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The War in the Air
by H. G. WellsFollowing the development of massive airships, naïve Londoner Bert Smallways becomes accidentally involved in a German plot to invade America by air and reduce New York to rubble. But although bombers devastate the city, they cannot overwhelm the country, and their attack leads not to victory but to the beginning of a new and horrific age for humanity. And so dawns the era of Total War, in which brutal aerial bombardments reduce the great cultures of the twentieth century to nothing. As civilization collapses around the Englishman, now stranded in a ruined America, he clings to only one hope - that he might return to London, and marry the woman he loves.
The War of the Worlds
by H.G. WellsRead this stunning Vintage Classics edition of the original story of alien invasion from the father of science fiction, H.G. Wells.No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied. Yet across the gulf of space, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.Then, late one night, in the middle of the English countryside, they landed.
The War of the Worlds (The Penguin English Library)
by H. G. WellsWith an essay by John Huntington.'Death!' I shouted. 'Death is coming! Death!'In this pioneering, shocking and nightmarish tale, naïve suburban Londoners investigate a strange cylinder from space, but are instantly incinerated by an all-destroying heat-ray. Soon, gigantic killing machines that chase and feed on human prey are threatening the whole of humanity. A pioneering work of alien invasion fiction, The War of the World's journalistic style contrasts disturbingly with its horrifying visions of the human race under siege.The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.
The War on our Doorstep: London's East End and how the Blitz Changed it Forever
by Harriet Salisbury The Museum of London GroupLondon's East Enders are known for being a tough, humorous and lively lot. In the early 20th century, families crowded into single rooms, children played on the streets and neighbours' doors were never locked in case you needed an escape route from the police...World War 2 changed everything. During the Blitz, men set off for work never to return and rows of houses were reduced to rubble overnight. Yet the East Enders' ability to keep calm and carry on cemented their reputation for cheerful resilience. They say Hitler killed off the bugs but, along with the slums, the Blitz destroyed a way of life. After the war families were scattered - some to estates on the edge of London, others to isolated high-rise blocks. The old East End communities were gone forever.Told by the residents themselves, The War on Our Doorstep is an eye-opening, moving and laugh-out-loud depiction of the history of London's East End and what it means to be an East Ender.
The War Poems Of Wilfred Owen
by Wilfred Owen'Orpheus, the pagan saint of poets, went through hell and came back singing. In twentieth-century mythology, the singer wears a steel helmet and makes his descent "down some profound dull tunnel" in the stinking mud of the Western Front. For most readers of English poetry, the face under that helmet is that of Wilfred Owen.' Professor Jon Stallworthy, from his Introduction.When Wilfred Owen was killed in the days before the Armistice in 1918, he left behind a shattering, truthful and indelible record of a soldier's experience of the First World War. His greatest war poetry has been collected, edited and introduced here by Professor Jon Stallworthy. This special edition is published to commemorate the end of the hellish war that Owen, though the hard-won truth and terrible beauty of his poetry, has taught us never to forget.
War Report: From D-Day to Berlin, as it happened
by VariousThis is WWII history, as it happened. All the horror and excitement of eleven months that changed the world.On D-Day (6 June 1944) a team of BBC reporters, trained and were embedded with British troops, achieved a first in war reporting: they landed side by side with soldiers, in gliders, by parachute, in assault-craft, talking into portable recording machines to ‘tell it as it was’. For eleven months reporters such as Richard Dimbleby, Chester Wilmot and Frank Gillard were in the vanguard, filing over 1,500 dispatches covering the desperate exchanges on the D-Day beaches, the battle for Caen, the advance through Normandy, the liberation of Paris and, finally, the German surrender in 1945. 75 years after the invasion of Normandy, the dispatches of War Report collected here are as visceral and urgent as ever, and provide a remarkable account of Allied efforts to liberate Europe and end the war. With a foreword by John Simpson, War Report is a vital piece of modern history, direct from the front line.
