{"title":"William Collins","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"devil-dogs","title":"Devil Dogs","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestselling historian Saul David, the dramatic tale of the first American troops to take the fight to the enemy in the Second World War, and also the last.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Devil Dogs of K Company, 3\/5 Marines, were part of the legendary first Marine Division. They landed on the beaches of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands in 1942  the first US ground offensive of the war  and were present when Okinawa, Japans most southerly prefecture, finally fell to American troops after a bitter struggle in June 1945. In between they fought in the Green Hell of Cape Gloucester on the island of New Britain, and across the coral wasteland of Peleliu in the Palau Islands, a campaign described by one K Company veteran as thirty days of the meanest, around-the-clock slaughter that desperate men can inflict on each other.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOrdinary men from very different backgrounds, and drawn from cities, towns, and settlements across America, the Devil Dogs were asked to do something extraordinary: take on the victorious Imperial Japanese Army, composed of some of the most effective soldiers in world history  and defeat it. This is the story of how they did just that and, in the process, forged bonds of brotherhood that still survive today.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eRemarkably, the company contained an unusually high number of talented writers, whose first-hand accounts and memoirs provide the colour, emotion, and context for this extraordinary story. In \u003cem\u003eDevil Dogs\u003c\/em\u003e, award-winning historian Saul David sets the searing experience of K Company into the broader context of the brutal war in the Pacific and does for the U.S. Marines what \u003cem\u003eBand of Brothers\u003c\/em\u003e did for the 101st Airborne.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eGripping, intimate, authoritative and far-reaching, this is a unique and incredibly personal narrative of war.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Goldsboro Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47263944474918,"sku":"devil-dogs","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4900\/5606\/files\/1e9af291-32c7-492a-abba-6b547889c5b6.jpg?v=1701089096"},{"product_id":"great-and-horrible-news-murder-and-mayhem-in-early-modern-britain","title":"Great and Horrible News: Murder and Mayhem in Early Modern Britain","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNINE HISTORIC CRIMES. ONE FAMILIAR OBSESSION.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eIn early modern England, murder truly was most foul. \u003c\/strong\u003eTrials were gossipy events packed to the rafters with noisome spectators. Executions were public proceedings which promised not only gore, but desperate confessions and the grandest, most righteous human drama. Bookshops saw grisly stories of crime and death sell like hot cakes.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis history unfolds the true stories of murder, criminal investigation, early forensic techniques, high court trials and so much more.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn thrilling narrative, we follow a fugitive killer through the streets of London, citizen detectives clamouring to help officials close the net. We untangle the mystery of a suspected staged suicide through the newly emerging science of forensic pathology. We see a mother trying to clear her dead daughters name while other women faced the accusations  sometimes true and sometimes not  of murdering their own children.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThese stories are pieced together from original research using coroners inquests, court records, parish archives, letters, diaries and the cheap street pamphlets that proliferated to satisfy a voracious public.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThese intensely personal stories portray the lives of real people as they confronted the extraordinary crises of murder, infanticide, miscarriage and suicide. Many historical laws and attitudes concerning death and murder may strike us as exceptionally cruel, and yet many still remind us that some things never change: we are still fascinated by narratives of murder and true crime, murder trials today continue to be grand public spectacles, female killers are frequently cast as aberrant objects of public hatred and sexual desire, and suicide remains a sin within many religious organisations and was a crime in England until the 1960s.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eGreat and Horrible News!\u003c\/em\u003e explores the strange history of death and murder in early modern England, yet the stories within may appear shockingly familiar.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Goldsboro Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47263962497318,"sku":"great-and-horrible-news-murder-and-mayhem-in-early-modern-britain","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4900\/5606\/files\/48758143-918f-42b8-82ed-62f8db56d11c.jpg?v=1701089729"},{"product_id":"operation-pedestal","title":"Operation Pedestal","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne of the most dramatic forgotten chapters of the war, as told in a new book by the incomparable Max Hastings \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDAILY MAIL\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn August 1942, beleaguered Malta was within weeks of surrender to the Axis, because its 300,000 people could no longer be fed. Churchill made a personal decision that at all costs, the island fortress must be saved. This was not merely a matter of strategy, but of national prestige, when Britains fortunes and morale had fallen to their lowest ebb.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe largest fleet the Royal Navy committed to any operation of the western war was assembled to escort fourteen fast merchantmen across a thousand of miles of sea defended by six hundred German and Italian aircraft, together with packs of U-boats and torpedo craft. The Mediterranean battles that ensued between 11 and 15 August were the most brutal of Britains war at sea, embracing four aircraft-carriers, two battleships, seven cruisers, scores of destroyers and smaller craft. The losses were appalling: defeat seemed to beckon.