* Some of the best poetry ever written in celebration of the English countryside * From Shakespeare to Coleridge to Betjeman *



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A wonderful anthology of poetry celebrating the British coastline & life above & below the deep blue sea. Verses from our best-loved authors
- such as WB Yeats RL Stevenson & Rudyard Kipling
- are accompanied by beautiful illustrations of idyllic days at sea haunted shipwrecks & tempestuous storms. Sea shanties & siren's songs sit alongside the classic song from The Tempest & Coleridge's ' The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' in this beautiful anthology of the mystical world beaneth the waves.

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Nazi Germanys fall is regularly depicted through the dual images of Adolf Hitler directing the final battle for Berlin from his claustrophobic Fuhrerbunker & the subsequent Soviet victory immortalized by the flying of the Hammer & Sickle over the burnt-out Reichstag. This popular view that Germanys last battle of World War II was a deliberate yet fatalistic defense of Berlin planned & conducted by Hitler is largely a historically inaccurate depiction that fits a popularized characterization of the Third Reichs end. Germanys final battle began when Generaloberst Gotthard Heinrici took command of Heeresgruppe Weichsel (Army Group Vistula) on 20 March 1945 not when the massive Soviet offensive intended to capture Berlin was launched on 16 April. Heinrici not Hitler decided that there was only one strategic course left for Germany-hold the Soviets back along the Oder Front long enough to entice the Western Allies across the Elbe River. Heinrici knew two things: the war was lost & what remained of Germany was destined for postwar Soviet occupation. His intent was that a protracted defense along the Oder Front would force General Eisenhower to order the Western Allies into the postwar Soviet Zone of Occupation outlined in the Top Secret Allied Plan known as Eclipse thereby sparing millions of Germans in the east the dismal fate of Soviet vengeance everyone knew was at h&. Berlin Heinrici ordered would not be defended. The capital of Germany would not become another Stalingrad as Heinrici told his subordinates. A decision by OKW on 23 April to defend Berlin in a final decisive battle forced Heinrici into direct conflict with his superiors over the conduct of operations along the Oder Front
- a conflict that undermined his capability to defend against the Soviets & ultimately cost Heinrici his comm&. In a companion volume to his successful & highly-regarded study of the Soviet assault on the city of Berlin Bloody Streets" author A. Stephan Hamilton describes the planning & execution of the defense of the Oder Front reconstructing it day-by-day using previously unpublished personal diaries postwar interviews Heeresgruppe Weichsels war diary & daily command phone logs. Operations of the 3. Panzer Armee 9. Armee 12. Armee & 21. Armee are covered in detail with their unit movements depicted on over 60 wartime operational maps. The narrative is supported by an extensive selection of appendices including translations of post-war narratives relating to Heeresgruppe Weichsel penned by senior German officers biographical notes on notable officers of the Heeresgruppe & highly detailed orders of battles. In addition to a number of bw photographs this study features 64 pages of operational maps reproduced in full colour."
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Odessa was the Russian Empires gateway to the Middle East its greatest commercial seaport & home to one of the most vibrant Jewish communities in all of Europe. Created as a model of enlightenment by Catherine the Great & developed by colourful adventurers such as Grigory Potemkin Jose de Ribas & Armand de Richelieu Odessa became a magnet for the artistic & the ambitious
- from Alexander Pushkin & Isaac Babel to Zionist activist Vladimir Jabotinsky & immunologist Ilya Mechnikov. Odessas reputation for nurturing feisty dissenters artful raconteurs & good-natured crooks cemented its place among Europes great cities. But in the twentieth century pogroms devastated the Jewish community; the Russian civil war brought refugees & new rulers the Bolsheviks; & during the Second World War Romanian occupiers killed tens of thousands of Jews in one of the untold episodes of the Holocaust. Drawing on a wealth of original source material historian Charles King paints a rich portrait of Odessa through the lives of its geniuses & villains revealing how a diverse cosmopolitan city turned against itself during the Holocaust
- but also how Odessas dream has survived in a diaspora reaching all the way to Brighton Beach Brooklyn.

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Can you forgive the past? It's 1963 & a young German reporter has been assigned the suicide of a holocaust survivor. The news story seems straightforward this is a tragic insight into one man's suffering. But a long hidden secret is discovered in the pages of the dead man's diary. What follows is life-&-death hunt for a notorious former concentration camp-commander a man responsible for the deaths of thousands a man as yet unpunished. ...

