Search results for ""pen sword books""
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Architecture Lover s Guide to London
Since the early days as rolling hills crisscrossed with streams, London has come a long way to be one of the most exciting and innovative cities in the world. From the first Roman settlement 2000 years ago to the high tech and high rise buildings of today, the history of London is a story of experimentation, determination and triumph. A city at the cutting edge of style and fashion, rising from every fire, every attack, every setback. The Architecture Lover's Guide to London takes a journey through history, looking at some of the most significant buildings, as well as the people who have shaped this city.
£14.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Naval Eyewitnesses: The Experience of War at Sea, 1939-1945
Although many books have been written about naval actions during the Second World War - histories and memoirs in particular - few books have attempted to encompass the extraordinary variety of the experience of the war at sea. That is why James Goulty's viv-id survey is of such value. Sailors in the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy experienced a war fought on a massive scale, on every ocean of the world, in a diverse range of ves-sels, from battleships, aircraft carriers and submarines to merchant ships and fishing boats. Their recollections are as varied as the ships they served in, and they take the reader through the entire maritime war, as it was perceived at the time by those who had direct, personal knowledge of it. Throughout the book the emphasis is on the experience of individuals - their recruit-ment and training, their expectations and the reality they encountered on active service in many different offensive and defensive roles including convoy duty and coastal de-fence, amphibious operations, hunting U-boats and surface raiders, mine sweeping and manning landing and rescue craft. A particularly graphic section describes, in the words of the sailors themselves, what action against the enemy felt like and the impact of casualties - seamen who were wounded or killed on board or were lost when their ships sank. A fascinating inside view of the maritime warfare emerges which may be less heroic than the image created by some post-war accounts, but it gives readers today a much more realistic impression of the whole gamut of wartime life at sea.
£22.50
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Origins of Wizards, Witches and Fairies
This book tells the fascinating story of the origin of our ideas about wizards, witches and fairies. We all have a clear mental image of the pointed hats worn by such individuals, which are based upon actual headgear dating back 3,000 years to the Bronze Age. Carefully sifting through old legends, archaeological evidence and modern research in genetics, Simon Webb shows us how our notions about fairies and elves, together with human workers of magic, have evolved over the centuries. This exploration of folklore, backed by the latest scientific findings, will present readers with the image of a lost world; the one used as the archetype for fantasy adventures from _The Lord of the Rings_ to _Game of Thrones_. In the process, the real nature of wizards will be revealed and their connection with the earliest European cultures thoroughly documented. After reading this book, nobody will ever be able to view Gandalf the wizard in the same light and even old fairy tales such as _Beauty and the Beast_ will take on a richer and deeper meaning. In short, our perception of wizards, witches and fairies will be altered forever.
£20.00
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Britain's War Against the Slave Trade: The Operations of the Royal Navy s West Africa Squadron, 1807 1867
Long before recorded history, men, women and children had been seized by conquering tribes and nations to be employed or traded as slaves. Greeks, Romans, Vikings and Arabs were among the earliest of many peoples involved in the slave trade, and across Africa the buying and selling of slaves was widespread. There was, at the time, nothing unusual in Britain's somewhat belated entry into the slave trade, transporting natives from Africa's west coast to the plantations of the New World. What was unusual was Britain's decision, in 1807, to ban the slave trade throughout the British Empire. Britain later persuaded other countries to follow suit, but this did not stop this lucrative business. So the Royal Navy went to war against the slavers, in due course establishing the West Africa Squadron which was based at Freetown in Sierra Leone. This force grew throughout the nineteenth century until a sixth of the Royal Navy's ships and marines was employed in the battle against the slave trade. Between 1808 and 1860, the West Africa Squadron captured 1,600 slave ships and freed 150,000 Africans. The slavers tried every tactic to evade the Royal Navy enforcers. Over the years that followed more than 1,500 naval personnel died of disease or were killed in action, in what was difficult and dangerous, and at times saddening, work. In Britain's War Against the Slave Trade, naval historian Anthony Sullivan reveals the story behind this little-known campaign by Britain to end the slave trade. Whereas Britain is usually, and justifiably, condemned for its earlier involvement in the slave trade, the truth is that in time the Royal Navy undertook a major and expensive operation to end what was, and is, an evil business.
