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Danann Books is delighted to present its brand new and exclusive mass market illustrated non fiction titles for 2017 These unique mass market illustrated non fiction titles include comprehensive and authoritative text illustrated throughout with photographs, Images and memorabilia. These collectors editions also feature a 16 page colour section, PLUS four DVDs mounted inside the back cover.

For 2017 Take a look at our brand new range of titles for 2017. Whether your into motor racing, music or Military history, we’ve got you covered this year

LEWIS HAMILTON - THROUGH THE LENS LIMITED EDITION ILLUSTRATED HARDCOVER BOOK. ISBN: 978-0-9931813-4-4 | RRP: £29.99 Lewis Hamilton is the record breaking driver of Formula 1 having won his 3rd world championship in 2015. He is competing for his 4th championship in 2016. His rivalry with Nico Rosberg and his incredible career from Karting champion to one of the greatest drivers on the planet with the likes of Senna and Schumacher in his sights. He has become the greatest British F1 driver ever. Jackie Stewart says that he has rewritten the rule book. This is his story illustrated with incredible images from Getty.

19th SEPTEMBER 2006 SILVERSTONE

6th APRIL 2008 BAHRAIN

Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and McClaren during Formula one testing at Silverstone Circuit

joined such legends as Mike Hawthorn, Graham Hill, Jim

joining Mercedes in 2012 there were plenty who said it

In action during the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain.

championship with three races to go.

Clark, John Surtees, Jackie Stewart, James Hunt, Nigel

was a mistake, that he shouldn’t leave the safe haven of

In the history of F1 only four other drivers have scored

Mansell and Damon Hill.

McLaren. But it turned out to be an inspired move. The

more title wins than Lewis Hamilton: Juan Manuel

Park circuit for the Australian Grand Prix, Hamilton was

himself leading but a superior fuel strategy enabled the

comfortable in the car and thoroughly familiar with the

double world champion to get ahead. The race finished

operational aspects of a grand prix week-end. For much

with Lewis third: a podium in his first race! This was the

After that the champ seemed to go off the boil. There

new grand prix formula for 2014, which specified 1.6 litre

Fangio, Alain Prost, Michael Schumacher and Vettel.

of the first practice session he was lapping slightly faster

pay-off for 14 years’ hard slog.

were times when the phenomenon of 2007 and 2008

turbo-charged cars with electronic recovery systems,

That’s pretty exalted company by any standards. In

than his team-mate despite the fact that it was raining.

began to look confused and distracted. Combined with

enabled Mercedes to grab a technological lead and

a series of embarrassing goofs and outbursts it made

dominate the next two seasons.

some people wonder if the spectacular talent had burned itself out before its full potential was achieved. For four of those years Hamilton was obliged to watch

All Hamilton had to do was to beat his team mate. As

The F1 world was duly impressed. “Lewis exceeded

want to win,” he replied. Doesn’t matter if it’s the next

governing body.

Talk of a clean sweep appeared to have been misplaced

for Mercedes. A conservative approach and, according to

not

race. But some time this year I’m going to have one.” He

in Canada. Roberg beat Hamilton in qualifying with a

team principal Toto Wolff, smart work on the Mercedes pit-

realise was that Ferrari’s disaffected chief mechanic,

was well aware that by soaking up the Ferrari pressure

stunning lap to win pole by 0.079 seconds as the Briton

wall, had paid off.

he’d helped Alonso build his lead. This was not lost on

locked up his brakes.

What

McLaren’s

senior

management

did

Nigel Stepney, had revealed details of this and other performance-enhancing tweaks to McLaren’s chief

Whitmarsh who observed: “He’ll be winning races this

In the race the Mercedes pair swapped places with

Qualifying in Austria was dominated by the two WilliamsMercedes cars with Rosberg third and Hamilton down in

another year that list could get smaller. At 31 Hamilton

He continued to shine over successive practice

all our expectations,” Martin Whitmarsh observed. Sir

designer, Mike Coughlan. This was to have serious

year and there’s no reason why he can’t compete for

Rosberg leading from the start. He stayed ahead after the

ninth after a spin. In the race Rosberg emerged from his

has reached the mark set by his hero the great Ayrton

sessions. Whitmarsh was impressed. “Look at his times:

Jackie Stewart pronounced Hamilton to be “the brightest

repercussions for the British team and to unsettle

the championship.”

first pit stop but lost out to Hamilton before the second. But

first tyre stop in second place with Hamilton a fighting

bang, straightaway, he was there. Quick,” he said. But

star to have entered F1 – ever.”

Hamilton as the title battle was reaching its climax.

Senna and he has time for even more success.

the Formula 1 adage has it, the toughest man to beat

It’s no wonder that Hamilton the world-class sportsman

is your own team mate as he has the same machinery.

has become a celebrity. His public appearances have

qualifying was what counted in terms of grid positions. Raikkonen ended up on pole with Alonso beside him

In the three-week break before the next race, in Malaysia, there was time for more testing at the Sepang

At Sepang Massa was on pole position with Alonso second and Hamilton fourth. The British driver’s

Seven days later the F1 teams were in Bahrain where

soon afterwards he encountered a rear-brake problem the

fourth. Before they stopped again Rosberg was leading and

the Sakhir circuit was the first one on the F1 calendar

consequence of an energy-recovery system failure due

Hamilton was third but they emerged in first and second

with which Hamilton was familiar. On Alonso’s

to overheating. He retired on lap 46. A similar problem

places. The drivers held station to the finish with Hamilton

Sebastian Vettel score victory after victory on his way to

And in Nico Rosberg, Hamilton has a team-mate well

demonstrated his supreme confidence as he deftly works

and determined to put his junior team-mate firmly back

circuit near Kuala Lumpur and a holiday in Thailand with

qualifying pace was restricted by a heavier fuel load and

side of the pit garage, however, all was

afflicted Rosberg. He lost the lead to Ricciardo but was able

1.9 seconds behind his team mate. Again, Mercedes had

four straight title wins in the Red Bull car that made good

able to challenge him. In 2014 the title battle between

big and admiring audiences.

in his place. Hamilton was fourth.

former team-mate Adrian Sutil before meeting girl-friend

rain part-way through his final run. But when the lights

not well. Despite his win in Malaysia

to preserve his advantage over Vettel at the finish. By now

the edge in performance and strategy.

use of technical supremo Adrian Newey’s unique ability.

the two went down to the last event of the season,

This book tells the story of the phenomenon that is

When he attempted to assert his independence by

although in 2015 Hamilton was able to wrap up his third

Lewis Hamilton, the son of mixed race parents who worked

In the race the Finn dashed into an immediate lead. Hamilton had to dispute track space with his rivals

night and day to make something special of their boy, and of his journey from a Hertfordshire council estate to the top of the world.

Jodia Ma in Hong Kong for a trip to Bali. Two things in particular soon became apparent during

changed the Ferraris were slow off the mark, allowing

the Spaniard was still coming to

the McLarens to snatch the first two places. For the rest

terms with the car but also feeling

of the race Hamilton had to withstand intense pressure

something of an outsider in a team

from Massa and, in the latter stages, Raikkonen. This

in which Hamilton seemed perfectly

that put him ahead of Alonso. He was now into third,

to the pace of the Ferraris of Raikkonen and Massa than

was made harder for Lewis by an empty drinks bottle in

at home. It was a British outfit after all.

which soon became second. That first corner swoop

they had been in Melbourne. This may have been due

the hot conditions.

who threatened to overwhelm him. Instinctively, he out-

practice for the Malaysian race. Hamilton was again

fumbled them and made a run down to the first corner

matching Alonso and the McLarens were much closer

past the double world champion on his F1 debut meant

to the fact that the heat was sapping their power to a

After taking the flag in second place Hamilton

that Hamilton had laid down an impressive marker.

greater extent and also because an aerodynamic device

received his team’s congratulations over the radio. “I

For much of the race the two silver McLarens lapped

which McLaren believed to be giving the Ferraris an

nose to tail and for a couple of laps Hamilton found

advantage had been ruled out by the FIA, the sport’s

Hamilton had 140 points in the driver’s championship and Rosberg 118.

The British Grand Prix raised more unanswered questions. Although Lewis was back on the top step of the

Although not identical to the issues encountered in

podium at the finish, a Hamilton victory had not seemed a

Canada, related cooling worries afflicted Mercedes in

likely outcome. Despite setting the pace in Q3, Hamilton

Austria. But this time nothing could prevent a one-two finish

made a mistake which he compounded by abandoning a

6th JUNE 2014 MONTREAL

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT

Juan Manuel Fangio; Ayrton Senna; Alain Prost; Sebastien Vettal; Fernando Alonso; Michael Schumacher

LEWIS HAMILTON THE KID FROM STEVENAGE

THE F1 NEW BOY

preparing to drive during practice ahead of the Canadian Formula One Grand Prix at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Canada.

CHAMPION AGAIN…

Grand Prix A History through the Lens LIMITED EDITION ILLUSTRATED HARDCOVER BOOK. ISBN: 978-0-9930169-7-4 | RRP: £34.99 Formula 1 Grand Prix racing is the ultimate motorsport. The fastest cars, the biggest budgets, the highest rewards and the most glamourous fans all make it compelling viewing. For decades Grand Prix photographers have shot some of the most exciting images the sports world have ever seen and now the very best of them are brought together for the first time. Rarely seen collections of photographs tell the fascinating story of Grand Prix racing from its early beginnings in France with the Automobile Club France in 1906 through the golden years of the 1930s right through the glory years of F1 in the 1960s and 1970s to the extraordinary cars and highly paid drivers of the present day. In carefully researched profiles former F1 photographer and TV producer. Bruce Vigar, examines the great drivers and the great cars; the technological wizardry of the designers and developers; the great rivalries between drivers and teams that creates champions; the massive commercial business within the sport; the fine balance between danger and safety; the Grand Prix weekend from first practice to the winner’s podium and the great circuits that have hosted some of the most unforgettable races of all time. a brief period of adjustment 1945 - 1949

tragedy and triumph 1970 - 1989

Alboreto on 53.

It was an extraordinary season; the table shows that two men won every

All eyes were, of course, once more riveted upon Senna and Prost; the latter

He repeated the trick the following year, chased all the way, this time by Nigel

race except one, with Gerhard Berger snatching a victory at Monza in Italy. It is,

was to win thirteen pole positions (he equalled Jim Clark’s thirty-three that year),

Mansell in his Williams, who was just two points behind him at the end of the

perhaps, not surprising to learn that the two men were those titans of the track,

and the tensions between the two surged. Prost felt that Senna’s driving was

season with 70. The talented Nigel Mansell would come runner-up three times

Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. These two extraordinary drivers would lock horns

reckless and, therefore, dangerous, and they began arguing off track at Imola,

before he was allowed to taste the sweetness of a championship winner’s podium

for the next four heart-pounding seasons. In 1988, that meant, that the year was

Prost claiming that Senna had breached a team ethics code not to challenge the

appearance. In 1986, everything had come down to the final race in Australia

practically a whitewash for McLaren-Honda, because Senna and Prost were

car leading at the first corner. Prost also felt aggrieved at his team, sensing that

with Mansell favourite to win. But it was destined not to be; heartbreakingly for the

now teammates. And when the season was over there were just three points

he was being disadvantaged, and announced that he would drive for Ferrari the

British driver and his fans, Mansell’s tyre blew out on the sixty-third lap.

separating them.

following season. With two retirements in France and Britain, and being driven

Mansell’s rival the following year would be his own teammate. Nelson Piquet

It was unfortunate for Prost that Senna was on unbeatable form and took

into by Nigel Mansell on lap 48 at Estoril, Senna was on the back foot. At Suzuka,

had never quite gone away since his last victory in 1983. Having changed over

home the greatest number of points ever in a Grand Prix season; 90. And the

Prost must have wondered if either he or Senna would survive the battles, when

to the Williams team in 1986, he was suddenly given a new lease of life and throttled his way back to the top in 1987. That year saw four drivers battle it out for top place; Prost, Senna, Piquet and Mansell. Mansell once again encountered

race that perhaps symbolised the Brazilian’s extraordinary fierce determination

the Brazilian’s aggressive behaviour sent them both spinning. Having announced

was the deciding contest at Suzuka in Japan. A win here would guarantee Senna

he was leaving McLaren, it was ironic that the winner that year was Alain Prost,

the title, but he began the race in fourteenth position because his car stalled, and

by a decisive margin from Senna; 81 points to 60, Prost’s third title and very well

bad luck; two retirements at Monaco and Detroit left him trailing, and when he

it was only because of the sloping track at the start that he was able to stay in

deserved.

crashed during qualifying and hurt his back, which put him out of the race at

the race at all. It was an inspired piece of driving by the Brazilian, because by

Suzuka in Japan, it ultimately cost him the championship, despite six victory

Season footnote; Nigel Mansell overtook and beat Senna at Hockenheim,

lap 27, he was in the lead. Not only did he stay there and take the race and the

nearly thirty seconds clear at the flag, in what was one of the most brilliant races

podiums. Prost and the McLaren eventually wilted and finished the season fourth

championship, he also drove three consecutive fastest laps and set a new lap

of his life.

behind Senna with 57 points on third.

record. He won eight of that season’s races; Prost won seven. Had it not been for

Senna was seemingly fearless and consequently took risks with his driving,

the rule that dictated that only the eleven highest scores counted, (no, best not

which was absolutely breathtaking to watch but left many people wondering if the

to even think about it!) Prost would have won, having scored eleven points more.

young Brazilian would always be able to escape an accident by a hair’s breadth.

In 1964, Graham Hill lost the championship for the same reason, and the system

This championship, however, was firmly in the hands of Nelson Piquet, whose

was only changed in 1991.

consistency had brought rich rewards, and he won the title with two races still to go. And the rich rewards that motor racing could now bring, with television

All in all, then, a season to savour.

interest so high, meant that the top ten teams in each season would now be able to travel to the Grand Prix the following year free of charge.

So what would happen the following year? Would the rivalry that had been

Another Austrian, Gerhard Berger, had entered the top ten for the first time in 1986 and would stay around for many years challenging all those around him on the track, though he would never equal his countryman Lauda’s record. In

AboVe:

Stirling Moss of Great Britain being wished good luck by his father former Brooklands driver Mr Alfred Moss before taking part in the 250 mile Grand Prix race at Silverstone aerodrome near Towcaster in Northamptonshire. It is the first recognised Grand Prix in Britain since before the Second World War and Stirling Moss is the youngest

1989. The 3.5-litre atmospheric engines proved as fast as the 1.5-litre turbo engines, a fact which bemused everyone slightly. Gone was the turbo-lag effect, acceleration was admirable, 124.2 mph (200km/h) from a standing start in 5.2

with Nelson Piquet, another irrepressible driver. Berger chose the wrong year to

or 5.3 seconds, and corners could be assailed more easily. Using the so-called

peak, however, because Ayrton Senna was also on top form.

