History
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When the World Sleeps: Stories, Words, and Wounds of Palestine
The spirit of a place lies in the people who inhabit it, in the stories that intertwine through its streets. And this is especially true of a land like Palestine, the witness to defining historical transitions and stage to one of the most painful chapters in contemporary history. With a voice both authoritative and deeply human, Francesca Albanese, who had been living in Palestine for many years while following the legal battles of numerous Palestinian families, takes on the role of narrator of the ongoing conflict, starting from the stories of the people she met. Albanese elegantly composes a gallery of stories, characters, and places that allow us to understand what Palestine was like until a year and a half ago, and what it has become today. ‘Is it possible that after 42,000 people have been killed, you still cannot empathize with the Palestinians? Those among you who have not uttered a word about what is happening in Gaza demonstrate that empathy has evaporated from this room. Empathy is the glue that makes us stand united as humanity.’ -Albanese at the United Nations General Assembly, October 2024.Read more
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One Woman’s War: Rags to Riches, Book 2 (Audio Download): Rosie Goodwin, Charlie Sanderson, Zaffre: Amazon.co.uk: Books
A Rags to Riches novel .
The second book in a brand-new historical trilogy from Britain’s best-loved saga author.
Nuneaton, 1914
War is just around the corner and for Annie Lilburn and her adopted family, life will never be the same. Annie, after a difficult childhood, has never felt like she fits in, but since Levi Lilburn, the local rag and bone man, took her under his wing and she became a business woman in her own right, things have been on the up. Soon that is set to change when World War I is declared and the men of the town enlist. And as more and more casualties come in, Annie needs to step up and do her bit for the war effort.
Annie trains to become a nurse and eventually finds herself on the battlefields in France. With death and destruction all around her, Annie is experiencing things she could never have imagined, but finds an inner strength like no other. Then through the devastation of war, love starts to bloom when Annie meets a young officer. Could this orphan girl finally be finding her place in the world and someone to truly love her, or is her happiness set to come crashing down once again?
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William Tyndale and the English Language
‘Dearly beloved’, ‘say the word’, ‘the powers that be’, ‘for ever and ever’ – these familiar phrases and many more were set down in print for the first time by William Tyndale. For his groundbreaking English translation of the Bible, he deliberately chose to write in a way that could be understood by the widest possible audience.
In the first half of this pioneering exploration of the extraordinary impact Tyndale’s writing had on the development of the English language, David Crystal provides an analysis of his prose style, demonstrating its character as a novel genre of ‘written speech’, and bringing to light the remarkable number of cases where Tyndale is the first recorded user of a word or phrase in English. He also draws attention to the hitherto unrecognised role of Tyndale as an early lexicographer. The second half of the book is a linguistic detective story, devising an innovative lexical and grammatical metric to investigate the often-stated claim that eighty per cent of later biblical translations display Tyndale’s influence.
The result is a fascinating exploration of the work of the Father of the English Bible.
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From £5.72William Tyndale and the English Language
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SS Kommando: Hitler’s Special Forces in the Second World War (The Third Reich’s Shadow Forces Book 1)
The secret war of Germany’s elite commandos — a gripping account of sabotage, espionage, and survival in World War Two.For readers of James Owen, Peter Young, James Lucas and Franz Kurowski.
The SS Kommandos and their forerunners, the Brandenburgers — led by Admiral Canaris and later Otto Skorzeny — fought their war in the shadows of Europe for six years. During this time, they battled and plotted behind enemy lines across three continents and dozens of countries. Their clandestine activities undoubtedly changed the course of history.
Often overlooked in favour of the perhaps better-known British Special Forces or American Rangers, the Kommandos were, in fact, the first military units to embrace and utilise such an unconventional style of warfare. In this book, author Charles Whiting presents a thorough account of the men and the operations they undertook during the war years, using first-hand interviews with the remaining survivors — including Skorzeny himself. The result is a vivid, personal account of ordinary men, both heroes and victims of the German war machine, engaged in a deadly struggle for survival.
The daring and complexity of some of the SS Kommando operations is truly staggering and includes the 1943 rescue of deposed dictator Benito Mussolini from under the noses of the Italians in the mountains; the 1944 kidnapping of the son of the Regent of Hungary to keep that country in the war against the Allies; and the theft of a large quantity of diamonds in South Africa to sabotage Britain’s war effort. Brutally efficient and often disregarding the rules of war, these men seized strategic targets, captured key bridges, engaged in espionage and sabotage, and would ultimately influence the development of special forces around the world.
This book is a compelling read for anyone interested in Kommando operations throughout World War Two — the men involved, their leaders and rivals under the Führer, and the desperate tactics employed in the face of defeat.
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From £2.24