£15.96
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Magic of Terry Pratchett
The Magic Of Terry Pratchett is the first full biography of Sir Terry Pratchett ever written. Sir Terry was Britain's best-selling living author, and before his death in 2015 had sold more than 85 million copies of his books worldwide. Best known for the Discworld series, his work has been translated into 37 languages, and performed as plays on every continent in the world, including Antarctica. Journalist, comedian and Pratchett fan Marc Burrows delves into the back story of one of UK's most enduring and beloved authors, from his childhood in the Chiltern Hills, to his time as a journalist, and the journey that would take him via more than sixty best-selling books to an OBE, a knighthood and national treasure status. The Magic Of Terry Pratchett is the result of painstaking archival research alongside interviews with friends and contemporaries who knew the real man under the famous black hat, helping to piece together the full story of one of British literature's most remarkable and beloved figures for the very first time. Now disqualified on both counts.This is the first full biography of Sir Terry Pratchett ever written. Sir Terry was Britain's best-selling living author, and before his death in 2015 had sold more than 85 million copies of his books worldwide. AUTHOR: Marc Burrows is a London based writer, stand up comic and musician, writing regularly for The Guardian, Observer, Drowned in Sound, The Quietus and more. In 2014 he compiled and edited I Think I Can See Where You're Going Wrong, a collection of the funniest comments from the Guardian website, published by Faber and Faber. People got it for Christmas and read it on the loo, and he was happy with that. He has performed several one-man shows at the Edinburgh Fringe, the most recent of which, Mind Your Head, focused on a lifetime of struggles with his mental health. He also plays bass in the cult punk band, The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing and can be found regularly touring the UK and USA. He discovered the works of Terry Pratchett when his Mum lent him The Colour of Magic as an eleven-year-old, and spent the next week annoying his classmates by reading the funniest bits out loud. He has never looked back.
£14.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Greece Against Rome: The Fall of the Hellenistic Kingdoms 250 31 BC
Towards the middle of the third century BC, the Hellenistic kingdoms (the fragments of Alexander the Great's short-lived empire) were near their peak. In terms of population, economy and military power each individual kingdom was vastly superior to Rome, not to mention in fields such as medicine, architecture, science, philosophy and literature. Philip Matyszak relates how, over the next two-and-a half centuries, Rome conquered and took over these kingdoms while adopting so much of Hellenistic culture that the resultant hybrid is known as Graeco-Roman' Refreshingly, the story is largely told from the viewpoint of the Hellenistic kingdoms. At the outset, the Romans are little more than another small state in the barbarian west, and less of a consideration than the Scythians or Jews. Much of the narrative therefore focuses on the game of thrones' between the Hellenistic powers, a tale of assassinations, double crosses, dynastic incest and warfare. As the Roman threat grows, however, it belatedly becomes the primary concern of the kingdoms as the legions destroy them one by one.
£14.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd From Bicycle to Bentley, A Bookmaker's Story: by Stephen Little
Stephen takes the reader from his earliest school days when it became clear he was academically bright, especially in maths, attending prep school, winning a scholarship to major public school Uppingham where he won maths prizes and, aged 16, passed 3 S (scholarship) levels. By then he had decided to be a bookie. He attended an interview for Cambridge University only because it was on his bicycle route to Newmarket races! Unable to work in any gambling job until 18, he set about visiting racecourses by bicycle, staying in youth hotels (171/2p per night), eventually cycling to all racecourses in the UK, including several now-defunct courses. At 18 he found employment with Beresford & Smith in London; aged 24 he got his first bookie's licence in 1971 and by the age of 40 in 1986 was betting big on the rails at major meetings such as the Grand National, Cheltenham, Derby, Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood, often laying bets to lose GBP100,000 or more - when money was worth nearly twice today's value - one of the few bookies who happily stood "toe to toe and traded blow for blow" with big hitters like JP McManus, Barney Curley, Michael Tabor and Harry Findlay. In 1998 changes in pitch administration prompted early retirement, and he sold his pitches, worked for a few unsatisfactory years for Corals and then departed the big time - with a Bentley as well as a bicycle, a house in Georgian Bath and a satisfactory bank balance.
