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WHILE THE MUSIC LASTS is Jim Powell's fourth and most ambitious novel. Spanning four decades and moving between Britain, France and America, it is a timely chronicle of the generation that came of age in the post-war world. They championed freedom, blew the lid off convention and set out to change society – but did they? Published in two volumes, this powerful story captures the zeitgeist of the extraordinary times through which this generation has lived. In the first volume, Starting from Anywhere, we follow the novel's compelling cast of characters, ‘baby boomers' taking their first steps into adulthood, moving through 1960s idealism and on to the excesses of the 1980s. The narrator, Tony Gethyn, is the link between them all – from his school friend bound for Vietnam and university friends bound for Parliament and the City to the people who drift in and out of his advertising days in Soho, among them a Washington lobbyist, a Black Country entrepreneur, a Nigerian charity worker, a London tabloid journalist and her broadsheet counterpart in New York. Running through many of these lives, blighting some and unsettling others, is the novel's anti-hero, who represents the worst of 1980s culture.

One moonless night in 1942, a handsome 20-year-old British SOE lieutenant, Maurice Pertschuk, rowed ashore on the Côte d’Azur with orders to report to the French resistance. Three years later he’d be hanged at Buchenwald, just 13 days before its liberation, within earshot of approaching Allied guns. Friends rescued the sheaf of poems he’d scribbled on scavenged paper and published them in 1946 as “Leaves of Buchenwald.” What had happened, his young niece wondered, to this young poet? A seemingly impenetrable silence hung around the subject. Only after her mother’s death did this niece dare look for answers. In The Moon in Splinters she revisits Maurice’s haunts, tracks down survivors and interviews their families. A portrait emerges of a slight, brilliant, romantic intellectual; of gentle disposition, yet tough, full of “imaginative audacity,” who organized a vast, yet to date largely forgotten, resistance network in southern France. After the Germans occupied the whole of France, London ordered his team to blow up a Toulouse explosive factory, but a double agent caught wind of the plot. Maurice and 16 others were betrayed, arrested, tortured and deported to Buchenwald. The Moon in Splinters follows twists and turns in the discoveries, the disappointments and the revelations - all interwoven with Maurice’s reconstructed story. It leads to a surprise ending, even more sinister than the one historians tell.

War-zones and witchcraft, exotic food and disastrous dinner parties, Culture Shock & Canapés explores the hidden world behind high Embassy walls. A young Australian girl from London struggles to adapt to diplomatic life among the royal courtiers of Swaziland, in post-independence Zimbabwe and in Angola amid the gunfire of the civil war. She accompanies her husband, the striding KJ, on his African postings together with two English bull terriers and a large, redoubtable African tabby cat. As each country unfolds its challenges and discoveries she shares her delight, her wry humour, and keen sense of the ridiculous. In a darker mood we follow KJ in Somalia during the famine and in Rwanda after the genocide. The book will appeal to travellers; to those who have worked overseas and coped with culture shock. The writer, a psychologist, delves into history and sociology, revels in the bizarre and includes recipes collected along the way.

When Pamela O'Cuneen heard her diplomat husband was being transferred to Suriname, her first reaction was: ‘Suri-where?' Neither she nor anyone she spoke to had heard of the country. Having spent sixteen years in Africa – a story told in her first book, Culture Shock & Canapés – she was prepared for surprises, but Suriname, the mysterious land of seven cultures, proved to be a multi-layered experience that tested all her powers of cultural adaptation. Hummingbirds in My Hair describes Pamela's move from rainforest Suriname to carnivalesque Trinidad where, beneath the sound of steel pans and soca music, a dark and violent history of enslaved people still influences politics today. Those who read and enjoyed Culture Shock & Canapés will welcome this second episode of diplomatic travels and travails, revealing that what goes on inside embassy walls in developing countries is not just endless champagne and silver spoons. The book unrolls with humour, delighting in a lively procession of multicultural characters and animals, and includes a variety of recipes collected along the way...

A father and son. Eight dark pages of history. One unforgettable journey. In this powerful intergenerational memoir, Michael Admiraal and his father—born in the 1920s—drive 2,300 miles across modern-day Germany, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic, and France to visit eight Nazi concentration camps. What they discover are not only the remnants of history's darkest chapter, but two profoundly different ways of remembering it. The father seeking to understand atrocities once distant from his own experience; the son hoping to uncover the untold story behind the silences of his childhood. Part travelogue, part historical guide, and part family reflection, Along the Roads to Hell explores what it means to bear witness as outsiders—those who were not victims, but who feel a duty to remember. Through maps, photographs, and vivid on-site impressions, Admiraal invites readers to confront the Holocaust not through abstraction, but by standing where it actually happened. Only by walking these roads, he argues, can we truly understand the scale of its harrowing legacy—and why we must never forget.