“Concorde beak”, which was narrow and allowed for wider front wings, also

Turbocharged engines were making their final appearances this year of 1988,

driver in the 500 cc race, 2nd October 1948 rigHt:

sharpened by Prost’s open criticism of Senna’s driving now cause problems? Was Senna unreachable?

1988, he was to rise to number three in a Ferrari, a position he would gain for a second time in 1990, although in a McLaren at that point, sharing the position

AboVe:

became the norm for many designers. What was not to like? Nigel Mansell had

and would give way to the naturally aspirated engines in 1989. And Benetton

driven some superb races the previous year and had now changed to Ferrari,

began to taste success when their car, with a Ford DFR 3.5 V8 engine and driven

where his skill was proving to be a threatening red devil to McLaren, although

by Belgian Thierry Boutsen, came in fourth.

Italian Ricardo Patrese in a Williams beat him down to fourth spot that year.

A British ERA racing car, driven by G Ansell mid-air during a crash at Silverstone Grand Prix ciruit, Northamptonshire, 2nd October 1948

The Belgian racing car driver Jacky Ickx (Jacques Bernard Ickx) beside a Ferrari 312 B2 waiting the beginning of the race during a break in the French Grand Prix. Le Castellet, July 1971 LeFt:

Jacky Ickx in a Ferrari 312B in Monaco, 10th May 1970

Ayrton Senna

Frank Sinatra - The Man & his Music HARDBACK COLLECTORS EDITION ISBN: 978-0-9931812-7-6 | RRP: £29.99 This lavishly illustrated hard back book tells the incredible story of Francis Albert “Frank” Sinatra and begins in Hoboken New Jersey on December 12th 1915 where Frank is born the only child of Italian immigrants. Beginning his musical career in the swing era as a boy singer with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra found success as a solo artist from the early 1940s after being signed by Columbia Records in 1943. Sinatra became one of the bestselling artists of all time, having sold more than 150 million records worldwide including the hits New York New York, My Way and Strangers in the Night. He was a founding member of the Rat Pack with Sammy Davis Junior and Dean Martin. Sinatra won an Academy Award for his performance in From Here to Eternity. He starred in a number of musicals including On the Town, Guys and Dolls and High Society. Sinatra was also the recipient of eleven Grammy Awards, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. One of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century, Sinatra had a popularity that was later matched only by Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Michael Jackson. He has been called the greatest singer of the 20th Century. 43

Frank’s restless nature was given sustenance with a crosscountry tour in late March, and he filled the rest of the summer with concerts in venues between San Francisco and New York. Audience numbers swelled as “The Voice“ album climbed the charts; 10,000 came to see him in Philadelphia. People swarmed into the 25,000-seat venue, Madison Square Garden. Then there was work for a new film, “It Happened in Brooklyn”. Sinatra was at the peak of his popularity, but if anything, the pressures were even greater and fed his neuroses, with the consequence that his anxiety and panic attacks during filming would see him simply leave the set or not even show up for the day’s shoot. Still, there was always the delicious Marilyn Maxwell to soothe his

favour?

ugly side, and he did not approve of it.

As summer passed into autumn, there was an opportunity for

The singing of a confident Sinatra was to be heard in all its finery

another side of Frank Sinatra to come to the fore. Phil Silvers was

on two albums recorded in 1954, Songs for Young Lovers and Swing

planning a double act at the Copacabana in New York with his friend

Easy! Both albums went to number 3 on the American charts, with

The first part of his act went down like uncooked ravioli. In his dressing room during a break, Silvers mused on the lost opportunity, and the detrimental effect this could all have on his career. mind and body were elsewhere. Nancy knew this, but hope is hard

And then the door opened.

to deflate. The situation began to seriously bubble shortly after she found a diamond bracelet in the glove compartment of his car. She

Frank had come to the rescue.

assumed it was a present for her, but it soon found its way onto the wrist of Marilyn Maxwell. When Nancy saw it there, she almost

They went on together, repeated their army act and brought the

fainted with the shock. Suffice it to say, Maxwell was soon out of the

house down. It was the glorious side that could counterbalance the

house, and Sinatra was trying to placate his wife by saying Marilyn

self-centred character that was Frank Sinatra. Exhausted, Frank

meant nothing to him.

didn’t turn up on the set of his film for several days afterwards.

Far Left: Lana Turner Bottom Left: Al Capone, who was the Fischetti’s first cousin Top Right: Modern Times issue where Frank was voted Man Of The Year

behind, Frank almost moved in with the Bogarts, whom he had known since the end of WWII, by which

time the couple had been married for nine years. The educated Bogart fascinated Sinatra, who was extremely aware of his own lack of education. Sinatra’s self-indulgence was soon too much for even Bogart to endure and they almost came to blows. Nonetheless, Sinatra became part of a hand-picked coterie that had formed around Bogart, and from the laughter and drinking developed the group that came to be dubbed ‘The Holmby Hills Rat Pack’, dedicated to being “… Against everything and everyone, including themselves”. The original group included Judy Garland, and Sinatra became the Pack Master and Bacall the Den Mother. “Never Rat on a Rat” was the motto on For Sinatra, there began the third phase of his tempestuous career. Even though his emotional life would enter no calmer waters, by 1954, his film career was on an upward spiral when he appeared in a movie with Doris Day named after his hit song of the previous year, Young at Heart, followed by Suddenly, and a film that would bring

But, of course, Marilyn was heading for the exit anyway because

him more accolades, The Man with the Golden Arm. He played the

Lana was on the menu. She had been the cause of Frank phoning

lead character, Frankie Machine, and garnered an Academy Award

Nancy in October to ask for a separation, and not even the urgings

uring the period when he staggered around in the devastated emotional landscape that Ava had left

their specially designed crest.

Nancy might have been forgiven for exhibiting a little cynicism.

There was another reason for his exhaustion, though. Frank was Nancy’s partner on paper only by this stage. His

His vocal mastery was then focused on his first 12-inch LP, In the Wee Small Hours, acknowledged as one of the first concept albums

Money Can’t Buy You Love

leave the picture he was working on. True, he was sincerely worried about upsetting L. B. Mayer by leaving the film set yet again. There was nothing else for it; Silvers went on alone at the Copacabana.

Billboard, Metronome and Down Beat voting him top male vocalist.

Money Can’t Buy You Love

out during the tour of army bases at the end of World War II, Sinatra didn’t take kindly to being asked to reciprocate any favours or acts of kindness he had benefited from. He refused, saying that he couldn’t

Money Can’t Buy You Love

Once in a Blue Moon - The Unforgettable Frank Sinatra

fact, cancelling could very well crash his career altogether. Silvers was desperate. He phoned Sinatra again and again pleading with him to stand in for Rags. Even though Silvers had helped Sinatra

Once in a Blue Moon - The Unforgettable Frank Sinatra

and the Copacabana could make a career. If he cancelled the gig he would never play there again, that was made very plain to him. In

A Sinatra Inside an Enigma

Once in a Blue Moon - The Unforgettable Frank Sinatra

Rags Ragland. Just three days short of his 41st birthday on August the 20th, Rags died unexpectedly. Silvers needed a stooge for his act,

cheek to cheek together in the summer of 1946 said it all. Turner’s

to Sinatra’s home in Palm Springs to recover, and Sinatra found Davis his own place to live and encouraged him to continue performing. For

losing battle; Marilyn might become history, but there would always

His broad smile when they were photographed dancing almost

did cause him to lose his left eye. After Frank had visited him in hospital, Davis, who “had no place to go”, in his own words, was taken

Davis, Sinatra was untouchable... but he was not unaware of Frank’s

be an immediate replacement. Even before Marilyn exited stage left, there already was one. Frank was infatuated with her. The luscious

Frank’s regard for Sammy Davis Jr. was evident again in 1954 when Davis was involved in a car crash that almost killed him, and

Frank Sinatra never wanted to be alone. And if it wasn’t girls, Fischetti’s, first cousins to Al Capone, were being associated with Sinatra’s name after the singer had reserved them deluxe suites at the Waldorf Hotel in New York. What was wrong with that innocent

nerves. Which she did superbly. George Evans did his absolute best

number 1 moneymaking film of 1956 by Variety.

Frank. it was shady characters, as the FBI noted. During the summer, the

to keep her in the background and his client’s image clean. It was a

Lana Turner.

visits to Nancy were curtailed, of course. Poor Nancy. The train was running too fast, now, no one could control it; the driver least of all;

of George Evans could change his mind. He disappeared from the

nomination as Best Actor in a Leading Role and a BAFTA nomination

set of the movie he was working on and went to Palm Springs. With

for Best Actor. And he took another role that was right up his street; that of Nathan Detroit in the hit film musical Guys and Dolls with

Lana Turner. And it was there that Sinatra met Ava Gardner once

Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons. The film was ranked as the

more, on the arm of Howard Hughes, this time. Inevitably they found

Above: A poster for Lewis Milestone’s 1960 crime film ‘Ocean’s 11’ starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Angie Dickinson

Above: Original theatrical release poster for the 1959 movie, The Man with the Golden Arm, by Saul Bass Opposite page: promotional portrait for director Lewis

Opposite page: Promotional portrait of the cast of the film, ‘Oceans 11’

Allen’s film, ‘Suddenly’. Sinatra plays a hit man in the film.

BOWIE - ROCKTALK FROM THE ARCHIVES Hardcover Book and 2 DVD Special Edition ISBN: 978-0-9931813-8-2 | RRP: £29.99 Here is the story of the boy from Brixton who became one of the most famous artists of the 20th century, returned to prominence in the 21st with music and visions informed by a sense of his own mortality and who through his life and work, changed lives and those of generations to come. David Bowie’s music is loved by many and known by all as the soundtrack to the world of changes that was heralded by the creation of Ziggy Stardust. Through the hits and personas that followed, the work in art, drama, film and fashion, his voice rang clearly across the decades summoning everyone to a party where strangeness would be celebrated and the ‘now’ would always be new. Yet David Bowie remained forever the outsider, observing, creating, collaborating , inspiring and moving forward. This book follows a life that as much as any other was a personal journey but one in which so many joined and made part of their own. starchild

set anything alight. his best effort was “Let Me Sleep Beside You”,

starchild

at him or encouraging him. Bowie himself was almost perfect

was about to hit an unsuspecting world. david never wanted to be old hat. the

every take. this was the ‘tasteful thief’ at work picking the best

inevitable happened; tin Machine was put away on the shelf.

creations from the best musicians and songwriters to produce

society became one of Bowie’s ports of call and

colourful lyricism and cascading musical ideas.

was coupled with an introduction to the colours

scenes, defries used ruthless brinkmanship to free himself and

doldrums, pointed me at some kind of light — said, ‘Be adventurous again’. I’ve been finding my voice, and a certain authority, ever since”.

delicious piece of music. But it still couldn’t break the deadlock.

to pay the price. he was succumbing to depression, and previously

david Bowie had no regrets about his time with the band; they had charged him up, he said later, “... I can’t tell you how much. Reeves shook me out of my

Behind the

of mysticism. the music scene also floated along

Bowie of Mercury whilst being drawn into the singer’s world

in a fug of dope smoke and mysticism, and Bowie,

and he was intent on getting american record label rca

finally give up. after all, Pitt was having no success in trying to sell

willing to partake in any interesting experience, was

interested in david. to achieve that result, he and david

he Would, he saId look Back on that tIme WIth great

his protégé to producers, film producers or commercial agents.

happy to take his drag of any spliffs going. there were

made a trip to america in september 1971.

fondness.

unthinkable thoughts began to pray on his mind; perhaps he should

ironically, failure, the word that Bowie denied access to his autobiography, proved to be the making of him. in 1968, and in the middle of this disturbing era of doldrums,

meditation sessions with friends that drew on tibetan

david continued his charm offensive, which he had now

Buddhism – and although david’s chameleon-like

honed to a fine art in itself, and in richard robinson, rca’s house producer and his music journalist wife lisa, david had

stage and spoke the lord’s prayer during the memorial concert for Freddie

powerful new admirers on his side. defries sealed the deal

Mercury in 1992, we shall never know. he had played the chameleon for

his interest was serious. Fascinated by the bohemianism,

on the 9th of september making the Bowie camp $37,500

so long, that no one really knew when he was being sincere and when

the outcasts of the ‘respectable’ world that accumulated

better off, and after so many setbacks, david was on his

he was feeding his image. Perhaps Bowie had one eye on what was

of his stalled career, david was invited to see a performance by actor, dancer and mime artist lindsay Kemp. Kemp had

in Kemp’s flat, Bowie fell in love with the alternative lifestyle he found that was so opposed to anything he had lived with his parents. he had been shown his niche, his way forward

enchanted it” by what he had heard, and he used one of the

out of the musical impasse.

songs to open his show ‘clowns’; hence the invitation to david. it was a meeting of kindred spirits, “love at first sight”,

way to stardom.

it was during this exciting visit to america that he met the likes of andy Warhol and lou reed and he had a meeting with someone who would prove crucial to

Kemp and david were soon planning a new show together.

the glamorous image david would project on stage;

about to happen next.

Without a doubt, the most sincere moment of his entire life came on the 24th of april 1992 when he and iman got married in Florence in italy, the happy day captured by hello! Magazine. Now a happily married man, david set about his next album.

Pierre in turquoise. Now david could be found attending dance

iggy pop. iggy was almost like david’s alter ego,

lessons at Kemp’s Floral street studio. he wasn’t a natural, but

his outrageous lifestyle even more far-fetched than

“plaintive, damaged” quality to Bowie’s voice that attracted

Kemp encouraged him to express with his body what was hidden

anything david could have imagined; understandably,

it was to be called Black tie White Noise and was david Bowie

him at first. With Kemp steeped in enthusiasm for all things

inside, and the singer was a willing pupil.

david became obsessed with him.

showing that he was moving into the 90s and a new phase of

as Kemp said following his meeting with the singer, noting a

theatrical from Japanese Kabuki to the theatre of the absurd, it also was humour and a shared delight in music hall, it seems, that kept Kemp’s interest in the young visitor alive. Bowie had met his second mentor, who was also his lover – according to Kemp – and teacher. “I taught him to express and communicate through his body”, says Kemp. “I taught him to dance.”