£20.00
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Panzers in Normandy: Then and Now
Published to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Normandy campaign, Panzers in Normandy Then and Now is a detailed study of the German panzer regiments in Normandy in 1944 as seen from the German side. The book is basically divided into two parts: the theoretical composition of the 1944 model of the panzer regiment, its equipment and personnel, and secondly, individual chapters on the seventeen panzer units which saw service in Normandy. In addition, the book contrasts the scenes of the fighting that raged in the countryside and villages of this part of France with comparison photographs of the battleground as it is today. Research for this book also resulted in the discovery of the location of the grave of the most famous panzer commander, formerly listed as missing in action, when a Normandy roadside revealed its secret in 1983 as the last resting place of the victor of Villers-Bocage, Michael Wittmann.
£29.34
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Blitz: Then and Now (Volume 1)
This volume covers the first year of World War II, the period from phoney war to total war: September 3rd, 1939 to September 6th, 1940. Beginning with endless air raid warnings and a sense of unreality, it was a phase which was to culminate in Hitler threatening to raze Britain's cities to the ground. As a direct source of the day-to-day effects of Luftwaffe operations over Britain at the time, the book utilizes extracts from the 24-hour log compiled by the Ministry of Home Security, and this provides a contemporary diary of events as they affected the Home Front. These entries ideally form the setting for a detailed record of the losses sustained by the Luftwaffe over Britain and within sight of land: a barometer of the air war, showing clearly the changing climate of hostilities. Every German crash on land is listed with its crew, and footnotes are included on all the crash sites which are known to have been investigated or excavated since the end of the war, together with photographs of some interesting discoveries. Also featured are articles by historians and eyewitnesses that interspace the daily happenings.
£29.95
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The War in the Channel Islands: Then and Now
Besides being the only British territory occupied by the Germans in the Second World War, it is perhaps less generally known that the Channel Islands were fortified out of all proportion to the rest of Hitler's Atlantic Wall: a legacy that is explored in individual chapters on Alderney, Guernsey, Jersey and Sark. First-hand accounts of all seven Commando raids are brought together for the first time. A summary of how the Islands' hotels were put to use by their German guests may intrigue present-day visitors, and a review of the war museums gives an insight into the variety of relics that enthusiasts have had the foresight to preserve. The war cemeteries are described, and there is a list of every grave of both sides of the two World Wars. Annotated aerial photographs form an important aspect of the book among them unique pictures of Sark for which exceptional permission was granted to enter the island's inviolable airspace.
£25.20
Pen & Sword Books Ltd La Boiselle: Somme
This addition to the growing series of battlefield guides has been written by Michael Stedman, author of Thiepval. Drawing upon the wealth of material available in both national and local archives, documentary evidence, personal reminiscence and British and German unit histories, La Boiselle will add enormously to the experience of any visitor to this extraordinary location on the Somme battlefield.This distinctive volume has ample detail to satisfy the discerning expert whilst retaining the accessible style which will ensure that anyone new to these magnificently informative places will feel at home with the text. Apart from the historical detail, La Boiselle is illuminated by a distinctive and detailed array of maps and aerial photographs which will guide the reader both at home and in the field. To support the maps a sequence of contemporary and comparison present-day photographs will enable students to plan and execute a series of enjoyable, informative and evocative tours through the locality.These walks will guide people to little-known sections of still existent front-line and assembly trenches, dug-outs, gun-pits and observation posts, past the memorials and cemeteries, with an eye for detail as well as to the human and personal experience of the conflict. If you are researching the story of a family member who served or is commemorated here, if you wish to deepen and illuminate a visit to a new Western Front location, if you are a student of the battlefield and the military tactics employed here, La Boiselle will add enormously to your knowledge and understanding of this powerful place. In an unsentimental manner, La Boiselle can transport you back across eight decades to understand something of the experience of the Tommies and their German counterparts who fought and died here during the Great War.
