Unique in his own age and a phenomenon in any, Charles-Maurice, Prince de Talleyrand, was a statesman of outstanding ability and extraordinary contradictions. He was a world-class rogue who held high office in five successive regimes. A well-known opportunist and a notorious bribe taker, Talleyrand's gifts to France arguably outvalued the vast personal fortune he amassed in her service. Once a supporter of the Revolution, after the fall of the monarchy, he fled to England and then to the U...

First published in 1950, Operation Heartbreak tells the fictional story of Wilie Marygton, a career soldier who was too young for WWI and too old for WWII. Born into a military family, Willie's one goal in life is to take part in a battle, so he is exhilarated when he receives his commission, and is scheduled to leave for the Western Front on November 9, 1918. However, news of the Armistice changes his orders, and he instead spends the next 20 years in various posts in India and Africa, wh...

A perfectly told tale of defeat and glory—and a paean to gallantry in the face of the absurd—inspired by a real-life secret mission during World War II.Orphaned in the first months of World War One, when his father is killed in action, Willie Maryington dreams only of joining the same cavalry regiment and going to the front. The Armistice dashes seventeen-year-old Willie’s plans, but not his dreams of glory, and he makes the regiment the center of his adult existence. Yet, as the y...

Unique in his own age and a phenomenon in any, Charles-Maurice, Prince de Talleyrand, was a statesman of outstanding ability and extraordinary contradictions. He was a world-class rogue who held high office in five successive regimes. A well-known opportunist and a notorious bribe taker, Talleyrand's gifts to France arguably outvalued the vast personal fortune he amassed in her service. Once a supporter of the Revolution, after the fall of the monarchy, he fled to England and then to the U...

Originally published in 1935, this is the first volume of the autobiography of Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig (1861-1928), who commanded the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front from late 1915 until the end of WWI. He was commander during the Battle of the Somme, the Third Battle of Ypres, and the Hundred Days Offensive, which led to the armistice of 11 November 1918.Written with access to Earl Haig's fulsome dairies that he kept throughout the First World War...

The greatest deception of the Second World War – and possibly in the whole of military history – took place in April 1943 when a body was found floating in the sea off the Spanish coast. The documents found on him would eventually find their way to Hitler's desk and send German troops hurtling in the wrong direction. The dead man convinced the Axis powers that the Allies were about to attack Greece and not the real target, Sicily. The course of the war was changed....

Originally published in 1935, this is the first volume of the autobiography of Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig (1861-1928), who commanded the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front from late 1915 until the end of WWI. He was commander during the Battle of the Somme, the Third Battle of Ypres, and the Hundred Days Offensive, which led to the armistice of 11 November 1918.Written with access to Earl Haig's fulsome dairies that he kept throughout the First World War...

An exhilarating, brutal, comedic masterpiece—an American classic that will “leave you so giddy you’ll go and kick sand in somebody’s face” (Houston Post)When My Search for Warren Harding, Robert Plunket’s glittering story of literary sleuthing and deceit, first appeared in 1983, it garnered immediate and far-reaching acclaim. Frank Conroy at the Washington Post exclaimed, “The author pulled me in so deftly, moved me up an escalating scale...

A long-overdue reappraisal of the groundbreaking nineteenth-century writer who reshaped the literary and social norms of her age.By the age of thirty, the young woman who was born Aurore Dupin in 1804 in a Paris garret had become the internationally renowned George Sand. In English, her novels were outselling even Victor Hugo. Her enormous and radical corpus would grow to include seventy novels, travel writing, plays, autobiography, and political writing. But despi...

**Discover the page-turning true story of the most iconic Cold War spy killing of all time, perfect for fans of Ben Macintyre, Henry Hemming and the novels of John Le Carre.London, 1978: exiled Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov is murdered on Waterloo Bridge with what appears to be a poison-tipped umbrella. It would become the most infamous unsolved killing of the Cold War.**Many years later, young journalist Ulrik Skotte is approached with explosive new information about a...

THE INSTANT BESTSELLER BY MULTI-MILLION COPY BESTSELLING AUTHOR BOB MORTIMER.‘A touching story of human relationships’ The Guardian‘A delight to read’ Daily Express‘Characteristically offbeat and thoroughly amiable’ Financial TimeBathroom salesman Matt is at a crossroads. He has lost his job, he is about to be made homeless and his girlfriend has left him. He wants his luck to change and he wa...

New York Times bestselling author Charles Foster argues that all the best ideas happen at the edges, from a rocky precipice where the first human set foot in Europe **to an ancient Egyptian temple where monotheism was invented.'Literal "eccentricity" is where the scientific, artistic and spiritual giants have always found their home. Venture with Foster if you dare, and embrace life.'** Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and His Emissary