Of all the personalities associated with Anne Frank the most important figure without whom Anne Frank would never have been able to write her diary is perhaps the least known. He is Victor Kugler the Mr Kraler of the diary. The principal business partner of Otto Frank Victor Kugler assumed managerial control of the Franks' Amsterdam spice-importing business when Nazi persecution forced the Frank family into hiding. It was Victor Kugler who kept the business going & obtained food rations under what was the harshest German wartime occupation in all of Western Europe. Without Victor Kugler Anne Frank & her family would have starved to death a month after going into hiding. For this heroism Victor Kugler himself was arrested & sent to a series of German labour camps in Holland where he survived by his wits & finally escaped a few weeks before the end of the war. Several years after the end of the war when the Dutch spice business collapsed following the Indonesian revolution that nationalised Dutch holdings Victor Kugler emigrated to Toronto Canada. There he led a quiet life where nobody knew who he was & what he had done during the war. Only twenty years later he began to reveal his story. The modern-day saga of this Righteous Gentile who was honoured as such at Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs' & Heroes' Remembrance Authority is told here in semi-documentary style largely in his own words as told to Torontonian Eda Shapiro herself of Eastern European Jewish background; & by many others who knew him as compiled by well-known Toronto writer-journalist Rick Kardonne. ...

The Tough of the Track was The Victors most popular hero having instilled the competitive spirit into millions of British lads for over 50 years. A welder who worked under railway arches Alf Tupper survived on a diet of fish & chips. He was always the underdog running against posh toffs who devised underhand ways of keeping him off the winners rostrum. Although Alf often looked beaten he nearly always came through in the final few strides exclaiming Ive run him!" as he breasted the winning tape in a photo-finish. Published in the year the Olympic Games returns to Britain this nostalgic anthology will not only be the perfect gift for the millions of men whose love of sport was kindled in their youth by Alf Tupper but will also enthrall & inspire a new generation of boys to go & win against all the odds." ...

Of the three jet bombers that formed the RAFs V-Force in the early years of the Cold War (1946-1991) the Victor was perhaps the most technologically advanced. First flown on December 24 1952 the Victor entered service in B 1 configuration in November 1957. Further improvements were introduced with the B 2 which was optimized for high altitude. Most B 2s were equipped to carry the Blue Steel st&-off missile but eight were modified in the strategic reconnaissance role because the Victor 2 was then the longest-ranging aircraft in the RAF. The Victor ceased to be a low-level bomber after the nuclear mission was taken over by the Royal Navys Polaris submarine force in the late 1960s. Thereafter Victor 1s & 2s continued in frontline service as airborne tankers supporting operations such as the Falklands War & the Gulf War until the last Victor flight took place on November 30 1993. ...

The tall handsome Abdul Karim was just twenty-four years old when he arrived in England from Agra to wait at tables during Queen Victorias Golden Jubilee. An assistant clerk at Agra Central Jail he suddenly found himself a personal attendant to the Empress of India herself. Within a year he was established as a powerful figure at court becoming the queens teacher or Munshi & instructing her in Urdu & Indian affairs. Devastated by the death of John Brown her Scottish ghillie the queen had at last found his replacement. But her intense & controversial relationship with the Munshi led to a near-revolt in the royal household. Victoria & Abdul" examines how a young Indian Muslim came to play a central role at the heart of the empire & his influence over the queen at a time when independence movements in the sub-continent were growing in force. Yet at its heart it is a tender love story between an ordinary Indian & his elderly queen a relationship that survived the best attempts to destroy it." ...

VICTORIA CROSS HEROES tells the stories of over 150 individuals whose bravery has earned them the Victoria Cross Britains most prestigious medal for courage in action. The book is introduced by Michael Ashcroft who owns over ten per cent of all VCs ever awarded. He explains the history of the medal & the story of his fascination with it. The main text of the book tells the stories of both those recipients whose medals are in his collection & those whose stories featured in the television series. Each chapter covers a different conflict from the Crimean War to Iraq. ...

The Music Fairies desperately need Rachel's & Kirsty's help! Jack Frost & his naughty goblins have stolen the fairies' Magical Musical Instruments which means that music is being ruined for everyone! Jack Frost plans to use the instruments to help him win a national talent competition in the human world & with the help of the enchanted instruments he's bound to win. If this happens humans will find out about Fairyland & then all the fairies will be in danger! Victoria must find her violin
- how can Rachel & Kirsty help her?
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One night Arthur Bryant witnesses a drunk middle-aged lady coming out of a pub in a London backstreet. The next morning she is found dead at the exact spot where their paths crossed. Even more disturbing the pub has vanished. Bryant is convinced that he saw them as they were over a century before but the elderly detective has already lost the funeral urn of an old friend. Could he be losing his mind as well? Then it becomes clear that a number of women have met their ends in London pubs. It seems a silent secret killer is at work striking in full view...and yet nobody has a clue how or why
- or where hell attack next. The likeliest suspect seems to be a mental patient with a reason for killing. But knowing who the killer is & catching him are two very different propositions. As their new team at the Peculiar Crimes Unit goes in search of a madman the octogenarian detectives ready themselves for the pub crawl of a lifetime & come face to face with their own mortality.
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One night Arthur Bryant witnesses a drunken lady coming out of a pub. The next morning she is found dead at the exact spot where their paths crossed. Even more disturbingly the pub has vanished & the street has changed. Bryant is convinced that he saw them as they looked over a century before
- is elderly detective losing his mind? Then it becomes clear that a number of women have met their ends in London pubs & the likeliest suspect seems to be a mental patient. But knowing who the killer is & catching him are two very different propositions. As their new team at the Peculiar Crimes Unit goes in search of a madman the octogenarian detectives ready themselves for the pub crawl of a lifetime & come face to face with their own mortality... This recording is unabridged. Typically abridged audiobooks are not more than 60 per cent of the authors work & as low as 30 per cent with characters & plotlines removed.
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In Victorias Wars: The Rise of Empire" Saul David explores the early part of Queen Victorias reign when the British Empire was well on the way to becoming the greatest empire the world had ever seen. This is the story of how it happened & the people who made it happen. In a fast-moving narrative ranging from London to the harsh terrain of India Russia & the Far East Saul David shows how Britain ruthlessly exploited her position as the worlds only superpower to expand her empire. Yet little of this territorial acquisition was planned or sanctioned by the home government. Instead it was largely the work of the men on the ground & to those at home it really did seem that the empire was acquired in a fit of absence of mind. Saul David creates a vivid portrait of life on the violent fringes of empire & of the seemingly endless & brutal wars that were fought in the name of trade civilization & the balance of power. " Splendid.. .a terrific treasure-chest of anecdotes.. .a splendidly brisk cool & judicious narrator". (" Daily Telegraph"). " Incisive & acute.. .thorough & occasionally revelatory [ David] always finds a telling phrase an eye-catching detail or a human story". (" Sunday Times"). Saul David is Professor of War Studies at the University of Buckingham & the author of several critically acclaimed history books including " The Indian Mutiny: 1857" (shortlisted for the Westminster Medal for Military Literature) " Zulu: The Heroism & Tragedy of the Zulu War of 1879" (a Waterstones Military History Book of the Year) & most recently " Victorias Wars: The Rise of Empire"." ...

Jeremy Coopers classic survey available again after some years out of print contains an astonishing range of photographs & drawings offering uniquely comprehensive coverage of 19th-century furniture from the Gothic revival to Art Nouveau. Every major designer is represented & the choice of pictures

Includes:: little-known furniture from private collections. A key book for collectors dealers & scholars this volume will also be of absorbing interest to anyone concerned with the history of design or interior decoration.

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