£10.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Calais: 30 Brigade's Defiant Defence May 1940
This is the story of the Battle of Calais, a short but bloody struggle to delay the German advance in May 1940. It is a story of uncertainty, of taut nerves, of heat, dust, raging thirst and hand-to-hand fighting in the narrow streets of the channel port now known to millions of Britons as a gateway to the Continent. The guide will take the visitor beyond the ferry terminal and hypermarkets to reveal the hidden Calais and the actions of individuals and units.
£9.95
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Major & Mrs Holt's (Gallipoli) Battlefield Guide to Gallipoli
As the battlefields of Gallipoli become even more firmly established on the tourist map, this book is bound to be as popular as it is useful. The format of Major and Mrs Holt's battlefield guides is by now tried and tested, providing as they do not only the historical background to the campaign but all the information needed to make a visit to the battlefields.FULLY UPDATEDPACKAGED WITH A FREE, FULL COLOUR FOLD-OUT MAP
£14.95
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Sanctuary Wood and Hooge: Ypres
This guide to the battlefields of Ypres is intended for both the casual tourist and the serious scholar. Sanctuary Wood and the village of Hooge saw intense fighting during World War I, being situated for much of the time in the front line of the notorious Ypres Salient. Beginning at the museum at the wood itself, the book takes the reader on an explanatory tour of the immediate area, which includes the neighbouring British cemetery. Text and supporting photographs help to explain the significance of individual burials, such as that of the German aviator, Hans Roser, the victim of an air battle with the Royal Flying Corps pilot, Lance Hawker, who for his exploits in this action and others on the same day was awarded the first VC for aerial combat. Between May and September 1915, Hooge was rarely out of the newspapers, and the fierce battles that took place here - including the first use of the dreaded "Flamenwerfer" against British troops - are described in a series of chapters supported by maps and contemporary accounts. Also recounted are the exploits of Canadian troops in June 1916, when valuable ground was lost and almost immediately recaptured. (In one incident, the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry came very close to losing their regimental colour to the Germans.) Rather less violent, but typical aspects of World War I life are covered with sections of a trench raid (1918) and the usual routine of an engineer officer in the trenches. The guide directs readers to view certain areas and explains what they would be seeing more than 70 years ago - whether it would be the British or German lines. Names that were given to geographical features at the time of the fighting are explained, together with military terms and methods of operation.
£11.55
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Pub Lovers Guide to London
From the Roman conquest to the passing of legislation protecting the rights of LGBTQ+, the history of London is one of diversity, integration and progress - never standing still and always setting the agenda. Metropolitan London has around 7,000 public houses an average of 25 pubs per square mile. No other capital city in the world matches this density. It's not surprising that the London pub is such an institution at home and abroad! Pubs were part and parcel of the expansion of London that grew to be the world's largest city by the 1830s. Because pubs are omnipresent in the capital, a pub can always be found near a place of historical significance. This book selects some key moments in the history of London, from Roman times to the modern day, and suggests a popular pub nearby to savour the moment - re-living the history with a drink in hand! _The Pub Lover's Guide to London_ explains the driving forces behind the most significant moments in the history of London - and the best pub
£14.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Garden Wildlife: Revealing Your Garden's Secrets
Garden Wildlife is a book that looks at the habitats in our gardens from the point of view of wild animal and plants. If we understand our gardens in this way, then we can appreciate that different parts of our gardens essentially mimic wild habitats in microcosm. This means that we can provide places for wild animals and plants to flourish in our gardens, whether they happen to be in rural, suburban or urban settings. Above all, we need to get away from the current obsession with tidiness and sterility in our gardens, and allow odd corners to go wild, so that our native species can live alongside us in the modern world. Without wildlife to discover and observe in our gardens, our lives are impoverished, so we have a duty to ourselves and our children to invite nature back into our outside spaces.
