series covers Great Britain with 204 detailed maps. Each map provides all the information you need to get to know your local area &

Includes:: places of interest tourist information picnic areas & camp sites plus Rights of Way information for England & Wales.

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Late at night in a foreign land an English army sweeps through the landscape under cover of darkness & takes the seat of power. Struggling to contain his men & the ambitions of his superiors the commanding officer attempts to negotiate the unspoken rules of this alien country. He seeks to restore peace to a country ravaged by war. This is Scotland in the eleventh century at the height of the fight for succession of the Scottish throne. David Greigs Dunsinane" premiered in February 2010 at Hampstead Theatre London in a production by the Royal Shakespeare Company." ...

A civilised game of Duplicate Bridge ends in a double murder in which both victims were strangled with a tourniquet of picture wire. The crimes seem identical but were they carried out by the same hand? The odds of solving this crime are stacked up against Inspector Hemingway. Fortunately this first-rate detective doesnt miss a trick. ...

After twenty years of searching Celty the headless Black Rider has at last found her missing head
- bobbing through the streets
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The Black Biker of Ikebukoro gliding along the dark streets on her pitch-black motocycle may take on any number of delivery jobs but Celtys objective remains fixed on one single task: recovering her severed head. The durahan of Irish lore has sensed her head in Tokyo but even with the research of her unorthodox doctor friend (perfectly suited to examine her unorthodox body) she has made little progress finding it. Meanwhile the color gangs of Ikebukuro are dealing with a newcomer even more mysterious than the Black Biker: the colorless gang known as the Dollars has the usual thugs fearful & uneasy...and they have good reason to be scared... ...

The colorless gang known as the Dollars has quite a reputation in Ikebukuro but even those who are i nthe group know nothing about the Dollars mysterious founderl But when Yagiri Pharmeceuticals crosses the line the true leader of the Dollars steps forward... As the boy relates how the Dollars came to be Celty seems distracted. Though this unobtrusive boy holds a disturbing degree of power in the palm of his hand it is Celtys own head that occupies her thoughts... For twenty years she has searhed diligently for her missing head only to find it seemingly out of her grasp forever. What is there for her to live for now? Perhaps...love...? ...

Durham is a World Heritage city of remarkable architectural richness with the cathedral castle & town forming three constant elements in a history spanning many centuries. The arrival of the body of St Cuthbert onto the peninsula of Durham in 995 was the seminal event in the citys history. Its arrival was preceded by the fortification of the site: only then could the first wooden church be built to protect the shrine of the saint. The medieval successors
- the castle & the cathedral
- are fully described & illustrated in this insiders guide to the city. The third element that made up medieval Durham
- the town
- is explored through the surviving evidence of its houses churches hospitals & manors. The dissolution of the Priory of Durham Cathedral in 1539 hastened a gradual decline in the citys status but the town stabilized & steadily expanded in the years 1550-1860. The buildings of these years as well as those of the modern city are also fully described as are the citys magnificent riverbanks parks & gardens. An architect & member of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation Martin Roberts is the Inspector of Historic Buildings for the North East Region of the English Heritage. He is also the founder & secretary of the North East Vernacular Architecture Group & lectures on architecture & garden history throughout the region. He & his family have lived in West Aukland for many years.



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Walking is one of Britains favourite leisure activities & this great pocket-sized walking guide to Durham & Northumberland features a variety of mapped walks to suit all abilities. Contained within the guide are 50 walks of 2-10 miles & all the practical detail you need accompanied by fascinating background reading on the history & wildlife of the area & an introduction to each walk. All walks are annotated with local points of interest & places to stop for refreshments. & every walk is given a summary of distance time gradient level of difficulty type of surface & access landscape dog friendliness parking & public toilets. ...