John Hobday

When the author discovered that he knew very little about his grandparents he decided to write his memoirs, so that his granddaughters would be able to understand their Granddad a little better, and that they might learn from his mistakes. The book reflects his memories of Luton and other factors that impacted on his life, including his sight loss.

A delightful compendium of memories which will appeal to all who grew up in this post-war decade, whether in town or country, wealth or poverty. Games and hobbies, holidays, music and fashion, all bring back this decade of childhood, and jog memories about all aspects of life.

Richard Holmes explores the scientific ferment that swept across Britain at the end of 18th century. He charts the many voyages of discovery - astronomical, chemical, poetical and philosophical - that made up this ‘age of wonder’, and the inspired individuals behind them.

Prior to World War II, Josephine Baker was a music-hall diva renowned for her singing and dancing, her beauty and sexuality; she was the highest-paid female performer in Europe. When the Nazis seized her adopted city, Paris, she was banned from the stage, along with all "negroes and Jews." Yet instead of returning to America, she vowed to stay and to fight the Nazi evil. Overnight, she went from performer to Resistance spy. 

In Agent Josephine, bestselling author Damien Lewis uncovers this little-known history of the famous singer's life. During the war years, as a member of the French Nurse paratroopers - a cover for her spying work - Baker participated in numerous clandestine activities and emerged as a formidable spy. In turn, she was a hero of the three countries in whose name she served - the US, France, and Britain. 
 

The distinguished military historian John Keegan unpicks the geography, leadership and strategic logic of the first modern war and takes us to the heart of the conflict. His captivating work promises to be the definitive history of the American Civil War.

Thomas Reppetto provides a balanced history of the mafia's rise from the 1880s to the post-World War II era. He draws on a lifetime of field experience and access to unseen documents, and features the stories of Lucky Luciano and Al Capone, noting the role that Prohibition had in the establishment of the mafia's defining characteristics.

The Apache attack helicopter is the British Army's most awesome weapons system. Deployed for the first time in Afghanistan, it has already passed into legend. The only thing more incredible than the Apache itself are the pilots that fly her. For the first time, Apache Dawn tells their story - and their baptism of fire in the unforgiving battle of Helmand province.

A wonderful journey through time, along the waves of our planet's most significant ocean, in an irresistible blend of gripping history, fascinating science and exhilarating reportage.

From their rigorous training in Georgia in 1942 to D-Day and victory, this is the remarkable story of Easy Company, who kept getting the tough assignments. They were responsible for everything from parachuting into France early D-Day morning to the capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden.

Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery was perhaps the best-known, most highly respected and most controversial British general of World War II. He made an incalculable contribution to the Allied victory in Europe, and his leadership played a crucial role in transforming the British Army into a war-winning weapon.

Cyclist Beryl Burton - also known as BB - dominated her sport much as her male contemporary Eddy Merckx, but with a longevity that surpasses even sporting legends like Muhammad Ali, Serena Williams and Sir Steve Redgrave. She was practically invincible in time trials, finishing as Best All-Rounder for 25 consecutive years and setting a world record in 1967 for the distance covered in 12 hours that beat the men. She won multiple world titles, even when the distances didn't play to her strengths. But her achievements were limited by discrimination from the cycling authorities, and by her strictly amateur status against state-sponsored rivals from Eastern Bloc nations. Yet she carried on winning, beating men and - infamously - competing against her own daughter, while working on a farm and running a household. Her motivation, sparked by appalling childhood illness, is as fascinating as her achievements are stunning.

Pierre Clostermann was one of the oustanding Allied aces of the Second World War. A Frenchman who flew with the RAF, he survived over 420 operational sorties, shooting down scores of enemy aircraft while friends and comrades lost their lives in the deadly skies above Europe. This is his extraordinary account which has been described as the greatest pilot's memoir of WWII.