Bowie’s character was named cloud, a singing and speaking

Back in England, at a gig on the 25th of september,

modern variant of a Greek chorus rolled into one person, and

david tried out a costume of red platform boots,

wearing makeup and costume for the first time, he began to write

baggy black culottes and a woman’s beige jacket

songs for the show, which saw the light of day in Oxford and then

that revealed his naked chest. the obvious success

went on tour.

made him ecstatic, and he became impatient to get

“I cringe when I see it now”, says Kemp, “it was so naive.”

another album started.

still, Bowie produced ‘columbine’, considered one of his finest

and he taught him something vital that would bring

songs of the time, along with a variety others that showed he was

all of it together; the importance of “the look – makeup,

moving in a coherent direction. the show also proved that Bowie was

costume, general stagecraft, performance technique.”

as fickle as ever; Kemp apparently discovered his lover in bed with the

shone through, saving the album, along with producer Nile rodgers, from what could have been a rather faceless musical amalgam. light-hearted and relaxed, david entered the recording sessions and showed glimpses of his old, inventive creativity. rodgers noticed that Bowie was getting real enjoyment from making his music, and the producer loved the fact that working

wanted to see if they could “... establish a new kind of melodic form of house.” david picked up his saxophone a lot during the recording sessions, and as even he confessed that he was hardly the greatest saxophonist in the world, his

character could never settle on any one direction for his life, he had devoted time to the study of Buddhism, and

a path towards a style of performance that would leave its

listened to Bowie’s album and professed himself “absolutely

of ‘Night Flights’ by the Walker Brothers. Bowie’s voice was strong and his confidence

with Bowie meant never knowing what was going to happen next, and they

how he would look back on the night he knelt down on one knee on

indelible mark on the rest of his career. sitting in the vacuum

serendipity knocked at the door. she was to lead david down

starchild

Kemp fed the youngster with books to read and pictures to absorb. he spoke about Kabuki, and the avant-garde. Now the tibetan

Bowie continued to hang around with little prospect of success. the weeks turned into months of inactivity and his confidence began

which, in collaboration with producer tony Visconti, became a

he wanted to create a monument to mark the occasion of his marriage to iman and what better way to do it than with his music.

experimentation; it was in fact, the sound of his career being resurrected. Black tie White Noise was a mixture of influences with a

producer was in two minds about this aspect of the recordings; but he went along with it anyway. david commented that his emotional state was very different at the time; that time brought maturity, a diminishing need to control his inner life, and a more relaxed attitude in relating to other people. ”My God, it’s been uphill”, he said, adding, “I feel a lot freer these days to be able to talk about myself and about what’s happened to me, because I’ve been able to face it. For many years, everything was always blocked out... I never wanted to return to examine anything that I did particularly. But the stakes have changed. I feel alive, in a real sense...” iman and his marriage had acted as a catalyst, and forced david to analyse what he wanted, what was important to him, what his feelings were, where he wanted to go. the album went in at number 1 after two weeks in the UK charts. the reviews were good, on the whole; rolling stone magazine called the album “... one of the smartest records of

mixture of emotional content and it was also the last time

a very smart career”, although it would have been surprising if

that guitarist Mick ronson and Bowie would work together,

there had not been dissenting voices. Entertainment Weekly

because david’s old sparring partner was to die of cancer

used the words ‘listless’ and ‘tired’ to describe it. despite its

on the 30th of april that year.

ZIggy stardust Was aBout to rIse to glory. although david maintained that Ziggy came

Being interviewed at his flat at Haddon Hall, Beckenham, London, 24th April 1972

the song, ‘the Wedding’, of course, was the tribute to david’s marriage, and there were songs about the death of his brother terence, riots in la, and a cover

left: rIght: Portrait of David Bowie photographed in 1967

rIght:

On stage during his Sound And Vision Tour in 1990

PINK FLOYD - ROCKTALK FROM THE ARCHIVES Hardcover Book and 2 DVD Special Edition ISBN: 978-0-9931813-0-6 | RRP: £29.99 This illustrated Limited Edition together with 2 DVDs provides an insight into the unique journey of one of the most ground breaking and influential bands of all time Pink Floyd. Follow their incredible journey from students when the band formed in Cambridge in 1965 and consisted of Syd Barrett, Nick Mason, Roger Waters, Richard Wright with Dave Gilmour joining in 1967. Syd barrett left in 1968 but remains synonymous with the group. Pink Floyd rose to become the most commercially successful and musically influential groups in the history of popular music. This book features a breakdown of every studio album that Pink Floyd ever recorded. The 2 films feature full length interviews with the band members throughout their careers and are taken from archives around the world.

THE ROLLING STONES ROCKTALK FROM THE ARCHIVES Hardcover Book and 2 DVD Special Edition ISBN: 978-0-9931813-5-1 | RRP: £29.99 Along with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones were the key group of the sixties; headline makers, style icons, trend setters – but most of all the force behind a string of brilliant singles and albums that have come to define the era. If The Cavern in Liverpool was the birthplace of the mersey beat, then the Crawdaddy Club in Richmond, where the Stones played their first gigs, was at the heart of British rhythm and blues. Formed in 1962 this tells their incredible story including profiles of the past and present members Mick Jagger, Keith Richards Charlie Watts, Ronnie Wood together with Brian Jones, Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor. The Stones were at the vanguard of the British Invasion of the USA in the mid 1960’s and their albums Beggars Banquet, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street are some of the finest rock albums ever made. Rolling Stone magazine ranked them fourth on their 100 Greatest Artists of all time. This indispensable book is an essential purchase for those who want to experience the raw excitement that is the Rolling Stones. With 2 DVDs of interviews with the band. 22

But the ‘children’ were soon going out to see that very band, many with the express purpose of dating one or

other of them. And the place they went to in Richmond,

jettisoned the blues; if pop music and make up could

classic Rolling Stones song. It came in the early hours one

So the emotional turbulence amongst them had fed into

bring fame and fortune like that, then he wanted in on the

morning in a London rehearsal room when Bill’s casually

their creativity and together with some brilliant musicians

It was there that the Rolling Stones were at last given a

game. Lennon and McCartney arrived back at Edith Grove

picked riff was taken up by Richards, and the lyrics were

such as Nicky Hopkins and Dave Mason of Traffic, and with

regular Sunday night gig. This was another giant step

that night; the two greatest bands of the 60s had come

added by Mick, referencing Keith’s gardener, Jack Dyer. The

Jimmy Miller running the recording sessions, The Stones

forward; but would they blow their chance to pieces by

together.

song was ‘Jumping Jack Flash’.

were heading for astonishing success.

ended in painful physical contact, to gain the upper fist?

But the Rolling Stones still did not have what the

girls turn into screaming locusts that would rush the stage. The Rolling Stones’ version of black R&B was

his worth, he had a razor-sharp thinking brain and the right amount of arrogance; in other words, plenty of it

uncomplicated but fierce and “primal”, presented by

to be used on the Stones’ behalf. And he had impeccable

mean-looking musicians and a singer freed of inhibition.

qualifications having worked for both Mary Quant and

This, combined with the girls’ wild behaviour, would

Brian Epstein with whom he would share the honours

unleash the boys’ testosterone so that fights would

of breaking the stranglehold of middle-aged British

break out amongst them. Even at this early stage, the

managers who had run things in the old-fashioned way

rock musician’s life sprang up to claim the Stones, Mick

until then. The only drawback was that at 19 years of

dumping his then girlfriend for one of his more forceful

age, he was too young to get an agent’s license or sign any

fans, Chrissie Shrimpton. And they were suddenly touched

contracts, and so he was forced to bring booking agent

by greatness when they found the Beatles watching them

Eric Easton in with him. Brian signed the Stones to a three-

mixed reviews at the time, it has since been described as

and the US and has become perhaps the most recognisable

“… the greatest 70s film about identity”. After a less than

Rolling Stones song of all time. It was soon to be accompanied

enthusiastic reception at a private screening for Warner

bottle, too. They resumed their country life in England with their 200 horses and sheepdogs, happy in their, not

by another classic. In typical Rolling Stones’ style, Mick and

Brothers, it went on the shelf for over two years never seeing

Keith would beat ideas around the head until they submitted

a general release, whilst it moved into its status of cult classic.

quite normal, domestic life after 35 years of rock and roll.

and gave up their treasures. In this way the rock-samba

Mick, who was taking the violently hallucinogenic drug DMT

‘Sympathy for the Devil’ emerged, mainly from ideas in

at the time, appeared in female attire and was lacklustre in

Mick’s head after reading Baudelaire, according to the singer

the film; S&M, drugs and James Fox in drag put paid to it in

himself, or perhaps a novel Marianne Faithfull had brought

the end.

to his attention, the Master and Margarita.

He continued to play outside of the Stones, releasing an album in 2000, The Charlie Watts/Jim Keltner Project, to

a change of perception as Keith Richards noted a few years

a night together after learning that Anita and Jagger had done likewise during filming – lost her baby and is quoted

died, aged 87, proud of her son the national celebrity. By 2001 Keith was ready to get the wheels turning

fourth album, only reached number 44 in the UK.

the band. Marianne Faithfull – with whom Keith had spent

later. “Before, we were just innocent kids out for a good

The Stones showed no signs of winding down as the year 2000 came and went, and Mick and Keith continued with their love-hate relationship. It was the year Eva Jagger

him in fine reviews – except from Keith, who loathed it. By now, Keith barely had a good word to say about his bandmate, anyway. Goddess in the Doorway, Jagger’s

On reflection, the film was another turning point for

Whatever it’s provenance was, the song brought about

limited success.

under the band, but Mick was engaged with his film company again, and another solo album, which brought

Finally, Keith got his way in 2002; the fourteenth tour was announced, which almost came to a grinding

time, they’re saying, ‘They’re evil...’ I don’t know how

as saying that drug use moved to a higher level after the film

halt when Her Royal Highness intervened. Or rather, a

much people think of Mick as the devil... There are black

and that Anita had fallen “into an abyss”.

knighthood for Mick did. Keith was incensed that Mick would accept and sell out to the establishment they had both professed to despise.

RIGHT LEFT

LEFT

Mick Jagger poses for a portrait in 1968

‘Licks World Tour’, Gillette Stadium, Boston, America,

Group Portrait - in Marble Arch car park, 1963

2002

GILBERT & SULLIVAN Hardcover Book and 4 DVD Special Edition ISBN: 978-0-9931813-9-9 | RRP: £34.99 This Illustrated Book tells the fascinating story of the Victorian era theatrical partnership of librettist W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan and the works they jointly created. Gilbert and Sullivan created innovations in their productions which influenced musical theatre throughout the 20th Century. Producer Richard D’Oyly Carte brought them together and built the Savoy Theatre in London in 1881 to stage their shows which became known as the Savoy Operas. He also formed the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company which performed and promoted their shows for over 100 years. Including images and librettos of many of Gilbert & Sullivan’s most famous works. Also included are 4 superb productions of The Mikado, Pirates of Penzance, Trial by Jury, The Yeoman of the Guard

There’s No Going Back

there was no doubt that he was their man. The slim-built Oldham came with all the right ingredients; he knew

Released in May, it rocketed to number one in both the UK

The Devil Take the Hindmost

to dance, discovering that his gyrations could do what the parents of Britain’s youth were afraid of; it would make

Rebellion’s Children

was coming to the rescue. Once Brian Jones got over the fact they were adopting “an incredible hustler”,

contrast, Charlie had beaten his demons and returned to sanity, and his wife had survived her battle with the

a Nick Roeg film, in which Anita Pallenberg also took part. Jagger played a retired rock ‘n’ roll singer. Garnering

THE ROLLING STONES

a rhythm that would send the kids into apoplexy; and it was at the Crawdaddy Club, too, that Mick learned how

And Then There Were Five

make a rocker’s dreams come true; a canny manager, a Brian Epstein. He, in the guise of Andrew Loog Oldham,

portraits of the great and good when he was sober. In

Mick, in the meantime, had taken a role in Performance,

The Rolling Stones were back from their psychedelic excursion.

Beatles did, something, or rather someone, who could

The music kept them together, the nights when Keith’s guitar would growl and Charlie and Bill would lay down

123

periodically against alcohol in various clinics and painted

Lucifer and others who think we are Lucifer.”

Then it was Bill Wyman who came up with an absolute

South London, bore the odd name of the Crawdaddy Club.

allowing their internal dislikes and jealousies, which often

122

magicians who think we are acting as unknown agents of

the Albert Hall.

one night just a few feet away at the edge of the stage. The rush of adrenaline changed Jagger in an instant; he

The War Letters of German and Austrian Jews 1914 Hardcover Book and 2 DISC Special Edition ISBN: 978-0-9930169-0-5 | RRP: £39.99 In the mud and bloody filth of the trenches, and in the bullet-saturated air above the Eastern and Western fronts, Jewish soldiers and airmen went to fight for their country. They did so pushing against a wave of discrimination from the country they were born into, and whose cause they were absolutely convinced was just. Neither did they doubt that Germany would triumph and lead Europe and the Jews into a better world. Available in English for the first time, we read the heart-warming, moving and intensely personal letters that the young soldiers wrote home from the battlefield. The uniquely Jewish viewpoint they express, and the strong traditional elements in their religion, bring the conflict between the inhumane war, and religious belief into sharp contrast. The young mens’ attempts to adhere to their faith and rituals during the violent horror of trench warfare are touching, and often tinged with selfdeprecating humour. The immense pain, the keenly-felt loss of comrades and a yearning for home and loved ones shine through the soldiers’ words The war letters are a unique insight into life, battle and death on the enemy front lines, and the extraordinary Jewish experience in particular. 88

Atmospheric images from Poland. A letter from Max Marcus NCO in the … Reserve Infantry Regiment (See “The Sabbath in Poland.”) Kraszuszinm, 18th January 1915.

Beloved mamma, dear brothers and sisters!

This afternoon, most of the men in my room have gone on guard duty, so I want to use the truly beneficial calm to tell you about my experiences and impressions in Koniecpol. On Saturday evening, the second day of Christmas, I was summoned by the sergeant who showed me the battalion’s orders: “The 1st company will prepare four horses, a wagon, and commander of transport NCO M., who is to report to the battalion office at 7.45 in the morning, to pick up the post in Koniecpol.” I was glad to take over this commission. Even if our brigade in Chastkow was miles away, we were still lying squashed in beside one another like herrings in the peasants’ impoverished, filthy houses. The daily drill could be enjoyed for a week, but it had also lost the attraction of novelty. So I was very happy to have the opportunity for once to go on an excursion and see what it was like behind the front lines. In the morning, I arrived punctually: my wagon drawn by four horses, with two seats and with a heavy sheepskin on them for me, together with one wagon with two horses from each of the other battalions, were already standing ready. The battalion adjutant gave me the route and various errands to run, the battalion commander ordered me to come back as quickly as possible. Both of them wished me bon voyage and off I went. The 1st and 2nd company were standing all along the village street, occupied with repairing the terrible road. Many officers gave me a hearty sendoff; each one of them wanted something. Cognac, rum, candles, tobacco, cigars, matches, petroleum; it felt as though I were going off to a different world. We had not long left the village when we noticed that something was wrong with the four in hand, the horses were not used to one another. So we stopped by the next farmhouse and requisitioned a wagon. I continued with four wagons. I firmly intended to give the wagon back to the farmer on the return journey, of course. The way home, however, didn’t take me back that way, because the regiment had advanced, and so, unfortunately, the farmer didn’t get his wagon back. It will not be the last in this year to be taken from his house without payment. At about 2 o’clock, I arrived at the first small town, Szeczemin, having travelled over roads that were in fairly good condition. I was given the location of a Jewish house in which I could eat; as a Jew, I was taken in warmly and given excellent food, a good midday meal at a Jewish table. I continued my journey after an hour; this last part was the worst, and it took four hours to cover just 10 km until we arrived in Koniecpol in pitch blackness. The road was appalling; the horses sank up to their knees in mud and had to strain terribly to pull the empty wagons forwards. But it’s hardly a surprise that these terrible roads become bottomless in bad weather, because they are used so much. Two powerful armies have marched along it many times, and now, one column after another moves along this road to Koniecpol, with 4, 6, 10, 20 wagons, to fetch ammunition, provisions, food, post and so on for the troops stationed behind it; these then drive back the same way heavily loaded.

