<div><B>The tragic history of Queen Mary I and her brief reign of terror against Protestants in sixteenth century England&mdash;includes illustrations.</B><BR />  <BR /> When Mary Tudor, eldest daughter of Henry VIII, succeeded to the throne of England in 1553, she enjoyed a degree of popularity rarely seen on the accession of a British monarch. Yet at her death only five years later, she was so reviled by her people that she was posthumously awarded the sobriquet Bloody Mary. The change of public opinion was not without reason.<BR />  <BR /> During her short reign, Mary restored the Catholic faith to England and had over 280 Protestant martyrs burned at the stake. Noblemen like the Duke of Northumberland, would-be queens like Lady Jane Grey, churchmen like Thomas Cranmer and bishops Latimer and Ridley, all fell victim to Mary&rsquo;s fires or the executioner&rsquo;s axe.<BR />  <BR /> In <I>Bloody Mary</I>, historian Phil Carradice investigates the backstory behind the queen&rsquo;s violent loathing for the religion her father established, the unfulfilled potential of her reign, and the needless bloodshed that became her tragic legacy.</div>

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Bloody Mary

<div><B>This account of the disastrous invasion of Cuba funded and directed by the United States is &ldquo;</B><B>a readable, accessible introduction to the topic&rdquo; (<I>H-Net</I>).</B><BR />  <BR /> Perhaps not in casualties but as far as prestige and standing in the world were concerned, the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961 was the worst disaster to befall the USA since the War of 1812 when British forces burned the White House. Badly planned, badly organized, the affair was littered with mistakes from start to finish, not least with an inept performance by John F. Kennedy and his new administration.<BR />  <BR /> Supposedly an attempt by Cuban exiles to regain their homeland, the whole operation was funded and equipped by the USA. When things began to go wrong with the landings at Playa Larga and Playa Giron on the southern coast of Cuba, President Kennedy and his advisers began overruling military decisions with the result that the invading Brigade 2506, made up of Cuban exiles, was left with little or no air cover, limited ammunition, and no easy escape.<BR />  <BR /> Fidel Castro made great play of his success and American failure at the Bay of Pigs. He, like Nikita Khrushchev, thought Kennedy was weak&mdash;and the Cuban Missile Crisis of the following year was almost an inevitable consequence of the disaster. This account tells the dramatic story of this pivotal Cold War event. </div>

Bay of Pigs

<div>On 19 February 1927, the city of Shanghai fell silent as a general strike gripped the factories of the industrial district. A magnet for foreign traders and businessmen (British, French, American, then later Japanese), by the 1920s the pursuit of profit had produced one of the most cosmopolitan cities that the world has ever seen. Known as the Whore of the Orient, Shanghai was a melting pot where every imaginable experience or luxury from East or West could be enjoyed. But in 1927, the citys wealth was under threat: advancing from Guangzhou in the south of China was a Guomindang army, backed by the Soviet Union and in alliance with the Chinese Communist Party, which seemed to be a clear danger to the businessmen of Shanghai.However, the armys commander, Chiang Kai-shek, a conservative, was tiring of his allies. Plotting with Shanghais most influential gangster, Chiang planned to rid himself of the Communists once and for all. The stage was set for a bloodletting in the streets of the city of Shanghai.</div>

The Shanghai Massacre

<div><B>The historian and author of <I>The Shanghai Massacre</I> presents an in-depth chronicle of Hitler&rsquo;s plot to eliminate political rivals and his own SA Brownshirts. </B><BR />  <BR /> In the summer of 1934, Adolf Hitler conducted a ruthless purge of his own fascist colleagues, many of whom had helped the Nazi Party rise to power. The brawling street thugs of the SA had bludgeoned Hitler&rsquo;s political opposition into submission and played a significant role in transforming Germany into a dictatorship. But in order to safeguard his absolute authority, Hitler chose to eliminate any potential rivals. And it was the SA that he feared most.<BR />  <BR /> Officially called Operation Hummingbird, the swift and merciless &ldquo;blood purge&rdquo; came to be known as The Night of the Long Knives. Among Hitler&rsquo;s victims were personal friends like SA co-founder Ernst R&ouml;hm, former German Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher, and even former party comrades like Gregor Strasser. Breaking the back of the SA and settling political scores, the operation took somewhere between three hundred and a thousand lives</div>

