Phyllis Ursula James. Nora O’Mara. Róisín Ní Mheara. Like her name, the life of Rosaleen James changed many times as she followed a convoluted path from abandoned child, to foster daughter of an aristocratic British family, to traitor during World War II, to her emergence as a full Irish woman afterward. In Masquerade, authors Mark M. Hull and Vera Moynes tell James’s story as it unfolds against the backdrop of the most important events of the twentieth century. James’s life—both ...

**A New York Times bestseller!A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2017A dual biography of Winston Churchill and George Orwell, who preserved democracy from the threats of authoritarianism, from the left and right alike.**Both George Orwell and Winston Churchill came close to death in the mid-1930's—Orwell shot in the neck in a trench line in the Spanish Civil War, and Churchill struck by a car in New York City. If they'd died then, history...

When Germany surrendered in May 1945 it was a nation reduced to rubble. Immediately, America, Britain, Soviet Russia, and France set about rebuilding in their zones of occupation. Most urgent were physical needs--food, water, and sanitation--but from the start the Allies were also anxious to indoctrinate the German people in the ideas of peace and civilization.Denazification and reeducation would be key to future peace, and the arts were crucial guides to alternative, less militari...

Emerging from modern history as a remarkable and much-loved family, the Mitfords have remained largely unrepentant concerning theirs and particularly Unity's enthusiastic support of Hitler, the Nazis, Oswald Mosley and British fascism. However, having initially encouraged and supported Unity's affair with Hitler, they subsequently insisted that she had in fact been a rather unintelligent, clumsy lump of a girl, whose virginal relationship with one of the most terrifying di...

Hundreds of thousands of people from all continents visit Dachau Memorial Site each year. Any visitor to the Memorial Site will find that the Memorial Site bookshop stocks two publications worthy of particular mention, both deal at length with the history of the former concentration camp; Stanislav Zamecnik's ,outstanding, That Was Dachau and the superb Catalogue for the Exhibition: The Dachau Concentration Camp edited by Barbara Distel. Notwithstanding, there is little, recently written a...

On 30 September 1938 Neville Chamberlain flew back to London from his meeting at Munich with the German Chancellor, Adolf Hitler. As he paused on the aircraft steps, he held aloft the piece of paper which bore both his and the Führer's signature, the promise that Britain and Germany would never go to war with one another again. He had returned bringing 'Peace with honour - Peace for our Time.'Drawing on a wealth of original archival material, David Faber sheds new light on this ext...

PO Box 500, London W2 the nondescript address from behind which one of the worlds most famous secret services hid: MI5. Drawing on previously secret sources, this book lifts the lid on Britains Security Service in its battle against German and Soviet espionage. It tells the sensational stories of the officers and agents and the enemies they confronted, from MI5s creation in 1909 under the direction of Vernon Kell, Britains first spymaster.Building on the services wartime success, M...

Suddenly, While Abroad tells the story of 32 merchant seamen from Ireland who were held in conditions of great hardship in an SS slave labour camp from 1943–45. They were being punished for refusing to join the German war effort, and they became part of a slave work force that was used to construct an enormous bunker near the village of Farge in northern Germany.The Nazis believed they could build a “miracle boat” in this bunker: a new type of U-boat which they thought cou...

Rudolf Hess' flight to Britain in May 1941 stands out as one of the most intriguing and bizarre episodes of the Second World War.In The Truth About Rudolf Hess, Lord James Douglas-Hamilton explores many of the myths which still surround the affair. He traces the developments which persuaded Hess to undertake the flight without Hitlers knowledge and shows why he chose to approach the Duke of Hamilton. In the process he throws light on the importance of Albrect Haushofer, one-time envoy to H...

An intellectual who did not like intellectuals, a socialist who did not trust the state, a writer of the left who found it easier to forgive writers of the right, a liberal who was against free markets, a Protestant who believed in religion but not in God, a fierce opponent of nationalism who defined Englishness for a generation. Aside from being one of the greatest political essayists in the English language and author of two of the most famous books in twentieth century literature, Georg...

Ian Kershaw’s biography of Adolf Hitler is widely regarded as the definitive work on the subject, as well as one of the most brilliant biographies of our time. In Making Friends with Hitler, the great scholar shines remarkable new light on decisions that led to war by tracing the extraordinary story of Lord Londonderry—one of Britain’s wealthiest aristocrats, cousin of Winston Churchill, confidant of the king, and the only British cabinet member to outwardly support the Na...

Born to a middle-class Viennese family and of partly Jewish descent, after marriage to (and divorce from) a German prince Stephanie von Hohenlohe became a close confidante of Hitler, Göring, Himmler (who declared her an 'honorary Aryan') and von Ribbentrop. After arriving in London in 1932, she moved in the most exclusive circles, arranging the visits of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and Lord Halifax to Germany in 1937. Most notoriously, she was paid a retainer of £5,000...