War Report: The War Correspondent's View of Battle from the Crimea to the Falklands
by Trevor RoyleWhenever man has gone to war in modern times there has been no shortage of men and women to write about his exploits. They were known as war correspondents, a type of journalists whom General Wolseley called 'the newly invented curse to armies'. This study of the war correspondent's view of war traces the story from Russell's pioneering work for The Times in the Crimea to the assorted press, radio and television journalists who accompanied the British task force to the Falklands in 1982. In particular, it investigates the lives and careers of six of the greatest war correspondents of all time: G W Steevens, who accompanied Kitchener to the Sudan and who introduced the 'colour story' to war reporting; Edgar Wallace, the future thriller writer who scooped the rest of the world at the end of the Boer War; Charles á Court Repington, the military correspondent who exposed the scandal of the shortage of shells in 1915; Claud Cockburn, a communist who adopted a self-confessed partisan approach during the Spanish Civil War; Chester Wilmot, perhaps the greatest of radio war correspondents who brought the Second World War into the living-rooms of Britain; James Cameron, a pacifist who uncovered stories of atrocities in Korea and who demanded to be published and damned. There also includes a discussion on the problems of using television to cover modern war.
The War with Hannibal: The History of Rome from its Foundation Books 21-30
by LivyIn The War with Hannibal, Livy (59 BC-AD 17) chronicles the events of the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage, until the Battle of Zama in 202 BC. He vividly recreates the immense armies of Hannibal, complete with elephants, crossing the Alps; the panic as they approached the gates of Rome; and the decimation of the Roman army at the Battle of Lake Trasimene. Yet it is also the clash of personalities that fascinates Livy, from great debates in the Senate to the historic meeting between Scipio and Hannibal before the decisive battle. Livy never hesitates to introduce both intense drama and moral lessons into his work, and here he brings a turbulent episode in history powerfully to life.
WaR: Wizards and Robots (Wizards and Robots)
by will.i.am Brian David JohnsonAn explosive action-adventure novel created by will.i.am and renowned futurist Brian David Johnson. Wizards are real, robots from the future are here, and the fate of our world rests in the hands of one unsuspecting teenager.When a young man breaks into her home claiming her life is in danger, Ada Luring's world changes forever. Geller is a wizard, on the run from his father's hidden clan who want to kill Ada and her mother. Sara Luring is the scientist who will create the first robot, the wizards' age-old foes. But a robot has travelled back in time to find Ada, and will lay everything on the line to protect her, as she may just be the key to preventing the earth's destruction in the future. Ada, Geller and the robots must learn to work together to change the past and secure the future. But they don't have much time before a mysterious enemy launches its attack on Earth...
Ward No. 6 and Other Stories, 1892-1895
by Anton ChekhovThese stories from the middle period of Chekhov's career show him exploring complex, ambiguous and often extreme emotions. Influenced by his own experiences as a doctor, 'Ward No. 6', set in a mental hospital, is a savage indictment of the medical profession. 'The Black Monk', portraying an academic who has strange hallucinations, explores ideas of genius and insanity; in 'Murder', religious fervour leads to violence; while in 'The Student', Chekhov's favourite story, a young man recounts a tale from the gospels and undergoes a spiritual epiphany. In all the stories collected here, Chekhov's characters face madness, alienation and frustration before they experience brief, ephemeral moments of insight, often earned at great cost, where they confront the reality of their existence.
The Warden
by Anthony TrollopeThe first book in Anthony Trollope's Barchester Chronicles is a moving, insightful exploration of moral dilemmas fought in public and private. Mr Harding is a good man, the warden to an alms house which provides a peaceful home to twelve old men. The young and zealous John Bold is also a good man, but he believes he sees in Harding's comfortable existence an injustice which must be exposed. The law, the church and the self-righteous national press all have their say in the scandal that ensues, causing a crisis in the hearts and minds of many in the quiet country town of Barchester.‘An affecting and delicate short novel’ Guardian
The Warden (The Penguin English Library)
by Anthony TrollopeWith an essay by Robin Gilmour.'It was so hard that the pleasant waters of his little stream should be disturbed and muddied ... that his quiet paths should be made a battlefield: that the unobtrusive corner of the world which been allotted to him ... made miserable and unsound'Trollope's witty, satirical story of a quiet cathedral town shaken by scandal - as the traditional values of Septimus Harding are attacked by zealous reformers and ruthless newspapers - is a drama of conscience that pits individual integrity against worldly ambition. In The Warden Anthony Trollope brought the fictional county of Barsetshire to life, peopled by a cast of brilliantly realised characters that have made him among the supreme chroniclers of the minutiae of Victorian England.The first book in the Chronicles of Barsetshire.The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.