I am a very ordinary woman to whom a chance was given to see human beings at their best & at their worst...I completely believe in the potential nobility of the human spirit. During some of the darkest days of the Second World War a young Frenchwoman living as a mother & housewife in England left her ordinary life to become a British agent working covertly in France to aid the Resistance. Entering a murky & deadly world of espionage & double-dealing she was betrayed to the Germans only to endure torture by the Gestapo & the hell of the infamous concentration camp of Ravensbruck. Yet she retained a compassion grace & spiritedness that mystified her captors; & living to see the liberation of Europe she kept in the direst circumstances her fundamental trust in goodness. ODETTE tells the moving & inspirational story of a woman who in her courage & her ability to hold on to hope was far from ordinary. ...

It is April 1940. Nazi Germany has invaded neutral Norway. Fleeing north from their brutal Blitzkrieg advance are three officers of the King's Guard
- men who have been entrusted by the Norwegian King with a vitally important mission. The only military force which stands between the Nazi forces & total victory are the poorly equipped undertrained squaddies of the British 148th Brigade. Among them is Sergeant Jack Tanner recently returned from the Middle East. As the British are pushed back from Lillehammer Sergeant Tanner & his patrol are left stranded in the mountains in the chaos of retreat. Trying to rejoin their unit they stumble first across Sandvold & his protectors & then a French patrol of alpine troops. Trekking through snow-clad mountains with the Germans dogging their every move Tanner is forced to try & out-fox & out-fight not only their pursuers but the best efforts of his own side. & as the Allies resistance collapses it quickly becomes clear that the small band of fugitives can rely on no-one but themselves.
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' Was this what it all meant
- utter intact separateness obscured by heat of living?' D. H. Lawrence's short stories portray complex
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Homer's The Odyssey" is an epic that has endured for thousands of years & this " Penguin Classics" edition is translated by E.V. Rieu revised by D.C.H. Rieu & contains an introduction by Peter Jones. The epic tale of Odysseus & his ten-year journey home after the Trojan war forms one of the earliest & greatest works of Western literature. Confronted by natural & supernatural threats
- from the witch Circe who turns his men into pigs to the twin terrors of Scylla & Charybdis; from the stupefied Lotus-Eaters to the implacable enmity of the sea-god Poseidon himself
- Odysseus must test his bravery & native cunning to the full if he is to reach his homeland safely. But the danger is no less severe in his native Ithaca as Odysseus finds himself contending with the suitors who in his absence have begun to surround his wife Penelope...E.V. Rieu's translation of " The Odyssey" was the first " Penguin Classic" to be published & has itself achieved classic status. For this edition Rieu's text has been sensitively revised & a new introduction added to complement his original introduction. Seven greek cities claim the honour of being the birthplace of Homer (c. 8th-7th century BC) the poet to whom the composition of the Iliad & Odyssey are attributed. The " Iliad" is the oldest surviving work of Western literature but the identity
- or even the existence
- of Homer himself is a complete mystery with no reliable biographical information having survived. If you enjoyed " The Odyssey" you might like Homer's " The Iliad" also available in " Penguin Classics". " One of the world's most vital tales..." The Odyssey" remains central to literature". (Malcolm Bradbury)."



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Literatures grandest evocation of lifes journey at once an ageless human story & an individual test of moral endurance Homers ancient Greek epic The Odyssey" is translated by Robert Fagles with an introduction & notes by Bernard Knox in " Penguin Classics". When Robert Fagles translation of " The Iliad" was published in 1990 critics & scholars alike hailed it as a masterpiece. Here one of the great modern translators presents us with " The Odyssey" Homers best-loved poem recounting Odysseus wanderings after the Trojan War. With wit & wile the man of twists & turns meets the challenges of the sea-god Poseidon & monsters ranging from the many-headed Scylla to the cannibalistic Cyclops Polyphemus
- only to return after twenty years to a home besieged by his wife Penelopes suitors. In the myths & legends retold in this immortal poem Fagles has captured the energy of Homers original in a bold contemporary idiom. Seven greek cities claim the honour of being the birthplace of Homer (c. 8th-7th century BC) the poet to whom the composition of the " Iliad" & " Odyssey" are attributed. " The Iliad" is the oldest surviving work of Western literature but the identity
- or even the existence
- of Homer himself is a complete mystery with no reliable biographical information having survived. If you enjoyed " The Odyssey" you might like Robert Fagles translation of " The Iliad" also available in " Penguin Classics". " Wonderfully readable.. . Just the right blend of roughness & sophistication." (" Ted Hughes"). "A memorable achievement.. . Mr Fagles has been remarkably successful in finding a style that is of our time & yet timeless." (Richard Jenkyns " The New York Times Book Review"). " His translation of " The Odyssey" is his best work yet." (Garry Wills " New Yorker")."


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