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis is the saga Max Hastings unfolds in his first full length narrative of the Royal Navy, which he believes was the most successful of Britains wartime services. As always, he blends the big picture of statesmen and admirals with human stories of German U-boat men, Italian torpedo-plane crews, Hurricane pilots, destroyer and merchant-ship captains, ordinary but extraordinary seamen.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOperation Pedestal\u003c\/em\u003e describes catastrophic ship sinkings, including that of the aircraft-carrier \u003cem\u003eEagle\u003c\/em\u003e, together with struggles to rescue survivors and salvage stricken ships. Most moving of all is the story of the tanker \u003cem\u003eOhio\u003c\/em\u003e, indispensable to Maltas survival, victim of countless Axis attacks. In the last days of the battle, the ravaged hulk was kept under way only by two destroyers, lashed to her sides. Max Hastings describes this as one of the most extraordinary tales he has ever recounted. Until the very last hours, no participant on either side could tell what would be the outcome of an epic of wartime suspense and courage.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Goldsboro Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47264064340262,"sku":"operation-pedestal","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4900\/5606\/files\/d63b317b-5674-45ef-8479-a20836842c02.jpg?v=1701091662"},{"product_id":"the-bone-chests","title":"The Bone Chests","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom bioarchaeologist and bestselling author of \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eRiver Kings\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e, a gripping new history of the making of England as a nation, told through six bone chests, stored for over a thousand years in Winchester Cathedral.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn December 1642, during the Civil War, Parliamentarian troops stormed the magnificent Winchester Cathedral, intent on destruction. Reaching the choir, its beating heart, the soldiers searched out ten beautifully decorated wooden chests resting high up on the stone screens.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThose chests contained some of Englands most venerated, ancient remains: The bones of eight kings, including William Rufus and Cnut the Great  the only Scandinavian king to rule England and a North Sea Empire; three bishops; and a formidable queen, Emma of Normandy. These were the very people who witnessed and orchestrated the creation of the kingdom of Wessex in the 7th century; who lived through the creation of England as a unified country in response to the Viking threat; and who were part and parcel of the Norman conquest.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eOn that day, the soldiers smashed several chests to the ground, using the bones as missiles to shatter the cathedrals stained glass windows. Afterwards, the clergy scrambled to collect the scattered remains.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn 2014, the six remaining chests were reopened. A team of forensic archaeologists, using the latest scientific methods, attempted to identify the contents: They discovered an elaborate jumble of bones, including the remains of two forgotten princes. In \u003cem\u003eThe Bone Chests\u003c\/em\u003e, Cat Jarman builds on this evidence to untangle the stories of the people within. It is an extraordinary and sometimes tragic tale, and a story of transformation. Why these bones? Why there? Can we ever really identify them? In a palimpsest narrative that runs through more than a millennium of British history, it tells the story of both the seekers and the sought, of those who protected the bones and those who spurned them; and of the methods used to investigate.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Goldsboro Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47264233455910,"sku":"the-bone-chests","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4900\/5606\/files\/5591365a-f95d-4879-a1a4-cae602715cbd.jpg?v=1701095004"},{"product_id":"the-palace","title":"The Palace","description":"\u003ch2\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e'If a house could gossip, this is the book that Hampton Court would whisper. An enjoyable and readable stroll through 500 years of Hampton Court history: royal residents, common visitors, thieves, invaders and ghosts PHILIPPA GREGORY\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFor centuries, Hampton Court has been a place of power, scandal and intrigue: a stage for events that shaped the nation. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Palace\u003c\/em\u003e raises the curtain on 500 years of British history with royals, politicians, criminals, and geniuses all playing their parts.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHampton Court has been an arc of monarchy, revolution, religious fundamentalism, sexual scandals, and military coups. In this rich and vivid history, Gareth Russell moves through the rooms and the decades, each time focusing on a different person who called Hampton Court their home.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBeginning with the Tudors, Russell takes the reader from the kitchens of Henry VII and the dreams of Anne Boleyn to Elizabeth Is brush with death and the staging of Shakespeares plays. To the commissioning of the King James Bible, the republican victories of Oliver Cromwell, the many mistresses of Charles II and their laxative-laced attempts to embarrass one another. The gossip and feuds of Georgian aristocrats lead into the era of the Windsors when Hampton Court becomes the place to host Elizabeth IIs coronation ball and hide the last Tsars sister.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFascinating and engaging, \u003cem\u003eThe Palace\u003c\/em\u003e is as atmospheric as it is gossipy and through the many sovereigns and servants that lived and worked in its halls reveals the personal tragedy and political importance of this extraordinary place.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Goldsboro Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47264411451686,"sku":"the-palace","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4900\/5606\/files\/c30551d6-9b98-4dd8-b195-07ec4d611f61.jpg?v=1701096856"},{"product_id":"the-white-ship","title":"The White Ship","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe sinking of the \u003cem\u003eWhite Ship\u003c\/em\u003e on the 25th November 1120 is one of the greatest disasters that England has ever suffered. Its repercussions would change English and European history for ever.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKing Henry I was sailing for England in triumph after four years of fighting the French. Congregating with the king at the port of Barfleur on that freezing November night was the cream of Norman society: three of his children, including the only legitimate male heir to the throne, as well as the flower of the aristocracy, famous knights, and mighty courtiers. By 1120, Henry was perhaps the most formidable ruler in Europe, with an enviable record on the battlefield, immense lands and wealth, and unprecedented authority in his kingdoms. Everything he had worked so hard for was finally achieved, and he was ready to hand it on to his beloved son and heir, William theling.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHenry I and his retinue set out first. The \u003cem\u003eWhite Ship\u003c\/em\u003e  considered the fastest afloat  would follow, carrying the young prince William thling. Spoilt and arrogant, William had plied his comrades and crew with drink from the minute he stepped aboard. It was the middle of the night when the drunken helmsman rammed the ship into rocks. There would be only one survivor from the gilded roll call of passengers\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWritten to commemorate the 900th anniversary of the shipwreck, Charles Spencer evokes the harsh and brutal story of the Normans from Conquest to Anarchy. With their heir dead, a civil war of untold violence erupted, a game of thrones which saw families turned in on each other with English and Norman barons, rebellious Welsh princes and the Scottish king all playing a part in a bloody, desperate scrum for power.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Goldsboro Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47264426819878,"sku":"the-white-ship","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4900\/5606\/files\/24d4184d-7e46-4dee-9077-8082a525bedc.jpg?v=1701097546"},{"product_id":"a-very-private-school","title":"A Very Private School","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eIn this poignant memoir, Charles Spencer recounts the trauma of being sent away from home at age eight to attend a boarding school.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eA Very Private School\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eoffers a clear-eyed, firsthand account of a culture of cruelty at the school Spencer attended in his youth and provides important insights into an antiquated boarding system. Drawing on the memories of many of his schoolboy contemporaries, as well as his own letters and diaries from the time, he reflects on the hopelessness and abandonment he felt aged eight, viscerally describing the intense pain of homesickness and the appalling inescapability of it all. Exploring the long-lasting impact of his experiences, Spencer presents a candid reckoning with his past and a reclamation of his childhood.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Goldsboro Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47509515239718,"sku":"978-1668046388","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4900\/5606\/files\/19ee9870-0d83-4dcf-ac93-c46b9e303888.jpg?v=1705512808"},{"product_id":"sky-warriors","title":"Sky Warriors","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eFrom bestselling historian Saul David, a riveting new history of the British airborne experience across the Second World War.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe legendary ‘Red Devils’ were among the finest combat troops of the Second World War. Created at Churchill’s instigation in June 1940, they began as a single parachute battalion of 500 men and grew into three 10,000-strong airborne divisions: the 1st, 6th and 44th Indian, each composed of parachutists and glider-borne troops.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWearing their distinctive maroon berets, steel helmets and Dennison smocks, they served with distinction in every major theatre of the conflict – including North Africa, Sicily, mainland Europe and the Far East. They played a starring role in some most iconic airborne operations in history: the Bruneval Raid of February 1942; the capture of the Primasole, Pegasus and Arnhem Bridges in July 1943, June 1944 and September 1944 respectively; and Operation Varsity, the biggest parachute drop in history, near Wesel in Germany in March 1945.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eSky Warriors \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eis an accomplished act of storytelling; authoritative, far-reaching and deeply moving. Building the narrative from the ground-up, Saul David draws on multiple archives, published memoirs, unpublished diaries and letters, and interviews with participants. The end result is a dramatic narrative of the airborne forces’ recruitment, training and wartime exploits.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis is the first time the complete wartime story of the British airborne forces has been told.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Goldsboro Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47509658075430,"sku":"978-0008522162","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4900\/5606\/files\/50e91fd5-df0f-40f0-8fce-1746cf62a1c6.jpg?v=1705515806"},{"product_id":"queen-james-a-new-history-about-the-life-and-loves-of-britain-s-first-king-james-stuart","title":"Queen James: A New History About the Life and Loves of Britain’s First King, James Stuart","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e'Books like this don't come along very often. Told with Gareth Russell's characteristic verve and exquisite eye for detail, it is a story so compelling and surprising that it feels as if it has been hiding in plain sight for 400 years' TRACY BORMAN\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e‘A warts and all story told with compassion’ PHILIPPA GREGORY\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003e‘Elizabeth was king,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold a-text-italic\"\u003eThen James was queen.’ – English author (1603)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eJames Stuart, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland did not always love wisely, but he never failed to do so boldly.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eJames Stuart, King of England, Scotland and Ireland, did not always love wisely, but he never failed to do so boldly. He fell in love three times – with a Scottish lord, a knight and George Villiers, ‘the handsomest man in the whole world’. He was infatuated three more times – with a Highland earl, a Welsh lord and an English spy.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWe know so much about the six wives of Henry VIII, why not the six loves of James I?