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£10.99
‘The Defector’ is the untold account of how, in 1971, the defection of a KGB saboteur in London led to the expulsion of more than a hundred Soviet ‘diplomats’ from the UK. Drawing on newly declassified intelligence documents and dozens of interviews with spymasters, the book tells a startling story of a Soviet mission to plant fake Kremlin agents within British and American intelligence services, the paranoia that ensued, and how the actions of a genuine turncoat, the former KGB officer Oleg Lyalin, and the secrets he revealed resulted to one of the most dramatic and pivotal moments in the Cold War.
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£11.99
Tanks are the ultimate embodiment of industrial age warfare. In the popular imagination, they represent both a terrifying beast of destruction and a potent symbol of liberation. The technology behind these war machines has evolved relentlessly, and yet the coming of the information age has led many to predict that drones, missiles, and Artificial Intelligence have made the tank obsolete. Time and again, however, tanks have continued to shape – and be shaped by – battles around the world, from their introduction in 1916, through the Second World War and tank-on-tank fights in 1990s Iraq, to the current conflict in Ukraine. In ‘Tank’, Mark Urban draws on wide-ranging accounts from soldiers, designers, and politicians, from Winston Churchill to Volodymyr Zelensky, to tell the story of one of the most important developments in military history.
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£25.00
The Weimar Republic was Germany’s postwar experiment with democracy, and a time of unprecedented cultural, intellectual and artistic freedom. Berlin was at the cutting edge of quantum physics and psychoanalysis; its nightlife showcased grand opera and dissolute cabaret. Bauhaus architecture and modernist painting flourished, and it rivalled Hollywood as a capital of film. But beneath the glamour was a deeply polarised society of extremes plagued by economic disasters, populist leaders fuelling culture wars, and an uneasy political settlement that would soon spawn the horrors of Nazism. Covering 15 years from the end of the First World War to Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor in 1933, this book tells the definitive story of Germany’s interwar republic and descent into fascism.
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£30.00
How should we deal with nuclear weapons? The discovery of nuclear fission fundamentally changed the world order. Its power was harnessed, nuclear bombs invented, and the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed. In recurring international crises and calls for arms control, the threat of nuclear war has hung over humanity ever since. David Holloway traces how these weapons shaped the last century, from the US-Soviet arms race to the rivalry between India and Pakistan. Deterrence and intimidation, alliances and war plans, international treaties and organizations have all played their role. At the centre were political leaders – among them Truman, Kennedy, and Reagan, as well as Stalin, Khrushchev, and Gorbachev – who all had their fingers on the nuclear button.
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£25.00
In August 1940, a man walked into Leon Trotsky’s study in Mexico City and drove an ice pick into his skull. The killer? Ramon Mercader – an aristocratic Spaniard turned Soviet assassin. The mastermind? Joseph Stalin. But this was no simple hit. It was the climax of a decade-long global hunt: a story of seduction and betrayal, of fake identities and secret loyalties, of idealists and fanatics, lovers and spies. While Trotsky raged in exile – still clinging to his revolutionary dream – Stalin’s agents closed in. And at the heart of it all was Mercader: a man trained to lie, charm and ultimately to kill.
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£12.99
“At once deeply researched and as readable as a thriller.”?Mark Galeotti ? “An important book about the world’s most dangerous mercenary outfit. Margolin unearths new details that will surprise readers.”?Sean McFate ? “Margolin takes readers deep into the shadowy underworld. . . . A must read.”?Clarissa Ward, CNN “A tale of violence and political intrigue that reads like a Tom Clancy novel written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.”?The Wall Street Journal ? “Riveting. . . . It’s a vital window onto the weird world of secretive, privatized modern warfare.”?Publishers Weekly (starred review) An eye-opening, terrifying history of this notorious and widely influential mercenary group. Â This book exposes the history and the future of the Wagner Group, Russia’s notorious and secretive mercenary army, revealing details of their operations never documented before. Using extensive leaks, first-h
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£25.00
So secret was this mission, the SAS seizure of a train to raid deep into enemy territory to liberate a concentration camp, that it wasn’t until 1968 – 27 years after the formation of the SAS – that a short mention of it was made in the Rover and Wizard annual, under the headline ‘Who Dares Wins’. No further published record exists. Best-selling author Damien Lewis has unearthed the full incredible story from long-hidden files and first hand-testimony, his latest elite forces narrative delivering a scintillating tale of bravery, daring and determination which simply beggars belief.
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£10.99
Ah, Britain. So special. The greatest nation on Earth, some say. And we did it all on our own. Didn’t we? Well, as it happens Britannia got its name from the Romans, and for the past two centuries we have been ruled by Germans. But then, as ‘Horrible Histories’ author Terry Deary argues, nations and their leaders are defined by the enemies they make. The surprisingly sadistic Boudica would be forgotten if it weren’t for the Ninth Legion, Elizabeth I a minor royal without the Spanish Armada, and Churchill an opposition windbag without the Nazis. Britain loves its heroes so much we have been known to pickle them in brandy to keep them fresh. This book is an entertaining gallop through history that will have you laughing as you find out what they didn’t teach you in school.
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£12.99
Kim Philby was the most notorious British defector and Soviet mole in history. Agent, double agent, traitor and enigma, he betrayed every secret of Allied operations to the Russians in the early years of the Cold War. In the aftermath of the Second World War, Philby, Nicholas Elliott and James Jesus Angleton were rising stars in the intelligence world and shared every secret. Elliott and Angleton thought they knew Philby better than anyone – and then discovered they had not known him at all. This is a story of loyalty, trust and treachery, of male friendships forged, and then systematically betrayed. With access to newly released MI5 files and previously unseen papers, ‘A Spy Among Friends’ unlocks what was perhaps the last great secret of the Cold War.
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£12.99
In April 1944 a teenager named Rudolf Vrba was planning a daring and unprecedented escape from Auschwitz. After hiding in a pile of timber planks for three days while 3000 SS men and their bloodhounds searched for him, Vrba and his fellow escapee Fred Wetzler would eventually cross Nazi-occupied Poland on foot, as penniless fugitives. Their mission: to tell the world the truth of the Final Solution. A thrilling history with enormous historical implications, ‘The Escape Artist’ tells the extraordinary story of a complex man who would seek escape again and again: first from Auschwitz, then from his past, even from his own name.
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£9.99
In the summer of 1941, at the height of the war in the Western Desert, a bored and eccentric young officer, David Stirling, came up with a plan that was imaginative, radical and entirely against the rules: a small, undercover unit that would wreak havoc behind enemy lines. Despite intense opposition, Winston Churchill personally gave Stirling permission to recruit the toughest, brightest and most ruthless soldiers he could find. So began the most celebrated and mysterious military organisation in the world: the SAS. The history of the SAS is an exhilarating tale of fearlessness and heroism, recklessness and tragedy; of extraordinary men who were willing to take monumental risks.
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£11.99
On a warm July evening in 1985, a middle-aged man stood on the pavement of a busy avenue in the heart of Moscow, holding a plastic carrier bag. In his grey suit and tie, he looked like any other Soviet citizen. The bag alone was mildly conspicuous, printed with the red logo of Safeway, the British supermarket. The man was a spy. A senior KGB officer, for more than a decade he had supplied his British spymasters with a stream of priceless secrets from deep within the Soviet intelligence machine. No spy had done more to damage the KGB. The Safeway bag was a signal: to activate his escape plan to be smuggled out of Soviet Russia. So began one of the boldest and most extraordinary episodes in the history of spying. Ben Macintyre reveals a tale of espionage, betrayal and raw courage that changed the course of the Cold War forever.
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