Poland – ed. Koniecpol is a little town the size of Pinne (formerly in Prussia, now Pniewy, store note) with quite a large marketplace. In the middle of that is the quartermaster’s row of German where the food is stocked. Close to the marketplace there are row upon The commissariat and Austrian troop columns standing beside and behind one another. was where I was was in the Koniecpol theatre, so I was told by the superintendent, which of course. The town given oats for my horses; the ammunition depot is outside the town, for the wagon, has about 1,500 Jews and 1,000 Poles. As I already told you, I found shelter office. The the horses and the driver immediately, then went to the area command gave me a sergeant there fed me well with cognac, eggs and bread rolls, and then postillions, who quartermaster’s note for the field post. I was quartered there with the gladly gave me proved to be very comradely. They had plenty of blankets and furs and sleep well on some of them so that I was able to pack myself up well and was able to to sleep in a bed, plenty of straw in a comfortable room. I can’t remember what it’s like and Pabianice. and during the last 5½ months, I have only had that pleasure in Wreschen underneath a warm The straw bed on the earth suits me well, thank God. I only need to be roof and I am very happy. in darkness, Next morning, I got up in time and had myself taken to the shul; it was almost however, they were praying in the Beth HaMidrash. I was observed curiously, and was happy. down calm everyone did tefillin my fearfully, at first; only when I took out around the One thing agitated me greatly; apart from a few people, everyone walked I felt caused a lot almemor, (the place in a synagogue from where the Torah is read), which cigarettes, which of disturbance during the service. When I asked if this and also smoking to me that it was people did now and again, was usual in the shul, as well, it was explained to be able to pray only allowed here. But apart from this, I felt so happy and so at home to these poor Jews, once more in a house of prayer in a large community. How close I felt difficult times. who have to cope with distress and danger because of their faith in these and grateful, I Then I was allowed to go up to the Torah – it was Monday – and moved so mercifully, was able to praise the All Bountiful One, who had until now, guided me After the service, and through his Torah had anchored trust and hope in me so strongly. the prayers several people came up to me to greet me. Here, as in all larger communities, the end and then continue until midday, with those who arrive later always waiting until the service, a uniting to form a new minyan. As I was crossing the market square after young and old, and whole company had lined up; not soldiers, however, but mostly Jews, enquiries about Poles, armed with spades, pickaxes and similar tools. I immediately made one man to the reason for this gathering and was told that every house had to provide repair the roads each morning. rows. I heard On Wednesday morning I went to the shul. A murmur went through the ended, the something about an order from the area commander. After the service of you have venerable rabbi went to the almemor and announced: “Because many midday and have avoided working on the streets by going to the Beth HaMidrash until has ordered stated this as the reason for not being able to work, the area commander

Ireland - The Easter Rising 1916 and the Irish War of Independence LIMITED EDITION ILLUSTRATED HARDCOVER BOOK ISBN: 978-0-9931812-5-2 | RRP: £29.99 This beautifully illustrated hard back book tells the fascinating story of The Easter Rising - an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans to end British rule in Ireland, secede from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and establish an independent Irish Republic while the United Kingdom was heavily engaged in World War I. It was the most significant uprising in Ireland since the rebellion of 1798. Organised by seven members of the Military Council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood the Rising began on Easter Monday, 24 April 1916, and lasted for six days. Members of the Irish Volunteers — led by schoolmaster and Irish language activist Patrick Pearse, joined by the smaller Irish Citizen Army of James Connolly, along with 200 members of Cumann na mBan — seized key locations in Dublin and proclaimed the Irish Republic independent of the United Kingdom.

PEARL HARBOR - & the War in the Pacific 1941 – 1945 Hardcover Book and 2 DISC Special Edition ISBN: 978-0-9931813-2-0 | RRP: £34.99 In the early hours of 7th December 1941 The Empire of Japan launched a surprise air attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii without explicit warning which crippled the US Fleet. In all 8 US Battleships were lost and 188 US Aircraft were destroyed. 2403 American citizens were killed by the Japanese. America was not at war with anyone at this time. The attack on Pearl Harbor was the immediate cause of Americas entry into World War II and the Pacific theatre which led to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and which ended with the surrender of The Empire of Japan aboard the USS Missouri on 2nd September 1945 and changed the course of history. This Commemorative Edition includes 2 DVDs of the rare film Crusades in the Pacific.

& the War in the Pacific 1941 – 1945

The Rising Sun

A dog thinks it is a member of the family. To the family however it is merely a dog

sweep south – and never dreamed that Japan could have anything like

The Rising Sun

could to hide itself. Ahead steamed an innocent-looking civilian Japanese

the resources needed to launch a simultaneous assault on Pearl Harbor.

passenger liner, reporting back constantly to affirm that no American ships

BuT THEy DID.

sea miles and were undetected and in position. The first wave of Kaigun

were about. By the early hours of December 7 1941, they had sailed 3,300

Japanese saying

bombers and fighters lifted off the flight deck at 06.10am, into fierce 40 foot waves that lashed the decks beneath their undercarriages…

The Rising Sun

t H e k i d o b u tA i At first, they codenamed it Operation Hawaii. Then perhaps someone realised that such a name might be too unsubtle and it was hurriedly changed to Operation Z.

At tA c k o n P e A r l H A r b o r Unleashed from their aircraft carriers in the pitch black of night, 152 fighter aircraft and bombers struggled through fierce, lashing winter rain

Japan was sleeping when the Americans came, snuggly cocooned world, a world of shoguns and samurai, ronin and peasants, geisha and cherry blossom. The Americans who came were dreaming too. They

and suddenly there below was Pearl Harbor, basking lazily in early Sunday

dreamed of a world in which white men had a special purpose – a

morning sunshine. They hit the airfields first. The fighters went for the rows of

duty even - to shape the globe, spread western culture and bring about

American aircraft arranged in immaculate lines, making low tight strafing runs while the dive bombers obliterated the hangars. Nothing got off the ground to oppose them. They flew on to Pearl Harbor itself, and the

a new, undreamed of age through trade and commerce. It was a

Japan received a most rude and abrupt awakening when, in July that

‘salute to their own Independence Day’ to get their attention and to show

U.S. forces in the Pacific were staging their annual Joint Army and

just who was top dog. The Japanese immediately realised that they had

Navy Grand Exercises. The daring – and devastating – raid on Pearl

nothing to match the American firepower and resorted to surrounding the

Harbor was the idea of Rear Admiral Harry E. Yarnell, staging the attack

Americans with tiny boats. On the deck of one, a Japanese official held

from the U.S. carriers Saratoga and Lexington. An aviator himself, Yarnell had realised that air power was soon going to challenge the it in high style. Other admirals rushed to challenge the events they had just witnessed. They dismissed it as a fluke and the attack on Pearl Harbor was not even mentioned when the final report on the Grand Exercises was written up. Yarnell’s surprise air raid was almost completely forgotten. Almost.

bolster its defences. The Lexington had left on December 5 bound for Midway, again to deliver aircraft, and Saratoga had returned to America for repairs at Puget Sound dockyards. Indeed, a full third of all American

cruisers Tone and Chikuma and nine destroyers - the Isokaze, Urakaze,

warships in the Pacific Fleet were out at sea that day, fuelling later

Tanikaze, Hamakaze, Arare, Kasumi, Kagero, Shiranuhi, and Akigumo.

conspiracy theories that Roosevelt did indeed have advanced warning

Together they would comprise the Kidō Butai – the Striking Force – under

of the attack and saved as many of his fighting assets as he could.

powerful carrier task force ever assembled. The Kidō Butai moved west fast and it moved sure, doing everything it

Matthew C. Perry slipped into Edo Bay (now Tokyo Bay) and fired a 73 gun

abruptly wheeled and made their escape. The date was February 7 1932.

traditional dominance of the battleship on the high seas. – and proved

Enterprise had been the first to leave, ferrying aircraft to Wake Island to

part in the attack – the Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, Hiryū, Shōkaku, and Zuikaku - would also set sail with 350 aircraft on board, this time from Hitokkapu

the command of Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo. It was, by far, the most

the presidential imagination. year, a small flotilla of ‘Black Ships’ under the command of Commodore

for the kill. Then, as quickly as they had come, the fighters and bombers

fortune (for the Americans), all three of the carriers belonging to the Pacific Fleet had left harbor while the Japanese force was in transit. The

Bay. Joining them were the battleships Hiei and Kirishima, the heavy

philosophy called ‘Manifest Destiny’ and, in 1853, it had a strong grip on

warships lying helpless at anchor on ‘Battleship Row’. Ship after ship was sunk, able to put up only a brief, token defence as the bombers came in

the American aircraft carriers were their main target. By extreme good

Kure Naval District on November 25 1941. They would be responsible for launching the mini submarines that would take part in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Within a day, six Japanese aircraft carriers chosen to take

in its many centuries of self-imposed isolation. It still inhabited a medieval

as they headed south-west. Before them lay the coast of the Hawaiian island of Oahu. The clouds parted as they climbed over the Koolau Range

t H e c A r r i e r s l e Av e Before the Japanese set off for Pearl Harbor, they had been told that

Five submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy had slipped out of

J A PA n i n b l o o m

up a hastily-scrawled sign saying, ‘go away immediately’. In French. The Americans didn’t. They were here to talk trade - or else. Like it or not, Japan would be dragged into the 19th century. As the Japanese reluctantly acquiesced, other powers felt encouraged to turn up unannounced with their own gunboats to talk trading terms, among them the British, the Russians and the Dutch. Out of it would come The Mikado, novelty plates and the collapse of a way of life. The Western world had hit Japan in its most vulnerable place – its pride. The nation simply could not survive such a loss of face. There were

OPPOSITE PAGE; TOP: Perry’s visit in 1854. Lithography. 8 March 1854 BOTTOM LEFT: Admiral Harry Ervin Yarnel BOTTOM MIDDLE: Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry BOTTOM RIGHT: Illustration of conference between Commodore Perry and the japanese Board 1856

LEFT: Chuichi Nagumo MIDDLE: Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier Zuikaku at Hitokappu Bay prior to sortieing to attack Pearl Harbor

LEFT: Japanese Navy Aichi D3A1 Type 99 carrier bombers prepare to take off from an aircraft carrier during the morning of 7 December 1941

RIGHT: Nakajima B5N aircrews pose in front of one of their aircraft on the Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier Kaga the day before Pearl Harbor

MIDDLE: Japanese aircraft carrier Akagi RIGHT: Aircraft carriers USS Lexington (CV-2) and Saratoga (CV-3) at the yard TOP: USS Enterprise (CV-6) moored at Ford Island, Pearl Harbor

WORLD WAR II - On The Russian Front 1941 – 1945 4 DVD Collectors Edition – 75th Anniversary Edition ISBN: 978-0-9931813-1-3 | RRP: £34.99 On the 22nd June 1941 Hitler launched his invasion of Russia – Operation Barbarossa. 4/5ths of all German soldiers lost in WWII were killed on the Russian Front. Here were the greatest civilian losses the largest battle and the biggest tank battle – Kursk – the world has ever seen. This was war on a scale and ferocity never seen before as Hitler and Stalin battled for the future of the world. Also included on 4 DVDs is the award winning History Channel Series Soviet Storm never before released on DVD.

WORLD WAR II – ON THE RUSSIAN FRONT 1941

der Schulenburg – no friend to Hitler – had warned the Soviets. Stalin blithely

though were Soviet airfields – and they managed to catch and destroy

massive German advance was just a cunning provocation to try to get him to

dismissed his warnings as disinformation too.

over 1,000 Russian aircraft on the ground in just the first few hours of the

be hostile to the Germans. Five minutes after that, he was on the phone to

Most of all, Stalin refused to listen to the many, many warnings because

attack. Soviet fighter pilots who did manage to take off were no match

the foreign ministry trying to get the Japanese to talk to the Germans to tell

they contradicted his own strategic vision. It would, he had decided, be much

for the Luftwaffe fighters. The following day, the Luftwaffe accounted for

them to stop. Stalin was deeply confused. He was, as Goebbels put it, like a

another 1,000 Soviet warplanes.

rabbit mesmerised by a snake.

more convenient for the Germans to invade (if they were coming) in late 1942 or early 1943 when his military preparations would finally be in place. So that’s when the Germans would come.

WORLD WAR II – ON THE RUSSIAN FRONT 1941

More armour had been withdrawn from the battlefield for repair and maintenance and was coming back to the units more slowly than expected, due to the sheer distances involved, if nothing else. The revised date for Typhoon was set at 30th September, with the

The German forces surged east on a front 1800 km long. It was such a

aim of completely surrounding Moscow by 7th November. By the start of

massive advance that – had anyone been up there – it would have been

October 1941, the 3rd and 4th Panzer Groups had encircled no less than

visible from space – and the attack was broadly divided into three:

five Soviet armies around the town of Vyazma in what became known as

Army Group North under Field Marshal von Leeb would attack the Baltic

the Vyazma pocket. As the trapped armies fought to break through the

States and the Northern Soviet city of Leningrad. It was comprised of the Operation Barbarossa was all set to go in May 1941 but Hitler was forced to delay it because of a military coup in Yugoslavia which had deposed his ally.

Moscow itself, striking at Minsk and Smolensk along the way.

Germans took 660,000 prisoners and destroyed 1200 Soviet tanks. The news of the twin victories were greeted with deep joy in Germany. Hitler thought the Red Army was now broken, while his Press Chief, Otto

Army Group South under Field Marshal von Rundstedt and comprising

gave him just 30 minutes warning of Barbarossa when it began. For his part, a

the 6th, 11th and 17th Armies supported by the 1st Panzer Group, would

highly slighted Mussolini is on record as saying he hoped German casualties

head south into the Ukraine, seizing the vast riches of crops, capturing Kiev

would be high. He could never imagine they might lose.

Bryansk effectively cleared the way to Moscow itself. In the two battles, the

Army Group Centre (2nd and 3rd Panzer Groups, 2nd, 4th and 9th Armies) under Field Marshal von Bock would provide the thrust towards

Greece to repair Mussolini’s grossly bungled attempts at invasion there. Hitler was furious with him. Hitler neither respected or trusted Il Duce, and indeed

German ring, they were slaughtered. A further German victory close by at

16th and 18th Armies and the 4th Panzer Group.