Night of the Long Knives

<div><B>This gripping Cold War history chronicles the events that brough the world to the edge of nuclear war—and the political drama that averted disaster.</B><br/><br/>The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 was the closest the world has yet come to nuclear war, a time when the hands of the Doomsday Clock really did inch towards the witching hour of midnight. By placing nuclear missiles on the Caribbean island of Cuba where, potentially, they were able to threaten the eastern seaboard of the USA, Nikita Khrushchev and the Soviet Union escalated the Cold War to a level that everyone feared but had never previously thought possible.<br/><br/>In a desperate and dangerous game of brinkmanship, for thirteen nerve-wracking days Premier Khrushchev and President Kennedy held the fate of the world in their hands. Kennedy, in particular, wrestled with a range of options – allow the missiles to stay, launch an air strike on the sites, or invade Cuba. In the end, he did none of these. But the solution to one of the deadliest dilemmas of the twentieth century proved to be a brave and dramatic moment in human history.</div>

The Cuban Missile Crisis

<div><B>The dramatic history behind one of the great landmarks of ancient Israel.</B><BR />  <BR /> In the spring of 73 AD, the rock fortress of Masada on the western shore of the Dead Sea was the site of an event that was breathtaking in its courage and self-sacrifice. Here the last of the Jewish Zealots who, for nearly eight years, had waged war against the Roman occupiers of their country made their last stand. The Zealots on Masada had withstood a two-year siege but with Roman victory finally assured, they were faced by two options: capture or death. They chose the latter, and when the Roman legions forced their way into the hill fort the following morning they were met only with utter silence by row upon row of bodies. Rather than fall into enemy hands the 960 men, women, and children who had defended the fortress so heroically had committed suicide.<BR />  <BR /> The story of the siege and eventual capture of Masada is unique, not just in Israeli legend but in the history of the world. It is a story of bravery that even the Roman legionaries, well used to death and brutality, could see and appreciate. It was a massacre but a massacre with a difference: carried out by the victims themselves. This book tells the story, also covering the excavation of the remote hilltop site in the twentieth century.</div>

Masada

<div><B>A historian&rsquo;s overview of Czechoslovakia&rsquo;s Alexander Dub&#269;ek, the Prague Spring of 1968, and the Warsaw Pact Invasion.</B><BR />  <BR /> Cold War nadir: January 1968 and in Czechoslovakia, the new Communist Party leader, Alexander Dubcek, has made it clear that this is the opportunity to loosen the Soviet stranglehold on the country. As the Prague winter slowly eases into a Prague spring, it really does seem as if Dub&#269;ek has judged it right. Reforms in oppressive censorship laws, improved housing, a lessening of totalitarian oppression, Dub&#269;ek promises and delivers on it all. The new regime in Czechoslovakia does seek to destroy communism but it does want to choose its own political destiny.<BR />  <BR /> And then, on the night of 20/21 August, the Prague Spring is crushed by the Warsaw Pact invasion: 200,000 Communist troops, mostly Soviet but also Polish and East German, flood the country. The resulting protests and rallies against the invasion, mostly by young people, are violent and bloody. Hundreds die in clashes; self-immolation, in public and before the eyes of the world, brings home the horror and the depth of feeling in the Czech people.<BR />  <BR /> It is the end of the Prague Spring, the reformation of Czechoslovakia having ended in ruins. But despite the brutal crushing of Czech hopes and dreams, the events of 1968 lay the foundations for future change. It will take another two decades but it is, ultimately, where the unraveling of the Communist bloc begins.</div>

