Roman Conquests: Gaul

Ever since their sack of Rome in the early fourth century BC, the various tribes of Gauls to the north were among the Roman Republic’s most feared and respected foes.

This book describes how Roman armies eventually carried war into their enemies’ homelands and brought them into their expanding empire.

Michael M Sage relates the establishment of Rome’s first footholds in Gallic territory, before moving onto Julius Caesar’s dazzling seizure of all Gaul in the space of a few years.

Caesar army repeatedly defeated much larger armies drawn from a fierce warrior culture.

These, the most famous of all Roman campaigns of conquest, are described and analysed in great detail, as are the events of Vercingetorix’s great rebellion which almost succeeded in throwing off Roman rule before it could be consolidated.

Caesar’s epic siege of Alesia provides a dramatic climax.

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Aspects of Birmingham

There are now over 25 books published as part of the Aspects Series, each one taking readers on a voyage of nostalgic discovery through their town, city or area.

Here Birmingham, once “The Workshop of the Empire” is revealed in twelve studies of the city and its people. Here we find “Birmingham Municipal Bank”, the only successful council operated bank and “Lesser Known Characters” about the city.

We see the work of the “Birmingham Mission” and “Birmingham Children’s Emigration Homes”.

During the troubled 1930′s, Birmingham held a “Great Pageant” and as war clouds gathered over Europe, the city’s young men fought in “The Spanish Civil War”.

All this and so much more is available in this, the first Aspects of Birmingham.

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Bowmen of England

From the 12th to 15th centuries the longbow was the weapon that changed European history more than any other.

In the skilled hands of English and Welsh archers it revolutionized all the medieval concepts and traditions of war.

No other weapon dominated the battlefield as it did, and it was the winning factor in every major battle from Morlaix in 1342 to Patay in 1429.

Donald Featherstone’s study of the English longbow from its early development until the Wars of the Roses is an inspiring and authentic reconstruction in human terms in an age of courage, vitality and endurance.

He provides an enthralling footnote to the history of the longbow by recording the engagement in which it was last used – in France in 1940.

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Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Bolton

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Bolton takes the reader on a sinister journey through centuries of local crime, meeting villains of all sorts along the way.

There is no shortage of harrowing incidents of evil to recount from the town’s early industrial beginnings to its murderous heyday in the nineteenth century.

Glynis Cooper’s fascinating research has uncovered grisly events and sad or unsavoury individuals whose conduct throws a harsh light on the history of a city that was once known as the Geneva of the North.

These extraordinary stories, rediscovered in the Bolton Evening News, in council archives and in police and court records, shed light on a bloody past that Bolton would prefer to forget.

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Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Bolton

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in and around Newcastle

Newcastle, Gateshead, Morpeyh, Tynemouth and North and South Shields were towns of great wealth because of the many natural resources in the area.

Certainly by the eighteenth century, Newcastle had become the most important commercial centre in the north, but, along with the wealth of the merchants and the factory owners there was the dire poverty of the working class.

A pall of dark fog would linger over the buildings caused by the pollution spouting out from the chimneys of the ironworks and other industries. Bad housing, sanitation, overcrowding and low wages bred superstition, ignorance and illiteracy.

Alcohol was often the only release the poorer classes had from their otherwise hum-drum daily drudge.

It was not only the men who would spend all their money in the many beer houses, women also would drink themselves into oblivion, even if it meant their children went hungry.

Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in and around Newcastle spans three hundred years of grisly events beginning with the execution of so-called witches.

The stories will show the reader the depraved side of their fellow man and give an insight into the darkest side of the history of the area.

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Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in and around Newcastle

Battlefield General: Arnhem 1944

This is the first in a series of game books which put you in command of the forces in engaged in some of history’s most famous battles.

Your tactical skill and ability to make the right command decision will be tested at every turn of the page. Operation Market Garden in September 1944 was one of the most daring Allied plans of the Second World War.

An audacious surprise assault from the air, it was intended to give the Allies a bridgehead across the Rhine, removing the last significant natural barrier on the road to Berlin.

