'The best biography I've read recently' – Colin Bateman, Sunday Independent'An excellent examination of Mayne… Ross corrects many of the myths about him that have flourished over the years' - History of War magazine'This welcome reassessment, officially backed and well-researched, sets the record straight' – Soldier Magazine'Paddy' Mayne was one of the mo...

"Deals with a little-known aspect of the war . . . alongside the moving story of one man's relationship with a very special animal."— Sqn Ldr Paul Scott , Spirit of the AirThis biography tells of the life of Václav Robert Bozděch, a Czech airman who escaped from the Nazi invasion, fought with the French and finally arrived in Britain to fly as an air-gunner with the RAF during World War II. He returned to his home...

Even by SAS standards this is the story of an outstanding warrior.On the point of being demobbed from the SAS, Fred Marafono was recruited by David Stirling for his private security company. After Stirling's death, Fred found himself in the midst of Sierra Leone's Blood Diamond wars, and formed an unbreakable bonding with the country's champion of democracy, Chief Hinga Norman, whose leadership and tragic death are integral to the story.Fred was recruited by Simon Mann for th...

In 1915, Archie Bowman, a philosophy professor at Princeton, was granted leave of absence to join the British army. He served in the HLI and was captured at the Battle of the Lys.Prison camp, though, turned out not to be the living death he expected: he was fluent in German and became the main go-between with camp authorities and British prisoners; he gave talks to hundreds of prisoners, and wrote up in verse form his account of the battle and his capture and two-day march into captivity. ...

This work begins in August 1900 during the war in South Africa, when mounted Boer commandos ranging across the veldt superseded pitched battles of massed armies and heavy weaponry. Thanks to his flair for organisation, Baden-Powell is asked to create a mounted force with a combined military and police role, and will be answerable to the Commander-in-Chief and the civil High Commissioner. Rejecting Army models of command, Baden-Powell creates the South African Constabulary (SAC) with a smal...

This book presents a contemporary perspective on legal rights centred on the longstanding will theory–interest theory debate. Starting with classical rights literature, central aspects of the debate in its modern idiom are contextualised within a social theory setting developed from the writings of Max Weber.The book explores the idea that the institutional and coercive character of legal enforcement necessitates viewing legal rights as a locus of social power resi...

‘Paddy’ Mayne was one of the most outstanding special forces leaders of the Second World War. Hamish Ross’s authoritative study follows Mayne from solicitor and a rugby international to troop commander in the Commandos and then the SAS, whose leader he later became and whose annals he graced, winning the DSO and three bars, the Croix de Guerre and the Légion d’Honneur.Mayne’s achievements attracted attention, and after his early death legends emerged, based largely on anecdote and ...

"Martin King tells the human side of the story of the Battle of the Bulge better than anyone."Commander Jeffrey Barta, US Navy (retired)"I have walked the battlefields with Martin King, who has traversed them countless times with veterans of the Bulge. No one knows this story like Martin, and no one can tell it quite the way he does."Rick Beyer, New York Times bestselling author of The Ghost Army of World War II

From the host of The Rest is Classified podcast, this is the secret history of MI6 - from the Cold War to the present day.'The history of MI6 in the words of real spies' MAIL ON SUNDAY'The best post-1949 account of British intelligence I have read' SPECTATOR'As gripping as any novel' INDEPENDENTThe British Secret Service has been cloaked in secrecy and shrou...

The men of the SBS are the maritime equivalent of their counterparts in the SAS; they are the elite of the British Special Forces and also the most secretive. Although SAS activity has been extensively documented, the SBS has remained in the state it prefers - a shadowy silhouette, with identities protected and missions kept from public view. Formed during the Second World War, when they took part in many daring raids (one of which was filmed as The Cockleshell Heroes), they were active in...

OPERATION STORM is the inside story - told by those who took part - of the greatest secret war in SAS history. The tipping point, Mirbat, South Oman, 19 July 1972 is one of the least-known yet most crucial battles of modern times. If the SAS had been defeated at Mirbat, the Russian and Chinese plan for a communist foothold in the Middle East would have succeeded, with catastrophic consequences for the oil-hungry West. OPERATION STORM is a page-turning account of courage and resilience. Mir...

The Sunday Times No.1 bestseller.They were branded as cowards and accused of being the British Special Forces Squadron that ran away from the Iraqis. But nothing could be further from the truth. Ten years on, the story of these sixty men can finally be told.In March 2003 M Squadron - an SBS unit with SAS embeds - was sent 1,000 kilometres behind enemy lines on a true mission impossible, to take the surrender of the 100,000-strong Iraqi Army 5th Corps. From ...