\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThis groundbreaking new book puts James – genius, liar, spendthrift, idealist, witch-hunter – and the men he loved at the centre of one of the most dramatic stories in British royal history.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBeginning with the brutal and mysterious murder of his father in 1567, James’s life encompassed kidnapping, witchcraft trials, torture, his mother’s beheading, poison, political radicalism, religious fundamentalism, a queen’s alleged abortion, passionate sex, strong love, stronger hate, espionage, brothels, and a decade-long love affair that ended in assassination.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt is unquestionably one of the most gripping stories in British history, retold in Gareth Russell’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eQueen James\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e with scholarship, biographical insight and wit.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Goldsboro Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":55054040891765,"sku":"9780008660857","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4900\/5606\/files\/1343e9ec-c37e-415a-a176-55e65558368c.jpg?v=1739474936"},{"product_id":"be-more-bird-life-lessons-from-a-hawk","title":"Be More Bird: Life Lessons from a Hawk","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003e‘A small masterpiece, written with heart, self-belief and wisdom. Wonderful!’\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePAUL THEROUX\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eA true story of Bird and writer Candida Meyrick, set on Anglesey – and a fable for us all to find a way to fly.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe twelve-week-old Harris Hawk, Sophia Houdini Whitewing – aka Bird – is trained over the following months by the author and her children to be most herself: a skilled hunter and dazzling aerial gymnast, whose flights enrapture the family and set the author on a deepening love affair with life on the wing.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWorking with her Harris Hawk over the following years reveals a new world: confronting mortality daily, moving through a liminal landscape, part sky-, part earth-bound. And every day’s hunting brings a new life-lesson. Bird opens up a way of being that is everything the author most longs to be: courageous, compassionate, independent, full of joy – free as a bird.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eBe More Bird\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e charts this deepening relationship between bird and woman, set in one of Britain’s wildest landscapes. It reveals the subtle dynamic possible between human and bird, illuminating the ancient, worldwide art of falconry and its urgent relevance for the modern mind: the importance of untethering our souls and belief-systems and re-establishing a connection with the wilder world.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eStructured around a series of ‘life lessons', \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eBe More Bird\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e transports readers into the wildness hidden within themselves and to think profoundly about our connections with nature and our lives.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eBe More Bird\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is a true story, still unfolding, of a wild predator who by choice flies in partnership with a woman as her earth-bound helper. Bird crosses boundaries: between species, cultures, sky and earth. In this way, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003eBe More Bird\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is a fable for our times.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDare to be more. Be more Bird.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Goldsboro Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56482154905973,"sku":"978-0008761523","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4900\/5606\/files\/bea8fd86-f112-493c-a7cd-8c1bb1d03d2a.jpg?v=1765900009"},{"product_id":"plunder","title":"Plunder","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-bold\"\u003eThe last weeks of World War II on the Western Front in Europe witnessed extraordinary scenes of heroism, horror, melodrama and pathos.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003ePlunder\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, Max Hastings presents a cast of fascinating people British, American and German, in a series of great events in which some distinguished themselves through wonderful deeds, others through the basest crimes.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe book takes its title from Montgomery’s ‘Operation Plunder’, the 23 March 1945 crossing of the Rhine, witnessed by Winston Churchill and embracing huge amphibious and airborne landings. The author describes the American coup in capturing Remagen bridge and the ‘battles of the breakout’ which followed. Thereafter he recounts stories of Nazi Werewolves; of US General George Patton’s reckless and doomed dispatch of an armoured column fifty miles behind German lines to liberate his son-in-law from a prison camp; the heartbreaking liberation of Belsen concentration camp; the wonderful achievement of Ian Liddell of the Coldstream Guards, among the last VC winners of the war and surely one of the most deserving; the last big SAS operation of the war. Finally come accounts of the tortuous succession of German surrenders, and the weeks of Admiral Karl Donitz’s posturing as the Third Reich’s last Fuhrer.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"a-text-italic\"\u003ePlunder\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is the latest history from Max Hastings, and offers his signature narrative of conflict, blending personal experiences into the ‘big picture’, highlighting deeds and personalities that will be unfamiliar to many readers. He mingles accounts of the battles with stories of people – warlords, soldiers, slave labourers, prisoners, fugitives, victims – who played many and various roles in the last European act of history’s most terrible war.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Goldsboro Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57504058376565,"sku":"590-66A-6C8","price":27.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0733\/4900\/5606\/files\/16616d45-f346-40a0-9dde-be8906a62e18.jpg?v=1786881994"}],"url":"https:\/\/goldsborobooks.pro\/collections\/william-collins.oembed","provider":"Goldsboro Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}