In November 1939, the Nazis used the so-called Venlo Incident as a pretext for invading the Netherlands. Following orders from Himmler, two British intelligence officers, Sigismund Payne Best and Richard Stevens, were captured from the Café Backus in the town of Venlo.Best had been trying to contact German officers plotting against Hitler. The Netherlands had been an ideal ground for operations, because of its proximity to Germany and the fact that Dutch Intelligence was badly fund...

There were over forty plots to assassinate Hitler— This is the "compelling, fast-paced account" of the one that came closest to succeeding ( Publishers Weekly).The July Plot of 1944 was masterminded by Count Claus von Stauffenberg, a member of the German General Staff, who had been rushed back from Africa after losing his left eye and right hand. For his injuries, he had been decorated as a war hero. However, he'd never been a supporter of Nazi ideology—an...

This extraordinary story of a high-class Berlin brothel—taken over by the Nazi secret service—is one of the last untold tales of World War II.There is no book in English about the wartime Berlin ‘salon’ run by Kitty Schmidt under the secret control of Reinhard Heydrich, one of the architects of the Final Solution."Salon Kitty" was the most notorious brothel in the decadent Berlin of the Weimar Republic - the city of "Cabaret." But after the Nazis took power...

A "marvelous, authoritative, and entertaining" history of the storied castle in central London, and the people who populated it ( Publishers Weekly )."A riveting, pacy, and vivid chronicle of the Tower's turbulent past." —Alison Weir, New York Times– bestselling author of The Lady ElizabethCastle, royal palace, prison, torture c...

1914 dawned with Britain at peace, albeit troubled by faultlines within and threats without: Ireland trembled on the brink of civil war; suffragette agitation was assuming an ever more violent hue; and suspicions of Germany's ambitions bred a paranoia that was expressed in a rash of 'invasion scare' literature.Then when shots rang out in Sara-jevo on 28 June, they set in train a tumble of diplomatic dominos that led to Britain declaring war on Germany.Nigel Jones depicts ev...

Paragon of youthful beauty, romantic symbol of a lost England, and precociously gifted poet, Rupert Chawner Brooke died in a hospital ship off the Aegean island of Skyros in April 1915, aged just 27. All England mourned his passing.But behind the glow of myth lies a darker reality. At the height of his promise a disappointment in love triggered a mental and physical collapse that brought his inner complexities to the surface. Letters reveal a man who was sexually ambivalent, misogy...

The Special Boat Service was a small force during World War II, never more than about 300 men. But that did not stop it from inflicting great damage on the enemy. In the Mediterranean arena and in the Aegean, which the Germans controlled after the fall of Greece and Crete, this small commando force kept up a constant campaign of harassment, thus pinning down enemy forces and preventing their joining other fronts.They travelled by night to their targets, using submarines, small surface vess...

Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle was one of the greatest narrative writers in English history. Most famous for his Sherlock Holmes stories, he was incapable of penning a dull word. Nowhere is that more true than in his 'History of the Great War', now re-published as a series of e-books, with an introduction by the leading historian of the First World War, Nigel Jones. The first volume of his magisterial history of the war deals with the events of 1914, and covers the British ...

This timely and compelling book presents a broad study of all key cyber security issues of the highest interest to government and business as well as their implications.This comprehensive work focuses on the current state of play regarding cyber security threats to government and business, which are imposing unprecedented costs and disruption. At the same time, it aggressively takes a forward-looking approach to such emerging industries as automobiles and appliance...

1914 dawned with Britain at peace, albeit troubled by faultlines within and threats without…Nigel Jones depicts every facet of a year that changed Britain for ever. From gun-running in Ulster, to an attack by suffragettes on a Velasquez painting in the National Gallery; from the opening of London's first nightclub, to the embarking for Belgium of the British Expeditionary Force, he traces the events of a momentous year from its benign domestic beginnings to its descent into the nigh...

A revised edition of the candid, sometimes shocking, biography of Rupert Brooke revealing the very different reality behind the golden-boy façade of an English literary iconParagon of youthful beauty, romantic symbol of a lost England, and precociously gifted poet, Rupert Chawner Brooke died in a hospital ship off the Aegean island of Skyros in April 1915, aged just 27. All England mourned his passing.But behind the glow of myth lies a darker reality. At the height of his p...

Discover the key themes and big ideas behind the key events in the history of warfare—from the dawn of civilization to the 21st century.Tracing the epic 5,000-year story of warfare from the earliest battles to the War on Terror, The Military History Book explores and explains the causes and consequences of each, offering a new angle on military history. Entries analyze the key social and political driving forces, the arms and armaments, and the technologie...