In this acclaimed study of the black presence in Britain during the First World War, Stephen Bourne illuminates fascinating stories of black servicemen of African heritage. These accounts of the fights for their 'Mother Country' are charted from the outbreak of war in 1914 to the conflict's aftermath in 1919, when black communities up and down Great Britain were faced with anti-black 'race riots' despite their dedicated services to their country at home and abroad.

This unflinching history of the darkest days of the Second World War covers the entire world stage, from the Battle of the Atlantic to Pearl Harbor. Rooted in the personal accounts of the soldiers themselves, Blood, Tears and Folly is a sweeping, moving account of the political machinations, the strategy and tactics, the weapons and the men on both sides who created a world of devastation.

A handy and accessible guide to all of Britain's heads of government, from Sir Robert Walpole right through to Boris Johnson, lifting the veil of obscurity from an all-too-neglected cast of characters.

This is Winifred's story written as a tribute to her by her son. Poverty, tragedy, love and wry humour are all to be found in abundance. It is also the story of working class life in the first half of the 20th century and it portrays a culture, which although still within living memory, has long since disappeared.

In 1943 the war effort was in danger of grinding to a halt because of a lack of coal. In answer Ernest Bevin, the Minister of Labour, compulsorily sent 20,000 18-year-olds, who'd expected to fight for their country, down the mines. The author paints a picture of the arduous life below ground for the Bevin Boys and the tightly-knit communities, which in some cases welcomed them but in others treated them with hostility.

In Cook's relatively short and adventurous life (1728-79) he voyaged to the eastern and western seaboards of North America, the North and South Pacific and the Arctic and Antarctic bringing about a new comprehension of the world's geography and its people's. He was the linking figure between the grey specualtion of the early eighteenth century and the industrial age of the first half of the nineteenth century.

Mostly set in the imaginary county of Barsetshire, this collection of stories depict the festive period with all Trollope's trademark zest, humour, and cheerfulness. They offer rich and psychologically acute portrayals of the middle class and gentry of Victorian England at Christmas time.

Why do some societies flourish, while others fall? Will we go the same way, our skyscrapers one day standing derelict and overgrown like the temples at Angkor Wat? Jared Diamond explores the mysterious collapse of past civilizations - and what this means for our future.

1812 and the fate of Europe lies in the hands of newly appointed Commodore Hornblower. Horatio must halt the advance of Napoleon's empire into Sweden and Russia. But first he must battle the terrible Baltic weather of fog, snow and icebound waterways.  Book 9 of series.

The gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt, worshipped for over half of recorded history, are among the most fascinating and complex of any civilization. Here is a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the deities that lay at the heart of Egyptian religion and society. It examines the evolution, worship and eventual decline of the numerous gods and goddesses - from minor household figures such as Bes and Taweret to the all-powerful deities Amun and Re - that made Egypt the most completely theocratic society of the ancient world, and made Egyptians, according to Herodotus, 'more religious than any other people'.

David McMullan looks back and traces the difficulties and triumphs of the Kent-based specialist car conversion company, from its earliest beginnings to its final sale on his retirement in 1987. His account is a warm and often touching story of grit, determination and tireless innovation, leading to their success in a hugely competitive global market.

Martin Watts, a bookseller, is captured by Royalists. Jane Afton's brother Nat is taken too. They suffer inhumane treatment as prisoners-of-war. In Oxford Castle jailor William Smith tortures, beats, starves and deprives his helpless victims. Can Jane rescue her sick brother before he dies of neglect? Will Martin dare to escape? Quick Reads.

This is the story of ordinary men and women involved in the Jacobite Rising of 1745, who were described on the gaol registers and regimental rosters of the time as 'Common Men'. The detail comes from regimental Order Books and manuals, from the letters and memoirs of soldiers and officers, and the personal stories of the victims themselves. Culloden is the story not of a Prince, but of a people.

October 1947. A luxury liner steams over the equator off the coast of West Africa and a beautiful actress disappears from her cabin. 