Prague Spring 1968

<div><B>The story of the first monarch of the House of Tudor, and his dramatic journey to the throne.</B><BR />  <BR /> The story of Henry Tudor&rsquo;s march to Bosworth and the throne of England began long before the fateful summer of 1485. Pembroke Castle, the gigantic fortress where he was born in 1457 and spent his childhood years, lay some twelve miles inland from the spot where Henry is believed to have landed in Milford Haven when he came to challenge Richard III in August 1485. Henry&rsquo;s landing and progress to Bosworth Field were a gamble, but one that had to be taken if the House of Lancaster was to survive.<BR />  <BR /> In <I>Following in the Footsteps of Henry Tudor</I>, we hear of the many fascinating stories from Henry&rsquo;s march and the places he visited&mdash;a journey that took just over two weeks. It was a time of treachery and double dealing, but it culminated with the establishment of the Tudor dynasty, the end of the Wars of the Roses, and the beginnings of the modern world.</div>

Following in the Footsteps of Henry Tudor

<div><B>The author of <I>The First World War in the Air</I> details the gripping 1905 naval battle during the Russo-Japanese War.</B><br/><br/>In 1905 Japan and Russia were at war. With the Russian Far East Fleet destroyed, the Czar sent his Baltic Fleet halfway around the world to exact revenge. This mammoth journey took many months and was an amazing feat of seamanship. But, at the end of this adventure, the Russians were totally overwhelmed, and the majority of the fleet was underwater. There was no alternative for the Czar but to sue for an ignominious peace.<br/><br/>The story of the journey and the final battle remain fascinating, the people involved behaving like characters from a novel. Russian Admiral Rozhestvensky was a gunnery expert but had never held active command in a major sea battle. Japanese Admiral Togo had trained in Britain, enlisting as a cadet on the Training Ship <I>Worcester</I>, even though he was far too old and was forced to lie about his age. Inept generalship on the part of the Russians, combined with brilliant seamanship from Togo, saw the complete destruction of the Russian fleet.<br/><br/>The naval battle of Tsushima is one of the forgotten actions of the twentieth century, but it has a significance that is immense in world history.<br/><br/><B>“An utterly compelling story, well told by Carradice. We really sympathize with the Russian sailors, trapped on their ironclad warships for months as they battled against the elements, a largely hostile world, and even each other. The result is an excellent book that reminds us of the human cost of these massive naval battles.” —History of War</B></div>

The Battle of Tsushima

<div>Early espionage organisations like Walsingham’s Elizabethan spy network were private enterprises, tasked with keeping the Tudor Queen and her government safe. Formal use of spies and counter spies only really began in the years after 1909, when the official British secret service was founded. Britain became the first major proponent of secret information gathering and other nations quickly followed.  The outbreak of war in 1914 saw a sudden and dramatic increase in the use of spies as the military quickly began to realise the value of covert intelligence. Spying ‘came of age’ during the war on the Western Front and that value only increased in the run up to the Second World War, when the threat of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany began to make themselves felt.  The Cold War years, with the use of moles, defectors and double agents on both sides of the Iron Curtain saw the art of spying assume record proportions. The passing on of atom secrets, the truth about Russian missiles on Cuba, it was the age of the double agent, the activities of whom managed to keep away the looming threat of nuclear war.  A Hundred Years of Spying takes the reader through the murky world of espionage as it develops over the course of the twentieth century, where the lines of truth and reality blur, and where many real-life spies have always been accompanied, maybe even proceeded, by a plethora of spy literature.  This book will look at the use of and development of spying as an accepted military practice. It will focus on individuals from Belgians like Gabrielle Petite to the infamous Mata Hari, from people like Reilly Ace of Spies to the British traitors such as Philby, Burgess and McClean. The activities of American atom spies like the Rosenbergs will also be covered as will Russian double agent Oleg Penkovsky and many others.</div>

