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The Longest Night
On the night of 10-11 May 1941, the Blitz reached its terrifying peak in the skies over London. Over 500 aircraft and thousands of Luftwaffe aircrew took off for England, laden with hundreds of tonnes of bombs to drop indiscriminately on the capital’s civilians. In a matter of hours, 1,486 Londoners were killed, 11,000 houses were destroyed, and millions of lives were changed for ever. This attack almost brought Britain to military collapse. Using extensive survivors' testimony and hitherto classified documents, The Longest Night reveals how the Luftwaffe came within a whisker of total victory. In a gripping, minute-by-minute account, Gavin Mortimer has recreated the experience of Londoners on this one terrifying night when the survival of the country hung in the balance.
A History of Football in 100 Objects
What does a turnip have in common with a pair of £500 sunglasses? They've both played a pivotal role in football history. Following on from Neil MacGregor's groundbreaking The History of the World in 100 Objects, Gavin Mortimer provides a quirky and unique take on the beautiful game told through its defining objects. A History of Football in 100 Objects begins on the momentous day in October 1863 when several men in frock coats formed the Football Association. Ever since, the sport has continually evolved - and created new ways to thrill and infuriate its billions of followers along the way. If you've ever wanted to know when footballers started to feign injury, why an old sock helped Pelé become a global legend or how a draper's letter changed football, you'll find the answer in this fascinating history of invention, ingenuity, indiscipline - and sometimes inebriation. From the inaugural red card to a Buddhist shrine, each of the objects selected gives us an intimate glimpse of an unexpected truth behind footie mythology.
The Blitz
The winter of 1940-41 was the season of the Blitz. From St Paul's Cathedral to the East End, from the very heart of the capital to the cities of the midlands, throughout the length and breadth of the land the bombs rained down as Germany attempted to bludgeon Britain into submission. As the civilian populations below cowered in their shelters or manned the fire services, there could be no doubt that this was an island under siege. Drawing exclusively on the photo archive of the Mirror newspaper group this volume brings to life this extraordinary period in British history. Remarkably a number of these images have never seen the light of day before thanks to wartime censors and now, 70 years after the fact, they reveal for the first time the harsh realities of life and death during the Blitz. Written by Gavin Mortimer, who has previously published The Longest Night: Voices from the London Blitz (Orion 2005), this book weaves together these incredible images with newspaper articles, diary entries and first-hand accounts to create a compelling chronological account of Britain's darkest and most difficult period in her long history.
Stirling's Men
The story of the greatest Special Forces unit the world has ever seen, told by the men who fought together. In 1941, maverick officer David Stirling – adventurer, gambler, rake – created the Special Air Service. The soldiers came from all walks of life: miners, desert explorers, Guardsmen, bored clerks in the pay corps. All felt frustrated by the conventional army and were determined to make their mark on the war. Together they created a tradition that would survive the capture of their leader, the death of so many of their comrades and even the disbanding of the SAS after the end of the war. With the co-operation of the regimental association, Gavin Mortimer interviewed nearly sixty veterans, including many of the desert ‘Originals’, many of whom had never before revealed their role. They spoke openly, with honesty and humour, about life in the SAS; the gruelling training that broke all but the toughest; the thrill of raiding desert airfields; the danger of parachuting into occupied France; and the fear of being caught by the Germans, knowing that Hitler had ordered the ‘liquidation’ of captured SAS soldiers. This is the SAS at war, in their own words.
The SBS in World War II
A gripping history of Britain's Special Boat Squadron in World War II, drawing on veteran interviews and including rare photographs from the SAS Regimental Association. The Special Boat Squadron was Britain's most exclusive Special Forces unit during World War II, and yet its exploits have been largely forgotten. This book tells its story. Highly trained, totally secretive and utterly ruthless, the SBS was established as an entity in its own right in early 1943. Unlike its sister unit, which numbered more than 1,000 men, the SBS never comprised more than 100. Led by men such as the famed Victoria Cross recipient Anders Lassen, the SBS went from island to island in the Mediterranean, landing ...
The Great Swim
The dramatic story of the four courageous female swimmers who captivated the world in the summer of 1926. Despite the tensions of a world still recovering from World War I, during the summer of 1926, the story that enthralled the public revolved around four young American swimmers-Gertrude Ederle, Mille Gade, Lillian Cannon, and Clarabelle Barrett-who battled the weather, each other, and considerable odds to become the first woman to conquer the brutal waters of the English Channel. The popular East Coast tabloids from New York to Boston engaged in rivalries nearly as competitive as the swimmers themselves; each backed a favorite and made certain their girl-in bathing attire-was plastered ac...
The SAS in Occupied France
In the world of military history there is no brand as potent as that of the SAS. They burst into global prominence in 1980 with their spectacular storming of the Iranian Embassy, and there have been hundreds of books, films, documentaries and even reality TV shows about them. But what there hasn't been is a guide to the scenes of some of their most famous Second World War operations. That is why Gavin Mortimer’s vivid two-volume account of their daring missions in German-occupied France in 1944 is such compelling reading. SAS actions in France delayed German reinforcements reaching the battlefront in Normandy, later sewing confusion among the Germans as they withdrew. The SAS trained the F...
Guidance from the Greatest
'We will overcome it [and] I hope in the years to come, everyone will be able to take pride in how they responded to this challenge, and those who come after us will say the Britons of this generation were as strong as any' Her Majesty The Queen The Coronavirus pandemic forced the great British people to dig to the very depths of their resolve. It was during this crisis, the gravest crisis the country has faced since the Second World War, that members of the Greatest Generation - Tom Moore, Dame Vera Lynn, the Queen - proved vital reminders of the self-effacing stoicism required in times of emergency; to summon our 'Blitz spirit' and to 'Keep Calm and Carry On'. Taking twelve qualities of the wartime generation, including fellowship, courage and integrity, and drawing on personal interviews with over two hundred Second World War veterans - from SAS officers to London firewomen to Dame Vera herself - Guidance from the Greatest shows us how we can improve our individual character and our collective approach to life. Guidance from the Greatest reminds us of all that is great about Britain and shows how we can build upon that greatness for the future.
David Stirling
, Aristocrat, gambler, innovator and special forces legend, the life of David Stirling should need no retelling. His formation of the Special Air Service in the summer of 1941 led to a new form of warfare and Stirling is remembered as the father of special forces soldiering. But was he really a military genius or in fact a shameless self-publicist who manipulated people, and the truth, for this own ends? In this gripping and controversial biography Gavin Mortimer analyses Stirling's complex character: the childhood speech impediment that shaped his formative years, the pressure from his overbearing mother, his fraught relationship with his brother, Bill, and the jealousy and inferiority he f...
