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Stirling Bridge and Falkirk 1297-98

Stirling Bridge and Falkirk 1297–98: William Wallace’s rebellion by Peter Armstrong
96 pages, published by Osprey Publishing (February 2003)

The death of the last of the Scottish royal house of Canmore in 1290 triggered a succession crisis. Attempts to undermine Scottish independence by King Edward I of England sparked open rebellion culminating in an English defeat at the hands of William Wallace at Stirling Bridge in 1297. Edward gathered an army, marched north and at Falkirk on 22 July 1298 he brought Wallace’s army to battle. Amid accusations of treachery, Wallace’s spearmen were slaughtered by Edward’s longbowmen, then charged by the English cavalry and almost annihilated. In 1305 Wallace was captured and executed, but the flame of rebellion he had ignited could not be extinguished.

Bosworth 1485

Bosworth 1485: Last charge of the Plantagenets by Christopher Gravett
96 pages, published by Osprey Publishing (November 1999)

The battle of Bosworth effectively put an end to the dynastic struggle known as the Wars of the Roses. Guiding the reader from the campaign’s origins to its aftermath, and covering the commanders and forces of King Richard III and Henry Tudor, this is a complete treatment of one of the most important events in English history. Shakespeare was to immortalize the battle and Richard’s death in Richard III, and the life and reign of the last Plantagenet have sparked centuries of debate. Christopher Gravett cuts through myth and propaganda as he clearly details the course of this pivotal campaign.

White Power

White Power by George Lincoln Rockwell
466 pages, published by National Vanguard Books (2^nd Edition, September 1977)

As a Commander and Navy fighter pilot in both World War II and Korea, Rockwell realised that everything for which he had been fighting had been turned over to the Communists. “America was in the hands of arrogant gangs of ‘minority’ agitators and power manipulators,” says Rockwell. He became a “conservative,” but decided that anyone too frightened to name the actual enemy (Jews and Negroes) would be worthless in the rough and tumble fight to come.

In 1958, alone and without funds, he hung up the Swastika and proclaimed his intention to do for the White People of this country what Adolf Hitler had done for the Germans… rescue them from the International Jewish Communist conspiracy.

In nine years, Commander Rockwell has built a worldwide White People’s movement. He has made the American Nazi Party a force in his native America, and has given millions of discouraged White Americans the spark and the leadership to stand up at last for “WHITE POWER.”

This book, White Power, will shock and frighten you… and then show the way to the dawn of a new day for White people; a day when America will be all-White, dedicated as it was (before the parasitic minority groups schemed into power) to the principles which made our Western Civilization and America great.

Bosworth Field and the Wars of the Roses

Bosworth Field and the Wars of the Roses by A.L. Rowse
317 pages, published by Wordsworth Editions (June 1998)

The Battle of Bosworth, fought on 22^nd August 1485 brought to an end the Wars of the Roses that had raged between the noble houses of York and Lancaster for nearly one hundred years – so magnificently preserved for us in Shakespeare’s obsessed dramas.

A. L. Rowse brilliantly recreates the dynastic conflict, the battles and sudden death and the transition from Medieval to Tudor England.

“The mastery of narrative and humane judgement keep us reading to the end. What in other hands has often been an intolerably tangles narrative never loses its thread.” Professor David Knowles in The Spectator

Bumper Book of Government Waste 2008, The

The Bumper Book of Government Waste 2008: Brown's Squandered Billions by Matthew Elliott and Lee Rotherham
332 pages, published by Harriman House Publishing (October 2007)

It’s back and, depressingly, the figure is even bigger than last time.

Welcome again to the world of waste. In this new edition of The Bumper Book, Matthew Elliott and Lee Rotherham have unearthed a staggering £101 billion of government misspending – all paid for by you, the taxpayer.

It’s such an enormous figure it is difficult to get one’s head around it. What could be done with £101 billion? Well, you could for example, paper the entire East Midlands and London with £5 notes, and still have a few billion left over to build one hell of a crane from which to admire your handiwork. Or even convert the £101 billion into one penny coins, pile them on top of each other, and reach the moon and back five times.

But perhaps more usefully, the government could cut the tax burden of every household by over £4,000 a year.

Mind blowing isn’t it?

Here are just a few examples of where all of that money has gone:

£280,000 on a conference addressed by Blair and Brown on value for money in the public service.

£400 million on ‘cost control’ for the Olympic Games.

£3 million by tax inspectors at HM Revenue and Customs on flights, including £2.1 million on flights to Scotland.

Over £16 million on the creation and upkeep of VIP lounges in Heathrow and Gatwick despite the fact they are not government-owned.