A Hundred Years of Spying

<div><P><B>This unique biography examines Hitler&rsquo;s many female relationships, from his mother and sisters to his girlfriends, secretaries, and adoring public.</B><BR /><BR /> To most of the world, Adolf Hitler was a ranting, evil demagogue whose insane ambitions caused incalculable harm to humanity. But to the women in his life, he was kind, compassionate, and loving&mdash;a man to be admired and adored. In <I>Hitler and His Women</I>, historian Phil Carradice explores the Fuhrer&rsquo;s many relationships with women, from his romantic involvements to his interactions with female staff and the thousands of women who flocked to hear him speak.<BR /><BR /> While many are familiar with Eva Braun, she was not alone in her role as the Fuhrer&rsquo;s lover. Dozens of women preceded her, including Mitzi Reiter, Henny Hoffmann, and his own niece Geli Raubal. To them and many others, Hitler was the ultimate romantic. From deep familial bonds to a teenage infatuation with a girl he never met, from actresses like Zara Leander to English aristocrat Unity Mitford, Carradice examines how Hitlers relationships with women affected the course of history. </P></div>

Hitler and his Women

<div>Keeping the Home Fires Burning tells the story of how the troops and the general public were kept happy and content during the First World War. Between 1914 and 1918 there was entertainment of the masses for the sole purpose of promotion of the war effort. It was the first time that a concerted effort to raise and sustain morale was ever made by any British government and was a combination of government sponsored ideas and lucky happenstance. It was all picked up and used by the new Propaganda Ministry.  The range of activities was wide and varied, from poetry to cinema, from music hall singers and artists to the creation of battlefield heroes. There was postcard humour and deliberate veneration of philanthropists - and war participants - like Woodbine Willie.  The theme of Keeping the Home Fires Burning is backed up by 40 illustrations from the time, including participants, posters, battlefield views and so on.</div>

Keeping the Home Fires Burning

<div>Like William Wallace in Scotland, Owain Glyndwr fought for his country and was only finally defeated by superior numbers and the military genius of Henry V. Yet Glyndwr was not just a freedom fighter. He was the last native-born Prince of Wales, a man who initiated the first Welsh parliament at Machynlleth and proposed an entirely independent Welsh church.  Glyndwr also laid plans for two Welsh universities, proposed a return to the far sighted and revolutionary Laws of Hywel Dda and formed a Tripartite Agreement with Henry Percy and Edmund Mortimer. It led to an invasion of England and nearly brought the reign of Henry V to an end.  And yet, despite his success and popularity, Glyndwr's rebellion seriously damaged the Welsh economy with towns destroyed and much agricultural land laid to waste. Even so, he was never betrayed by his people, despite a huge reward being offered for his capture.  Glyndwr refused at least two offers of pardon from the English crown and remains the supreme champion of the underdog.</div>

The Welsh Braveheart

<div>Robert the Bruce is a detailed account of the life and times of the Scottish hero and monarch. It covers his life from childhood to death, looking at the political, social and military life of Scotland before, during and after the time of Robert the Bruce.  The book looks at the relationship between The Bruce and people like Edward I and Edward II of England, William Wallace and the other contenders for the Scottish crown. The main thrust of the book is a chronological account of how The Bruce clawed his way to power, his struggles and battles and his eventual victory which gave Scotland independence and freedom from an acquisitive and warlike neighbour. It looks in detail at the murder of John Comyn, of which The Bruce stood accused, and the political ramifications of the killing.  Robert the Bruce was no saint. He was a ruthless, cunning warrior, a man of his times, dedicated to what he saw as his mission in life. Flawed he may have been but he was also a great King, a worthy warrior and a man who deserves to emerge from the shadow of William Wallace - a position to which he has been relegated ever since the film Braveheart.</div>

Phil Carradice
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Books By Phil Carradice (14 Books)