Warehouse
by Keith Gray'I know a place you can go'. It's a secret place hidden among the run-down buildings of the derelict dockyards. A community of young people have gathered in an old warehouse to get away from a world they don't fit in to. Through separate but interweaving narratives Warehouse tells the stories of three of the community's members. There's Robbie who is running away from his violent older brother, Frank, and needs some space to realise that the beatings are not his fault. Amy, who's supposed to be travelling in Europe but has had her rucksack stolen and is too proud to ask her smothering family for help. And then there's Lem, an ex-drug-addict and founder of the Warehouse community, whose perceived role as leader by the other young people is too much for him to cope with.
Warpaint
by Alicia FosterWarpaint by Alicia Foster is a compelling tale of truth and lies, tragedy and black comedy, loosely based on the lives of four painters of the time.England, 1942: a dark world of conflict, hardship and subterfuge where information is a matter of life and death and art has become a weapon.In a gothic villa deep in the woods near Bletchley Park, the 'Black' propaganda team use intelligence to make propaganda designed to demoralise the enemy. For Vivienne Thayer, employed as an artist at the villa, the war has worked out well so far, she has an indulgent husband and a new lover. And while the government quibbles over what cannot be shown officially, at the villa there are no such restrictions - but where does the subterfuge end?Meanwhile, on the Home Front, three women painters - Laura Knight, Faith Farr and Cecily Browne - have been tasked by the War Artist's Advisory Committee with recording wartime life, brightening the existence of a public starved of culture, and summoning up the bulldog spirit in their art. Together they must battle with the men in power, including Churchill himself, to control the stories that can be told.As the course of the war turns and the lives of both groups collide, each woman must ask herself what can be revealed and what must be concealed, even from those closest to them.Alicia Foster grew up in Yorkshire and lives in Kent. She has a PhD in Art History and when she's not writing herself, she teaches art students. Warpaint is her first novel.
Warrior: A True Story of Bravery and Betrayal in the Iraq War
by John Hunt Tam Henderson QMWarrior is the powerful true story of a British soldier's heroism during the Iraq War that reveals how he was ruthlessly sacrificed by the Establishment. Captain Tam Henderson was adopted as a baby in Glasgow. His family moved to England and he grew up on a violent council estate in Birmingham. At 16, he chose to join the famous Black Watch regiment. In a career spanning 23 years, he rose through the ranks and was deployed to conflicts in Northern Ireland, the Balkans and the Middle East.During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Tam was in the thick of ferocious fighting and, amidst Basra's chaos, he set up camp for the 200 men of Charlie Company, who were put in charge of the city's most volatile districts. Having fought to recover the body of one of his men killed in action, Tam was horrified when the chain gun on his Warrior tank malfunctioned, suddenly firing of its own accord and seriously injuring a comrade. He was told to take the rap but refused, insisting that the dangerous fault on the gun needed fixing. He was convicted by a kangaroo court at Saddam's palace and sent home in disgrace. But Tam fought back and embarked upon the biggest battle of his life - against the Ministry of Defence and international arms companies.Pacy and starkly authentic, Warrior takes the reader on an exhilarating journey that is by turns horrific, humorous and poignantly reflective.
Warrior: (The Matthew Hervey Adventures: 10): A gripping and action-packed military page-turner from bestselling author Allan Mallinson (Matthew Hervey #10)
by Allan MallinsonPerfect for fans of Patrick O'Brian, Bernard Cornwell and CS Forester, another breath-taking Matthew Hervey adventure from the pen of THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR Allan Mallinson."Captain Matthew Hervey is as splendid a hero as ever sprang from an author's pen" -- THE TIMES"Hervey's thrilling battles against the vivid backdrop of the developing British Empire make for richly engaging storytelling" -- DAILY MAIL"Highly addictive" -- ***** Reader review"This series just gets better and better" -- ***** Reader review********************************************************************************************1828: Matthew Hervey of the 6th Light Dragoons is urgently summoned to the Cape Colony when he learns that the Zulu warrior King Shaka is about to wage war.Soon Hervey, his old friend Eyre Somervile and their escort of dragoons and mounted rifles are riding north. When they arrive at Shaka's kraal, it quickly becomes apparent that he has slaughtered thousands of his subjects - warriors and women alike.When Shaka is killed by his own people, and the region plunged into civil war, Hervey and his men find themselves in the midst of terrible danger.Yet worse is to come. Separated from his troop, Hervey must lead Shaka's queen across a hostile land where sanctuary has never seemed further away ...