£100,000 on assessing whether £400,000 reportedly spent on modern art for seven hospitals was money well spent.

But then it’s hardly a surprise that they don’t have a tight grip on our finances when you see an official statistic from the government, claiming that an impressive 102% of all 3 year olds are in nursery school. With this level of numeracy, no wonder we’re in trouble!

If you’re a British taxpayer, you need to read this book – even though it will hurt.

First Newbury 1643

First Newbury 1643: The Turning Point by Keith Roberts
96 pages, published by Osprey Publishing (January 2003)

The battle of Newbury was the turning point of the English Civil War. By August 1643 the King’s cause was very much in the ascendant. Parliament armies had been crushed at Adwalton Moor and Roundway Down and the Royalists had taken Bristol. When they summoned Gloucester to surrender on 10 August the city’s only hope was a Parliament relief army. The London Trained Bands joined the Earl of Essex’s expedition and when battle was joined at Newbury the Londoners more than held their own against the best of the King’s cavalry. With the citizens of London so firmly committed to Parliament’s cause and the King’s cavalry no longer invincible the balance of power had shifted irretrievably.

Edgehill 1642

Edgehill 1642: First battle of the English Civil War by John Tincey
96 pages, published by Osprey Publishing (February 2001)

This, the first ever Osprey campaign title to deal with the English Civil War, looks at the battle of Edgehill, the first major clash of the Wars. In 1642 both Royalists and Parliamentarians expected that one great contest of arms would see the crushing of their enemies. When their field armies blundered into contact on the evening of 22 October 1642, Prince Rupert urged King Charles to array his army on the great ridge of Edgehill and give battle. The next day, amidst abject cowardice and absolute courage, the tide of battle swept Rupert’s cavalry to triumph, but saw victory snatched away as the Royalist infantry was hurled back by the defiant Parliamentarians. The chance for decisive victory was lost and the bloody civil war raged on.

Malta 1565

Malta 1565: Last battle of the Crusades by Tim Pickles
96 pages, published by Osprey Publishing (January 1998)

The epic siege of the island fortress of the Knights Hospitaller by the huge Turkish Army of the Emperor Suliman is one of the most compelling stories in the history of the western world. The Turks amassed an army of 30,000 men, which doubled as the siege dragged on. The knights facing them totalled 500, along with 4,000 Maltese levies and 4,500 other troops. Tim Pickles describes how despite constant pounding by the massive Turkish guns and heavy casualties, the Knights managed to hold out.

Political Campaigning Handbook, The

The Political Campaigning Handbook: Real Life Lessons from the Front Line by Lionel Zetter
154 pages, published by Harriman House Publishing (August 2007)

Not for nothing are elections called campaigns. At every stage there is a direct analogy with the military equivalent and the language and vocabulary are often identical.

A general election campaign, like a military campaign, is usually planned in advance in the minutest detail. This planning is captured in a tome known, yes, you guessed it - as the War Book. The campaign is conducted in one giant open room known as the War Room. Party strategists discuss the danger of being outflanked on the left - or the right. And much of the talk is of making ground against the opposition.

From the top-down of the political party campaign machine, Lionel Zetter, a veteran of many a campaign, describes the steps necessary to win those all-important seats. Whether you are fighting for parliamentary, local or council positions, every stage of the combat is described; from the bureaucracy surrounding the selection process, to the timetable that must be followed to keep your application on track, and cunning tactics to fill up both the coffers of the war chest and the lists of constituents who pledge their vote.

Every general wants the best people in his army. The Handbook describes the team that you need to build around you and how to draw from their strengths and the time they have available for your cause. Zetter discusses the running of a successful War Room which is vital for communications to the front line during canvassing and especially for the last few hours where as many voters as possible are urged to mark that box, preferably next to your party!

Getting your name known is also vital. The local press can be used to your own advantage to spread your views and show your motivation to represent the area. Zetter highlights the importance of the campaign poster and the simple rosette; both a must for your kit bag.

The personal tips learned from hard years of campaigning and tramping the trails are invaluable. What do you do if a dog bites your hand as you put a leaflet through the door? How do you get rained soaked flyers through letterboxes with draught excluders in them? And as for the constituent who opened the door in nothing but a towel, what then? Just a few of the situations that Zetter has had to contend with, and that can face any intrepid campaigner.

For all the planning and all of the optimism that goes in to election campaigns, it is very rare for a surgical strike or a Blitzkrieg to succeed. Most election campaigns end up like the Somme, with mud and blood all over the place, and nobody fully knowing what they - or the enemy - are doing in the thick fog of war.