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Leicester's Trams and Buses: 20th Century Landmarks
In 1904, when Leicester Corporation opened its state-of-the-art electric tram network, it enjoyed a monopoly on routes and convenient central terminal points. But soon the first small independent motor bus companies became active, and by 1921, Midland Red - shortly to be the largest operator in England outside London - was busily establishing itself. The city fathers were faced with a quandary; protecting their territory and services, and possibly extending them, albeit in the face of determined competition, whilst at the same time endeavouring to provide termini that were as invitingly close to the city centre as possible. In this they were assisted by the 1930 Transport Act, which provided the template for fifty years of fairly peaceful co-existence between Leicester City Transport and Midland Red. That is until the provisions of a new Act in 1980 set them at loggerheads again. Leicester's Trams and Buses - 20th Century Landmarks examines in detail the background behind five key events - the opening of the electric tram network in 1904 and its closure in 1949; the arrival of Midland Red in Leicester in 1921, via the protracted planning for Leicester's first proper bus station, to the so-called bus wars in the deregulation and privatisation era of the 1980s. It concludes that it was the pursuit of policies, at local and national government levels, which ultimately led to opportunities being missed that could have provided Leicester city and county with a fully integrated modern-day network.
£27.00
Pen & Sword Books Ltd The Isles of Scilly in the Great War
The Isles of Scilly, five inhabited islands 24 miles west of Land's End, were of low priority to the War Department when the First World War was declared. With no manufacturing capability, no industry other than flower growing and agriculture, no electricity or gas, no mains water supply, no wireless station, and a population of only 2,000, the islands did have one feature in their favour - their location. Sitting at the cross roads of six major shipping routes, Scilly had been a recognised 'ship-park' since 1300AD, where sailing ships anchored to safetly awaiting a suitable wind, to re-victual, pick up water or effect repairs. The Admiralty sought to make it a harbour for the Channel Fleet in the mid-1800s, and in 1903 spent GBP25,000 defending the islands with 6-inch gun batteries, only to take them away seven years later. When, in 1915, German U-boats moved from the North Sea into the Western Approaches, sinking large numbers of merchant vessels, Scilly was chosen to become a Royal Navy Auxiliary Patrol Station, and over time was sent 20 armed trawlers and drifters as escorts, mine-sweepers, mine-layers or anti-submarine vessels, along with 500 Royal Navy personnel.In 1917 Tresco Island became a Royal Naval Air Station, with 14 flying boats and over 1,000 personnel. The islands were suddenly at the forefront of the submarine war. This book details Scilly's contribution to the war effort, with attention to its civilian population, the heartbreak of losing forty-five of its sons, and the trauma of countless seamen rescued from torpedoed ships.
£12.99
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Home Front: The Realization - Somme, Jutland and Verdun
Many books have looked at the effect of the war on the Home Front, but this is the first book to take a glimpse at the Home Front photographically from an international point of view, covering both Allied and enemy countries, juxtaposing the same situations in different countries to show a similar response. This volume chronicles the changes brought on by just a few months of war: spies, increased casualties, food shortages, changes in work patterns, the shortage of men in the work force, women at work and at the end of the year the slow rush in Britain to volunteer for the army, hoping to not be called for service. It also looks at the Home Front for those caught behind enemy lines where life was both spartan, potentially dangerous and subject to the whim of the victor. The photographs, many of which have not been seen before and some which have never been published, clearly show that each year of war had a further profound effect on each nation. This unique series of international photographic books fits in with the author's more textual books on the Home Front: Hull in the Great War and Reading in the Great War, both of which explore the complex life of a city at war.