German troops despatched to restore ‘order’ were then further diverted to

Dietrich, declared , ‘for all military purposes Soviet Russia is done

with.’ On 3rd October 1941, Hitler made a speech of some significance after

and then heading down even further south to capture the oil fields of the

Was it all finally over? Winston Churchill had become so alarmed over the

returning to Belin. He told the German people;

Caucasus.

intentions of Stalin that he actually had plans drawn up to launch a secret

‘I declare today, and I declare it without any reservation that the

Behind them would follow the Einsatzgruppen. Part of the SS and formed

surprise attack on the Red Army, starting on 1st July. The plan even involved

enemy in the East has been struck down and will never rise again.’

by SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich (under the overall command

‘We have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down’

WORLD WAR II – ON THE RUSSIAN FRONT 1945

the Ukraine on Hitler’s earlier instructions and then needing to be recalled.

fighting alongside rearmed German Army units against the Soviets. It was called

of Heinrich Himmler), their specific task was to identify Jewish civilians and

Operation Unthinkable. His Chiefs of Staff Committee obviously agreed with the

communist officials in the newly conquered territories – and kill them. Four

name – and successfully talked Churchill out of starting World War Three.

different Einsatzgruppen were formed, each comprising around 900 men, to take part in Operation Barbarossa. In this task, they were aided by further

Adolf Hitler

battalions of the of the Order Police (Ordnungspolizei) Everything went perfectly for the Germans. The Russians were utterly

Barbarossa was finally launched in the early hours of Sunday 22nd June

oafish tactics were just too obvious.

A victory parade was held in Moscow’s Red Square on 24th June and Stalin

unprepared and even unwilling to fight. They had actually received direct

1941 along a front stretching from the Baltic in the North to the Black Sea

instructions from Comrade Stalin just a few months ago not to rise to any

in the South heralded by massive artillery barrages and commando raids

provocation and aggression shown by the Germans and so in many cases

seizing or destroying important border targets. Each German soldier had been

were terrified to fight back lest they upset their great leader. They died in

provided with a handy phrase book instructing how to say essential phrases

droves.

allowed Zhukov to inspect the parade, riding on a white charger. Within a year, Zhukov would be gone, purged on entirely trumped up charges that he was planning a coup. Stalin was merciful and sent him into exile deep in the Russian interior rather than killing him. When the hero of the Eastern Front was brought down, no one complained. No one dared. Uncle Joe also conducted

in Russian including ‘I’ll shoot’, ‘Hands up!’ and ‘Where is the collective

Reports from his own Russian spies stationed around the world started to

farm chairman?’. Despite this, most of the soldiers poised to attack believed

cross Stalin’s desk saying that the Germans intended to invade in May 1941.

the rumours that Barbarossa was just an elaborate diversion to conceal the

He ignored them. More urgent reports followed in June, most notably from

invasion of Great Britain and they would probably not even be required to fire

a mole inside the Luftwaffe. Russia was to be attacked ‘at any moment’.

a shot in anger.

yet another purge of his officer class – the men who had won the war for him. This time there were fewer firing squads and more humiliating demotions and obscure postings. Perhaps he was feeling almost grateful.

The morning after, Stalin got news of the invasion and refused to believe it. So sure was he that Hitler would never go against him that he first

Stalin dismissed this highly placed German source as a ‘disinformant’. A

The Luftwaffe took off in waves targeting Soviet armoured formations,

assumed the reported invasion was the act of some rogue German generals.

fortnight before the invasion, the German ambassador to Moscow, Count von

regional command centres and communication posts. Their chief targets

Five minutes later he changed his mind and decided that all the reports of a

Or perhaps not. LeFt: German soldiers outside of Moscow during the 1941 Battle of Moscow

above & oPPoSITe PaGe: Operation Barbarossa map

above: L-R Siegfried Uiberreither, Martin Bormann, Adolf Hitler & Otto Dietrich

above: Marshal Georgy Zhukov and Marshal Rokossovsky during the Victory Parade

116

RigHt: Soviet propaganda poster. The slogan reads ‘ We Won!’. Artist V. Ivanov

117

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CELTIC A Backpass Through History Collectors Limited Edition Hardback Book. ISBN: 978-0-9930169-6-7 | RRP: £29.99 This Illustrated Limited Edition Hardback Book provides an insight into the unique story of Celtic one the most famous football clubs in the world. Follow the authoritative text charting a nostalgia-packed journey through the clubs evolution from its beginnings via a formally constituted meeting in St. Mary’s church hall in East Rose Street, Calton, Glasgow, by Irish Marist Brother Walfrid on 6 November 1887 to the club that became the kings of Europe and the team that has never been relegated from the Scottish Premiership. With player career retrospectives and in depth statistical information, together with a focus on Jock Stein and the other managers who have guided the club including a special feature on Ronny Deila. This Limited Edition Book looks at the special moments in Celtic’s history using rare photographs and images.

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CHURCHILL AND THE GENERALS LIMITED EDITION ILLUSTRATED HARDCOVER BOOK ISBN: 978-0-9930169-4-3 | RRP: £29.99 This is the incredible story of the darkest days of World War 2 when Winston Churchill and his Generals – Montgomery, Alexander, Wavell and Brooke were facing catastrophe on every front. They suffered Defeat at Dunkirk and survived the Battle of Britain. With normous amounts of courage and skill they fought off the Luftwaffe and managed to hold on until the Allied invasion of Europe. Men like Montgomery, Slim, Auchinleck, Alanbrooke and Alexander were given the highest command to wage war “against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime”. This is the story of his relationships with these remarkable men and the American Generals who followed them including Dwight Eisenhower and George Marshall The Story of an erratic impossible very English instinctive genius pitted against the superb skills of his generals in a battle which influenced the destiny of mankind.

A Selective World War Two Chronology

CHURCHILL and the GENERALS

‘History shall be kind to me. For I intend to write it.’ Winston Churchill (attrib.)

instead to war in North Africa and the Mediterranean – a theatre the Americans would normally have no interest in. By fighting here, the British reasoned they could weaken the Germans and wear them down. At the same time, the RAF and the U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF), would pound Nazi Germany relentlessly from the air – the Americans by day and the RAF by night. While the Germans grew weaker and their manufacturing capacity was progressively reduced, America would have time to build and train a better army and get its mighty industrial base churning out an unstoppable torrent of guns, ships, planes and tanks. Once again, Churchill would get his way – but at a price. It soon became increasingly clear that America was not interested in being a junior partner in the venture. Or a silent one. Churchill progressively found it harder and harder to get his own way. Where once in the darkest months and years of the war he had stood alone, the sole power, now he was himself increasingly the most insignificant member of a triangle comprised of himself, Roosevelt and Stalin. At home, there were challenges in Parliament. Old party rivalries started to resurface and there were whispers that Churchill might be forced to stand down, perhaps in favour of Stafford Cripps. The public, galvanised by Churchill in the summer of 1940, were now tired of bad news and of war – and far less ready to fight. The unity of the ‘thems’ and ‘us’s’ was fracturing. Strikes flared up amongst vital war workers and British communists were baying for an early invasion of Europe to help Uncle Joe. The war was going badly – perhaps due to Churchill’s poor grasp of strategy. Everyone was blaming everyone else. The Generals were dull and incompetent. British conscripts lacked the fighting spirit. British tanks were poorly designed and small arms inferior to the German issue. Britain was fighting a foe superior in every way except morally – and what did that count for? By the end of 1942 Churchill was finding it all too much. Everything was too big and complicated. Jewish leaders were making him aware of the Holocaust, which he was powerless to stop. There was Operation Torch, the fall of Tobruk, massive setbacks in the Far East including the loss of Malay and Singapore, no real progress on the Eastern Front, the Siege of Malta, U-Boats running amok in the Atlantic, the Dieppe Raid ending in failure, vast diplomatic complexities, American public opinion turning against the British. – and the latest reports said that RAF night bomber offenses were next to useless. They couldn’t hit precise targets. Churchill agreed to them flying against the one target big enough for them to hit – cities. It wasn’t how he wanted to wage war. On one occasion, he

‘I wonder if any historian of the future will ever be able to paint Winston in his true colours. It is a wonderful character, the most marvellous qualities and superhuman genius mixed with an astonishing lack of vision at times, and an impetuosity which, if not guided, must invariably bring him into trouble again and again.’ General Brooke

‘Jesus Christ! What a man!’ Harry Hopkins, U.S. Presidential Advisor

1940: Churchill wears helmet during air raid warning

CIRCA 1940: Childs Ration Book

1939

3 – British forces advance to the Belgian border anticipating German attack on France 6 – Hitler makes peace overtures towards France and Britain 10 – Chamberlain rejects Hitler’s bid for peace 12 – France rejects Hitler’s bid for peace 27 – Belgium announces its neutrality

September

2 – British conscription is expanded to include all men between the ages of 19 and 41 18 – First Canadian troops arrive in Britain

1940

3rd September 1939: Arriving at the Admiralty, London, at the start of World War II to begin his second term as First Lord of the Admiralty

December

January 8 – Rationing begins in Britain

February 15 – Wavell becomes C-in-C Middle East

April 9 – Germany invades Norway 9 – Germany invades Denmark

CIRCA 1940: Lord Edmund Ironside before being promoted to Field Marshal

9 – Denmark surrenders 14 – British and French troops arrive in Norway 22 – Dill appointed vice-CIGS 27 – British troops begin pull out from Norway

May 10 – Germany invades France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; The Blitzkrieg begins 10 – Winston Churchill is appointed as Prime Minister, heading a coalition government 13 – Churchill delivers his ‘blood, toil, tears, and sweat’ speech to Parliament 14 – Local Defence Volunteers (Later to be called the Home Guard) established by Secretary of State for War Anthony Eden 15 – Holland surrenders 16 - Churchill flies to France and discovers the French Army is in a state of near collapse 23 – British fascist leader Oswald Mosley arrested and jailed 26 – British troops from the BEF begin to evacuate from Dunkirk 27 – Ironside relieved as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) 27 - Ironside appointed C-in-C Home Forces 27 – Dill appointed Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) 28 – Belgium surrenders

Winston Churchill inston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born on November 30th 1874 into quintessentially Victorian England. Victoria was on the throne, Disraeli was prime minister and the British had just concluded another obscure colonial conflict (The Third Anglo-Ashanti War) after the natives agreed to stop practicing human sacrifice. Three months before, Parliament had voted to end the use of small children as chimney sweeps. It had only been nine years since the end of the Civil War in America and the abolition of slavery. Churchill would be a toddler when the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes destroyed the Seventh Cavalry at Custer’s Last Stand. He would have just become a teenager as Jack the Ripper stalked the streets of Whitechapel. When Churchill passed away on January 24th 1965, Harold Wilson was at No10 and the Beatles were at No2 in the UK charts with ‘I Feel Fine’, (with co-vocals by John Winston Lennon, who had been named for Churchill). The Gemini space programme was just getting underway and U-2 spy planes were streaking over the communist bloc at 70,000 feet. Petula Clark had recently gone ‘Downtown’ and England was on the very verge of ‘swinging’. In between lies something of a story. Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace. The rumours say he was actually born in a toilet there. Apparently that’s not true although,

when asked, Churchill merely said that he couldn’t remember. His mother Jennie was an American socialite of no little beauty and his father, Lord Randolph, was an aristocratic Tory politician of no little thrust and ambition who became known variously as ‘Cheeky Randy’ and ‘the Champagne Charlie of Politics.’ They were busy people with careers to forge, balls to attend and hunts to ride to and so neglected their son quite horrifically, even by Victorian standards. Jennie was icily remote and Randolph thought the little boy was retarded, barely spoke to him and genuinely disliked him. From the ages of two to six, Churchill lived in Dublin where his father was in employment to his grandfather, the Viceroy. His mother carried on socialising and his father politicking and the young Winston was left in the care of his nanny, Mrs Elizabeth Everest. The little boy called her ‘Old Woom’ or sometimes ‘Woomany’ – and came to adore her. That did not prevent him from causing her continuous grief though. If he didn’t agree with something, the little Churchill would kick and scream, run off and hide or – on one memorable occasion when faced with a maths lesson – play on Mrs Everest’s devout Christianity by falling to his knees and threatening to worship graven images unless he was excused the lesson. The word ‘monster’ was used quite frequently in the Churchill household. His maternal grandmother called him,’ a naughty, sandyhaired little bulldog’ and young Winston’s dancing teacher called him ‘the naughtiest boy in the world.’ But still Mrs Everest loved him and the boy responded to her in return.

Churchill’s parents, Randolph & Jennie Churchill

A Selective World War Two Chronology 1 – Germany invades Poland 1 – Blackout announced in Britain 1 – The British Army is officially mobilised 2 – Neville Chamberlain attempts to negotiate peace between Germany and Poland but is forced by Parliament to issue an ultimatum instead 3 – Britain and France declare war on Germany 3 – First air raid sirens heard in London (False alarm) 3 – Chamberlain establishes his War Cabinet 3 - Australia, New Zealand and India declare war on Germany 3 – Ironside appointed Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) 3 - Dill appointed Commander, I Corps, BEF 3 – Winston Churchill appointed First Lord of the Admiralty 5 – America announces it will stay neutral 6 – South Africa declares war on Germany 10 – Canada declares war on Germany 17 – The Soviet Union invades Poland 25 – Germany introduces rationing

7th August 1940: Winston Churchill inspecting Mk II howitzers, during a tour of East Coast defences

October

1942: Inspecting the Home Guard

Blenheim Palace

vietnam: A HISTORY A 3 DVD COLLECTORS EDITION ISBN: 978-0-9930169-1-2 | RRP: £29.99 Drawing upon the latest research available, Mike Lepine creates an extraordinary, panoramic view of all sides of the war. His narrative begins well before American forces set foot in Vietnam, delving into French colonialism’s contribution to the 1945 Vietnamese revolution, and revealing how the Cold War concerns of the 1950s led the United States to back the French. The heart of the book covers the “American war,” ranging from the overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem and the impact of the Tet Offensive to Nixon’s expansion of the war into Cambodia and Laos and the peace agreement of 1973 which resulted in the ending of the conflict in 1975. The 112 page hardback 270 x 270mm hardback Limited Edition 3 DVD Book Set provides a detailed explanation of the issues that go on for years and years, from the bombing of the North to the nature of Air Cav Assaults, to tunnel warfare and the Anti-War Movement. With over 100 hundred images, this is a detailed history of the story of the Vietnam War.Also included in this 3 DVD Limited Edition Collectors Set is over five hours of rare and unseen films and footage for the first time on DVD.

ON THE WESTERN FRONT THE GREAT WAR 1914 - 1918 A 4 DVD COLLECTORS CENTENARY EDITION ISBN: 978-0-9576909-1-2 | RRP: £39.99 The 1914 – 1918 First World War or The Great War as it came to be known was the first truly global conflict, and it changed the course of world history.

