Operation Varsity was the last major airborne offensive of World War II & remains the largest & most successful drop in history. Conducted primarily by the British 6th Airborne & the American 17th Airborne Divisions including Canadian elements the goal of the operation was to cross the Rhine River & gain a foothold in Germany. Drawing on war diaries unit histories after-action reports & interviews with veterans The Last Drop" details the horrors of parachuting through flak-filled skies the dangers of piloting a glider safely to the ground & the struggles of infantry combat & shows how thorough training extensive planning solid execution & sheer guts combined to make Operation Varsity a stunning victory." ...

violet has always kept her strange ability to sense dead bodies a secret from everyone except her family & best-friend-turned-boyfriend Jay. But now she's using her gift to help track down murderers working in a group that

Includes:: the mysterious & dangerously attractive Rafe. When violet discovers the body of a college girl murdered by the girlfriend collector" she is determine to solve the case. But now the serial killer is on the lookout for a new "relationship" & violet seems to have caught his eye..."

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At the end of the nineteenth century China is rocked by foreign attacks & local rebellions. The only constant is the power wielded by one woman Tzu Hsi also known as Empress Orchid who must face the perilous condition of her empire & devastating personal losses. In this sequel to the bestselling Empress Orchid" Anchee Min brings to life one of the most important figures in Chinese history a very human leader who sacrifices all she has to protect both those she loves & her doomed empire." ...

The Last Escape" by Tony Rennell & John Nichol is an extraordinary look at the final days of World War II. As WW2 drew to a close hundreds of thousands of British & American prisoners of war held in camps in Nazi-occupied Europe faced the prospect that they would never get home alive. In the depths of winter their guards harried them on marches out of their camps & away from the armies advancing into the heart of Hitler's defeated Germany. Hundreds died from exhaustion disease & starvation. " The Last Escape" is told through the testimony of those heroic men now in their seventies & eighties & telling their stories publicly for the first time. " Gripping moving & thoughtful. The excellent team of Nichol & Rennell have done it again". (Patrick Bishop author of " Fighter Boys"). John Nichol is a former RAF flight lieutenant whose Tornado bomber was shot down on a mission over Iraq during the first Gulf War. He was captured & made a prisoner of war. Tony Rennell is a writer for the " Daily Mail" & a former deputy editor of the " Sunday Times". Their previous books include " The Last Escape" " Tail-End Charlies" & " Medic"." ...

Ernest Hemingway once said that a good story was like an iceberg; what is visible is always smaller than the part that remains hidden beneath the water which confers intensity mystery power & meaning on what floats on the surface. This is certainly true of the fourteen stories here the first collection by the universally acclaimed Chilean author to be published in English. Imbued with the melancholy folklore of exile as Roberto Bolano once put it & set largely in the world of the Chilean diaspora in Central America & Europe the narrators of these stories are usually writers grappling with private quests (Bolanos beloved failed generation) who typically speak in the first person as if giving a deposition like witnesses to a crime. They are characters living in the margins on the edge in constant flight from nightmarish threats. In Sensini an elderly South American writer instructs another younger writer also living in exile in the subterfuges of entering work for provincial literary prizes. The title story tells of a journey to Acapulco that gradually becomes a descent into the underworld. Dance Card provides the reader with sixty-nine reasons not to dance with Pablo Neruda. & the story Mauricio (The Eye") Silva opens with the following sentence: Mauricio Silva also known as The Eye always tried to avoid violence even at the risk of being considered a coward but violence real violence is unavoidable at least for those of us who were born in Latin America during the fifties & were about twenty years old at the time of Salvador Allendes death." ...

Meet the Hunter family: Adam Kate & their children Hal & Charlotte. & Prince their black Labrador. Prince is an earnest young dog striving hard to live up to the tenets of the Labrador Pact (Remain Loyal to Your Human Masters Serve & Protect Your Family at Any Cost). Other dogs led by the Springer Spaniels have revolted. Their slogans are Dogs for Dogs not for Humans & Pleasure not Duty. Mentored by an elderly Labrador called Henry Prince takes his responsibilities seriously & as things in the Hunter family begin to go badly awry
- marital breakdown rowdy teenage parties attempted suicide
- his responsibilities threaten to overwhelm him. & down in the park its even worse: Henry has disappeared; Falstaff the Springer Spaniel wants to lead Prince astray; Joyce the Irish wolfhound has been murdered. In the end Prince is forced to break the Labrador Pact & take desperate action to save his Family.

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Duncan Mc Kenzie was one of a handful of footballers in the 1970s who built his reputation on being an entertainer on the field. He was loved or loathed by football experts admired or berated by opponents & seen as inspirational or exasperating by teammates in equal measures yet his genius playing style on the pitch earned him a cult status among fans at top clubs. The Last Fancy Dan charts Mc Kenzies rise through the ranks of football at Nottingham Forest before signing a record transfer deal for Leeds United during Brian Cloughs infamous 44-day stint at the club. Following a sojourn in Europe playing for Anderlecht Mc Kenzie subsequently entertained crowds at Everton Chelsea & Blackburn Rovers before a brief spell playing stateside for Tulsa Roughnecks & Chicago Sting. This chronicle of Mc Kenzies 40 year career in football not only provides a fascinating insight into the life of the most charismatic footballer never to play for England but also reveals his view of the modern game. In an enjoyable trip down memory lane for the older fan or a vivid glimpse back in footballing history for the younger fan Mc Kenzies maverick exploits on & off the pitch are sure to amuse. Whether he was hurdling a Mini for fun working his magic on the pitch engaging listeners in the Tosh n Mac radio show in Merseyside or entertaining after-dinner audiences at corporate events Mc Kenzies fun-loving character has always wowed the crowds. As the fans used to sing from terraces up & down the country Mc Kenzie is Magic! ...

Harry Patch the last British soldier alive to have fought in the trenches of the First World War is now 108 years old & one of very few people who can directly recall the horror of that conflict. Harry vividly remembers his childhood in the Somerset countryside of Edwardian Engl&. He left school in 1913 to become an apprentice plumber but three years later was conscripted serving as a machine gunner in the Duke of Cornwalls Light Infantry. Fighting in the mud & trenches during the Battle of Passchendaele he saw a great many of his comrades die & in one dreadful moment the shell that wounded him kill his three closest friends. In vivid detail he describes daily life in the trenches the terror of being under intense artillery fire & the fear of going over the top. Then after the Armistice the soldiers frustration at not being quickly demobbed led to a mutiny in which Harry was soon caught up. The Second World War saw Harry in action on the home front as a fire-fighter during the bombing of Bath. He also warmly describes his friendship with American GIs preparing to go to France & years later his tears when he saw their graves. Late in life Harry achieved fame meeting the Queen & taking part in the BBC documentary The Last Tommies finally shaking hands with a German veteran of the artillery & speaking out frankly to Prime Minister Tony Blair about the soldiers shot for cowardice in the First World War. The Last Fighting Tommy is the story of an ordinary mans extraordinary life. ...

Harry Patch 110 years old is the last British soldier alive to have fought in the trenches of the First World War. From his vivid memories of an Edwardian childhood the horror of the Great War & fighting in the mud during the Battle of Passchendaele working on the home front in the Second World War & fame in later life as a veteran The Last Fighting Tommy is the story of an ordinary man's extraordinary life. ...

Michael Simkins is the ultimate Sunday cricketer
- passionate obsessive technically inept & hopelessly deluded. When an injury
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