Warrior Daughter
by Janet PaisleyInspired by first century AD warrior women, Janet Paisley's Warrior Daughter is a gripping adventure about one young woman's struggle to survive in the harsh Celtic wilderness.2,000 years ago on the Isle of Skye, a warrior is born.Daughter of an Iron Age warrior queen, Skaaha is wild, headstrong and revered. But she is also a child, and when a chariot race leaves the queen dead and her menacing rival Mara in her place, Skaaha's charmed life lies in ruins. Vulnerable, her future imperilled, Skaaha seeks to forge a life beyond the new queen's reach. But with rumour, fear and danger sweeping the island, she cannot remain unmoved. Broken by brutal misfortune, alone in a world of mistrust, Skaaha must unearth the courage to confront her enemies in defence of her people.Illuminated by the great Celtic fire festivals, Warrior Daughter is inspired by the historical Scathach, a fierce warrior woman of the first century AD and forerunner to the equally ferocious Boudicca.Praise for Janet Paisley's White Rose Rebel:'Heather igniting historical adventure' Sunday Times'A powerful historical page-turner with a beautiful, feisty heroine' ScotsmanJanet Paisley is the author of five poetry collections, two of short fiction, a novella and numerous plays, radio, TV and film scripts. Accolades include a prestigious Creative Scotland Award (Not for Glory, stories), the Peggy Ramsay Memorial Award (Refuge, a play) and a BAFTA nomination (Long Haul, a short film). Her first novel, White Rose Rebel, is available from Penguin.
Warriors: British Fighting Heroes
by Ross Kemp_____________Ross Kemp has encountered conflict and warfare the world over, broadcasting from some of the most volatile military hot-zones. From meeting the world's deadliest gangsters, to perhaps his hardest assignment of all; embedded with the British Army in Afghanistan's Helmand province, where he witnessed some of the fiercest fighting of the conflict and was trained in the tactics they use to stay alive.Stationed with British forces for his award-winning television documentaries, Ross Kemp has not only experienced the terror and exhilaration of life on the frontline, but also the courage and leadership of today's servicemen and women. The plight of our Armed Forces is one especially close to his heart, and here for the first time Kemp tells the breathtaking stories of commandos, medics, submariners, fighter pilots, infantrymen, sailors and engineers in daring raids, stirring last stands and acts of extreme valour. British Fighting Heroes is Ross Kemp's personal tribute to some of the most remarkable men and women to have served in the British Armed Forces during the two World Wars, many of them unsung or forgotten. From Sgt Major Stan Hollis, D-Day's only VC winner, to Freddie Spencer Chapman the reluctant war hero who spent three years behind enemy lines in Burma fighting guerrilla warfare against troops, each account is an extraordinary tale of courage, adventure and patriotic sacrifice.
Warsaw Boy: A Memoir of a Wartime Childhood
by Andrew BorowiecWarsaw Boy is the remarkable true story of a sixteen-year old boy soldier in war-torn Poland. Poland suffered terribly under the Nazis. By the end of the war six million had been killed: some were innocent civilians - half of them were Jews - but the rest died as a result of a ferocious guerrilla war the Poles had waged. On 1 August 1944 Andrew Borowiec, a fifteen-year-old volunteer in the Resistance, lobbed a grenade through the shattered window of a Warsaw apartment block onto some German soldiers running below. 'I felt I had come of age. I was a soldier and I'd just tried to kill some of our enemies'.The Warsaw Uprising lasted for 63 days: Himmler described it as 'the worst street fighting since Stalingrad'. Yet for the most part the insurgents were poorly equipped local men and teenagers - some of them were even younger than Andrew.Over that summer Andrew faced danger at every moment, both above and below ground as the Poles took to the city's sewers to creep beneath the German lines during lulls in the fierce counterattacks. Wounded in a fire fight the day after his sixteenth birthday and unable to face another visit to the sewers, he was captured as he lay in a makeshift cellar hospital wondering whether he was about to be shot or saved. Here he learned a lesson: there were decent Germans as well as bad. From one of the most harrowing episodes of the Second World War, this is an extraordinary tale of survival and defiance recounted by one of the few remaining veterans of Poland's bravest summer. Andrew Borowiec dedicates this book to all the Warsaw boys, 'especially those who never grew up'.Andrew Borowiec was born at Lodz in Poland in 1928. At fifteen he joined the Home Army, the main Polish resistance during the Second World War, and fought in the ill-fated Warsaw Uprising. After the war he left Poland and attended Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. He lives in Cyprus with his English wife Juliet.
