Remarkable Journeys of the Second World War


Book Description

Those who lived through the Second World War have many stories of bravery, sadness, horror, doubt and longing. Inspired by conversations with veterans following the publication of her grandfather's wartime memoir, Victoria Panton Bacon has gathered a moving collection of their experiences. Their recollections tell of a different time and reveal the courage, actions and sentiments of those whose wartime experiences changed the course of history; stories of ordinary people who lived under the long shadows cast by the war and whose young lives were changed irrevocably. Though many tales are sad, describing being sent into war and the loss of friends and family, there are also stories of joy and love found in the darkest of times. For them, war, the ultimate leveller, threw them into remarkable times, whether they were a merchant seaman, army officer, pilot, young Jewish girl, code breaker or Home Guard recruit. From one extraordinary story to the next, Remarkable Journeys of the Second World War immerses the reader in the lives of real people who lived through conflict.




Remarkable Women of the Second World War


Book Description

They were told to hold the fort. They did far more than that. When the Second World War broke out, the task of keeping society afloat fell on the shoulders of the women left behind. Women the world over stepped into boots they'd never worn before – becoming engineers, labourers and intelligence experts. Their houses were razed to the ground, they fled their enemy-occupied countries and they picked up guns to defend their homes, but their stories are rarely told. Remarkable Women of the Second World War is a collection of twelve of these stories, all carefully gathered and retold by Victoria Panton Bacon. These are the stories of Galina Russian navigator who flew on the front line for the Red Army alongside the feared Night Witches; Ena, an ATA engineer who didn't think much of the Spitfires and Hurricanes she worked on; and Lee, a Jewish girl who fled Frankfurt and arrived in Coventry on a Kindertransport train. These women weren't remarkable because of high rank or status, but because of their grit, resilience and determination. These are the tales of ordinary women who did extraordinary things.




Time Cat


Book Description

Jason and his magic cat Gareth travel through time to visit countries all over the world during different periods of history.




Great Escapes


Book Description

A stunning visual record of the world's most audacious and compelling escapes and escape attempts.




The Liberator


Book Description

The untold story of the bloodiest and most dramatic march to victory of the Second World War—now a Netflix original series starring Jose Miguel Vasquez, Bryan Hibbard, and Bradley James “Exceptional . . . worthy addition to vibrant classics of small-unit history like Stephen Ambrose’s Band of Brothers.”—Wall Street Journal Written with Alex Kershaw's trademark narrative drive and vivid immediacy, The Liberator traces the remarkable battlefield journey of maverick U.S. Army officer Felix Sparks through the Allied liberation of Europe—from the first landing in Italy to the final death throes of the Third Reich. Over five hundred bloody days, Sparks and his infantry unit battled from the beaches of Sicily through the mountains of Italy and France, ultimately enduring bitter and desperate winter combat against the die-hard SS on the Fatherland's borders. Having miraculously survived the long, bloody march across Europe, Sparks was selected to lead a final charge to Bavaria, where he and his men experienced some of the most intense street fighting suffered by Americans in World War II. And when he finally arrived at the gates of Dachau, Sparks confronted scenes that robbed the mind of reason—and put his humanity to the ultimate test.




Hugging the Shore


Book Description

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD “Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea,” writes John Updike in his Foreword to this collection of literary considerations. But the sailor doth protest too much: This collection begins somewhere near deep water, with a flotilla of short fiction, humor pieces, and personal essays, and even the least of the reviews here—those that “come about and draw even closer to the land with another nine-point quotation”—are distinguished by a novelist’s style, insight, and accuracy, not just surface sparkle. Indeed, as James Atlas commented, the most substantial critical articles, on Melville, Hawthorne, and Whitman, go out as far as Updike’s fiction: They are “the sort of ambitious scholarly reappraisal not seen in this country since the death of Edmund Wilson.” With Hugging the Shore, Michiko Kakutani wrote, Updike established himself “as a major and enduring critical voice; indeed, as the pre-eminent critic of his generation.”




The Hidden Legacy of World War II


Book Description

Carol Schultz Vento recounts the post-World War II years of her famous father "Dutch" Schultz. Daughters, fathers and war - three words seldom used together. In "The Hidden Legacy of World War II: A Daughter's Journey", Carol Schultz Vento weaves life with her paratrooper father into the larger narrative of World War II and the homecoming of the Greatest Generation. The book describes the seldom told story of how the war trauma of World War II impacted one family. This personal story is combined with the author's thorough research and investigation of the reality for those World War II veterans who could not forget the horrors of war. This nonfiction work fills in the missing pieces of the commonly accepted societal view of World War II veterans as stoic and unwavering, a true but incomplete portrait of that generation of warrior. About the author: Carol Schultz Vento is a former Political Science professor and attorney. She is a graduate of Temple University and Rutgers University School of Law. She is the daughter of 82nd Airborne World War II veteran Arthur "Dutch" Schultz. Carol is a native of Philadelphia and lives in Palmyra, New Jersey.




Remarkable Journey of Mr Prins


Book Description

The greatest journeys are escapes. Night-time, suitcases of cash, chaos, the final burning of papers. 56 people flee in a small boat. In 1940, as exiled Dutchman Eli Prins arrives in England and makes his way to Bath, he instigates a longer journey, one from war and uncertainty to safety and solidarity. Based on personal testimonies and unpublished sources in English and Dutch, this book vividly reconstructs the experience of war in Alkmaar and Bath. It is a story told in full for the first time: how the Jews are expelled from Alkmaar; the fate of Eli's parents; the Bath Blitz; and then in 1945, after the Dutch Hunger Winter, how the people of Bath chose to help Alkmaar and its children. This is both a local story and a European one, written not just to commemorate history, but also to remind ourselves that we still need such heroic and uplifting stories.




The Stars My Blanket


Book Description

After the restrictions of an Edwardian girlhood, Beryl Smeeton cherished the freedom to travel alone, and became a globetrotter on an epic scale. Just before the Second World War, she completed two remarkable journeys: a thousand-mile trek on horseback in the eastern foothills of the Andes; and a hike through the hilly jungles of Burma and Thailand. When Beryl married Miles Smeeton, she continued her adventures, on land and aboard the Smeeton's famous yacht, Tzu Hang. This is her second book about her travels.




Winter Shoes in Springtime


Book Description

Tag along with Elizabeth, forager and food writer extraordinaire, on a lively personal tour of her favourite food products, speciality shops and eating establishments on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands.