Combat Memoirs

In 2006 Doug Beattie was awarded the Military Cross for his part in recapturing the southern Afghan town of Garmsir from the Taliban. He was due to retire from the British Army in 2007, when his CO made a desperate plea: stay on for one more tour. Torn between his love for his wife and children, and an overwhelming sense of duty towards his other family, the Royal Irish Regiment, in March 2008 he returned to Afghanistan. The story of what he endured there makes for gripping listening. If 2006 had been hellish, then 2008 was off the scale.

The book chronicles the extraordinary life and leadership of Rome's Emperor Julius Caesar, from his early years to his assassination. "History of Julius Caesar" is one of many biographies aimed at young people written by Jacob Abbott and his brother. The biographies are written in such a way that makes them appealing and easily accessible to everyone.

Through his experience of boxing - learning to get hit and to hit back; wrestling with the camaraderie of the gym; confronting the betrayals and strength of his own body - McBee examines the weight of male violence, the pervasiveness of gender stereotypes and the limitations of conventional masculinity. A wide-ranging exploration of gender in our society, Amateur is ultimately a story of hope, as McBee traces a way forward: a new masculinity, inside the ring and out of it.

Sa vie exemplaire, son amour des siens, sa fidélité sans faille aux valeurs de la République, son attachement à la cause des femmes ont fait de Simone Veil un modèle de ce que doit être une personnalité politique de premier rang. A mesurer l’immensité des épreuves qu’elle a connues et surmontées, on comprend pourquoi tant de respect, d’admiration et d’affection entourent Simone Veil, la “mère courage” de notre génération. Robert Badinter....

At London 2012, Nicola Adams made history. The flyweight boxer - nicknamed the smiling assassin - became the first ever woman to win an Olympic Gold medal for boxing. In Rio 2016, with the nation cheering her on, she did it all over again. Growing up in Leeds, Nicola stumbled into boxing in her local sports centre while her mum was at aerobics. Age 13 she decided that she would win an Olympic Gold: nobody was going to stop her.

Picture a man, he’s tall, not excessively so, yet as wide as he is high. This man is a spitting and growling street brawler; a tank full of ready-to-blow, muscle-fuelled aggression. Imagine, if you will, the comic-book style Bulldog of Great British stamp. Well, there you have him! The prototypical face taken from the terraces of an ’80s football fan’s rolled-up newspaper cosh; a poster-boy of malevolence left over from Thatcher’s post-punk Britain.

Like the legendary Hellenic hero Prometheus, George Dillman is both admired and criticized for sharing once arcane knowledge with the wider world. His pioneering work in the field of pressure point fighting has had made a profound and lasting impression on the landscape of the martial arts. By any standard, Dillman is a martial giant. Here, then, for the first time anywhere, is his story, told in the words of the man himself, and those of his students, and voiced by one of his senior instructors...

Tina's struggle continues in The Terrorist Maker. Surrounded by murderers her only chance to survive is to start using her gift. His gaze is stony, his eyelids at half-mast. And I can’t look at him at all, which is why I’m lying with my eyes closed. I’m afraid to see something frightening in these eyes. But I feel that I need to look. Otherwise, this ‘frightening thing’ inside him will suffocate me. I realize, that if I don’t do this, I’ll be left to die exactly like that man, about whom they later simply forgot. Therefore, however frightening and difficult it might be, I’m ...

Sometimes the hardest battle is the one after the war. As one of the soldiers on the front line of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Lieutenant Scotti was taught that weakness is what gets you killed: No hesitation, focus your energies on your objective, and complete the mission. Upon returning from war, Scotti approached his new life the same way. He ignored the creeping depression and numbness he called "The Blue Cascade" and charged ahead toward his goal to get an MBA, secure a high-paying finance job, and retire young and rich.

You're about to discover the incredibly inspirational story of UFC superstar Georges St-Pierre. If you're reading this, then you must be a GSP fan, like so many others. As a fan, you must wonder how this man is so talented and want to know more about him. Georges is considered one of the greatest MMA fighters in the world, and it's been an honor to be able to watch him fight throughout his career. This book will reveal to you much about Georges' story and the many accomplishments throughout his career.