"A thrilling story, well told" The Edinburgh Reporter Edinburgh, 1798. David Stoddart is a respected town councillor by day — and a thief by night. Addicted to the criminal underworld, he prowls the alleys of the Old Town, gambling away his loot and risking everything for the thrill of danger. As his debts spiral and his double life grows more perilous, Stoddart forms a gang to increase his takings — among them, an ex-convict on the run for murder. When a raid goes disastrously wrong, betrayal and bloodshed follow. Hunted and desperate, Stoddart's next move could spell salvation — or ruin. Rich with atmosphere and moral complexity, A Leap in the Dark is a riveting tale of duplicity, danger, and a man torn between honour and vice. As Robert Louis Stevenson observed: "Man is not truly one, but truly two."

I Am André is an amazing real-life story of espionage, of courage and resistance, and of friendship and love. It pulls back the veil on the hidden history of the struggle for the identity of the Resistance in France. The life of ‘André' Joseph Scheinmann is more intriguing and compelling than any work of fiction. His true-life story of derring-do starts as a Jewish youth in Munich, whose family moves to France in 1933 to escape the Nazi tide. He joins the French army at the outbreak of WW2 and escapes from a prisoner-of war camp after the bitterly brief fight for France in the summer of 1940. André becomes a spy and saboteur for the British and Free French whilst working undercover as translator and liaison with the German high command at the Brittany headquarters of the French National Railroads. Summoned by the British, he clandestinely crosses the Channel for initiation and training as an MI6 agent in England. His network betrayed during his absence, he is arrested on his return to France. André then begins an even more perilous journey with interrogation in Gestapo prisons and the little-known Natzweiler concentration camp in Alsace, before being transferred to Dachau and Allach, ahead of the advancing Allies. Many vintage photographs and letters from his agents come to illustrate this heart-pounding story of a debonair young man in a broken world who remade himself as a cunning fighter for freedom.

“Jungle Warrior is a splendid book about a very brave and determined man who, literally, gave his all for King and Country” Field Marshal the Lord Richards The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was created by Winston Churchill in 1940 to "set Europe ablaze," but its most significant success occurred in the jungles of Burma, where its guerrilla operations were vital to the reconquest of the country. SOE’s greatest commander was Lieutenant Colonel Edgar Peacock. Born in India in 1893, Edgar Peacock missed WWI due to his employment in Burma’s Jungles. In 1940, aged 46, he lied about his age and enlisted as a Private, ending the war as a highly decorated special forces Lieutenant Colonel, who had conceived, planned and led the most successful guerrilla operation of WW2. Approximately 130 British officers and NCOs parachuted in, raised about 12,000 indigenous guerrillas and prevented the Japanese from halting General Slim's advance on Rangoon. Over eight months of intense, continuous, combat in enemy territory, Operation Character accounted for 11,874 Japanese casualties for the loss of 22 British troops. For a period they outperformed the entire British 14th Army!Monsoon rains, scarce supplies, dense mountainous jungle, tigers, snakes, leeches and a determined enemy, all combined to make this an operation like no other. Eminent historian, Richard Duckett, given exclusive access to private family files, has produced an extraordinary biography of an exceptional man, exploring Edgar’s truly fascinating life 'warts and all'.

In 1993, Barbara Bishop was a young, ambitious intelligence officer, honing her skills amidst the chaos of the Bosnian Civil War. But a single, life-changing event would forever alter her path. Ten years later, now more seasoned but still haunted by her past, Barbara finds herself in post-invasion Iraq, chasing an elusive Al-Qaeda insurgent known as "Juba the Baghdad Sniper." Teaming up with Eric Scott-Douglas, a colleague from her Bosnia days, who is now at Defence Intelligence in London, Barbara begins to unravel the intricate web leading to her target. With the most advanced intelligence-gathering apparatus at her disposal, and a British SAS troop ready for action, she meticulously hunts Juba through Baghdad's Triangle of Death, navigating one of the most dangerous battlegrounds on Earth. As the pieces fall into place, Barbara makes a chilling discovery: Juba is no mere sniper. A high-ranking Al-Qaeda leader, he is also a shadow from her past—her nemesis from Bosnia. What began as a mission of duty has now become a deeply personal quest for revenge. This gripping thriller brings back the Boss, Barnes and the crack team from Scott Leigh's sensational debut novel, Closer to Paradise.

If you want to enhance your life, The Brain Always Wins 2 will show you how. It is the practical guide to improving yourself through better brain management. The world has shifted significantly since The Brain Always Wins was first published to great acclaim in 2016. Now, the need to develop our lives healthily and efficiently by using our own personalised brain management P.R.O.C.E.S.S. has never been greater. Consequently, Dr John Sullivan and Chris Parker have transformed their original book, making it even more engaging, practical and useful, by adding:• New learning based on the most recent scientific research. • New stories that demonstrate the value of better brain management. • New practical activities to choose from. • Insights into technology that you can use to help manage your brain. • Extracts from the authors’ conversations about each aspect of the P.R.O.C.E.S.S.

