Social Sciences

Colditz was the last stop for prisoners of war in the Second World War. Learn More

The Shops is a book for everyone who' s ever had to part with cash, which is to say, a book for everyone. Learn More

This work dissects the first 1000 days of the Labour government. Learn More

As a fresh-faced, rather obnoxious public schoolboy keen to blag his way into the RAF in March 1939; just three years, two full tours on Spitfires, the Battle of Britain, nearly 100 escorts and fighter sweeps over occupied France and a Malta convoy later, Wellum was physically and mentally burnt out before the age of 22. An old man in a boy's body. His descriptions of the excitement, freedom and, at times, sheer terror of operating in a three-dimensional airspace are vividly powerful, but perhaps his greatest gift is to get across the way the fatigue and the emotional shutting off creeps up unnoticed. At the start, the death of a friend leaves Wellum devastated and wondering when his turn will come; within the space of a few hundred pages, the failure of a pilot to return is dropped in almost as an afterthought. This is not the response of a man who cares too little, but of one who cares too much. Without being aware of it, he has experienced and felt too much and his mind and body have involuntarily separated. This comes into even sharper relief at the end when Wellum is stood down from active service; he is the only one not to see--quite literally, as his vision has become impaired--that his ailments are rooted in his psyche rather than his body. The only one false note is his desire to see his role as part of a bigger picture; written many years after the events he describes, Wellum sometimes interjects thoughts and feelings about the war that simply do not ring true. That aside, one is left wondering what became of Wellum the man between the war ending and the book's publication. What sense did the prematurely aged fighter pilot make of the post-war age and did he learn to love again? But that, maybe, is the subject for another book. Learn More

Talks about love, about how, despite cruelty, despite politics, the female urge to nurture and cherish remains. This work features women who are strong, strikingly resourceful characters and who offer unforgettable insights into Chinese women's lives. Learn More

Donald Woods, Biko' close friend and a leading white South African newspaper editor, exposed the murder helping to ignite the black revolution. Learn More

No book description available. Learn More

No book description available. Learn More

The gripping true story of the Israeli-led hunt for the men responsible for the massacre of eleven Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972, which has inspired Steven Spielberg's forthcoming film epic 'Munich'. Learn More