Through the diaries of nine men & women We Shall Never Surrender tells the story of the war as they experienced it whether at home struggling simply to keep going in high office with direct influence on its outcome or protesting against it. Some of them like Alan Brooke who became Chief of the General Staff the politician Harold Nicolson or the pacifist writer Vera Brittain are well known. Others -- Anne Garnett the wife of a country solicitor George Beardmore a young husband & father with ambitions to become a novelist or Clara Milburn a contended wife & mother of an adult son -- are not. But in their diaries they all -- together with the diplomat Charles Ritchie the novelist Naomi Mitchison & the resourceful & frequently unconventional Hermione Countess of Ranfurly --followed the war in their diaries from outbreak to victory. For some keeping a diary was a way of documenting their hopes & fears for an unforeseen future. For others it was a way of carefully preserving their lives on the page uncertain in what state they would find the world the next time they woke. Together they constitute a remarkable record of human endeavour & human cost at a time when the whole world was locked in conflict & it often seemed that the outcome rested on the shoulders of one small isl&. ...

Three brothers tear their way through childhood-smashing tomatoes all over each other building kites from rubbish hiding when their parents do battle tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift. Paps & Ma are from Brooklyn-hes Puerto Rican shes white-barely out of childhood themselves & their love is a serious dangerous thing. Life in this family is fierce & absorbing full of chaos & heartbreak & the euphoria of belonging completely to one another. From the intense familial unity felt by a child to the profound alienation he endures as he begins to forge his own way in the world this beautiful novel reinvents the coming-of-age story in a way that is sly & incredibly powerful. ...

We the Media has become something of a bible for those who believe the online medium will change journalism for the better."
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In November 1965 450 men of the 1st Battalion 7th Cavalry under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore were dropped by helicopter into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later only two & a half miles away a sister battalion was chopped to pieces. Together these actions at the landing zones X-Ray & Albany constituted one of the most savage & significant battles of the Vietnam War. How these men persevered
- sacrificed themselves for their comrades & never gave up
- makes a vivid portrait of war at its most inspiring & devastating. General Moore & Joseph Galloway the only journalist on the ground throughout the fighting have interviewed hundreds of men who fought there including the North Vietnamese commanders. This account rises above the specific ordeal it chronicles to present a picture of men facing the ultimate challenge dealing with it in ways they would have found unimaginable only a few hours earlier. It reveals to us mans most heroic & horrendous endeavour. In this history of one of the most violent periods of the 20th century the author relates the personal experiences of men on the brink of death for a cause they didnt underst&. The book has been adapted for film starring amongst others Mel Gibson.

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One of the most charismatic & flamboyant cyclists in recent history Daily Telegraph. Laurent Fignon is one of the giants of modern cycling. Twice-winner of the Tour de France in the early eighties Fignon became the star for a new generation. In 1989 he took part in one of the most fiercely-contested Tours of all time. Over the course of 3 285 kilometres he lost out to his American arch-rival Greg Le Mond by an agonising eight seconds on the final Parisian time trial. In this forthright & unflinching account the former champion spares neither friends nor opponents nor even himself. In doing so he gives cycling fans a tantalising glimpse of what really went on behind the scenes of this epic sport
- the friendships the rivalries the betrayals the scheming the parties the girls & of course the performance-enhancing drugs. Laurent Fignon lived cycling at its peak. He enjoyed a truly exceptional career winning over eighty titles from 1982 to 1993. The highs were matched by lows of serious injury periods of self-doubt & accusations of cheating. Fignons story bestrides a golden age in cycling: a time when the headlines spoke of heroes not doping & a time when cyclists were afraid of nothing.
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A truly unique & fascinating look at the changing nature of masculinity & manliness told through the lens of a series of Yorkshire County Cricket Club player portraits through the ages. George Hirst was a man of his time. His apocryphal"ation Well get em in singles"epitomises his no-fuss approach to all matters & his distate for excess or ostentation. His stiff upper lip was a requisite part of his Edwardian manliness. Fast forward a century or so to Darren Goughs besequinned victory on Strictly Come Dancing or to Michael Vaughans final teary press conference & the different versions of what it means to be masculine are worlds apart. It is one of the oldest cliches in sports writing to say that sport mirrors life. & yet in this instance the world of Yorkshire cricket has so faithfully mirrored the outside world that the cliche is unavoidable. Yorkshire sobrest of counties has given us some remarkable characters over the years
- Len Hutton Geoffrey Boycott & Fred Trueman to name just a few. Through portraits of these & other Yorkshire players & the values that they shared with their contemporaries this wonderfully original book maps the contours of a sexual revolution whose tremors are still being felt today."
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A truly unique & fascinating look at the changing nature of masculinity & manliness told through the lens of a series of Yorkshire County Cricket Club player portraits through the ages. George Hirst was a man of his time. His apocryphal"ation Well get em in singles" epitomises his no-fuss approach to all matters & his distaste for excess or ostentation. His stiff upper lip was a requisite part of his Edwardian manliness. Fast-forward a century or so to Darren Goughs besequinned victory on Strictly Come Dancing or to Michael Vaughans final teary press conference & the different versions of what it means to be masculine are worlds apart. It is one of the oldest cliches in sports writing to say that sport mirrors life. & yet in this instance the world of Yorkshire cricket has so faithfully mirrored the outside world that the cliche is unavoidable. Yorkshire most sober of counties has given us some remarkable characters over the years -- Len Hutton Geoffrey Boycott & Fred Trueman to name just a few. Through portraits of these & other Yorkshire players & the values that they shared with their contemporaries this wonderfully original book maps the contours of a sexual revolution whose tremors are still being felt today." ...

It is April 1939 & unaware that the German war machine is advancing towards the Channel Islands seventeen-year-old Meg Colivet & her sister are enjoying a holiday in Oxford with their aunt. Here Meg meets charismatic German undergraduate Rayner Weiss & the couple fall passionately in love. But all too soon Britain is at war with Germany Guernsey has been occupied & Megs family home requisitioned by the German army. Meg insists on remaining with her father determined to help save her beloved island from the ravages of war. & then she finds herself face to face with Rayner
- now a German officer
- once more & her life is thrown into turmoil as they risk their lives to meet in secret. As the conflict in Europe intensifies basic provisions become scarce & soon the people Meg loves come under threat. Torn between her love for Rayner & her duty to her family & the island she grew up on a heartbroken Meg has a terrible choice to make...

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Liverpool 1942. Seventeen-year-old Frankie Franconi falls in love with charismatic British officer Nick Harper as quickly & certainly as the bomb that falls on their shelter. He is impressed by her good looks & intelligence & the fact that like him she speaks fluent Italian. When she insists on staying to help rescue others who have been trapped he realises that she has courage too. He gives her a business card with a Baker Street address & suggests she put her skills to good use. Within a month Frankie has joined the FANYs & started her training. Stationed first in England then Africa & finally Italy Frankie & her fellow recruits work tirelessly decoding messages from agents in the field by day & enjoying the wartime parties at night. But when she signs the Official Secrets Act she has no idea of the danger adventure & terrible choices that are in store. ...

Dr Gary Lasch is found dead at his desk. The murder stuns his elite Connecticut community
- especially when his beautiful young
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