Other books that might interest you

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  Out of the Italian Night -...

  Maurice G. Lihou

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  During 1944 and 1945 the squadrons of 205 Group were launching air attacks from bases in Italy. In many ways their efforts were the same as those of aircrew attached to Bomber Command in Britain, yet conditions for the men were very different. The men fought their war as much against the weather, as against the enemy. The Wimpy, as the Wellington was affectionately known, had been operational when war was declared and five years on their young crews were still taking them into battle. Maurice Lihou joined the RAF in 1939, just before the outbreak of war. He trained as a wireless operator to become aircrew, but found himself working in ground stations. He decided to re-muster as a pilot and completed his training in Canada where he was awarded his wings. He soon became captain of an aircraft and ferried a Wellington to North Africa. He was then posted to Italy and joined No 37 Squadron, becoming involved in various operations to harass the retreating German army.

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  The Glitter and the Gold - The...

  Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan

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  Consuelo Vanderbilt was young, beautiful and the heir to a vast family fortune. She was also deeply in love with an American suitor when her mother chose instead for her to fulfill her social ambitions and marry an English Duke. Leaving her life in America, she came to England as the Duchess of Marlborough in 1895 and took up residence in her new home—Blenheim Palace.The ninth Duchess gives unique first-hand insight into life at the very pinnacle of English society in the Edwardian era. An unsnobbish, but often amused observer of the intricate hierarchy both upstairs and downstairs at Blenheim Palace, she is also a revealing witness to the glittering balls, huge weekend parties and major state occasions she attended or hosted. Here are her encounters with every important figure of the day—from Queen Victoria, Edward VII and Queen Alexandra to Tsar Nicholas, Prince Metternich and the young Winston Churchill.This intimate, richly enjoyable memoir is a wonderfully revealing portrait of a golden age.

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  Ely Samuel Parker and Stand...

  Charles River Editors

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  One of the best known of the six nations is the Seneca, and arguably the most famous Seneca chief was Ely Samuel Parker. Over the course of his life, he was a Seneca chief, a civil engineer, a close friend and adjutant to General Ulysses S. Grant, an advocate for the Indian peoples, and the first Native American Commissioner of the Department of Indian Affairs. His marriage to a much younger socialite scandalized Washington, and he made a fortune on Wall Street and lost it all. He ended his life in genteel poverty, working for nearly 20 years in an obscure position for the New York City Police Department. Parker was a largely self-taught engineer, who worked on various canal projects, and was hired by the Department of the Treasury to supervise the construction of several buildings in Galena, Illinois, where he met a shy salesclerk named Ulysses S. Grant. At the age of 18, he dined with President Polk, later talked with President Lincoln, and had the commanding general of the U.S. Army as the best man at his wedding.  
  Stand Watie’s life connects the traditional Cherokee homeland in Tennessee and Georgia, the fight within the tribe over leaving for the West or staying on their homeland and trying to resist, and the Trail of Tears. At the same time, his life also includes the ongoing split between mixed-blood and full-blood Cherokee in the Cherokee Nation, and the chaos of Indian Territory during the Civil War. Like the country as a whole, the Cherokee Nation was split over the question of slavery, and with an estimated 100 slaves owned, Watie was the biggest native slaveholder in the region. At the start of the war, Watie was commissioned as a colonel in Confederate service and later as a brigadier general. His 1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles Regiment fought more engagements than any other Confederate unit west of the Mississippi River. As a result, Watie is perhaps the most famous figure of a widely overlooked aspect of the Civil War.

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  Stories Behind the Greatest Hits...

  Ace Collins

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  Much like The Stories Behind The Best-Loved Songs Of Christmas, The Stories Behind The Great Traditions of Christmas and More Stories Behind The Best Loved Songs of Christmas this new Collins Christmas book will fill a void in the book world.  With a look at these secular classics, people who love the music of the season will finally have a source that gives the stories behind the creation of these wonderful songs, the way they found their way into the hands of those who made them famous and the reason they climb the charts.The Stories Behind the Greatest Hits of Christmas is really a guide or a map that connects Christmas past with Christmas present.  It will be a time machine that connect the past to the present and makes the experience of hearing Christmas classics even more special.  Completed with thoughts of those who penned these classics, along with the artists, such as Brenda Lee, who made them famous, this will be a book that is sure to generate fan interest.

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  Foul Deeds & Suspicious Deaths...

  Nicholas Corder

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  The criminal cases vividly described by Nicholas Corder in this gripping book take the reader on a journey into the dark secret side of Cumbria's long history. The hills, villages and market towns of this famous landscape have been the setting for a series of horrific, bloody, sometimes bizarre incidents over the centuries. From crimes of brutal premeditation to crimes born of passion or despair, the whole range of human weakness and wickedness is represented here. Swindlers, conmen, smugglers, pirates, child killers, deserters, fraudsters, robbers and common murderers people these pages, along with their victims. There are descriptions of public executions and instances of extraordinary domestic cruelty and malice that ended in death. Unforgettable local cases are reconstructed—the extraordinary career of the imposter John Hatfield, the Whitehaven raid of John Paul Jones, the unsolved murder of poor Lucy Sands, and many more. Nicholas Corder's chronicle of Cumbria's hidden history will be compelling reading for anyone who is interested in the sinister side of human nature.

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  With Hitler in the West

  Heinrich Hoffmann

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  From the Führer’s photographer and author of Hitler Was My Friend, “very rare images that provide a crisp record of the German advance into France” (Firetrench).   In May 1940, the German Army swept over Europe, unleashing a campaign of battles of annihilation on a hitherto unheralded scale. France was quickly overcome and Holland, along with Belgium, fell in a matter of days. At the head of this vast operation was the Führer with his Supreme Command, and on hand to document the highlights of their inimitable campaign was Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitler’s close friend and official photographer. This is an invaluable photographic record of the events of Spring 1940, originally published as Mit Hitler im Westen, which was regarded as Heinrich Hoffman’s finest work. The striking images displayed within provide both an intimate view inside the life of the Führer and present a chilling glimpse into one of history’s most vicious campaigns, and darkest hours. An important historic work, With Hitler in the West provides a fascinating insight into the events of 1940 that shook the world.   “Hoffmann was a great photographer and his images of Hitler’s tour of the French battlefield of both world wars, in effect a pilgrimage; and his stage-managed entry into Paris are genuinely superb.”—War History Online   “Certainly a fascinating collection of pictures to see . . . A book intended to display the power and prowess of the German armed forces of the day.”—Military Modelling

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