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operation was plagued with disaster from the start. Transport ships sank en route and those that actually got there faced disease, wild animals, mutiny and desertion. Those who survived made a massive contribution to Bolivar’s eventual success and the freedom of South America. Hughes begins with the raising of regiments in Britain, one ship sinking after leaving Portsmouth, with 200 lost, through the terrible conditions of travel and fighting to their defiant last stand at the Battle of Carabobo. Colour and b/w plates, maps, 376pp. £20 NOW £5.50


WAR MEMOIRS


Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.


- Winston S. Churchill 76295 SECRET MINISTRY OF


AG. & FISH by Noreen Riols Noreen Riols was delighted to get her call-up papers because she had been gallivanting round London with army officers and knew she was going to fail all her school exams. A sassy personality and fluent French speaker, she was arguing heatedly with the recruiting officer when a mysterious City Gent passed through the office and took her into


an inner sanctum. Having tested her linguistic skills he sent her to the headquarters of Churchill’s S.O.E. in Baker Street, the secret army reporting directly to the P.M. Riols was assigned to the French section under the legendary Colonel Maurice Buckmaster and at first her duties were liaising with members of the French resistance engaged in sabotaging German operations. Each network organiser was assisted by a radio operator and a courier, and the radio operator, or “pianist” as he or she was known, had the riskiest job, with a one in ten chance of surviving. When “pianist” Maureen O’Sullivan was stopped by some Gestapo and asked what she had in her bag, Maureen audaciously replied that it was a radio transmitter for contacting London, and to her relief the Gestapo assumed it was a joke. Later Noreen was sent to Bournemouth as a trap for British agents in their final stages of training. If she could get them drunk and persuade them to reveal their job, they were exposed as unsuitable material. Noreen herself fell in love with someone who failed to return, and it was many years before she found happiness again. 304pp, roll of honour. £20 NOW £7


76468 I SURVIVED THE SOMME: The Secret Diary of a Tommy by Charles Meeres


edited by Frank Meeres The author served in many of the great battles of the First World War on the Western Front. During that time, he kept a secret diary, and painted a host of watercolours of life in the front line. This is the first edition of that record ever to be published, and gives a unique insight


into the Campaign in France over four years from 1915 to 1918. Meeres describes how he fought alongside the men of Kitchener’s army at the Battle of Loos, detailing daily life in the trenches in the winter. He was present at the first day of the Battle of the Somme, as well as the subsequent phases of the battle, including the first introduction of the tank as a weapon of war. Later entries include an account of the Battle of Arras and a vivid description from his comrades of the Third Battle of Ypres. He describes the German advances in the spring of 1918 and the mobile warfare of the last months of the war when the enemy were in retreat across northern France. Some of the details are brutal and not easy reading, but the account is painfully honest and always true to life. 190 pages with maps, line drawings, watercolour paintings, archive photographs and List of Acronyms.


£16.99 NOW £7 76470 LIVING ON THE HOME


FRONT by Megan Westley Following the declaration of war on Germany in September 1939 millions of men left their homes and families to fight for their country, while those left behind had to carry on in the face of ever-escalating hardship. They dug and harvested their allotments, measured out their bathwater, gave up their metal and other items helpful to the war effort


and presented their ration coupons for food and clothing throughout bombing and blackout and did whatever they could to aid the war effort. For part of her research into what it was really like on the Home Front during WWII, Megan Westley decided to spend a year “living on the Home Front”, throwing herself into wartime cooking and rationing levels and espousing the mottos of “Dig for Victory” and “Make Do and Mend”, sacrificing TV and modern electrical appliances, even recreating an air raid! She divides the book into six chapters to cover the war’s six year span and divides up her 12 month Home Front experience into the six chapters to compare and contrast her experiences with what was actually happening during the war itself. The points system of rationing is described in detail as it evolved and the book is full of authentic wartime recipes which ingenious wartime housewives devised to make the most of what little was available, as well on tips for growing your own veg (a wormery was - and still is - one of the most efficient means of turning waste into the finest compost) and mending and making your own clothes. 100 b/w photos and vast amounts of first-hand recollections and quotes. 224pp.