Understanding The Great War is crucial to understanding the history of the 20th Century to the present day. This illustrated 4 DVD Collectors Centenary Limited Edition Book Set, examines the brutal conflict of the First World War, the Western Front. The 112 page hardback 270mm x 270mm hardback Limited Edition 4 DVD Book Se provides a detailed explanation of why war broke out and how technology and tactics developed throughout the conflict - and determined which battles were won and lost and how these were crucial to its outcome. Countries from every corner of the globe joined the fray. With over 100 hundred images together with maps of the Western Front, this is a detailed history of the story of the Western Front whose centenary is nearly upon us.

ON THE WESTERN FRONT THE GREAT WAR 1914 - 1918

Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, June 1914.

Serbien muss sterbien! (“Serbia must die!”), Austrian propaganda artwork, after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in 1914. Image showing the Austrian hand crushing a Serb terrorist.

On the morning of Sunday, 28th June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie stepped down from their train into bright sunshine in the Bosnian city of sarajevo and then embarked in a convoy of six cars en route to the town hall. Ferdinand was the heir apparent to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Those who knew him didn’t think much of him. He was uncharismatic, strange, uncommunicative, untroubled by academic achievement and rumoured to be partially insane thanks to inbreeding. He spent his days hunting animals around the world, and had reached a tally of 300,000 beasts according to his diaries. His secondary hobby was interior design. He had also married beneath him – Sophie was a lady-in-waiting – and that alone had caused a constitutional crisis that shook the already fragile empire. This was perhaps his one saving grace. He truly loved his wife. Today – 28th June – was their 14th wedding anniversary. Back in the heart of empire, Sophie was refused permission to sit in the same royal carriage as her husband. Out here on the periphery, they were free to sit together in the same car and enjoy their anniversary. Unfortunately, Sunday June 28th was not just their anniversary. It was also Serbian National Day. Lying in wait for the Archduke in Sarajevo that morning was a gang of well-prepared men armed with pistols and explosives. They were Serbian nationalists, almost certainly secretly supported by the Serbian state. Bosnia was an Austro-Hungarian protectorate and the nationalists wanted to see it free of the empire to be part of a greater Slavic nation to be called Yugoslavia. Ferdinand’s route to the town hall was well known and three bombers were placed along the route. The first two failed to act and the motorcade passed by unscathed. The third nationalist, Nedeljko Cabrinovic, threw his bomb but it bounced off the rear of Ferdi-

1914

Nedeljko Cabrinovic, a member of the Young Bosnia movement, and one of the seven who intended to assassinate Franz Ferdinand.

nand’s car and exploded under the car behind, injuring its occupants and some 15 spectators. Fearful of capture, Cabrinovic swallowed a cyanide capsule. It didn’t work. Hastily, he threw himself into the nearby Miljacka River to drown – only to discover it was just 5 inches deep at that point. He sat there helpless as an angry crowd set about beating him – and had to be rescued by police as the Archduke’s motorcade sped away. Once at the town hall, Ferdinand gave his pre-arranged speech (with a few added sarcastic comments about the assassination attempt) and then insisted on going to hospital to visit the wounded. Another motorcade was hastily assembled and set off again. By sheer bad luck, it would pass straight by another member of the nationalist gang, 19-year-old Gavrilo Princip, who was sitting at a table in a street café. He seized the opportunity, pulled his pistol and strode across the street to Ferdinand’s car, opening fire from a distance of five feet. His first shot hit the Archduke in the throat. He then shot Sophie in the stomach. She was pregnant. Ferdinand’s driver took the stricken couple out of danger and headed to the governor’s residence, with the Archduke clinging to his wife and begging her not to die. It was already too late. The Archduke himself succumbed to his wound ten minutes after arriving at the residence. When news of the assassination spread, anti-Serb riots broke out not just in Sarajevo but throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Austria-Hungary consulted their closest Allies, the Germans, about what they should do. The Kaiser, in a particularly bad mood that day, agreed with the Austro-Hungarian assessment: this was the ideal opportunity to fight a small central European war and crush Serbia once and for all. The Kaiser announced,’ The Serbs must be disposed of – and soon’. His powerful and influential Military Chief of Staff, Helmuth von Moltke, joined in the sabre rattling, agreeing that it should be ‘War! And the sooner the better!’ Armed with this ‘blank cheque’ from the Germans, the Austro-Hungarians made strong threats against Serbia. Unable to placate the empire, Serbia mobilised its army, buoyed up by promises of support from its closest ally, Russia. A small and seeming inconsequential exchange of fire on the Danube led to a formal declaration of war on Serbia by Austria-Hungary on 28th July and it partly mobilised its troops. This obliged Russia and France to mobilise their armies in response – and Germany followed.

Earlier portrait of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Gavrilo Princip another member of the Young Bosnia movement who fired the fatal shot that killed Franz Ferdinand.

Hanging of Serbs in Trebinje 1914.

The war was on. One last terrible irony is that, had he lived, Ferdinand could well have been a great peacemaker. For all his faults, he wanted better treatment for all Slav peoples including the Serbs and had proposed that the Slavs become an equal third part of the Austro-Hungarian power structure. He also believed in making more reconciliatory and even friendly moves towards his traditional enemy Russia. He never lived to put his ideas into practice.

GERMANY

Germany was only unified into one nation in 1871 and so came late to the great games of European power-broking and empire building. A youthful nation dominated by old militaristic Prussian attitudes, it was determined to catch up fast. Its geographical location made it inherently paranoid, with the brutish might of Imperial Russia to its East and old enemies France to the West. Germany not only felt surrounded by its enemies. It also had a bad case of empire envy. The Germans utterly despised Belgium – but even tiny Belgium had a half way decent empire. As the 20th Century progressed, Germany had become an industrial powerhouse. However, it had next to no Empire to trade with. The Germans looked with envious eyes on the British Empire. They wanted it. Considerable resources were devoted to building the second most powerful fleet in the world – a direct threat to British maritime supremacy. This is not to suggest that Germany was spoiling for all-out war with Britain but having enough muscle might make Britain a little more amenable to German territorial ambitions. Germany also had another problem – its Kaiser. Kaiser Wilhelm II had a withered left arm and an English mother, both of which troubled him deeply. Insecure about both his identity and his manhood, he overcompensated with a love of grand uniforms, hanging out with military men and playing at soldiers.

Wilhelm II. Emperor of Germany.

ON THE WESTERN FRONT THE GREAT WAR 1914 - 1918

Aftermath of the fighting in the French town of Carency during the Second Battle of Artois, May 1915.

Second Battle of Ypres, 22 April to May 1915 by Richard Jack.

A frightened little boy who loved to play tough, he was putty in the hands of the military elite who truly ran Germany.

They took ferocious losses as the Germans finally summoned up their nerve and came in for the kill. It was here, a Canadian historian said that their brave behaviour in holding the line ‘set the standard for the Canadian Army that was to be’. An eyewitness to the first chlorine gas attack, Lance Sergeant Elmer Cotton, provided a vivid description of its effect: ‘It produces a flooding of the lungs – it is an equivalent death to drowning only on dry land. The effects are these – a splitting headache and terrific thirst (to drink water is instant death), a knife edge of pain in the lungs and the coughing up of a greenish froth off the stomach and the lungs, ending finally in insensibility and death. The colour of the skin from white turns a greenish black and yellow, the colour protrudes and the eyes assume a glassy stare. It is a fiendish death to die.’ Private W. Hay of the Royal Scots arrived in Ypres just after the chlorine gas attack on 22 April 1915: ‘We knew there was something that was wrong. We started to march towards Ypres but we couldn’t get past on the road with refugees coming down the road. We went along the railway line to Ypres and there were people, civilians and soldiers, lying along the roadside in a terrible state. We heard them say it was gas. We didn’t know what the hell gas was. When we got to Ypres we found a lot of Canadians lying there dead from gas the day before, poor devils, and it was quite a horrible sight for us young men. I was only twenty so it was quite traumatic and I’ve never forgotten nor ever will forget it’ French and British troops fell back to well-prepared secondary lines of defence and the town stayed in Allied hands but the Germans did make some significant advances, using gas several more times. Fighting raged from 21st April to 25th May. The Allies suffered some 58,000 casualties, the Germans 38,000. Ten VCs were won during the action.

GREAT BRITAIN

In the years immediately preceding the outbreak of World War One, Britannia not only ruled the waves but good portions of the world too. It was content, complacent, tough and stand-offish when it came to Europe. It had no real desires to cut itself a slice of the continent. It had vast lands overseas from which to trade and extract untold wealth. The old enemies the French were on reasonable speaking terms and most of the other great European empires seemed remote and irrelevant. There might be odd fights over colonial territories, but they were far away. The one European power Britain was truly wary of was Germany – with good reason. In 1871, a book called ‘The Battle of Dorking’ was published. Written by George Chesney, it told the fantastical tale of Britain being invaded by an enemy nation which was Germany in all but name. Chesney, a military man, had seen just how efficient Germanic forces had been during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1 and was worried about their ability to conscript vast numbers of soldiers. His book provoked fierce debate in senior military and political services, leading to an invigoration of Britain’s reserves. Paranoid or not, Chesney’s fears were widely shared in influential quarters. By the start of the 20th Century, Germany’s army was far mightier than Britain’s and its navy was expanding fast. German statements such as ‘the trident must pass into our hands’ was a direct threat to British supremacy at sea. In 1909, there were widespread reports of German Zeppelins making mysterious reconnaissance missions by night over the south and east of England – especially over military installations or dockyards. The reports proved to be false – Zeppelins could not yet safely traverse the North Sea – but the fear persisted.

FRANCE

At the start of 1914, there were still many in France who remembered their ignominious defeat in 1871 at the hands of the Prussians and their allies from the Germanic States. The successful invaders had annexed Alsace and Lorraine, two French

Portrait of King George V.

By April 1915, the war in the East was going badly for the Russians. They desperately needed more pressure to be applied to German forces on the Western Front, draining them of weapons, shells and men that could otherwise be used on the Eastern Front. Allied commanders on the Western Front understood their plight – and launched a late Spring offensive. On 3rd May, the French commenced a shattering six day, thousand gun artillery barrage against German trenches in the Artois. As the guns fell silent, the French 6th Army went over the top, breached the battered German lines and seized the strategically important target of Vimy Ridge. Once there though, they could advance no further and there were insufficient reserves and resources available to help them capitalise on their hard-won gains. The very next day, a determined German counter-attack drove them from the ridge and sent them spilling back towards their own lines. As the French launched their attack on Vimy Ridge, British and Indian troops made a second strike around what was left of the village of Neuve Chapelle in the Artois. The attack was a disaster. The British possessed nowhere near enough artillery shells to sufficiently damage the German defensive line. As a result, the troops were decimated by machine gun fire as they advanced. The attack was swiftly abandoned at the cost of 11,000 casualties. The British and Indians tried again, on 15th May , attacking Festubert, north of Neuve Chapelle. This time a 60 hour artillery bombardment was laid down on German positions before the Allies went over the top. It didn’t help. The British and Indian troops managed to get just 1,000 yards – just over half a mile – and took 16,000 casualties for that slimmest of gains. On 16th June, the French once again tried to seize Vimy Ridge, walking into the most ferocious of German artillery barrages as they advanced. They reached the ridge against all odds and took it – only to lose it once more to a powerful German counter attack the very next day. After suffering 100,000 dead, wounded and missing the French finally cancelled the offensive.

1915

Poison gas attack.

Indian infantry in the trenches, prepared against a gas attack.

The great Autumn Offensive of 1915 started in earnest on 15th September, with the French going over the top to attack Champagne. ‘Your elan will be irresistible!’ Joffre told his men. Simultaneously, British forces concentrated on Loos in the Artois and launched their single largest offensive of the year. The British had wanted to postpone the offensive until 1916 to build up men and munitions but Joffre wanted results now. His was the country that was invaded and, as the British were very much the junior partners in the war, they would have to fall in line with his wishes. Squadrons of the Royal Flying Corps flew missions to bomb German-held railway lines and other communications, in addition providing artillery spotting and reconnaissance support. Yet again there were not enough artillery shells for the British guns to lay down a truly effective bombardment. It was now that British troops launched their first ever gas attack of the war, with the Royal Engineers emptying 5,000 cylinders of chlorine gas in the direction of the German trench line. British soldiers rolled in behind, respirators on and bayonets at the ready. They discovered that those Germans not already poisoned to death had fled, leaving a four mile hole in their lines. The British paused at Loos, suffering from a lack of supplies, reserves and from the seemingly inevitable communications problems with HQ. When they resumed their attack the next day they met a determined line of German resistance beyond the town, with fortifications bristling with machine guns. The advancing British were cut to pieces. One observer in the field later wrote: ‘From what I can ascertain, some of the divisions did actually reach the enemy’s trenches, for their bodies can now be seen on the barbed wire.’ When the finally tally was made, 50,000 British troops were dead, wounded or missing. It was the final straw for the British government. Sir John French was fired as commander of the British Army and General Sir Douglas Haig promoted in his place. French had become increasingly disillusioned by the trench war, and horrified by his losses. He had lost all real enthusiasm – but Haig was altogether a different proposition. A dour, quiet Scot from a wealthy whisky family, he was

prepared to wage total war whatever the cost. He would, in the bloody months and years to come, display the true tenacious British Bulldog spirit – or a terrifying inability to learn from experience – perhaps both. While the British were fighting in Loos, a simultaneous French assault by their 2nd Army had expertly exploited a weakness in the German lines and punched a hole some three miles deep and six miles wide. As they paused to try and work out what to do with their gains, they were hit full on by a massed counter-attack by the German 3rd Army. Plagued by a chronic lack of ammunition, they were forced to retreat once more. As the gunfire ceased, 145,000 French soldiers were dead or wounded. A separate assault on Vimy Ridge did however finally succeed in securing the tactically vital area for the French. This time they held it.

British soldiers loading a battery of Livens gas projectors. Taken at Royal Engineers Experimental Station, Porton, UK. ABOVE: English gas bomb 1915.

French TNH-type gas mask, made in 1915-16.

Tanks in a field station.

VOICES OF THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN HARDBACK BOOK AND 2 DVD COLLECTORS EDITION. ISBN: 978-0-9930169-3-6 | RRP: £29.99 It was a crucial moment of WW2. 1940. The Royal Air Force, virtually alone, defended the skies of Britain against massed formations of German bombers. They put up such a ferocious defence that Hitler gave up ideas of invading Britain and turned his attention to an assault on the Soviet Union. Of those pilots who courageously flew their Spitfires and Hurricanes against the Luftwaffe barely a handful remain. However the authors have interviewed no less than eighteen survivors and it is their memories and anecdotes that make this book unique. Highly illustrated throughout with rarely seen images, Battle of Britain is packed with great stories of aerial combat and being shot down, of the classic fighters that they flew and fought in and against, of making and losing friends and colleagues; of a strained social life in the midst of battle; and, most of all, of standing steadfast in the face of overwhelming odds. It is coupled with an authoritative and lively narrative.