This book provides the reader with an expert guide through this dangerous war zone to lead them to election victory, it is an essential part of any campaigner's armoury.

Crécy 1346

Crécy 1346: Triumph of the longbow by David Nicolle
96 pages, published by Osprey Publishing (June 2000)

The Battle of Crecy was the first major land battle of the Hundred Years War. It pitted the French army, then considered the best in Europe, and their miscellaneous allies against the English under King Edward III and the ‘Black Prince’, who as yet had no great military reputation; this was the battle where he ‘won his spurs’. The Genoese crossbowmen were outshot by the English longbows and the pattern was set for the rest of the day: the French cavalry were committed piecemeal in fruitless charges against strong English positions, losing perhaps 10,000 men in the course of the fighting. After almost a millennium in which cavalry had dominated the field of battle, the infantryman, and particularly the longbowman, now ruled supreme.

A Quilt for Baby

A Quilt for Baby by Kim Lewis
32 pages, published by Walker Books (2^nd Edition, August 2003)

Mother is making a patchwork quilt for Baby. As she sews, she tells the story of each picture square - a warm and comforting story of the farm they live on and the animal families who share their home.

“Stunningly enhancing and complementing the text are full page coloured pencil illustrations on which each patchwork square is based ... A sensitive and evocative tale to enjoy and share time after time.” Reading Time, Australia

“Gently refreshing with simplicity and colour, A Quilt for Baby is a unique and nurturing story, wherein a baby is warmed by the story of her family’s past, present and future.” Bendigo Advertiser, Australia

“As expected, Kim Lewis returns to her usual fine form and delivers another winner in A Quilt for Baby, a tender, exquisitely rendered representation of home, family and life on the farm. Lewis’ coloured pencil artwork is as ever, brimming with love and warmth, and in every way reflecting the peaceful and satisfying existence that only homesteading in the country can provide.” Booxreview USA

Bannockburn 1314

Bannockburn 1314: Robert Bruce’s Great Victory by Peter Armstrong
96 pages, published by Osprey Publishing (March 2002)

Bannockburn was the climax of the career of King Robert the Bruce. In 1307 King Edward I of England, 'The Hammer of the Scots' and nemesis of William Wallace, died and his son, Edward II, was not from the same mould. Idle and apathetic, he allowed the Scots the chance to recover from the grievous punishment inflicted upon them. By 1314 Bruce had captured every major English-held castle bar Stirling and Edward II took an army north to subdue the Scots. Pete Armstrong's account of this pivotal campaign culminates at the decisive battle of Bannockburn that finally won Scotland her independence.

Great Deception, The: Can the European Union Survive?

The Great Deception: Can the European Union Survive? by Christopher Booker and Richard North
643 pages, published by Continuum International Publishing (December 2005)

‘…a superb history of the EU and of Britain’s relationship with it … every MP, every senior civil servant, every journalist with any claim to understanding the current state of the country, should read it.’ Peter Hitchins, Mail on Sunday

‘a tour de force … a fascinating forensic history of the seen and unseen forces which brought us to the present point.’ Rodney Leach, The Spectator

‘a real page-turner’ The Church of England Newspaper

Now extensively revised to include the collapse of the EU constitution in 2005, this gripping historical tour de force reveals for the first time the full inside story of the most extraordinary political project of our age; the plan dating back to the 1920s to unite Europe under a single ‘supranational’ government.

Meticulously documented, The Great Deception, reveals how Britain’s politicians, not least Tony Blair, have been consistently outplayed in a game, the rules of which they never understood, and includes a chilling account of Blair’s ‘secret’ selling-out to the EU of Britain’s armed forces. It ends by asking whether, with the fiasco of the constitution, the ‘project’ has now finally overreached itself.

Lady of the Lake, The

The Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott
148 pages, published by Dodo Press (October 2005)

“A Kindly heart had brave Fitz-James;
Fast poured his eyes at pity’s claims,
And now; with mingled grief and ire,
He saw the murdered maid expired.
“God, in my need, be my relief,
As I wreak this on yonder Chief!”

Wildly successful with readers and critics on both sides of the Atlantic when it was first published in 1810, this is Scott’s renowned romantic poem about love and honour amidst a bitter rivalry between King James V and the powerful Douglas clan of the Scottish Highlands.

This revised edition, published in 1899, features an extensive introduction that places Scott and his writings in historical and literary context, as well as explanatory notes, study guides, and suggested selections for class or book-group readings.

Little Baa

Little Baa by Kim Lewis
32 pages, published by Walker Books (2^nd Edition, March 2002)

One Spring day, Little Baa frisks and runs in the field. Soon he leaves his friends far behind - and his Ma too. But Ma misses her Little Baa, and goes calling and searching for him. How will she ever find him?