As the world’s most popular UFC fighter, Georges "Rush" St-Pierre seems almost impossibly tough and dominant. But long before he was "GSP", as his millions of fans know him, he was just a kid harassed by bullies. But he was also a kid who, thanks to years of practicing martial arts, invented his own way of life. He became a black belt in karate at the age of 12. In his later teens, working as a garbage collector to finance his unique and innovative training methods, GSP learned from repeated losses and ultimately found a way to triumph in a highly competitive field.

Boxeadores que hace décadas llevaron la emoción de los cuadriláteros a generaciones de latinoamericanos. La lucha que libra la etnia wayúu contra los civilizados, cuyas intrusiones minan la cultura y las costumbres de la etnia. Un equipo de futbol conformado por travestis, dedicado a recaudar fondos para ayudar a homosexuales con problemas de adicción. La curiosa historia de un hombre que fue boxeador y paramilitar, que asegura poseer superpoderes y ser un protegido de los espíritus.

For just over 30 years Al Bernstein has been one of the most recognizable and respected sportscasters in America. In those three decades, the “voice of boxing” reported the funny, poignant, and bizarre events that helped shape sports television, ESPN, boxing, Las Vegas, and Showtime. With an eclectic cast of characters that includes every big name in boxing, including Marvin Hagler, Mike Tyson, Floyd Mayweather, and Manny Pacquiao, as well as such names in the entertainment world as Rodney Dangerfield, Sylvester Stallone, Russell Crowe, Jerry Lewis, and Jack Nicholson, Bernstein's memoir will have you in stitches.

This book has all the ingredients of an exciting action film because it's a highly entertaining coming-of-age martial arts memoir about a karate-crazed teen who discovers that his martial arts heroes are deep into drug, drinking, and debauchery. John Graden joined the Florida Karate Academy at the height of the Bruce Lee Kung Fu Boom in the 1970s. Within a decade, he became a protégé of the legendary Joe Lewis, twice voted as the greatest karate fighter of all time. With humor and unflinching honesty, this story is a pause-resister.

Amidst the tension of a true historical military escalation between the USA and Libya in 1986, a Navy fighter pilot navigates his haunted past and uncertain future, discovering that true battles lie within, while a determined detective in Denver unravels a web of deceit, murder, and stolen diamonds that threatens to destroy them both.

Everyone who knew professional boxer Zora Folley called him a gentleman. This true-crime story cracks the cold case of Folley's untimely death in the swimming pool of a sketchy motel. On a hot July night in 1972, when he should have been home with his faithful wife, Zora Folley instead was partying with his mistress and a shady celebrity hanger-on at a motel in Tucson, Arizona. He died that night, his head crushed, the only witnesses claiming it was an accident that occurred when the agile ex-boxer slipped and hit his head on a concrete divider in the pool.

Young Sue Gurwell had always known that her father had been a paratrooper. And then there was the special poem in his roll-top desk she sometimes snuck a peek at, written by a member of Dad's regiment. This poem was a premonition of the sergeant's death. "Yes," her dad told her, "He was right—he died on D-Day." But it's not until 2016, after her parents had both passed away, that Susan Gurwell Talley and her husband Jack L. Talley begin to understand the true extent and significance of the wartime artifacts that had been staples of Sue's childhood.

We were a task force of 60 soldiers who were sent to an area of the Mekong Delta of Vietnam to build schools in poor rural villages. Their schools had been destroyed in WWII and these poor farmers were desperate to educate their children. There was great appreciation for our work. However, as you can imagine, the Viet Cong were determined to stop us. The Viet Cong launched attacks to stop us. It became clear that we were going to die. It was Vietnam 1968. My soldiers and I fought back. We improvised. We adjusted. We quickly learned what we needed to learn. We survived. The Viet Cong’s ...

Donald Trump's rise from unlikely candidate to Republican presidential nominee has been one of the most chaotic, confusing campaigns in American history, and the country is still struggling to make sense of it all. But when looking for insight into Trump's candidacy, it's not his career as a developer or a reality show host - or the history of presidential politics - that provides the most insight: it's his time in the pro wrestling ring.

Bullied at school, Simon Gray set off on a journey to avenge his demons. From the Muay Thai ring to the traditional Japanese dojo, his journey of self-discovery is packed full of humor, inspiration, and lessons to live a better and more fulfilling life. Approaching his mid-thirties, he stepped away from the corporate rat race.