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd From Hitlers U-Boats to Kruschevs Spyflights
This book tells the tale of the illustrious Royal Air Force career of Tom Clark, a World War Two gunner and post-war signaller in action during some of the most pivotal events of the twentieth century. Lovingly penned by his son, it provides an authentic insight into this dynamic period of world history. From work as an air gunner, involved in the daunting task of taking on the might of Hitler's U-boat fleet, to post-war involvement in an Intelligence capacity during the dramatic events surrounding Khrushchev and the atomic threat of the late 1950s, Clark's career was dramatic and varied to say the least. Having joined the RAF as an aircraft man just before the Second World War, Clark was destined to take part in a whole range of wartime operational engagements. His career featured involvement in the famous 1941 hunt for the elusive Bismarck, the dangers of life as part of an Air Sea Rescue squadron in conflicted waters, and the experience of training as a gunnery leader (later an instructor), training air gunners for the famed Desert Air Force. His career also took in a fraught period behind enemy lines, when his crew of four were shot down in enemy territory in Northern Italy. Seven weeks in a safe house in Florence are relayed in engaging and dramatic style, as are a raft of other personal and professional achievements, set within the context of the wider conflict. Here is a career that deserves to be recorded and celebrated, and there is perhaps no-one better placed than the subject's son to act as custodian to his thrilling story.
£22.50
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Courage, Blood and Luck: Poems of Waterloo
At about 11:30 on a Sunday morning in 1815, a few shots rang out as the curtain-raiser to one of Europe's most titanic military clashes. By late afternoon, at the close of the Battle of Waterloo, nearly 40,000 men lay dead or wounded. Until that day, the army of Napoleon Bonaparte seemed almost invincible. Indeed, by mid-afternoon, victory for the French seemed a distinct possibility. But the Allied army, led by the Duke of Wellington and ably assisted by Marshal Blucher, finally delivered a fatal blow that not only defeated the French forces but destroyed for ever Napoleon's dreams of conquest and glory, in which he would stand astride Europe like a colossus. Events that day confirmed the Duke of Wellington as a military genius and Blucher as an eccentric but loyal ally. For the British, the Battle of Waterloo was one of our greatest ever victories and the story of that extraordinary day,.
£13.49
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Disaster in the Far East 1941-1942
Despatches in this volume include that on the Far East between October 1940 and December 1941, by Air Chief Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham; the despatch on operations in Hong Kong between 8 and 25 December 1941, by Major-General C.M. Maltby, General Officer Commanding British Troops in China; the report on the air operations during the campaigns in Malaya and Netherland East Indies between December 1941 and March 1942; and the important despatch by Percival detailing the fall of Malaya and Fortress Singapore. This unique collection of original documents will prove to be an invaluable resource for historians, students and all those interested in what was one of the most significant periods in British military history.
£27.00
Pen & Sword Books Ltd Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths Around Leicester
Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths in Leicester - True Crime BooksWithin the pages of this book are some of the most notorious and often baffling cases in Leicestershire's history. From the appalling double murder at Melton Mowbray in 1856, known locally as the Peppermint Billy murders, to the 1953 murderer Joseph Reynolds who killed because he wanted to know how it felt. This book explores the cases that dominated the headlines, not only across the city and surrounding county but also nationwide. These are the stories of those involved in Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths at a time when murder was a capital offence and guilt or innocence was proven without the benefit of modern forensic technique or DNA profiling. Included in this list are also some of those mysterious cases that will remain forever unsolved, as in the now famous case of Bella Wright. Known across the whole country as the green bicycle murder, it commanded public attention in 1919 because of the complex and puzzling nature of the crime and has continued to do so ever since. Just as many of the other cases re-examined here have done.
£9.99