Search results for ""Marble Hill Publishers""

Our image of the civil servant has been implanted indelibly in our minds by Sir Humphrey in Yes, Minister. But as this fascinating and important memoir tells us, the real life of the mandarin is very different. With disarming candour, delightful humour and impressive memory, Hayden Phillips describes the career of a man who from his earliest days was connected to events that are now part of the history of British politics in the second half of the 20th century. Educated at Cambridge and Yale, Phillips became a civil servant in 1967 as an Assistant Principal in the Administrative class. His extraordinarily varied career was defined by working for Roy Jenkins when he was Home Secretary and later President of the European Commissioner in Brussels, IRA bombings, the Iranian Embassy siege, sending police to Zimbabwe to oversee the election, training civil servants, a stint as Deputy Secretary in the Treasury, the creation of the National Lottery for John Major, the Windsor Castle fire, the of Tate Modern, the Millennium Dome, press regulation, Princess Diana's funeral. There can be few mandarins who have taken to the boards as Sir Humphrey or had a role in a James Bond film. No surprise that, in retirement Hayden Phillips was Chairman of the National Theatre. This is a life of variety, excitement and drama that defies all the cliched ideas about those who run the country and what they do. Phillips tells an important story filled with pen portraits of politicians and others with whom he worked on a daily basis that shows us what life at the centre of power is like. It is also the picture of a talented, charming, dedicated and fortunate man who has contributed so much to our national life.

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Into this personal account, Oldham weaves a brilliant historical reconstruction of life in a cultured and prosperous Berlin - until the darkening shadows of Hitler's anti-semitic laws steadily reduced the freedoms that he enjoyed and threatened his very existence. Why? Alexander's family was Jewish by birth but generations before, had converted to Lutheranism, an act which was to provide no defence in Hitler's Germany. Writing, remarkably, without animosity, Alexander Oldham combines the warmth of his childhood and his intriguing family life with a meticulous and historical exploration of the brutal political processes that forced him, aged twelve, to flee his Berlin childhood to take on a new identity and make a new life in Britain.

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In 1997, the Bar Council, which regulates the behaviour of barristers, appointed Michael Scott, a recently retired soldier with a distinguished war record but no legal experience, to head its first Complaints Commission to deal with the public's complaints against the legal profession. It was the sort of minefield Scott had not encountered before. He had to deal with murderers, gangsters, drug barons, paedophiles, bitter wives and infuriated neighbours, all of whom believed they had been let down by the legal profession. He found that the price of justice brought him face to face with all kinds of hostility, from mockery to threats of violence, appearances in court and of course, regular scrutiny by journalists and consumer counsellors. But amongst the stories of delusion, sadness and occasional tragedy, there are moments of great hilarity - as the tin of Argentinian corned beef and the thirty pierces of silver. This is a rich and enthralling account of how human nature will tie itself in all kinds of knots to get what it thinks it deserves - and how an experienced and honest ex-soldier was up to all the tricks his complainants play on him.

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Can history repeat itself? Geoffrey Cox's remarkable account of the Winter War, Stalin's ill-judged invasion of Finland in 1939, has striking similarities with Russia's invasion of the Ukraine.

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To rise from humble beginnings in the Potteries to become a hugely successful barrister involved in many high profile cases would be enough to satisfy the ambitions of many. But Bob Alexander's life took him from the law to be chairman of the Takeover Panel and the NatWest Bank at a critical time when the impact of 'Big Bang' demanded huge changes from many staid financial institutions. Add to that his passion for cricket which led to him being elected chairman of the MCC, and his chairmanship of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and his elevation to the peerage, and you have the extraordinarily full life of a man who rose to the very top of the British establishment. What distinguishes these memoirs from many is the candour with which Lord Alexander describes his wealth of experiences. His accounts of his famous cases - GCHQ, Ken Livingstone, 'Spycatcher,' the Summerfields Fire, Jeffrey Archer - are masterpieces of clarity and concision. But he is never afraid to express his opinions of people and events - and this is particularly so when he describes his efforts to reform the NatWest Bank. His account will surely be of great value to financial historians for years to come. Behind this remarkable success there is a continuing modesty and an openness to argument and opinion, characteristics that made him such a revered and popular figure in so many different worlds. Lord Alexander, who died in 2005 before he was able to complete his memoir, has left us a vivid and revealing personal account of a brilliant career. His wisdom, kindness and mastery of the law touched the lives of so many.

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Many studies have covered aspects of military intelligence available to Britain and her allies during the Second World War. This distinguished book provides a succinct and authoritative survey of the vital role Ultra played in achieving final victory., When war began Britain was as ill-prepared in intelligence as armaments. Civilian scientists had discovered the principle of radar in the mid-1930s, but everything had to be learned from scratch in the heat of emergency. First signs of improvement came in mid-1941, when Ultra targeted naval vessels and bomber aircraft onto so many of Rommel's supply ships that the Africa Corps almost withered on the vine. From then on intelligence played an increasingly indispensable part in final victory. Ultra won the Battle of the Atlantic, driving U-boats back to coastal waters by June 1943. Ultra confirmed the whereabouts of the German tanks as Montgomery planned the breakthrough to Alamein. Only 'Bomber' Harris refused to give intelligence the credit it deserved; on the basis of new evidence this fascinating book strongly reinforces criticism this costly mistake.

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Richard Charkin’s experience as a publisher is unique among his generation. Over the past half century he has been (at different times) a scientific and medical publisher, a journal publisher, a digital publisher and a general publisher. He has worked for family-owned, publicly-owned, university-owned companies and start-ups. In this memoir he uses his unrivalled experience to illustrate the profound changes that have affected the identity and practices but not the purpose of publishing. Of course there are stories about well-known personalities he has encountered in his career - Madonna, Jeffrey Archer, Robert Maxwell, Paul Hamlyn, Mohammed Al-Fayed and many more. But his primary purpose is to provide an insider’s account of the social, technological, commercial and geographical developments as seen through the eyes of a gifted all-round publisher who has made a very significant contribution to the profession. This is an insider’s account of the last fifty years of the publishing industry: the essential guide for writers, readers, students of publishing, and book industry professionals including librarians, booksellers, literary agents, printers, copyright lawyers, digital experts.

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