Warfare & defence

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

When Argentine forces invaded the Falklands in the early hours of 2 April 1982, Britain's military chiefs were faced with a real-life Mission Impossible. Drawing on interviews with the combatants, Falklands residents and British High Command, this book takes us to the beating heart of the legendary raid. Learn More

This book is hard-hitting, laugh-out-loud funny, and extremely unsettling at all the same time. Learn More

A memoir of the author's experiences as a fighter pilot during WWII. It tells how two months before the outbreak of WWII, the author who was then seventeen year old, left school to become a fighter pilot with the RAF. It also tells how he made it through basic training to become the youngest Spitfire pilot in the prestigious 92 Squadron. Learn More

A naive young man, a railway enthusiast and radio buff, was caught up in the fall of the British Empire at Singapore in 1942. He was put to work on the 'Railway of Death' - the Japanese line from Thailand to Burma. Learn More

Brought up in Glasgow, Peter McAleese was determined to become a soldier. Having joined the Parachute Regiment in 1960, he fought with the SAS in Aden and Borneo, and his career then became a quest for action and danger, taking him from Angola to service in the Rhodesian SAS. This is his story. Learn More

From his childhood, rebellion at school, the early death of his father and conflict with his step-father, on to his exploits in the army in Korea, Egypt, Malaya, Oman, Borneo, the Sudan, the Falklands, and the Gulf War, this book chronicles the SAS General's life. Learn More

In this work, Mike Curtis, describes his gruelling experiences in the Falklands and his SAS operations - the first in Iraq where he spent several weeks behind enemy lines; and the second in Bosnia where he worked closely with all factions and led a protection team for visiting heads of state. Learn More