The Wartime Bookshop: The first in a heart-warming WWII saga series about community and friendship, from the bestselling author (The Wartime Bookshop #1)
by Lesley EamesThe first in a brand-new nostalgic and heart-warming WWII series, perfect for fans of Donna Douglas and Elaine Everest.Alice is nursing an injured hand and a broken heart when she moves to the village of Churchwood at the start of WWII. She is desperate to be independent but worries that her injuries will make that impossible.Kate lives with her family on Brimbles Farm, where her father and brothers treat her no better than a servant. With no mother or sisters, and shunned by the locals, Kate longs for a friend of her own.Naomi is looked up to for owning the best house in the village. But privately, she carries the hurts of childlessness, a husband who has little time for her and some deep-rooted insecurities.With war raging overseas, and difficulties to overcome at home, friendship is needed now more than ever. Can the war effort and a shared love of books bring these women - and the community of Churchwood - together?**The fourth novel, Evacuees at the Wartime Bookshop, is available to pre-order now!**-------------------------------**Real readers are LOVING The Wartime Bookshop**'BRILLIANT''Oh I loved this book... please carry on the good writing''Wow what a brilliant start to a new series''Outstandingly fabulous, warm and inviting... so glad there is going to be a follow-on''I was only two pages in when I knew this would be a 5 star read... I honestly can't put my excitement into words at the thought of reading the next one'
A Wartime Marriage: A glorious, romantic wartime adventure - the perfect dose of escapism
by Mary Jane StaplesFor fans of Katie Flynn & Fiona Valpy, this is an exhilarating romantic journey across war-torn Europe from the multi-million copy seller Mary Jane Staples.READERS ARE LOVING A WARTIME MARRIAGE!"Couldn't put it down." -- 5 STARS"Once again she had me hooked." -- 5 STARS"Each page kept you guessing to the end." -- 5 STARS"An excellent read for a cold damp day in front of the fire." -- 5 STARS****************************************************WILL THEY FIND HAPPINESS?1918: the Kaiser's empire is about to fall and Captain Harry Phillips, a prisoner of war in a Romanian hospital, has had a very hard time of it. Then, out of the blue, comes an offer he can't refuse: a ticket home to his beloved England and to the arms of his much missed fiancée Elizabeth.But this ticket comes with a heavy price to pay; Harry must marry beautiful, headstrong Princess Irena of Moldova, who's only hope of survival is to leave the country and he must risk both their lives by escorting her back to England.As they set off on their long and treacherous journey with enemies at every turn, Harry begins to realise that Irena is not only dangerous but extremely precious cargo.
A Wartime Nurse
by Maggie HopeAs bombs begin to fall, her strength will be tested...A newly qualified nurse, Theda Wearmouth is delighted to gain a place at Newcastle Hospital. But the onset of war brings tragedy when her young soldier boyfriend is killed in action before he can make good on his promise to marry her.Broken-hearted, Theda finds herself re-assigned to a special unit of the hospital dealing with German prisoners of war. Her duty is clear. But will she be able to cope with nursing the very men her fiancé died fighting...?A gritty family saga from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Miner’s Girl and An Orphan’s Secret
Washington Square
by Henry JamesWhen timid and plain Catherine Sloper acquires a dashing and determined suitor, her father, convinced that the young man is nothing more than a fortune-hunter, decides to put a stop to their romance. Torn between her desire to win her father’s love and approval and her passion for the first man who has ever declared his love for her, Catherine faces an agonising dilemma, and becomes all too aware of the restrictions that others seek to place on her freedom. James’s masterly novel deftly interweaves the public and private faces of nineteenth-century New York society; it is also a deeply moving study of innocence destroyed.
Washington Square (The Penguin English Library)
by Henry James"Why, you must take me or leave me ... You can't please your father and me both; you must choose between us"When timid and plain Catherine Sloper acquires a dashing and determined suitor, her father, convinced that the young man is nothing more than a fortune-hunter, decides to put a stop to their romance. Torn between her desire to win her father's love and approval and her passion for the first man who has ever declared his love for her, Catherine faces an agonising dilemma, and becomes all too aware of the restrictions that others seek to place on her freedom. James's masterly novel deftly interweaves the public and private faces of nineteenth-century New York society; it is also a deeply moving study of innocence destroyed.The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century and the very first novels to the beginning of the First World War.