Determined to take on the Nazis Texan Bill Ash joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1939 & in so doing sacrificed his citizenship. Before long he was sent to England wherehe flew Spitfires. Shot down over France in March 1942 he survived the crash-landing & thanks to local civilians evaded capture for months only to be betrayed to the Gestapo in Paris. Tortured & sentenced to death as a spy he was saved from the firing squad by the Luftwaffe who sent him to the infamous Great Escape POW camp Stalag Luft III. It was from there that Bill began his tour of Occupied Europe. Breaking out of a succession of camps he became one of only a handful of serial escape artists to attempt more than a dozen break-outs
- over the wire under it in tunnels through it with cutters or simply strolling out of the camp gates in disguise! They were years of extraordinary hardship frustration & brutality
- the penalty for escaping was a long spell in solitary
- but throughout it all Bill Ash displayed not just remarkable courage but also an anarchic sense of humour great humanity & an unstoppable desire for freedom. Honest funny & exciting Under the Wire is both a riveting war memoir & a tribute to the bravery & resolve of an entire generation.


...

' Whenever two Russians come together the shadow of autocracy is with them...haunting the secret of their silences.' First published in 1911 Under Western Eyes traces the experiences of Razumov a young Russian student of philosophy who is uninvolved in politics or protest. Against his will he finds himself caught up in the aftermath of a terrorist bombing directed against the Tsarist authorities. He is pulled in different directions
- by his conscience & his ambitions by powerful opposed political forces but most of all by personal emotions he is unable to suppress. Set in St Petersburg & Geneva the novel is in part a critical response to Dostoevsky's Crime & Punishment but it is also a startlingly modern book. Viewed through the ' Western eyes' of Conrad's English narrator Razumov's story forces the reader to confront the same moral issues: the defensibility of terrorist resistance to tyranny the loss of individual privacy in a surveillance society & the demands thrown up by the interplay of power & knowledge. This new edition is based on the first English edition text & has a new chronology & bibliography. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more.
...

Hill is an instinctive & complete novelist who is blessed with a spontaneous storytelling gift Frances Fyfield Mail on Sunday When young Tracey Pedley vanished in the woods around Burrthorpe the close-knit community had their own ideas about what had happened but Deputy Chief Constable Watmough has it down as the work of a child-killer who has since committed suicide
- though others wondered about the last man to see her alive & his fatal plunge into the disused mine shaft. Returning to a town he left in anger Colin Farrs homecoming is ready for trouble & when a university course brings him into contact with Ellie Pascoe trouble starts... Meanwhile Andy Daziel mutters imprecations on the sidelines until a murder in Burrthorpe mine forces him to take action that brings him up against a hostile & frightened community...
...

This morning I found a body. Soon the police will arrest me for murder. & after that my life will fall apart. Gaby Mortimer is the woman who has it all. But everything changes when she finds a body on the common near her home. Because the evidence keeps leading back to her. & the police seem sure she's guilty...UNDER YOUR SKIN is an unpredictable exquisitely twisty story which proves that there are only three rules in life that mean anything: Assume nothing Believe no one Check everything ...

As the world goes about its daily business criminals & cops engage in a deadly battle of wits. This incisive book delves intriguingly into the crimes that police have to deal with day after day. Murderers hitmen kidnappers drug dealers
- they all feature in this collection of true crime stories that come to you straight from the streets. Take the drug dealer who walked out of a restaurant bragging that hes killed a man with his bare-hands
- unaware that his fellow diner was an undercover policeman. Or the young mother whose death was written of as suicide but further investigation proved to be something much more sinister...

...

Undercover lays bare the deceit betrayal & cold-blooded violation practised again & again by undercover police officers
- troubling
...

Who makes most money from the demand for cappuccinos early in the morning at Waterloo Station? Why is it impossible to get a foot on the property ladder? How does the Mafia make money from laundries when street gangs pushing drugs dont? Who really benefits from immigration? How can China in just fifty years go from the worlds worst famine to one of the greatest economic revolutions of all time lifting a million people out of poverty a month? Looking at familiar situations in unfamiliar ways THE UNDERCOVER ECONOMIST is a fresh explanation of the fundamental principles of the modern economy illuminated by examples from the streets of London to the booming skyscrapers of Shanghai to the sleepy canals of Bruges. Leaving behind textbook jargon & equations Tim Harford will reveal the games of signals & negotiations contests of strength & battles of wit that drive not only the economy at large but the everyday choices we make. ...

Ever wondered why the gap between rich & poor nations is so great or why its so difficult to get a foot on the property ladder or where the banks went wrong? This book offers the hidden story behind these & other forces that shape our day-to-day lives often without our knowing it. Lively & witty.. . After reading this book a trip to the supermarket is an entirely different experience The Times ...

Sophie & Katy should be the worst of enemies
- witches & witch hunters just aren't supposed to be friends! So they've got to try
...

Keep those gadgets undercover with the Undercover Mini Sleeve. Designed to look like a tatty old envelope it hides cameras phones ipods & mp 3 players (and anything else small.) Following the outrageous success of the Undercover Laptop Sleeve this mini version safely & subtley holds phones mp 3 players & anything else that needs looking after. Made from tough waterproof material & padded with protective PE foam the velcro straps make the mini sleeves size adjustable. Plus red satin lining finishes this off nicely! ...