Imperial War

1943, the North African desert. Major Tim Sheldon, exhausted and battle weary, is tasked with carrying out a futile and unexpected patrol mission. Fred Majdalany's intimate, tense novel puts this so-called minor action centre stage, as over the course of the day and through the night of the patrol itself, Sheldon reminisces about his time as a soldier, his own future and what it means to confront fear.

Six years later and the war is still far from over… Cut off from the bulk of the fleet for his own good, Nyren struggles with unsettling changes. But when one of his visions threatens the loss of Maddie and Vashala, Nyren takes matters into his own hands. Isolated from the war and its devastation, Davil fights an internal battle—living with the constant reminder of what will be his if the war turns in their favor. Safely tucked away behind allied forces, Sedri pushes himself harder than ever to produce a means to stop Admiral Ronn’s conquest.

They were an astonishing group: glamorous, gutsy, and irreverent to the bone. As cub reporters in the 1920s, they roamed across a war-ravaged world, sometimes perched atop mules on wooden saddles, sometimes gliding through countries in the splendour of a first-class sleeper car. While empires collapsed and fledgling democracies faltered, they chased deposed empresses, international financiers and Balkan gunrunners, then knocked back doubles late into the night.

I grandi condottieri della storia, Alessandro come Cesare, Annibale come Carlo Magno, sono stati dei solitari. Hanno però avuto, tutti, un rapporto intenso con i loro soldati, reparti scelti che costituirono lo strumento della vittoria in battaglia e contribuirono a forgiare una leggenda capace di proiettarsi nel tempo. Ad accompagnare Napoleone "nel percorso di occupazione non solo militare dell'Europa e di creazione dell'ultima grande figura di conquistatore prodotta dall'Occidente" furono i "grognards", i brontoloni, come lui stesso li battezzò affettuosamente.

El ataque a la base naval estadounidense de Pearl Harbor cambió el rumbo de la Segunda Guerra Mundial y, como resultado, fue un evento muy formativo tanto para Estados Unidos como para Japón. Aunque las dos naciones parecían enemigos poco probables al comienzo de la segunda gran guerra, el derramamiento de sangre que tuvo lugar entre ellos sería mayor de lo que nadie podría haber imaginado.

It is 1943, and a month into their service as Land Girls, Bee, Anne and Pauline are dispatched to a remote farm in rural Scotland. Here they are introduced to the realities of 'lending a hand on the land', as back-breaking work and inhospitable weather mean they struggle to keep their spirits high. Soon one of the girls falters, and Bee and Pauline receive a new posting to a Northumberland dairy farm. Barbara Whitton's autobiographical novel paints a sometimes funny, sometimes bleak picture of time spent in the Women's Land Army during the Second World War.

In Blood on the Snow, Robert Service returns to the subject that has formed the backbone of his long and distinguished career: the Russian Revolution. For Service, the great unanswered question is how to reconcile the two vital narratives that underpin the extraordinary but troubled events of 1917. One puts the blame squarely on Tsar Nicholas II and on Alexander Kerensky’s provisional government that deposed him. The other is the view from the bottom, that of the workers and peasants who wanted democratic socialism, not the Bolshevik dictatorship imposed by Lenin and his successors.

Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna Romanov comes of age amid a shifting tide for the great dynasties of Europe. But even as unrest simmers in the capital, Olga is content to live the sheltered life her parents have built for her and her sisters: hiding from the world on account of their mother’s ill health, their brother Alexei’s secret affliction, and rising controversy over Father Grigori Rasputin, the priest on whom the tsarina relies.

Set in 2276, Imperial Earth is the fascinating odyssey of Duncan Makenzie, travelling from Titan, a moon of Saturn, to Earth, as a diplomatic guest of the United States. Duncan’s initial challenge is to prepare for the 500-million-mile trip to Earth. Once there, he is caught up in a sweep of new experiences - including the social whirl of Washington, a strange visit to a carefully preserved ancient city, and a search for the woman he loves.

Taking a chronological approach, The War on Paper tells the story of the most destructive war in history through 20 key documents held in the IWM archives. Ranging from high-level iconic records including the signed order to invade Poland on August 1939 and Hitler's final will and testament, to more personal items such as Kindertransport identity papers and the ration book of Queen Mary, the Queen Mother.

The son of an English father and a Russian mother, Charlie Doig is a big man: in stature, spirit, and sexual appetite. In 1914, he is on a mission for the Academy of Science in Russia when war breaks out. Doig, who has no intention of being killed, returns to his home near Smolensk and to the woman he loves, Elizaveta. But imperial Russia is doomed. Trapped by the snow with Doig and Elizaveta are a motley collection of old aristocrats and two soldiers seeking refuge, one of whom, Doig fears, is a Bolshevik.