James Holland

The village of Alvesdon has been home to the Castells for generations. But the year is 1939 and the peace and tranquillity there is about to be shattered once more by the storm clouds of war in Europe.

As three generations of the family gather, they must all face the prospect of their lives being transformed beyond recognition the moment Britain declares war on Germany. When the inevitable happens and Britain finds itself at war, the younger members of the family and farm workers are called up to fight and those who remain must battle to keep the home fires burning and the farm afloat.

The Battle of Britain was a crucial turning point in the history of the Second World War.

The German invasion of France and the Low Countries in May 1940 was unlike any the world had ever seen. With France facing defeat and with British forces pressed back to the Channel, there were few who believed Britain could possibly survive.

Yet thanks to a sophisticated defensive system and the combined efforts of the RAF, Royal Navy as well as the mounting sense of collective defiance led by a new Prime Minister, Britain was not ready to roll over just yet. 

From clashes between coastal convoys and Schnellboote in the Channel to astonishing last stands in Flanders, and from the slaughter by the U-boats in the icy Atlantic to the dramatic aerial battles over England, The Battle of Britain tells this most epic of stories from all sides.

Crete, 1941. In the face of a German invasion, Sergeant Jack Tanner is embroiled in a deadly game of survival that will test his resolve more than ever before. Not only has he fallen out with his commander but he has mortally offended Alopex, a powerful local chieftain.

As if that wasn't enough, Tanner and the rest of his battalion are caught in vicious close-quarter fighting against crack German paratroopers. Before long, they find themselves in bitter retreat to the mountainous interior where only one man can help them - Alopex.

Although whether he will come to their rescue or not remains to be seen...

The Sherwood Rangers were one of the great tank regiments. They had learned their trade the hard way, under the burning sun of North Africa, on the battlefields of El Alamein and Alam el Halfa. By the time they landed on Gold Beach on D-Day, they were toughened by experience and ready for combat. From that moment on, the Sherwood Rangers were in the thick of the action til the war's end. They and their Sherman tanks covered thousands of miles and endured some of the fiercest fighting in Western Europe. The first British unit to cross into Germany, their engagements stretch from the Normandy beaches, to the bridges at Eindhoven, and the grinding crossing of the Siegfried Line and on into the Nazi heartland. Through compelling eye-witness testimony and James Holland's expert analysis of the war in the West, Brothers In Arms brings to vivid life the final bloody scramble across Europe and gives the most powerful account to date of what it was really like to fight in the dying days of World War Two.

In February 1944, a rag-tag collection of clerks, drivers, doctors, muleteers, and other base troops, stiffened by a few dogged Yorkshiremen and a handful of tank crews managed to hold out against some of the finest infantry in the Japanese Army, and then defeat them in what was one of the most astonishing battles of the Second World War. What became know as The Defence of the Admin Box, fought amongst the paddy fields and jungle of Northern Arakan over a fifteen-day period, turned the battle for Burma.

Burma '44 is a tale of incredible drama. As gripping as the story of Rorke's drift, as momentous as the battle for the Ardennes, the Admin Box was a triumph of human grit and heroism and remains one of the most significant yet undervalued conflicts of World War Two.

Joss Lambert was always a loner, but at school he becomes friendly with Guy Liddell, and through him the whole Liddell family. Their home is the only place he is happy, but with war looming this happiness can't last. Joss joins the RAF and fights for his life in the Battle of Britain and again in the heat of North Africa.

May 1940: Sergeant Jack Tanner has been posted to a training company on the southeast coast of England where the mysterious deaths of two Polish refugees lead him to believe there has been foul play. But Tanner must first deal with an enemy far more deadly than the Germans.... Book 2 of the series.

Sicily, 1943 - to fight the Nazi rearguard, old foes like the Mafia must become new friends for Jack Tanner and his crew. Tanner and his trusted sidekick, Sykes, find themselves embroiled in a fight that has become deeply personal, where they have to use all their resolve, skill and experience if they are to have any chance of survival.

August, 1942. North Africa. When the commander of the Eighth Army, General Gott, is killed, it's clear that foul play is at work. Jack Tanner, recovering from wounds in a Cairo hospital, receives a battlefield commission which will propel him into a very different world when he returns to action. But in the murky world of deceit and murder he must somehow discover who to trust in the cat-and-mouse world of counter-espionage before it's too late...

April 1940: Nazi Germany has invaded neutral Norway. Sergeant Jack Tanner, of the British 148th Brigade and his patrol are left stranded in the mountains in the chaos of retreat. Trying to re-join their unit, it quickly becomes clear that the small band of fugitives can rely on no one but themselves... Book 1 of the series.

With the invasion of France the following year taking shape, and hot on the heels of victory in Sicily, the Allies crossed into Southern Italy in September 1943. They expected to drive the Axis forces north and be in Rome by Christmas. And although Italy surrendered, the German forces resisted fiercely and the swift hoped-for victory descended into one of the most brutal battles of the war. 

Chronicling those dark, dramatic months in unflinching and insightful detail, The Savage Storm is unlike any campaign history yet written. Weaving together a wealth of letters, diaries, and other incredible documents, Holland traces the battles as they were fought - across plains, over mountains, through shattered villages and cities, in intense heat and, towards the end, frigid cold and relentless rain - putting readers at the heart of the action.