Suspicion falls on a dashing deck steward with a reputation for entering the cabins of female passengers. When the liner docks at Southampton, the steward is questioned by police. Protesting his innocence, he makes an astonishing admission that shocks everyone, and is charged with murder. His trial at the historic Great Hall in Winchester draws the world's media. He is found guilty and sentenced to hang. But was the verdict sound? Many believe not. Now, for the first time, Antony M. Brown has secured unprecedented access to the police file, allowing the definitive story to be told.

Allow yourself to be cast away in eight glorious decades of the most iconic show on radio, Desert Island Discs, with 80 of the most powerful and unforgettable interviews, revisiting every era of Desert Island Disc's storied history. Also featuring brand new material as castaways are interviewed about their experiences - did the conversation go how they expected? Would Sir Patrick Stewart still take his beloved billiards table (and a shed to keep it in, of course)? And does Hilary Devey stick by her endless supply of Cointreau?

World War Terminus had left the Earth devastated. Through its ruins, bounty hunter Rick Deckard stalked. His assignment is to kill six Nexus-6 targets, for a huge reward. But in Deckard's world things are never that simple, and his assignment quickly turned into the threat of death for the hunter rather than the hunted ...

This is the gripping story of the Battle of Britain; of some of the most fateful weeks in history.

Drawing on eyewitness accounts from both the RAF and the Luftwaffe, this is a compelling story of history in the making through an intensely fought battle, taking the reader into the heart of the action as told by those who fought and experienced it.

The book not only captures the often savage reality of the air battles over the Channel and southern England, but it also traces the true course of the Battle of Britain as it unfolded between August 6th and September 15th, 1940 as the German and British Commanders made their fateful decisions, and Spitfires and Messerschmitts whirled and fought in the skies.

It was in these six weeks that the fate of the war, and Britain, were to be decided.

A classic account of one of the Second World War's most iconic battles, perfect for readers of Max Hastings or James Holland.

Echoing Sherlock Holmes' famous dictum, John Gribbin tells us: 'Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever is left, however improbable, is certainly possible, in the light of present scientific knowledge.' With that in mind, in his sequel to the hugely popular Six Impossible Things and Seven Pillars of Science, Gribbin turns his attention to some of the mind-bendingly improbable truths of science. 

A groundbreaking work of biography that raised the genre to the level of high art. Strachey's portraits of Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Arnold, and General Gordon changed perceptions of the Victorians for a whole generation.

Siddhartha Mukherjee, doctor, researcher and award-winning science writer, examines cancer with a cellular biologist’s precision, a historian’s perspective, and a biographer’s passion. The result is a lucid and eloquent chronicle of a disease humans have lived with, and perished from, for more than five thousand years.

John Bevis is a writer and book-lover on an eccentric quest: to obtain a membership card from every library authority in England.

In a ten-year mission criss-crossing the country-from Solihull to Slough, from Cleveland to Cornwall-he enrolls at libraries of all shapes and sizes: monuments to Art Deco or Brutalism; a converted corset factory; one even shaped like a pork pie.

With the architectural eye of Pevsner and the eavesdropping ear of Bill Bryson, he engages us at every step with anecdotes and aperçus about the role of the public library in our national life, while ruing its decline in the age of austerity. As interested in the people he finds as he is in the buildings and their history, he is a humane, witty, and erudite guide. The result is a book to be treasured by anyone who has ever used a library.

Len Deighton’s thrilling history of the ensuing Battle of Britain – the aerial combat between the RAF and the Luftwaffe that was fought over the summer of 1940. Ex-RAF pilot Deighton expertly recounts the development of the aeroplanes – the Spitfires and Messerschmitts – and of radar. Behind the strategies and tactics, and in the cockpits of the aeroplanes, are the men brought vividly to life by Deighton’s skill as a novelist.

The Piper Alpha oil platform, 110 miles northeast of Aberdeen, was once the world's single largest oil producer. On 6 July 1988, its final day, it was ablaze with 226 men onboard. Only sixty-one would survive. This is the moving and vivid tale of what happened on that fateful night inside the oil rig inferno.