“Particularly poignant... Lewis's delicate, luminous illustrations of the little lost lamb... bring tears to the eyes.” The Independent on Sunday

“The illustrations are lovely, as you would expect from Kim Lewis. This will be a winner with grandparents, and provides a good contrast with the more usual brightly coloured style of books for this age.” Children’s Buyers’ Guide

Last Days of Britain, The

The Last Days of Britain by Lindsay Jenkins
302 pages, published by Orange State Press (2001)

Warning!

Over the past thirty years both Labour and Conservative governments have undermined the independence and sovereignty of Britain.

The Last Days of Britain, explores these decades of dishonesty, as British independence has been shamefully handed over to a multi-national establishment with growing features of independent nationhood.

Few in Briatin, even at the highest levels, realise just how much power has already been forfeited. This book illustrates what power has gone and what little is left.

Today, Britain is in danger of becoming a theme park of extinct traditions and monuments controlled by a cancerous Brussels bureaucracy.

Jailed in Democratic Germany

Jailed in Democratic Germany: The Ordeal of an American Writer by Hans Schmidt
490 pages, published by Guderian Books (December 1997)

In August of 1995, Hans Schmidt, a naturalized American citizen, was about to board a plane in Frankfurt, bound for his home in Florida, after having received medical treatment in Germany. But he never got past the German border police. The 68 year old writer was arrested and imprisoned in the fortress-like prison of Butzow.

Thus began an ordeal that most would think was a bygone relic of the medieval era: an independent writer is jailed because his essays and letters offend powerful forces in the international establishment, forces to which the regime in Bonn is tethered like a subservient plough horse.

Schmidt’s “crime” had not even been committed on German soil. He had written the offending periodicals and letters from his home in Pensacola. But as the New World Order extends its tentacles world-wide, national sovereignty is becoming a thing of the past. The U.S. State Department refused to protest Schmidt’s arrest. He was left to rot or hopefully even to die. His heart and prostate ailments were deliberately exacerbated by the authorities, who placed him in a prison van for a marathon ride around Germany, while refusing him proper medical treatment.

The plan was to kill Schmidt through medical neglect or, if that failed, to prosecute him in one of Germany’s kangaroo courts (where conviction of dissidents is a foregone conclusion) and sentence him to several years imprisonment.

Through it all, Schmidt preserved his indomitable optimism even as the friends of free speech the world over began to mount a protest on his behalf.

Hans Schmidt tells the story of his ordeal with eloquence and aplomb. His book not only recounts his legal struggle and the rigours of his imprisonment, but offers profound insight into the revisionist history of the ersatz, post-war German government, formed at the point of Allied bayonets. His eye for detail, his anecdotes and his penetrating political analysis, all combine to make Jailed in Democratic Germany: The Ordeal of an American Writer, both a jeremiad against totalitarian injustice, as well as a tour-de-force encounter with the case for World War Two revisionism, of which Hans Schmidt is a leading spokesman.

Bondage of the Free, The

The Bondage of the Free by Kent H Steffgen
381 pages, published by Vanguard Books (June 1966)

A broad exposure of America’s most explosive domestic issue; critical, yet objective; written with one eye on politics, the other on American social customs.

The Bondage of the Free spans 100 years from Lincoln to LBJ along the civil rights trail exposing the shocking story of Southern Reconstruction, where civil rights was born. Using the freed Negro as the key to their political fortunes, opportunists and fortune-hunters turned the American dream into a horrifying nightmare for White and Negro alike after the Civil War and produced an about-face in the American two-party system, all under the disarming phrase, “Rights for the Negro!” Here is the frightening report of the United States, caught in the build-up of a Second Reconstruction as a new generation of radicals makes ready for another go at power using as their plan the most diabolic betrayal in the nation’s history.

Panoramic in range, this frank documentary separates the real from the unreal about Negroes, prejudice, politics and social customs involved in a period of turbulent transition.

Just Like Floss

Just Like Floss by Kim Lewis
32 pages, published by Walker Books (2^nd Edition, March 2000)

When Floss, the sheepdog, has puppies, the farmer says his children can keep one to help with the work on the farm. But which puppy should they choose? All of them are adorable. But only one is just like Floss!

“Kim Lewis draws the English countryside and farm animals with delicate and detailed realism.” The Sunday Times

“Lewis evokes a cosy rural landscape with soft, muted and comforting tones, but it’s her characterisations of the loveable border collie puppies that will melt most hearts.” Bookslist USA

Shortlisted for the Children's Book Award.