The hilarious adventures of Harry the Polis as recalled by ex-polis Harry Morris the self-appointed Chief Constable of funny stories continue with the publication of his tenth book The Last Night on the Beat. Full of brilliant anecdotes oddball characters quick comebacks & unlikely excuses Harry demonstrates true Glaswegian humour at its finest. Harry Morris is out to show a side of our industrious police force that we dont often see
- the lighter side. His time with the Glasgow & Strathclyde constabulary or polis for short hasnt robbed Harry of his sense of humour & every wily witness cocky con & sarcastic sergeant he ever rubbed up against is here in page after page of humorous stories. Here is the definitive collection of Harry the Polis tales that will tempt your laughter lines into making an appearance & have you flashing your gnashers.
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In the final days of Henry VIII one man is there to witness the demise of a legend... King Henry VIII a fearsome figure of power & stature lies upon his deathbed diminished by sickness & haunted by ghosts from his past. Only Will Somers long-serving jester & confidant sees all. While Henry is confined to his chamber Will begins a journal that will document his Kings last turbulent days. The country is fraught with tension. & with the Kings son & heir just nine years old there are many power-hungry councillors who will stop at nothing to better themselves. Now as the Kings health fails rebellion threatens amidst widespread rumours of plots against him. With few allies remaining will Henry himself become the final victim of his reckless bloody reign? Master historian Paul Doherty weaves his magic in an epic tale of murderous schemes & a blood-smattered political order. ...

After the fall of France in May 1940 the British Expeditionary Force was miraculously evacuated from Dunkirk. Britain now stood alone to face Hitlers inevitable invasion attempt. For the German Army to be landed across the Channel Hitler needed mastery of the skies
- the RAF would have to be broken
- so every day throughout the summer German bombers pounded the RAF air bases in the southern counties. Greatly outnumbered by the Luftwaffe the pilots of RAF Fighter Command scrambled as many as five times a day & civilians watched skies criss-crossed with the contrails from the constant dogfights between Spitfires & Me-109s. Britains very freedom depended on the outcome of that summers battle. Britains air defences were badly battered & nearly broken but against all odds The Few as they came to be known bought Britains freedom
- many with their lives. These are the personal accounts of the pilots who fought & survived that battle. We will not see their like again.


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After the fall of France in May 1940 the British Expeditionary Force was miraculously evacuated from Dunkirk. Britain now stood alone to face Hitler's inevitable invasion attempt. For the German Army to be landed across the Channel Hitler needed mastery of the skies
- the RAF would have to be broken. So every day throughout the summer German bombers pounded the RAF air bases in the southern counties. Greatly outnumbered by the Luftwaffe the pilots of RAF Fighter Command scrambled as many as five times a day & civilians watched skies criss-crossed with the contrails from the constant dogfights between Spitfires & Me-109s. Britain's very freedom depended on the outcome of that summer's battle. Britain's air defences were badly battered & nearly broken but against all odds ' The Few' as they came to be known bought Britain's freedom
- many with their lives. These are the personal accounts of the pilots who fought & survived that battle. We will not see their like again.

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It is 1757. Across north-eastern America the armies of Britain & France struggle for ascendancy. Their conflict however overlays older struggles between nations of native Americans for possession of the same lands & between the native peoples & white colonisers. Through these layers of conflict Cooper threads a thrilling narrative in which Cora & Alice Munro daughters of a British commander on the front line of the colonial war attempt to join their father. Thwarted by Magua the sinister Indian runner they find help in the person of Hawkeye the white woodsman & his companions the Mohican Chingachgook & Uncas his son the last of his tribe. Coopers novel is full of vivid incident- pursuits through wild terrain skirmishes treachery & brutality- but reflects also on the interaction between the colonists & the native peoples. Through the character of Hawkeye Cooper raises lasting questions about the practises of the American frontier & the eclipse of the indigenous cultures. ...

Quite simply Last of the Summer Wine is the longest-running comedy programme in the world. It premiered 37 years ago in 1973 & after 31 series it finally came to an end last year
- even though all its original protagonists
- Compo Foggy even Nora Batty
- are now dead. Remarkably for a series of such longevity & international appeal it is all about elderly people has little action or plot & is set & filmed in & around the small Yorkshire town of Holmfirth. Now Andrew Vine the deputy editor of Yorkshires daily newspaper has written the definitive history of this television phenomenon. It covers the shows inauspicious beginnings with low ratings its endless reinvention as participants like Bill Owen Michael Bates Brian Wilde & Kathy Staff retired or died the appearance of a string of guest stars from John Cleese & Norman Wisdom to Thora Hird & Russ Abbott (both of whom soon found themselves fixtures in the cast) & the ingenious plot contrivances as the protagonists became too old & frail to attempt any of the slapstick stunts with runaway prams
- indeed any outdoor action. Holmfirth is now a year-round tourist attraction & endless repeats & new DVD box sets will ensure a readership for this book for years to come.



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The genuine & only INSIDE STORY of Last of the Summer Wine! Roy Clarkes Last of the Summer Wine was the longest running TV comedy series in the world largely due to the passion dedication & creativity of its producer/director ALAN J W BELL. In this book Alan takes us on the set & into the studio to get up close & personal with the series & its actors. You will laugh out loud cry in places & also guffaw as your jaw drops at reading these astonishing anecdotes all told as only Alan can from the inside! Despite being one of the most-watched BBC shows with huge international sales the programme was unceremoniously dropped by sending Alan an email! A torrent of public protest ensued only to fall on deaf BBC ears. Last of the Summer Wine: From the Directors Chair" provides a powerful critique of BBC management style from the man who was the very last in the long line of traditional comedy producer/directors who made programmes with little or no executive interference. What was so special about a TV series that was the favourite of the Queen; a TV series that was shown for over 36 years in more than 25 countries? Alan J W Bell remembers the series with the passion & emotion he brought to each episode. The series is finished but in this memoir we can still relive that little bit of Yorkshire held so dear to the viewing public." ...

The story of Last of the Summer Wine is one of the most remarkable in all television history. It is the longest-running comedy series in the world spanning 37 years & 295 episodes growing from uncertain beginnings into Britains favourite sitcom at its peak uniting a third of the population in laughter with its quirky & hilarious tales of three elderly adolescents getting up to mischief in the glorious Yorkshire countryside. Last of the Summer Wine made stars of a faded movie idol & two journeymen actors in middle age as its classic trio of Bill Owen Peter Sallis & Brian Wilde as Compo Clegg & Foggy achieved a magical on-screen rapport
- even as their relationship behind the scenes was often marked by antipathy & bitter clashes. Roy Clarke who has written every single episode created a comic world centred on Holmfirth with its landmarks including Sids Cafe & the stone steps where the scruffy Compo relentlessly pursued the fearsome Nora Batty of the wrinkled stockings & the three protagonists regularly ended up hurtling down hillsides on fantastic contraptions like three-seater bicycles or a runaway sofa. Now the definitive story of this classic comedy series has been told for the first time. Again & again it reveals writer & producers were forced to reinvent it as ageing cast members died or became too frail to continue
- & what began as a series that gave middle-aged actors the chance to play old men eventually turned into an institution offering genuinely elderly actors an Indian summer in the autumn of their careers
- with redoubtable participants like Thora Hird & Peter Sallis continuing late into their eighties. Premiering back in 1973 when British Leyland would still sell you a new Austin Allegro it was still going out for its final series in 2010 in the world of Facebook & the iPhone. As the years
- indeed decades
- went on comedy veterans like Michael Bates Frank Thornton Russ Abbot & Burt Kwouk increasingly enriched the series & were joined by guest stars of the calibre of John Cleese Norman Wisdom Eric Sykes & Ron Moody. Along the way situation comedy was transformed & a dilapidated mill town in the Pennines became a teeming tourist attraction. Featuring new interviews with cast members producers & directors & Roy Clarke himself by turns funny deeply moving candid & revealing Last of the Summer Wine
- The Story of the Worlds Longest Running Comedy Series salutes not only one of the greatest of all sitcoms but also a golden age of entertainment.





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In 1940 against the backdrop of the Battle of Britain 66 Quadrons commanding officer Squadron Leader Athol Forbes asked ten of his pilots to record their experiences of flying one of the greatest aerial battles ever waged. The Ten Fighter Boys" published in 1942 comprised the first-hand accounts of pilot officers & sergeant pilots from all walks of life among them was Sergeant Jimmy Corbin who wrote the third chapter. He was 23
- old by pilot standards
- & like the rest of the squadron based at Biggin Hill Kent. Now sixty years later Flight Lieutenant Jimmy Corbin Spitfire pilot tells his extraordinary wartime story. He describes how an ordinary working-class boy from Maidstone was propelled into the thick of action in the skies over Kent during the summer & autumn of 1940. As the sole survivor of the original Ten Fighter Boys Jimmys story is all the more poignant now that the men who fought the Battle of Britain pass from living memory."

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Although the architect of the White's victory Auraya feels no joy. Her days are spent trying to reconcile the Dreamweavers & the priesthood while her sleep is filled with nightmares. The dead haunt her & the only one she trusts to help has vanished. Still struggling to come to terms with the increasingly powerful memories of the long-dead Mirar the Dreamweaver Leiard flees into the mountains with Emerahl perhaps the last of the Wilds. Emerahl is powerfully gifted & helps Leiard to make sense of his strange jumble of memories. What they discover will change his life & the world forever.. . ...