£20 NOW £7


76469 LAND GIRLS: Women’s Voices from the Wartime Farm by Joan Mant


Drawing on the reminiscences of over 300 ‘Land Girls’, as well as her own experiences, the author brings to life the story of farms during the Second World War. Because all able- bodied men were needed to fight, female workers had to fill the gap. Initially, there was great prejudice


against women undertaking heavy outdoor work, yet girls from all walks of life volunteered to serve their country on the land. It was a hard task involving none of the glamour that life in the armed services seemed to offer. Wages were at subsistence levels and, in most cases, living conditions were Spartan. Those who had volunteered expecting a bucolic life of jolly hay-making were quickly pitch-forked into reality. Eating raw potatoes, keeping clean by bathing in milk sterilisers, and starting work at 4 a.m. were common conditions. Accidents, sometimes fatal, added to the hazards endured. Yet throughout these moving accounts of their lives runs a common thread of humour, camaraderie and pride. This book is a fitting tribute to the WLA’s heroic effort to keep food on the nation’s table. 183 pages with photos in colour and sepia/w, £16.99 NOW £7


74963 HEROES OF THE HOLOCAUST by Lyn Smith


There was no official celebration of British heroes of the Holocaust until 2010 when 27 people were formally recognised with a silver medal for having sheltered or rescued Jews. Among them was Frank Foley, who up to the War worked in British passport control in Berlin and took a big risk in issuing forged documents and visas. It is estimated that he may have saved 10,000 Jews in this way. Here too is the story of the two sisters Ida and Louise Cook. As opera lovers they made regular visits to Europe, wearing a selection of flashy and eye-catching garments including opulent furs. This was their cover for meeting and interviewing refugees, and they smuggled out quantities of jewellery. 272pp, photos.


£16.99 NOW £4.75 75585 HEROES ALL


by Dr. Steve Bond Veterans quoted fall into the following groupings: Air Transport Auxiliary, British Army, Civilians, Fleet Air Arm, Italian Air Force, Luftwaffe, Royal Air Force, Royal Canadian Air Force and Navy, Soviet Air Force, US Army, US Air Force, US Navy et al. For years Steve Bond has been interviewing and recording veterans from all sides


of World War Two including air and ground crew. It deals with training, aircraft ferrying etc. Chapter headings include Enlistment, Bomber Boys, The Lonely Sea, The Eastern Front and D-Day to VJ-Day. Rare photos, 306pp. £25 NOW £4


76133 SIX WEEKS


by John Lewis-Stempel Sub-titled ‘The Short and Gallant Life of the British Officer in the First World War’, this is the extraordinary story of British junior officers who led their men out of the trenches and faced a life expectancy of just six weeks. A subaltern or second lieutenant was the most junior commissioned officer, in charge of a platoon of about 50 men. Above him was the Lieutenant and the


Captain. It was these three ranks that led at platoon and company level in the trenches on the Western Front. They led gallantly in to battle, the first over the top, the last to retreat. One young subaltern, J. R. R. Tolkien, found that ‘By 1918 all but one of my close friends were dead.’ Captain Robert Graves noted that almost all were volunteers from public schools or occasionally a well-established grammar school-boy, had the qualities of courage, patriotism, selfless service, leadership and character. They had dinner parties in their dug-outs and shot rats for sport, they read Palgrave’s Golden Treasury and wrote staggeringly literate letters home. 358pp in paperback, illus. £9.99 NOW £4.50


76142 ON THE FRONT LINE: True World War I Stories


edited by C. B. Purdom Paperback reprint of a book first published in 1930. It contains 60 short narratives by writers of all ranks from Private to Lieutenant- Colonel, but unfortunately only three from the Navy and the Royal Air Force. Practically every campaign is mentioned, though of course the vast majority of the incidents are


from the Western Front.’ It was the very first collection to reveal the war through the eyes of the ordinary soldier and offers heart-stopping renditions of the earliest gas attacks, aerial dog fights above the trenches, the moment of ‘going over the top’, the drudgery of the war of attrition once the trenches had been dug, and final joy of Armistice. 441pp in paperback. £8.99 NOW £4.50


74983 PRAGUE WINTER: A Personal Story of


Remembrance and War 1937-1948 by Madeleine Albright


Secretary of State in the Clinton administration and a familiar face on our television screens, Madeline Albright only discovered her Jewish heritage when she was being vetted for office in the US government. She is particularly interested in the politics of exile. In London her father worked for the Czech government in exile corresponding with the Czech democrat Hubert Ripka based in Paris. Chamberlain was dismissive but Churchill pledged his support. As Heydrich mounted a campaign of terror in Prague, three agents were parachuted in to assassinate him. The operation did not go according to plan but achieved its end result, with the massacre of the village of Lidice. 467pp, timeline, photos. £19.99 NOW £5.50