If you want to enhance your life, The Brain Always Wins 2 will show you how. It is the practical guide to improving yourself through better brain management. The world has shifted significantly since The Brain Always Wins was first published to great acclaim in 2016. Now, the need to develop our lives healthily and efficiently by using our own personalised brain management P.R.O.C.E.S.S. has never been greater. Consequently, Dr John Sullivan and Chris Parker have transformed their original book, making it even more engaging, practical and useful, by adding:• New learning based on the most recent scientific research. • New stories that demonstrate the value of better brain management. • New practical activities to choose from. • Insights into technology that you can use to help manage your brain. • Extracts from the authors’ conversations about each aspect of the P.R.O.C.E.S.S.

Imagine finding the love of your life, but they are utterly unreachable. Pamela is a young Australian, not long out of convent school, trying to forge a life of adventure, culture and self-reliance by travelling through Europe. There, in a sunlit lecture hall in Perugia in 1968, she meets Kieran O'Cuneen, an Irish Catholic missionary priest whose conviction and charm captivate her soul. They fall in love, but Kieran's vows to the Church stand between them. When Kieran returns to his duties in Africa, severing all ties, Pamela is cast adrift in London. She immerses herself in a new life of work, friendships, and fleeting romances, yet her heart belongs to Kieran, and his absence devastates her life. With All My Soul is a true story, but it isn't just a memoir. It's a portrait of a changing world, and a deeply moving exploration of the agony of separation, the power of faith, and the choices that shape our destiny. For anyone who has questioned fate or dared to follow their heart, this book is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the enduring power of love.

Forgotten Armour is a new appraisal of the role of tanks in India and Burma in the Second World War. Often regarded primarily as an infantryman's war in dense jungle and through monsoon conditions, The book shows that this is far from the whole story. Using original research from places such as the National Archives, eyewitness testimony, and official histories, as well as more recent academic studies. Beginning with the failure to fully mechanise the interwar Indian Army, and tracing the development of armoured training, logistics and tactics, Forgotten Armour tells the story of the Second World War in India and Burma from the cramped interior of tanks. It will show that much of the effort of the war was built around getting armour to the front and keeping it there. Once tanks arrived, and bunker busting methods were devised, armour proved decisive in their encounters against the Japanese, and saved countless Allied lives. It is time to remember the forgotten army's forgotten armour.

DALEY Is the long-awaited autobiography of the life of double Olympic decathlon champion, Daley Thompson. Wearing his heart on his sleeve, he chronicles his legendary sporting achievements, but, for the first time, also reveals the personal struggles he faced to rise from the humblest of beginnings to become the ultimate Olympic Superstar, who then had to reconcile what he had become with his own humanity as a son and as a father. At his sporting peak, Daley was a charismatic, uncompromising, anti-establishment superhero. That was the public persona the nation loved, and which inspired a generation of Britons to realise that a young Black man could be our hero. But the introvert Daley didn't want to be 'famous' for anything other than his sporting achievements. He was, and remains, the antithesis of today's social media obsessed 'celebrity'. For him, the pure Olympian, it was only ever about the sport and the winning. Much as Daley may be cast as 'unrelenting, invincible for ten years', his sporting supremacy was a product of his singular willpower and courage. He is an invention of his own making, inherently human and born of an Olympian ideal that we all admire, yet with all the same flaws and frailties as the rest of us. Now, for the first time, he tells his story, no punches pulled.

The truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth…? Miriam Hassan stands in the defendant's dock at Birmingham Crown Court charged with the cold-blooded murder of her well-known, rich, charismatic husband Zaf, to which she pleads not guilty. However, nothing is straightforward. There is conflicting witness testimony. The couple argued on the day in question, and Miriam was overheard threatening him. A witness places her at the scene of the crime. Miriam's evidence casts doubt on her guilt, but no one can corroborate it. It soon becomes apparent that both Zaf and the marriage were not as they seemed. Miriam discloses details about the ‘gaslighting' and emotional abuse she suffered, and the court also discovers that Zaf in fact had a number of enemies. On the other hand, Miriam stands to inherit Zaf's vast fortune if she walks free. Through the moving testimony in the courtroom and dramatic flashbacks of the two-year marriage, the reader is taken on a gripping and thought-provoking journey, but when the shocking truth is finally revealed, the reader will be left with a moral question that may be difficult to answer.

In Ascent of a Woman, Mhairi Blyth presents an unfiltered, candid account of her life. Spanning over thirty years, her memoir shows a life littered with trauma, trials, and tragedy, starting with her dad leaving to work over 3,000 miles away, in the middle of a war, when she was just six. With every chapter of her life, a new and seemingly impossible trial begins which tests Mhairi's mental and physical strength, and her ability to overcome adversity. She reveals her darkest moments, together with feelings of loneliness, loss, and despair, where even mother nature is against her. Mhairi also describes her sparks of resilience and determination in fighting for herself and for her family, where she comes up against those meant to be the very people to help and protect. Ascent of a Woman is one woman's story of endurance, growth and forgiveness whilst overcoming massive personal loss, the consequences of which will always be with her. This is Mhairi's ascent from a child to a girl, to a woman. This is her evolution.