German pilots thought that ‘Hurricane’ was a very funny name for an aircraft. To their ears, in their language, it sounded like ‘Whore Barges’. The Hurricane however would have the last laugh. The true mainstay of the RAF fighter force during the summer of 1940, the Hurricane had been dreamed up by designer Sydney Camm in the early 1930s as a way of moving on from the traditional biplane fighter design. The first Hurricanes joined Fighter Command in 1937 and a total of 1,715 would serve during the Battle of Britain. Coming from a different era, the Hurricane was both slower than the Spitfire and unable to match its rate of climb, but could sustain quite major battle damage and still make it home. It is believed that Hurricanes were responsible for 4/5ths of all enemy aircraft shot down during the Battle of Britain.

William Walker, 616 Squadron

Pete Brothers, 32 Squadron

A good stable aircraft. An easier aircraft to fly than the Spitfire, which I flew later,37 because you had a better view forward. Sitting in the Hurricane you were higher up and you got a good view forward for taking off or landing. It could take a lot of punishment and it could take a lot of machine gun bullets through the fuselage and the wings and still fly.

August 1940 - Adlerangriff

Squaring Up to the Enemy

VOICES OF THE BATTLE OF BRITTAIN

The Front LIne! A Hurricane pilot, in his cockpit and ready for take off at Hawkinge, the nearest airfield on the British mainland to occupied France

During the whole time one was at readiness you were tired. You were taken off readiness at about half past nine or ten at night and then you went to the mess and you had a beer or two in the mess and then it was bed so that you didn’t probably get to bed until half past ten or eleven and at half past three you were woken up again. The one thing you remembered was you were always tired during those days.

Hawker Hurricane

Later on, after 10 May when the German advance was so rapid, we were sent out to reinforce in France and we would fly out at first light, leave Biggin Hill in the dark, fly to France, land where we’d been told to land at some little airfield, refuel which we had to do ourselves from tins because we had no ground crew with us, and then we would operate but it became chaos. We couldn’t get any orders or instructions because the headquarters was constantly on the move, retreating, and food, nothing had been arranged. One of our pilots was fluent in French and I remember he managed to beg some bread from a farmhouse near the airfield which was all we got that day and we would fly back as it was getting dark, land back at Biggin Hill just about in the dark. By that time, of course, you’d been up since four o’clock in the morning and you got back about ten o’clock at night, have a meal, go to bed, be shaken awake again about half past three, get up, get washed and shaved, down to have a quick snack breakfast and off onto the airfield and take off for France. That was very tedious, very tiring and we didn’t feel we were making any great contribution.

Prelude: September 1939 - June 1940

VOICES OF THE BATTLE OF BRITTAIN 10

Wehrmacht followed with their own plans, suggesting an attack from the Low Countries against England’s east coast from the Wash to the Thames Estuary. Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, head of the Luftwaffe and Hitler’s Deputy, was contemptuous of both plans. Britain, he said, would need to be comprehensively defeated first. Through it all, Hitler remained curiously detached from it all and dreamed on of a negotiated peace with Britain. Any thought of a seaborne assault against England sent him rushing for the pralines again. ‘At sea I am a coward,’ he confessed. At Dawn on 10 May 1940, Hitler finally unleashed what he called ‘Operation Yellow’. History would come to know it as ‘The Blitzkrieg’. Two armoured corps and paratrooper units, with close air support provided by the Luftwaffe, burst into Belgium and the Netherlands, fighting south towards France. That very same day, by complete coincidence, everything changed in Great Britain. Neville Chamberlain’s government fell and Winston Churchill became Prime Minister. Churchill was not even a popular choice for the position, but arch-appeaser Lord Halifax had turned down the role and Chamberlain decided not to fight for his own job. Those who favoured peace with Germany at any price were seriously perturbed by what Churchill might do once he got his hands on the reins of power, being a notorious opponent of appeasement. Many of his colleagues in the Conservative Party genuinely disliked him and had conspired to wreck his career over the past decade or so. Others considered him a has-been. He was 65 and a back-bencher, after all. Hitler, who barely thought about Churchill, wrote him off as a drunk and a Jew-lover. He didn’t know it, but ‘cometh the hour…’. Churchill’s first few weeks as Prime Minister during May and June 1940 turned into, quite literally, a baptism of fire. In response to the German Blitzkrieg, French forces - along with significant elements of the British Expeditionary Force stationed in France - moved forward into Belgium to confront the invading army head on. It was a trap. To their east, a mass of German armour poured out of the supposedly unpassable Ardennes Forest and swiftly powered their way westward to the sea. The Allies were cut off and surrounded. The RAF had been in action, with mixed results, since the first day of the Blitzkrieg. Operating from airfields in France, RAF Hurricane fighters had acquitted themselves well fighting alongside the French Air Force and other allies. The end of the first day’s fighting saw 61 RAF aircraft lost or damaged to the Luftwaffe’s 192. The light British bombers on the other hand proved disastrously ineffectual and vulnerable. Thirty-two Fairey Battles were sent against the Germans. Of those, thirteen were swiftly shot down and another 18 severely damaged. Of a flight of Blenheims from 600 Squadron sent out on patrol, only one survived. Five Battles were sent out to destroy important bridges at Maastricht on the 12 May. None returned. Two days later, the Battle Fleet set out to bomb again. Seventy one took off. Thirty one returned.

Tony Pickering, 501 Squadron It was awful, there’s no other way to put it. You suddenly found yourself up against enormous odds. I’ll give you one example, six of us ran into 40 Ju87s one day. We shot down 14 of them and they ran off. As we left, and we were out of ammunition another 150 Ju87s came in. We were never overawed by the Germans but we were certainly outnumbered.

I loved the Hurricane but I realised there was an awful lot to learn as we had come off biplanes. We had been flying Gladiators before then, which were the front line aircraft, and then to go along to the Hurricane was a challenge. We got more and more used to them and after a while we got to love them. There was something very basically strong about a Hurricane and you felt it was like a favourite car or something but there was tremendous strength in the aircraft and it was a perfect gun platform. It was just everything one ever wished for in an aeroplane.

Dennis David, 87 Squadron

There was a certain routine when we were down at Hornchurch. If the phone would ring once they were talking to somebody in the mess. If it rang twice it was for you and you were going to be scrambled. If it rang three times it was for the other squadron. So when you were sitting down and the phone suddenly rang you said ‘Once...will it stop?’ ‘Twice...is that us?’ ‘Thank God its a third time’. An extraordinary situation of tenseness. Were we going to be scrambled or weren’t we? And that was the phone but again you never knew when the phone rang what was going to happen. It was a situation where nerves began to play quite a part. John Ellacombe, 151 Squadron RAF pilots and sailors scramble for their planes during an alert

CONSTELLATION - Unseen Images from the Archives Hardcover Book and 2 DVD Special Edition ISBN: 978-0-9931812-1-4 | RRP: £29.99 Designed and developed amid utmost secrecy the Lockheed Constellation became one of the most popular and successful aircraft ever built, flying with virtually every major airline around the world and many air forces in a bewildering range of roles from troop transport to airborne command and control. For 30 years after the Second World War the Constellation ruled the international commercial skies, first as the airliner of choice until the first jet airliners arrived, and then as a charter aircraft and freighter. The publishers have scoured archives all over the world and have created in Constellation: Unseen Images from the Archives a breathtaking set of more than 150 rare and unseen images. Complimenting the images acclaimed aviation author and journalist, Bruce Hales-Dutton, has written an authoritative and eye-opening text that tells the history of this great aircraft.

MOSQUITO - Unseen Images from the Archives Hardcover Book and 2 DVD Special Edition ISBN: 978-0-9931812-2-1 | RRP: £29.99 In the age of metal fuselages and wings how could an aircraft largely built of wood possibly become one of the most famous British aircraft ever and arguably the best military aircraft of the Second World War? The publishers of Mosquito: Unseen Images from the Archives have scoured the archives to come up with an unrivalled selection of rare and unseen images showing the full history of the Mosquito from its inception before the war through its hugely successful wartime career to the final post-war flights. Accompanying this ground-breaking book are two documentaries de Havilland presents the Mosquito, an early film telling the aircraft’s history and Gaining Altitude, the story of the rebuilding of a Mosquito to airworthy condition in Canada

COMET - Unseen Images from the Archives HARDBACK BOOK AND 1 DVD COLLECTORS EDITION ISBN: 978-0-9930169-2-9 | RRP: £29.99 It was a sensation! The World’s first jet airliner flew for the first time barely four years after the end of the Second World War...and it was British. It revolutionised commercial air travel. It was the fastest airliner in the World and inspired a post-war public with its pioneering jet engines and sleek design. Star-struck celebrities and royalty flew in it. The World’s airlines were queuing up to order.Packed with rare and unseen images, Comet delves into this amazing aircraft from the dark days of WW2 when it was conceived by Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, through its design and manufacture and introduction to service with BOAC amid cheering and flag waving. It covers in depth the tragic Comet crashes, the work done on solving the crash mysteries and its successful reincarnation, both for civil airlines and for the military, as the Comet 4 and eventually the RAF’s Nimrod, the ultimate and final variant of the Comet design. Also included is the DVD documentary “The Comet”, featuring archive footage of this revolutionary aircraft in action and interviews with the people who flew it. COMET Unseen Images from the Archives

INTRODUCTION

COMET Unseen Images from the Archives

INTRODUCTION

By Bruce Hales-Dutton It is hard to overstate the breadth of achievement that produced the de Havilland Comet. The design team began detailed work little more than five years after Britain’s first jet engine had flown for the first time. Even by late 1946 jet fighters carrying at most two crew members and very little else were still a novelty. Yet de Havilland’s engineers were visualising luxurious travel for 36 fare-paying passengers sitting in living room comfort and wearing their normal clothes, not specially-trained combat airmen in “G” suits and oxygen masks. For a start this meant providing a comfortable cabin environment at altitudes of 40,000ft and above where the air was thin and the outside temperature unimaginably low. To take full advantage of the new form of propulsion the Comet’s airframe had to be light and offer minimal drag. Meeting these challenges meant new construction methods and a new approach to aerodynamics as well as many other innovations. Inevitably a Comet cost far more than a Constellation or a DC-6 and burned twice as much fuel. But the world’s first jet airline, British Overseas Airways Corporation soon discovered that jets required less maintenance. They were more productive too: five Comets could do the work of eight conventional airliners. The British aviation industry appeared to have achieved its long-cherished aim of pegging back the American lead in airliner design with a brilliant technological coup. For two glorious years the Comet was the unrivalled standard-bearer of aeronautical progress. But it turned out to be, as one observer noted, a magnificent false start. Hopes so triumphantly raised were to be tragically dashed only two years later by a series of catastrophic accidents. The fact that the investigation into these crashes spotlighted a previously little-known phenomenon and so ensured the safety of future air journeys was scant consolation, particularly to the team of visionary engineers who had conceived and built the Comet. But they were determined to use the investigation’s findings to restore its reputation and the resulting Comet 4 emerged phoenix-like from the ashes of its past, bigger, stronger, with longer range and generally more capable. Yet although BOAC was now able to operate the first scheduled trans-Atlantic jet service the delay had allowed America to catch up. Soon the bigger, faster Boeing 707 and Douglas DC-8 would dominate long-haul air travel and maintain the US lead in commercial aviation technology. The Comet, though, was to enjoy a long service life. At first it was used only by wealthy travellers but ended its career carrying charter passengers to holiday destinations in the sun. Public perceptions of air travel were changed for ever. But the Comet did more even than that. Crediting it with changing the world is surely not too big a claim to make for the world’s first jet airliner.

September 2014

Taken from AF brochure ABOVe: The spacious but still incomplete flight deck of the Comet prototype owned by the Ministry of Supply and displaying the Class B marking G-5-1. It later carried the registration G-ALVG. The navigator’s seat and table are just visible, bottom left. LeFt tOP tO BOttOM: preparing the prototype Comet for its first flight, Hatfield, July 1949.

tOP tO BOttOM: On 27 July 1949 the Comet made a high speed run and a short hop before its first flight with chief test pilot John Cunningham in command.

MAIN IMAGe: Before the 1954 accidents, de Havilland had high hopes of the long range Comet powered by Rolls-Royce Avons and it was hoped that an order by Pan American World Airways would represent a breakthrough. The sole prototype G-ANLO is pictured here in February 1957. INset IMAGes: G-ANLO made a major contribution to the Comet 4 development programme and this included a round-the world flight with John Cunningham in command in December 1955. The aircraft is pictured (left to right) at Bombay, 1955; again, Bombay, 1955; Stockholm, 1957; Stockholm, framed by an Aeroflot Il-14; Honolulu, 1955.

BOEING - Unseen Images from the Archives Hardcover Book and 2 DVD Special Edition ISBN: 978-0-9931812-8-3 | RRP: £29.99 Boeing is perhaps the most important manufacturer and designer of aircraft ever and the most iconic name in the history of aviation. From a small boat factory in Seattle, the legendary ‘Red Barn’, 100 years ago to the giant aviation manufacturing business of today, Boeing has built and maintained an unrivalled reputation for building airliners, bombers, fighters, flying boats, trainers, helicopters and more recently spacecraft and missiles. The publishers of Boeing: Unseen Images from the Archives have scoured archives round the world to create a unique book packed with rare and previously unseen images that compliment acclaimed aviation journalist, Bruce hales-Dutton’s text. Together they make a terrific tribute to 100 years of Boeing and its aircraft.

MAYDAY Air Crash Investigation Hardcover Book and 4 DVD Special Edition ISBN: 978-0-9931812-4-5 | RRP: £29.99 This Illustrated Hardback book tells the fascinating story of how commercial airliners were developed and the crashes that changed the face of aviation and made flying the safest form of travel in the modern age. From the fearless test pilots and the very first commercial jet airliners of the post war years the Constellation and the Comet. With in depth analysis of some of the most well known plane crashes and the investigations by the worlds leading experts in a race to discover the causes of each crash. This exclusive edition includes 4 DVDs of the television series Mayday, Air Crash Investigation investigating air crashes, near-crashes, hijackings, bombings and other disasters. Mayday uses re-enactments and computer generated imagery to reconstruct the sequence of events leading up to each disaster. In addition, aviation experts, retired pilots and crash investigators are interviewed explaining how these emergencies came about, how they were investigated and how they could have been prevented.