75685 ANY SURVIVORS?: A Lost Novel of


World War Two by Martin Freud In 2008 a faded typescript was discovered. It was a satirical novel about the Second World War, written by Sigmund Freud’s son, but never before published and apparently forgotten. Freud and his family had escaped from Nazi occupied Vienna in 1938. Arriving in England, Martin, formally an eminent lawyer in Vienna, was interned as an ‘enemy alien’ and later ran a shop near the British Museum. His son Walter fought for the British in the SOE during the war. His autobiography Glory Reflected was published in 1957. The novel is a satirical and dramatic novel about a refugee who returns to Hitler’s Germany as a rather inept spy. Who is the survivor pulled out of the freezing water by men on a British destroyer and what was his connection to the U- boat crew that had perished? 238pp, paperback. £9.99 NOW £2.50


76003 MAN WHO BROKE INTO AUSCHWITZ by Denis Avey with Rob Broomby This book shows the nightmare that was the slave labour camp at Buna-Monowitz, just outside Auschwitz, where the Jewish prisoners in particular were subjected to the harshest of treatments, and killed once they were too weak to work for their SS taskmasters. In the summer of 1944, Denis Avey was being held in a British POW labour camp, E715, near Auschwitz III. He hatched a plan to swap places with a Jewish inmate and smuggled himself into his sector of the camp. He spent the night there on two occasions and witnessed astonishing cruelty. Amazingly, he survived to witness the aftermath of the Death March in which thousands of prisoners were murdered by the Nazis as the Soviet Army advanced. After his own long trek across central Europe, he was repatriated to Britain. In 2010, Denis received a British ‘Hero of the Holocaust’ award. 264pp, photos.


£20 NOW £5.50


76178 AMERICAN BOMBER CREWMAN 1941-45 by


Gregory Fremont-Barnes The United States played a vital part in the war effort in the form of the strategic bombing campaign fought between 1942 and 1945, first against Germany and by 1944, also against Japan. This book seeks to describe the lives of particularly those who served in the most


famous bomber aircraft of their day - the B-17 Flying Fortress, the B-24 Liberator and B-29 SuperFortress. Generally more literate than their companions in the Army and Navy, airmen could write down what they pleased in their journals and leave it safely in their quarters. Even if captured or killed, their journals and letters remained safely back at their base. The author highlights the physical and psychological strain placed on these men who required brute strength to control the aircraft on long bombing missions and extraordinary endurance to fly for hours at 20,000 feet in unpressurised cabins at temperatures below freezing. 64pp in large softback, colour and b/w photos. £11.99 NOW £5.75


WORDS


Dark hair fell in a sweep over his forehead. He looked like a man who would write vers libre, as indeed he did.


- P. G. Wodehouse, The Girl on the Boat 76332 COLLINS


BRADFORD’S CROSSWORD


SOLVER’S DICTIONARY by Anne R. Bradford A classic, must-have reference tome, an elegant 25th anniversary edition hardback with scarlet bookmark. Anne Bradford conceived the idea for her Crossword Solver’s Dictionary over 50 years ago and has to date analysed over 325,000 crossword


clues, singlehandedly. This milestone publication has over 10,000 synonyms added in an invaluable reference work for both cryptic and quick crossworders, setters as well as solvers. It is also a treasure store for everyone who loves words. 882pp. 6½” x 10". £20 NOW £7


76556 FINE ART OF SMALL


TALK by Debra Fine Steady those shaky knees and dry your sweaty palms, help is at hand to approach social functions with more confidence. Feel more at ease at parties, meetings or even job interviews or just start a conversation even when you think you have nothing to say. With practical advice and conversation ‘cheat sheets’, this fabulous


War Memoirs 31


handbook helps you feel more comfortable in any type of social situation, keeping the conversation going, preventing pregnant pauses with preparation, exercising your conversational clout, plus a look at crimes and misdemeanours, the graceful exit, making the most of networking events, surviving the singles scene, holiday party savvy and carpe diem. Making introductions, asking for referrals, being a good sport and not a bad one by answering the question ‘What did you do at the weekend?’ with the one word answer ‘Nothing’, perfecting the compliment, and how to focus questions instead of asking ‘Are you married?’ trying ‘Tell me about your family’. 202pp in paperback. £9.99 NOW £5


