Only the best officers are given command of U.S. Navy ships, and only the elite of these are selected for aircraft carriers. The USS America was the third of four Kitty Hawk-class super-carriers. Commissioned in 1965, decommissioned in 1996, she served three times in Vietnam, and once each in Libya, the Persian Gulf and Bosnia. This book profiles the 23 men who commanded the America and her crew of 5,000 during 31 years. Most of them were combat veterans--World W...

James Arness was born May 26, 1923, in Minneapolis. He entered college just as World War II began and dreamed of being a naval aviator. It seemed as if every night his fraternity was having a party to send off a brother to the service. Young Arness got his interview with a naval flight program officer, but his hopes vanished as he was informed that his six foot seven inch height disqualified him automatically. He wrote his draft board asking that they call him up as soon as possible and so...

A hippy Sell Up and Sail , this entertaining and inspiring book is more than just a cruising narrative - it is an instructive account showing how anyone can circumnavigate (or even sail for an extended period) without huge funds. Lars Hassler originally set off intending to sail for three years, but by judiciously using his funds, and topping them up by taking charter guests on cruises, he sailed around the world for ten years. Woven into the book is advice on costs, distances, timing, pow...

Bruce Forsyth is known across four generations as the face of family entertainment classics such as The Generation Game, Play Your Cards Right and The Price is Right. His is an amazing story that spans more than two thirds of the twentieth century.In the late 1950s, over half of Britain would tune in to Sunday Night at the London Palladium, making Bruce a star in a few weeks. But it had been a long slog since his debut as a fourteen-year-old 'Boy Bruce th...

Based on interviews with the cast and crew, this book goes behind the scenes of the successful space comedy, Red Dwarf. With chapters on every episode, it reveals how the series was made, and tells the stories of what happened on and off set. Why did Holly leave? How did Cat lose his teeth? What happened when the writers split up? All these questions are answered, and more. Now includes a full episode guide to Red Dwarf X.FULL DESCRIPTION...How did a show that was rejected t...

The Untold History of Television provides a captivating glimpse behind the scenes of the groundbreaking series that have both defined and changed the pop culture landscape.Honest, compelling and full of heart, Friday Night Lights brought small-town Texas football into the lives of television viewers across North America. From book to movie to the small screen, Friday Night Lights struggled against the odds to survive on television, finally doing so through an inno...

A major new history of the disaster that weaves into the narrative the first-hand accounts of those who survived. It was twenty minutes to midnight on Sunday 14 April, when Jack Thayer felt the Titanic lurch to port, a motion followed by the slightest of shocks. Seven-year old Eva Hart barely noticed anything was wrong. For Stoker Fred Barrett, shovelling coal down below, it was somewhat different; the side of the ship where he was working caved in. For the next nine hours, Jack, Eva and F...

The best jokes, gags and scenes from a true British comedy classic.‘They don't like it up 'em!’'People shout the "Don't tell him, Pike!" line at me regularly – and I didn't even say it!’ Philip Madoc.In the annals of British television, no finer example of classic comedy exists than in the shape of Dad's Army, the Home Guard-based sitcom written by veteran writers Jimmy Perry and David Croft. Although they penned many other sterling programmes, including Hi-De-Hi! a...

From renowned journalist Bill Zehme, author of the New York Times bestselling The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin', comes the first full-fledged biography and the only complete story of the late comic genius Andy Kaufman. Based on six years of research, Andy's own unpublished, never-before-seen writings, and hundreds of interviews with family members, friends, and key players in Andy's endless charades, many of whom have become icons...

At one time British ships carried half of the world's trade, transporting every conceivable type of freight from and to all four corners of the globe – and in times of crisis the merchant fleet has also offered military assistance. In fact, the merchant convoys and armed cruisers that defied the German blockades to supply Britain in the First World War were so pivotal that they were recognised as a second 'navy' – the Merchant Navy. This fleet again saw service in the Second World War, con...

In Running Through Corridors, two Doctor Who lovers of old - Robert Shearman and Toby Hadoke - embark on an epic quest of friendship: spend the "gap year" of 2009 (when Doctor Who consisted of a handful of specials rather than a full season) re-watching the whole of Who two episodes a day, every day, from the show's start in 1963 and ending with David Tennant's swan song on New Year's, 2010.This three-volume series contains Shearman and Hadoke's diary of that experience - a grand...

Nick Craig's ground-breaking Helming to Win was published 10 years ago to great reviews: "Many sailing books can be recycles of familiar themes and ideas. Not this one! This is a highly personal and radical, fresh view of the subject area." In the following decade since it was published, Nick has won 10 World, 3 European and 20 National Championships! That's winning more championships than most of us have attended over this period. As an amateur sailor, with a senior full-time job, Nick kn...