Alexander McQueen...Fashion Genius LIMITED EDITION ILLUSTRATED HARDCOVER BOOK ISBN: 978-0-9931812-3-8 | RRP: £24.99 “Alexander McQueen - Redefining Beauty” is magnificently adorned with some of Lee Alexander McQueen’s most riveting designs, and the narrative illuminates the personal and professional struggles of a man who dared to defy accepted norms in the cavernous halls of fashion and give the world a new sense of the grandeur of which human creativity is capable. From conflicted gay teenager, aggressive and remote young man, through to his lonely suicide, the book charts Alexander McQueen’s ascent to couturier par excellence, highlighting his spectacular shows and showing how his confrontational, streetwise manner was simply a shield that protected and masked a very shy, sensitive and insecure man who hailed from the wrong side of the high fashion tracks. “Alexander McQueen - Redefining Beauty” will imprint upon the reader never to be forgotten images of his explosive designs, illuminate his talent and delve into the mind of a man who was Britain’s most unpredictable, tormented and spectacular fashion designer. a le x a n der mc qu ee n

r edef i n i ng b e au t y | t h e b u r n i ng c h a i n s of b e au t y

Introduction - The Alexander McQueen Phenomenon

L 4

ee Alexander McQueen was a child of his age, one in a long line of talented, tormented celebrities that do not live out their three score years and ten. On a personal level, he was a contradiction even to himself. He was constantly seeking release from his personal dungeons and never finding it, and this conflict manifested itself in his designs, igniting his fantasy. When unencumbered by a commercial restraining order, his creations were restless and surrealistically exotic, the soaring flights of a searching, yearningimagination. The world needs fantasy, there is enough reality, he said, yet his harsh view of reality and the pain in the world filtered into his fantasy and therefore into his work alongside his vulnerability and passion. On a mundane level, McQueen was the worthy successor to the English fashion designer Charles Frederick Worth, who lived from the 13th October 1825 to the 10th of March 1895. He was the first Englishman of whom it could be said that he broke through the boundaries of fashion design, as McQueen was to do 150 years later. Worth’s clothes were produced in Paris, and he is widely thought of as the father of haute couture. McQueen polarised opinion, and the word ‘genius’ was often used to describe him. This was not a universally held opinion in the great halls of fashion. On both sides of the divide, however, what was in no doubt was that his was a bounding creativity that was fuelled by a vivid, driven mind and executed by a highly skilled hand. He saw a piece of clothing as an objet d’art, as a way of transmitting concepts and ideas, not simply as clothing for the body. He succeeded, with almost frantic energy, in showing us where that thought could lead, taking the observer on a fantastical journey. McQueen thrust clothing beyond its usual inhibitions, beyond the limitations others had imposed upon it by imagination, pattern and dimension and in doing so, found himself leaving the arena of haute couture and entering the world of theatrical expansiveness, before then brilliantly combining the two. McQueen’s oeuvre was intensely autobiographical and therefore personal; as a consequence it was unique. His work orbited around recurring themes; one of these was his ancestral Scottish history, and an interest in history in

general and how it could be used to inform modern clothing forms and fabrics. He considered himself a romantic – on Valentine’s Day he would send 500 red roses to his boyfriend at the time – and romanticism pierced many of his shows in all of its gentle and harsh manifestations. This he had in common with the old masters, and he often drew inspiration from them and the eras in which they worked. McQueen’s creativity did not shrink back from expressing his emotions, either, and we saw that these were often in turmoil, and always reflecting his own – never truly satisfied – perception of romantic idealism which was marbled through with menace. He has been called ‘Byronic’ because of the undercurrent of lonely melancholy pervading his romanticism, and for the rebelliousness in his character, his search for the dramatic gesture; but he was a quintessential baroque man of the first order, too, displaced and dropped into the 21st century and consequently disoriented. He was the master of exuberance, richness and sumptuousness, a virtuoso of intricate and ornate workmanship, a style catalyst. As with many artistic spirits, the exotic, the strange, the unusual attracted him with a magnetic draw and he incorporated foreign clothing styles into most of his work criss-crossing the centuries to do so. These styles came from anywhere that caught his attention; Japan especially, which figured strongly in many collections, but also China, Africa or India and their influences flitted in and out of his work like butterflies. Nature was a theme of pivotal importance to him; he revisited it often and it provided him with a fountain of ideas that never dried up. His respect for it was obvious; for example, he allowed nature to have the last word in his final show, ‘Plato’s Atlantis’, where it had forced man to adapt to its demands instead of vice versa. Within the context of nature, birds, flying through the darker levels of humanity, figured strongly in his narratives, as did an exploration of the nature of female sexual power, unknown to him on a personal level, as he admitted, and therefore all the more mysterious. As indeed, were the machinations of love and sexuality; the person he most wanted to meet in life was the Marquis de Sade, the name of a man commonly associated with his

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sexual exploits who, McQueen said, made him feel as though his own life were banal. I gather some influence from the Marquis de Sade because I actually think of him as a great philosopher and a man of his time”, said McQueen of his idol. Despite his love of the past, McQueen was a trail blazer in his own world. The art/violence/shock connection had already been fully explored by performance artists before McQueen arrived on the scene and he had very probably observed or experienced it first hand in London. To the moneyed, genteel world of high fashion, however, it was a startling new concept. In the 1990s, McQueen was the first to fearlessly transgress the art/violence/shock barriers. He was a man of his time. He also lived in an era of technological revolution and made use of the cross-over influences from the contemporary art world. With his use of computerised technology to create random patterns, he allied himself with the idea of machine art and the questions that posed. He used digital printing to create highly original pieces. Even his innovative, glossy signature shows that helped propel him to the top of his profession

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were in keeping with the sun-king splashing of wealth that became prevalent in the egotistical society of the 21st century. They were said to have cost an estimated one million dollars per ten minutes. Although seen by many as an avant-garde master designer, his true talent was founded on an unsurpassable ability to cut, construct and tailor his work. As McQueen says of fashion: “It’s all been done before . . . it is how you do it.” Perhaps the saddest pictures now are of McQueen wearing skeleton designs, or his image on the cover of “Savage Beauty” which morphs McQueen into a skull. This image of death was so at odds with the flamboyant brilliance of his achievements that it seems inappropriate for this one-dimensional image of his character, or indeed the clumsy ‘bumster’, to be the legacy impressions of the man who, literally on occasion, harnessed the ennobling creativity of his fellow humans and the world around him to hypnotise, enrich and bring a sense of wonder and magic into the

s mok e a n d m i r ror s wor ld of fa s h ion .

As McQueen says of fashion:

It’s all been done before . . . it is how you do it.

The Who - 50 Years on the Road LIMITED EDITION ILLUSTRATED HARDCOVER BOOK ISBN: 978-0-9931812-0-7 | RRP: £24.99 The Who defined a generation and rocked the world. “My Generation,” “Pinball Wizard,” and “Baba O’Riley” are some of the most well known tracks in rock history. The rock opera Tommy, the genre-defining Live at Leeds, and the classic Quadrophenia are just some of The Who’s albums. The band’s original lineup had an amazing 15-year span, as they toured their way around the globe, performing live and recording until the death of drummer Keith Moon in 1978. Then John Entwhistle died in 2002, but the remaining founding members Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend continue to tour. 50 years on the Road takes you on the journey with the band as they conquered the world: from small London clubs to Madison Square Garden, from seven-inch vinyl releases to multimillion-selling albums, all the way to recognition as global rock gods. The stories behind the music with an album by album analysis and accompanied by images from many of the most well known contemporary rock photographers gives a unique insight into one of the most influential groups in the history of rock music.

Also at this time, a man entered their lives who was to fill the sails

In June of that year, The Who appeared at the Monterey International Pop Festival in California. Arriving a week early, they did one gig in Ann

And now it was down to Pete Townshend to produce the goods for

Arbor’s Fifth Dimension club in Detroit, together with some Chicago

the album; it was, however, a slow process even though several of the

shows – in a non-profit show, all the artists received only round-trip first-

songs had already been written and others had moved on past the

happy to bring home a bricklayer’s wage and use the band to provide a

embryo stage. Not least because there really was no narrative thread

class airfares for their efforts – before heading out for their June 18 gig at

The group he alighted upon was The Who. Introduced to them by Doug

nice little supplementary income, thank you very much. He was not about

the festival trumpeting a myriad of big acts, including Jefferson Airplane,

holding it all together in Pete’s mind. When the other group members

Sandom, whose sister worked for him, Gorden was invited to come along

to upset the balance in his domestic life for the sake of a band. And he

Otis Redding, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Ravi Shankar, and Eric Burden

gathered, there was more talking about arrangements and so on than

and see the group perform one night in Acton. From that moment on,

already had more arguments in his life than he wanted.

and the Animals.

exactly what he was going to do to make his band famous. One of his first

The problem came to a head in an audition the group had with an A&R man at Fontana records, Chris Parmeinter. Doug felt that he was

Lambert was Townshend’s rock in the storm, the man to undo the Gordian

was intending to smash and set light to his own guitar; Townshend was

knots that Townshend sometimes got into and the man to help shape the

investments was to buy them new clothes, new equipment and a new

being deliberately pressurised from the start and was dismayed when

incensed. Perhaps that’s why The Who’s show blew everybody away that

van.

the audition was over and sentence was handed down. Parmeinter spoke

night and left Hendrix’s antics in the dust. Townshend still asked Hendrix

favourably about the group, but something had to be done about the

for a piece of his guitar afterwards, though. He knew great guitar playing

throughout their careers, they were then promptly blessed with another

drumming, he said. Whereupon Townshend turned to Doug and launched

when he saw it.

would-be manager.

In keeping with the whirling vortex that surrounded The Who

an attack in his own inimitable fashion; “If you can’t get it right then

Peter Meaden stepped into the life of The Who having heard of them through the grapevine. Actually, in the barber’s chair, which is the same thing. Meaden was a freelance publicist and publicised himself so well that Gorden was impressed enough to give him £50 to promote the group. Meaden, immaculately dressed, as any self-respecting mod would be, and talking one hundred to the dozen (no-one realised at the time that he was a pill-head) proposed that the group should be part of the mod

you’re out of the group.” It was too much for the normally placid drummer, who flared up with the words, “I’m finished with this band. I’m finished now”. Sandom then relented a little, considerate of the need to break in a new band member, saying that he would work for another month but that was it.

It was.

revolution and groom themselves accordingly. The group fell for Meaden’s charms and persuasive manner. In fact, they would have preferred him to Gorden as their manager; he was much more personable. Nonetheless, with two men covering their backs, surely now there would be no holding them down. The tensions within the group, however, were bubbling closer to the

At this point, Townshend’s marriage, and probably the teachings of Meher Baba, were having a very positive effect on the guitarist and he appeared to have jettisoned his egotistical contempt for the world and come back down to earth. He was welcoming and happy. This was a good sign for the band’s future. As Christmas approached, Track needed something for the market and issued an LP called “Direct Hits”, which featured The Who’s singles. Decca,

The Who had come to America and America had come to The Who.

too, were nervous about the group’s lack of recorded material. They were

In the States, the band were living up to their reputation for druginfused living. They almost lost Moon one day when he opened the car

also anxious to exploit the group before, as they thought, it flushed

That was the year when Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, who had been

implication being that these were live recordings; they weren’t. Needless

arrested on drug charges, went on trial. Richards received a one-year

to say, the album was scorched by the critics. Just before Christmas the

prison sentence and Mick Jagger 90 days. Enraged, Townshend suggested

band performed on a TV special in Intertel Studios in Wembley. The mini

that The Who record “Under My Thumb” and “The Last Time” by the

opera “A Quick One” was the evening’s highpoint despite appearances by

Stones and donate the profits to the Stones’ defence team. As Entwistle

Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones and John Lennon. The show, “The Rolling

danger was that they could lose their place on the rung up the ladder to

had been married on the 24 June to Alison Wise and was on his way to

Stones’ Rock and Roll ” was never aired.

the top that they so badly wanted. They had no choice, however, but to

the States, he agreed that Townshend should play bass in the project.

with Fontana, so the task had added urgency. If they lost momentum, the

continue with whichever percussionist they had managed to drum up for the gigs. Townshend persevered at art school and Daltrey continued to manhandle his sheet metal. The omens were not good.

Just as well then, that down the grapevine the rumour was that

Entwistle, Moon and Townshend were still moving along the “drug

Townshend was cooking up a real feast. The other members of the

corridor” as Moon called it, themselves; Townshend floating on acid more

band were aware that they had to produce something special, put their

than the others. Daltrey smoked, but that was it for him. The Stones cover did nothing to help The Who financially, of course, apart from garnering goodwill, so in mid-July they were back in America on a ten-week tour opening for the Blues Magoos and Herman’s Hermits. A more unlikely audience for The Who than those who liked Herman’s Hermits could hardly have been dreamed up. Well, money was no good to them in someone else’s pocket. Even so, £15,000 for 30 dates was not a good return for their time. Still, it was a short set and despite the heckling or amazed silences from stunned audiences, they did have time to enjoy

itself down the drain. Decca issued “Magic Bus - The Who on Tour”, the

door to get out with the car doing 80 mph.

A series of stick twirlers now entered the revolving door... and exited

surface; the main problem was still Doug Sandom. He had never hidden enamoured with the mods. Nor, for that matter, was he enamoured with

overall concept.

Everything about The Who, its appearance, its presentation of a complex musical piece (A Quick One) and the extraordinary trashing of guitar and drums under a blanket of smoke bomb clouds, was spectacular.

just as quickly. Without a drummer there was going to be no recording

the fact that he was not enamoured of the blues, and he was certainly not the increasing number of illegal drugs that were circulating through the

recording going on. Lambert’s insistence on an overture didn’t help. But

Townshend had a brush with Jimi Hendrix when he heard that Hendrix

A Force to be Reckoned With 1965 - 1968

The Who became Gorden’s “little diamonds” and the new manager knew

The Who - Their Generation

moderate success in the charts; 26 in the UK and 25 in the US.

thrust in life was different from those of the other members of the band, who desperately wanted to be successful, very desperately, whilst he was

management of the Beatles and wished to do the same thing himself.

band members’ veins. On top of that, his wife disliked the band intensely, reserving her special displeasure for Pete Townshend. Doug’s whole

of their careers with moving air. His name was Helmut Gorden, an East European Jewish immigrant who had been inspired by Brian Epstein’s

egos on the back burner and give Townshend his head. In this spirit of cooperation, all members of the group contributed in piecing together the creative shards that Townshend presented. Entwistle received a backhanded compliment from Townshend when he was asked to write songs for the album, because, said Townshend, he couldn’t write as nastily as Entwistle. 1969 was the year that Pete Townshend became a father when his daughter Emma was born. There was still no money, of course, so at the weekends after a week

METRO–LAND Hardcover Book and 2 DVD Special Edition ISBN: 978-0-9930169-8-1 | RRP: £34.99 This Illustrated Limited Edition hardback book “Metro-land” features the history of the Metropolitan Line and the suburbs and society which grew up between the Wars. 4 This fully illustrated Hardback book takes us on a journey through the leafy counties of Bucks, Herts and Middlesex which yielded to the engines of the first steam underground, the pastoral world of youth gave way to the suburban dream of the railway planners. The book contrasts the old and new ways of life, the architecture of the houses built in the period the art and posters of the Metropolitan Railway and investigates how the line and the estates were built. The book is illustrated throughout with over 150 unique Black & White and colour images. From Baker Street to the forgotten station at Quainton Road, the book guides you on a very personal and unforgettable journey into Metro-land.

A Force to be Reckoned With 1965 - 1968

“blokes band”.

BOOKS

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