55377 FRENCH DICTIONARY


A general-purpose dictionary, suitable for a great variety of both English and French speakers at all levels of proficiency, providing over 85,000 entries. As well as everyday vocabulary and colloquialisms, the dictionary includes a selection of scientific and technological terms. Also included are the different spellings and usage of American English words. All headwords, both English and French, have phonetic transcriptions based on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to assist with pronounciation. 1056pp. Paperback. ONLY £3.50


60240 LATIN CROSSWORDS by Peter Jones and David Dare-Plumpton


Here - sounds drunk! (3) answer - Hic. The existing condition of one very old rock group? (6,3) answer - Status Quo. Even if the extent of your Latin is only amo, amas, amat, the first two sections of our fun puzzler are gratifyingly easy. For those who enjoy a challenge, there is a more difficult selection, and the editor and compiler have


ended with a few fiendish puzzles that will really test both your Latin and your cruciverbal quickwittedness. The clues are themed on ancient history, culture, language and general knowledge. 118 page paperback. £5.99 NOW £3


74613 CLICHÉS: Avoid Them Like the Plague! by Nigel Fountain


Often useful but overworked catchphrases, worn-out or hackneyed sayings (between a rock and a hard place), pointless phrases which often conceal weak arguments (to be honest), here are technical terms used out of context (collateral damage) and long winded space fillers (at this moment in time) and many others, to avoid like the plague! With the best will in the world, with all (due) respect, draw a line under, brain dump, here are phrases to grate and make you groan. Understand where they came from and how they caught on. 192pp. Cartoons. £9.99 NOW £4


60724 HOBSON JOBSON:


The Anglo-Indian Dictionary by H. Yule and A.C. Burnell Hobson-Jobson is short-hand for the assimilation of foreign words to the sound pattern of the adopting language. Bungalow, pyjamas, verandah, curry, chintz, gingham, mango, junk and catamaran are all words which have crept into the English language from the days of Britain’s colonial rule of the Indian sub-continent and the Malaysian Peninsula. This dictionary, compiled


in the late 19th century, is an invaluable source which has never been superseded. It also provides fascinating clues to the concern of Empire and the attitudes of the colonial rulers. Revised new edition. 1072pp in paperback. ONLY £3


74665 501 ESSENTIAL FRENCH VERBS by Heather McCoy


A handy reference guide to the full conjugations of 501 most commonly used French verbs including the infinitif, the participe présent and the participe passé. Also the subjunctive, conditional, imperative, including seven simple tenses. Sample sentences are given for contextual reference. The introduction discusses the infinitive form, subject pronouns and subject-verb agreement, tense, aspect, mood and voice, and a description of negation. There is a brief verb-practice section and the verbs themselves are followed by a series of quick verb reference charts. Large softback, 518pp.


£10.99 NOW £3


74730 179 WAYS TO SAVE A NOVEL by Peter Selgin


Is your fiction writing in peril? The 179 meditations in this book are grouped under six headings - Substance, Structure, Style, Symbol, Myth and Metaphor, Soul and Other Matters. Dip into the book at random when in need of non-specific advice, inspiration or criticism, or read it straight through for a deeper examination of the writing life. Latinisms, ‘crap’ words and phrases, writerly verbs, it is a nuts and bolts guide to avoiding the ho-hum syndrome. Index, 282pp in paperback. £13.99 NOW £3


75524 ITALIAN VOCABULARY by Geddes & Grosset


In small 185 page softback with space for notes and with big clear type are over 3,000 translations arranged in easy-to-use thematic categories like the home, arts and entertainment, places, animals, health, travel and tourism etc. They help build a comprehensive Italian vocabulary for every level of language student. Paperback.


£2.95 NOW £1.50


75525 WEBSTER’S FRENCH DICTIONARY by Geddes & Grosset


With soft, plasticised bright blue cover, this palm-sized compact French-English dictionary contains over 36,000 entries for students and business users. Also with list of French verbs and irregular verbs in English. Softback, 540 pages.


£3.99 NOW £1.25


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