If successful it might have shortened the war by months. Will the brave British paratroopers be able to seize the vital bridge at Arnhem and hold it until reinforcements fight their way through? Or will the Germans be able to recover the initiative and crush them in a skilful counterattack?

The book presents you with a series of command decisions, aided by situation maps; directing you to the next relevant briefing depending on the option you choose.

No dice are necessary to play, just this book and your tactical skill. When you buy this book, the fate of nations is in your hands

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Battlefield General: Arnhem 1944

Hull's Fishing Heritage

‘Hull’s Fishing Heritage’ is a unique nostalgic account, brought to you by Wharncliffe Books.

Focusing upon three decades of research, the fishing community of Hessle Road represents a unique breed of people who endured hardship from the elements in times of peace and danger from the enemy in times of war.

Within the world of the fishing families of Hull is a whole universe of humanity. Based upon interviews, a range of colourful tales are presented to convey Hull’s Fishing Heritage.

Survivors of a wrecked trawler stagger ashore in Iceland during the bitter winter of 1910 – this hair raising tale is based upon Skipper Brewer’s handwritten log.

Another skipper, ‘Mad’ Rilatt, outwits German U-Boats in the First World War.

A suicide mission to war-torn Norway in 1940 aboard a former Hull trawler.

Amy Johnston flew to Australia single-handed – she is revealed as a Hessle Road girl. Cowboys of the Arctic Circle, shows how Hollywood influenced the young trawler lads.’Hull’s Fishing Heritage’ is, all in all, a sparkling assortment of vibrant stories that reflect Hull’s Fishing Heritage.

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Hull’s Fishing Heritage

What's Tha Up To Nah? - More Memories of a Sheffield Bobby

Martyn continues his wonderful stories about policing during the 1960s and 1970s.

As with his previous volume the book is written from the heart, not so much nostalgia as a genuine feeling for the people, animals, places and history of Sheffield.

As before, humour and sadness combine so that every chapter really is a compelling read.

Life as a traditional beat bobby is rapidly becoming a fading memory.

At a time when front-line policing is under threat nationwide there can be no better time to reflect on the life and times of the old fashioned street policeman whether on foot, on a cycle, motorbike or as an observant passenger in a Hillman Husky.

Martyn’s reminiscences not only contribute to our local social history but are also relevant to the twentieth-first century policing debate.

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What’s Tha Up To Nah? – More Memories of a Sheffield Bobby

The Forgotten Few - The Polish Air Force in World War II

By the beginning of 1941 there was a fully fledged Polish Air Force operating alongside the RAF.

With 14 Squadrons it was larger than any other of the Air Force from Nazi-occupied Europe that had joined the Allies.

Over 17,000 men and women passed through the ranks of the Polish Air Force while it was stationed in the UK.

They shot down 745 enemy aircraft, with a further 175 unconfirmed.

They dropped thousands of bombs and laid hundreds of mines, flying 102,486 sorties notching up a total of 290,895 operation flying hours.

They achieved this at a cost of 1,973 killed and 1,388 wounded.

They won 342 British gallantry awards.

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The Forgotten Few – The Polish Air Force in World War II

Figureheads of the Royal Navy

The first figureheads that were carved to represent the names of British warships appeared during the reign of Henry VIII; the last ones were carved in the early years of the twentieth century.

During the intervening three hundred and fifty years it is estimated that some 5000 ships of the Royal Navy carried a figurehead of some description.

This book follows the development of these diverse carvings, examining how the figurehead carvers interpreted the names and the symbolism incorporated in their designs.

Evidence is drawn from a wide range of sources: contemporary ship models, ship plans, designs submitted for approval of the Navy Board and, of course, from those figureheads that have survived.

Lavishly illustrated with much previously unpublished material, the book explores the wide range of subjects that were represented on the bows of Their Majesties’ Ships and recounts many of the stories that were told about them.

The narrative is complemented by a catalogue that provides a brief description of each surviving figurehead, each carver’s design drawing with its source and reference number as well as those ship plans and contemporary models that show the figurehead’s detail.

This combination makes the book useful to a wide range of historians, researchers and anyone with an interest in Britain’s maritime past.

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Figureheads of the Royal Navy