England Wars

London, 1958. By crafting magical outfits for his friend, Princess Katherine, cloth mage Paul Gallagher is getting ahead. It’s not a seamless path. Not since the Virtuis Party came to power. The far-right faction is using criminals to create a protective barrier around England. The enchanted uniforms the prisoners wear may beget a demand for mages, but using luckless convicts as tools for warmongering reactionaries isn’t Paul’s dream for cloth magic.

British and American commanders first used modern Special Forces in support of conventional military operations during World War II. Since then, although special ops have featured prominently in popular culture and media coverage of wars, the academic study of irregular warfare has remained as elusive as the practitioners of special operations themselves.

Juli 1346: Zehn Söldner gehen an der Küste der Normandie an Land und sichern als Vorhut die Flotte des englischen Königs. Der Krieg um den französischen Thron beginnt. Für die Essex Dogs wird es ein Kampf ums Überleben, um Zusammenhalt, gegen die Gespenster der Vergangenheit, während das Heer mordend und brandschatzend der großen Schlacht bei Crécy entgegenzieht.

On 6 June, 1944, Britain woke up to a profound silence. Overnight, 160,000 Allied troops had vanished and an eerie emptiness settled over the country. The majority of those men would never return. This is the story of that extraordinary 24 hours. Using a wealth of first-person testimonies, renowned historian Max Arthur recounts a remarkable new oral history of D-Day, beginning with the two years leading up to the silent day that saw the UK transformed by the arrival of thousands of American and Canadian troops.

From the comfortable distance of seven decades, it is quite easy to view the victory of the Allies over Hitler's Germany as inevitable. But in 1940 Great Britain's defeat loomed perilously close, and no other nation stepped up to confront the Nazi threat. In this cogently argued book, Robin Prior delves into the documents of the time - war diaries, combat reports, Home Security's daily files, and much more - to uncover how Britain endured a year of menacing crises.

England, 1940. Literature student Ruth Gladstone evacuates Cambridge University for Martynsborough, a tiny English village with a shadowy history. For Ruth, retreating to a forgotten corner of the country is more than a safety maneuver; it’s an opportunity to end an undesirable engagement and begin writing her first novel. But upon her arrival, Ruth learns of a ghostly wraith haunting the villagers after decades of silence. Although Ruth is enthralled by the legend, the locals are less charmed by the wraith’s return.

Europe’s attempts to appease Hitler failed, as Nazi Germany swallowed up Austria and Czechoslovakia by 1939. The straw that broke the camel's back, however, was Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1 of that year. Two days later, France and Great Britain declared war on Germany, and World War II had begun in earnest. Of course, as most people now know, the invasion of Poland was merely the preface to the Nazi blitzkrieg of most of Western Europe.The narrative is that the British stood alone in 1940 against the Nazi onslaught....

Liverpool, 1942. Though they may be posted miles apart, Cadi and Jez's love for one another is stronger than ever—until Cadi receives a heart-breaking call from Jez's base. Cadi races to be with her beau and at his bedside, they make each other a promise before they say their goodbyes. In her darkest hour, Cadi is comforted by her friends and with their support and guidance she begins to see a light at the end of the tunnel. But Cadi will face more than one unexpected turn along the way.

The focus of the opening campaign of the War of 1812 was Detroit, a location the War Department considered one of the significant launching points for the invasion of Canada. Detroit's surrender only two months after the declaration of war shocked the nation and led to the court-martial of Brigadier General William Hull. Hull was sentenced to death and has been vilified by many historians to the present day for his decision to surrender.

The monarchs of the Tudor period are among some of the most well-known figures in British history. John Guy presents a compelling and fascinating exploration of the Tudors in the new edition of this Very Short Introduction audiobook.

England 1922. It’s been four years since Rudy’s brother Edgar went missing in war-torn France. Still deep in mourning and grappling with unanswered questions, Rudy and his mother struggle to move on. When the enigmatic Mariette arrives unexpectedly at the family’s manor claiming to be Edgar’s widow, and the mother of his child, Rudy urges her to stay, hoping she’ll shed light on the missing pieces.

It’s hard to be an American girl in 1957. Especially when your dad’s job means you have to move four thousand miles from home. Especially if you’d rather play baseball than wear a dress. Especially if you see your mom fraying a little more from anxiety each day. And especially if being five minutes older means you have to protect your fragile twin brother.

When a cryptographer is murdered, Thomas Charles is sent on a secret mission to uncover the killer – and it’s the perfect opportunity to rekindle his romance with Cat Carlisle, the woman who helped uncover a double agent and solve her own husband’s murder. The victim’s niece – and the police’s top suspect – is Cat’s childhood friend and she begs Cat for help.

On April 19, 1775, the American Revolution began at the Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts. The "shot heard round the world" catapulted this sleepy New England town into the midst of revolutionary fervor, and Concord went on to become the intellectual capital of the new republic. In The Minutemen and Their World, Robert Gross has written a remarkably subtle and detailed reconstruction of the lives and community of this special place, and a compelling interpretation of the American Revolution as a social movement.

History celebrates George Washington as the leader of the American Revolution and the father of his country. But what has gone previously unexamined is Washington's life as a 22-year-old lieutenant colonel who led 400 American militiamen against a bigger, more experienced French army and paid a high price. Not only did Washington lose over a third of his men but the Battle of Great Meadows was also the spark that ignited the French and Indian War.

A heartbreaking and deeply compelling debut, Mrs. Sinclair’s Suitcase is a compulsive pause-resister about thwarted love, dashed hopes, and family secrets - book-club fiction at its best. Roberta, a lonely 34-year-old bibliophile, works at The Old and New Bookshop in England. When she finds a letter inside her centenarian grandmother’s battered old suitcase that hints at a dark secret, her understanding of her family’s history is completely upturned.

This book was published in 1891 and is a story of a lonely child, Dick Helder, who grows up to become a war artist. Following the British army into battle, he experiences many difficulties and internal struggles while providing some outstanding descriptions of the desert and desert warfare.

Christmas Eve, 2019. Ninety-four-year-old Molly lies in her hospital bed. A stroke and a fall may have broken her body - but her mind is alive with memories. London, 1940s. Molly is a bright young woman, determined to help the war effort and keep her head up despite it all. Life becomes brighter when she meets and falls in love with a man who makes her forget everything with one dance. But then war forces her to make an unforgettable sacrifice.

An American president who will do anything to win reelection...An Iranian leader who will stop at nothing to bring about apocalypse...An ancient evil, only waiting to be reborn....High in the Alborz Mountains of northwestern Iran, an archaeological team disappears. American citizens are among the missing...With the presidential election only months away, President Roger Hancock authorizes a covert CIA mission into the mountains of Iran. Their objective: rescue the archaeologists and uncover the truth.

In the Middle East, refugees fleeing dictatorship and terrorism pour across the borders into Europe, destabilizing countries already in the throes of economic crisis. But not all who seek refuge share the same reasons for so doing.... In the UK, the nationalist far right gathers strength - fueled by a government unable or unwilling to protect its own. England is on the brink. All it will take to send it tumbling into the abyss...is a single push. And in the midst of it all, two men have arrived in London, dark harbingers of death to come.