On 16 May 1940 an emergency meeting of the French High Command was called at the Quai d Orsay in Paris. The German army had broken through the French lines on the River Meuse at Sedan & elsewhere only five days after launching their attack. Churchill who had been telephoned by Prime Minister Reynaud the previous evening to be told that the French were beaten rushed to Paris to meet the French leaders. The mood in the meeting was one of panic & despair; there was talk of evacuating Paris. Churchill asked Gamelin the French Commander in Chief Where is the strategic reserve? There is none replied Gamelin. This exciting book by Julian Jackson a leading historian of twentieth-century France charts the breathtakingly rapid events that led to the defeat & surrender of one of the greatest bastions of the Western Allies & thus to a dramatic new phase of the Second World War. The search for scapegoats for the most humiliating military disaster in French history began almost at once: were miscalculations by military leaders to blame or was this an indictment of an entire nation? Using eyewitness accounts memoirs & diaries Julian Jackson recreates in gripping detail the intense atmosphere & dramatic events of these six weeks in 1940 unravelling the historical evidence to produce a fresh answer to the perennial question of whether the fall of France was inevitable. ...

This is a huge novel that follows five families through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War the Russian Revolution & the struggle for votes for women. It is 1911. The Coronation Day of King George V. The Williams a Welsh coal-mining family is linked by romance & enmity to the Fitzherberts aristocratic coal-mine owners. Lady Maud Fitzherbert falls in love with Walter von Ulrich a spy at the German Embassy in London. Their destiny is entangled with that of an ambitious young aide to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson & to two orphaned Russian brothers whose plans to emigrate to America fall foul of war conscription & revolution. In a plot of unfolding drama & intriguing complexity Fall of Giants" moves seamlessly from Washington to St Petersburg from the dirt & danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty." ...

The mysterious Time Tombs are opening & the Shrike that has risen from them may well control the fate of all mankind. The Ousters are laying seige to the Hegemony of Man & the AIs we created have turned against us to build the Ultimate Intelligence; God. The God of Machines. His genesis could mean annihilation for man. Something is drawing the hegemony the Ousters the AIs the entire universe to the Shrike. ...

The mysterious Time Tombs are opening & the Shrike that has risen from them may well control the fate of all mankind. The Ousters are laying seige to the Hegemony of Man & the AIs we created have turned against us to build the Ultimate Intelligence; God. The God of Machines. His genesis could mean annihilation for man. Something is drawing the hegemony the Ousters the AIs the entire universe to the Shrike. ...

Thanks to its unique mix of human & vampire residents Morganville Texas is a small college town with big-time problems. But it isn't the only town with vampire trouble.. . Claire never thought she'd leave Morganville but when she gets accepted into the graduate course at MIT she can't pass up the opportunity. Saying goodbye to her friends especially her boyfriend Shane is bittersweet & her new life at MIT is both scary & exciting. Enrolled in a special advanced study programme with Professor Irene Anderson former Morganville native Claire is able to work on VLAD her machine designed to cancel the mental abilities of vampires. But Morganville & its inhabitants are never really far from Claire's mind. When she begins testing her machine on live subjects things quickly spiral out of control & Claire begins to wonder whether leaving Morganville was the last mistake she'll ever make.. . ...

This book provides a day-by-day history of the Malayan Campaign & the Fall of Singapore from the first alerts as the British prepared to move their forces on to a war footing on 29 November through the fighting to the Japanese imposing their rule on the Chinese in Singapore on 26 February
- a total of 90 days. For each of the 90 days all the major developments
- military & political
- are detailed along with information on every Allied soldier who died on that day. As such it is the first book that demonstrates the nature of the fighting each day
- with intense battles followed by days of relative inactivity. With the Malayan Campaign & the Fall of Singapore symbolising the end of British power in Southeast Asia & also the beginning of the end of the British Empire this book draws from army war diaries published histories of the campaign biographies & autobiographies of people involved & family stories as well as visiting most of the places connected with the conflict. Accompanying the text are over 2000 maps & illustrations including many provided by families & never before published.



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Edgar Allan Poe was a writer of uncommon talent; in The Murders in the Rue Morgue" he created the genre of detective fiction while his genius for finding the strangeness lurking within us all has been an influence on everyone from Freud to Hollywood. This complete collection of all his short stories & novellas contains well-known tales The Pit & the Pendulum & The Tell-Tale Heart alongside hidden gems that both unsettle & enthrall the reader." ...

In AD 378 the Roman Empire had been the unrivalled superpower of Europe for well over four hundred years. & yet August that year saw a small group of German-speaking asylum-seekers rout a vast Imperial army at Hadrianople killing the Emperor & establishing themselves on Roman territory. Within a hundred years the last Emperor of the Western Empire had been deposed. What had gone wrong? In this ground breaking book Peter Heather proproses a stunning new solution to one of the greatest mysteries of history. Mixing authoratative analysis with thrilling narrative he brings fresh insight into the panorama of the empire's end from the bejewelled splendour of the imperial court to the dripping forests of Barbaricum". He examines the extraordinary success story that was the Roman Empire & uses a new understanding of its continued strength & enduring limitations to show how Europe's barbarians transformed by centuries of contact with Rome eventually pulled it apart. 'a colourful & enthralling narrative.. .an account full of keen wit & an infectious relish for the period.' Independent On Sunday 'provides the reader with drama & lurid colour as well as analysis.. .succeeds triumphantly. ' Sunday Times 'a fascinating story full of ups & downs & memorable characters' Spectator 'bursting with action.. .one can recommend to anyone whether specialist or interested amateur.' History Today 'a rare combination of scholarship & flair for narrative' Tom Holland" ...

Dramatic artist natural scientist & philosopher Plutarch is widely regarded as the most significant historian of his era writing sharp & succinct accounts of the greatest politicians & statesman of the classical period. Taken from the Lives" a series of biographies spanning the Graeco-Roman age this collection illuminates the twilight of the old Roman Republic from 157-43 bc. Whether describing the would-be dictators Marius & Sulla the battle between Crassus & Spartacus the death of political idealist Crato Julius Caesars harrowing triumph in Gaul or the eloquent oratory of Cicero all offer a fascinating insight into an empire wracked by political divisions. Deeply influential on Shakespeare & many other later writers they continue to fascinate today with their exploration of corruption decadence & the struggle for ultimate power." ...

Misha Glennys acclaimed account of the war in former Yugoslavia contains substantial new material that discusses the end of the five-year conflict & looks ahead to an uneasy future in this turbulent region. Writing in the Evening Standard" Fitzroy Maclean said Misha Glennys deeply disturbing book is to my mind essential reading for anyone trying to understand or even just follow events in what was once Yugoslavia." ...