Showing results by publisher "Soundings" in War & Military

Following heavy casualties, General Townsend withdraws his exhausted troops to the town of Kut Al Amara, Iraq. His orders - to engage as many Turkish troops as possible in a siege situation. A relief force is hastily assembled, among them Charles Reid, Tom Mason and Michael Downe, for each of whom the advance is personal. Charles returns to the country where he lost the love of his life.

When her childhood best friend shows Ella that you can't always believe what you see, Ella finds herself thrown into the world of the German Resistance. On a dark night in 1941, Claudia is taken by the Gestapo, likely never to be seen again, unless Ella can save her. With the help of the man she loves, Ella must undertake her most dangerous mission yet and infiltrate the Nazi Party.

Winter 1644, the Tower of London. Colonel George Monck has been charged with high treason. A brilliant soldier, admiral and military governor, Monck joined the King's men in besieging Nantwich. But the Parliamentary side's more disciplined army successfully routed them, and Monck was thrown in jail. Brooding and despondent, Monck's troubles look to intensify when he starts an affair with Anne Ratsford, a married woman who is caring for him in The Tower.

The truth is, Ella is hiding from a scandal. A scandal that drove her family out of their beloved Lane End Cottage in the tiny Yorkshire village they had lived in all their lives. A scandal that her sister Alice was blamed for. But Alice is no longer here. So it's up to Ella to pick up the pieces and do the best she can for the family she loves so dearly. Ella's luck finally changes when she gains work at Grange House, a gentleman's residence on the outskirts of York. But can she keep her position there? Or will she follow in her elder sister's footsteps?

When Tsar Alexander II decided to drag Russia into the industrial age, he began by inviting Welsh businessman John Hughes to build an ironworks. A charismatic visionary, John persuades influential people to invest in his venture while concealing his greatest secret: he couldn't even write his own name. John recruited adventurers prepared to sacrifice everything to ensure the success of Hughesovka (Donetsk, Ukraine).

“The end of the old world”, people said about the long, hot summer of 1914. That summer Aunt Tilly comes to stay with her brother, the Rector, and his four lively daughters in the sleepy Sussex village of Ashden. Aunt Tilly’s visit sparks off a chain of events which threatens to split Ashden apart. Agnes Pilbeam, the Rectory palourmaid, and her sweetheart, Jamie, find themselves bewilderingly caught up. Then, in August, the lamps go out all over Europe, and war bursts open the straitjacket of rural village life.

May 1931. For blind First World War veteran Frederick Rowlands, the craze for flying holds little interest - after all, he is unlikely ever to set foot in an aeroplane himself. However, a chance meeting with a famous flier draws Rowlands into the glamorous, and dangerous, world of aviation. When a body is discovered in one of the hangars at Hendon aerodrome, he finds himself buffeted by a turbulent mix of jealousy, betrayal and murder.

There were four of the Thorpe family in the Anderson shelter the night of the raid on Coventry. Mum and Dad, Florrie and little May. Jack was missing... he was one of those who did not return from Dunkirk. When Daisy and Marcus, sixth formers in Coventry, are given a project on the bombing of the city in 1940, they go to talk to May, now living in sheltered accommodation but full of memories of the war. The two youngsters both have their problems and as their lives unfold they strike up an unlikely friendship....

The Nazi regime is gaining devastating power as Hitler is appointed Chancellor and stark oppression begins to unfold in Germany, blind war veteran Frederick Rowlands takes on the most challenging investigation of his life. A glamorous film star has been murdered and the menacing political undercurrents drag Rowlands into the heart of the German film industry. Rowlands discovers that he is closer to the action than he originally thought as his young nephew, Billy, was the last one to see the movie star alive.

It should have been a time of romance and excitement for Anne - but it's 1941 and the war is raging. So instead, she spends her days repairing spitfire wings and reminding herself that the real sacrifice is going on far away from her Cornish village. When the news breaks that America has entered the war, jeeps filled with GIs eventually roll in, and it seems their little community is to play a pivotal role in the next stage of the fight. But the Americans don't just bring Hollywood glamour and optimism, they also bring something more tantalising.

From the deserts of North Africa to the waters of Scotland, the Second World War touches the lives of two women from two very different worlds.In Alexandria, Fran finds her world turned upside down as Rommel's forces advance on the idyllic shores of Egypt. The life of luxury and stability that she is used to is taken away as she finds herself having to deal with loss, heartache and political uncertainty.

Summer, 1938, and for the second time Britain is threatened by war with Germany. This time civilians too will be in the front line. In London, two very different families are brought together by the war. Doctors, Amy and Dan, have twins, 18-year-old Tessa and Charlie. Nora, a working-class wife and mother, has a twelve-year-old daughter, Sara, whose dream is to become a doctor, a wild idea for a working-class child. Together, and helping each other, the two families struggle to survive and endure the six years of war, and Sara fights to reach her impossible dream.

1938: As Hitler sets his sights on the Sudetenland, not everyone in Britain is willing to appease him. Convinced that the fürher’s land hunger is insatiable, the head of the SIS recruits Cal Jardine to help him prove that Czechoslovakia is threatened with invasion. Before heading undercover to Prague, however, Jardine must first extricate himself from France, where his attempts to smuggle guns to Spain have been held up by a group of fanatical fascists. Finally arriving in Czechoslovakia, working undercover for the SIS proves no less dangerous.

By the summer of 1916, there is still no end to the war in sight and in the Sussex village of Ashden, optimism has given way to stoicism. While George Lilley leaves the Rectory to join the Royal Flying Corps, each of his four sisters finds her own way of contributing to the war effort. Gradually coming to terms with her broken engagement, Caroline Lilley numbly continues with her agricultural work at home, until tragedy forces her into leaving Ashden.

In 1939, the unexpected death of Sandra Anderson dramatically and ruthlessly changes forever the lives of the family she leaves behind. Kitty, her spoiled and pampered 15-year-old daughter, has to give up her dreams of a career as she becomes the family drudge. Sandra's heartbroken husband, Johnny, finds solace for his grief by becoming the main mouthpiece for his trade union in the shipyards, leaving little time for newborn Rosebud, whose birth caused her mother's death.

March 1915. Caroline Lilley's fiancé, Reggie, is away at the front, and Caroline gives up her job and returns home at his request. Frustrated in her desire to help the war effort, she throws herself into saving the harvest by organising the village women - and runs up against Reggie's mother, the formidable Lady Hunney. Caroline's sister, Felicia, departs to become an ambulance driver on the Western Front, and Phoebe and George eagerly await their chance to leave the village.

Although she believes nothing can come of it, ladies' maid Daisy March is eagerly awaiting the return on leave of naval lieutenant Jack Davenport, the brother of her mistress Georgina. She hopes that he will defy his family and declare his love. But before he can do so, she is accused of stealing and summarily dismissed. Daisy takes up nursing, but Georgina is also among the new recruits. When WWI breaks out, they are posted to Malta, where Daisy hopes to be reunited with Jack.

Strong-willed Winnie loves being part of the crew at Station 75, but her parents are less than happy. When a tragedy hits too close to home she finds herself wondering if she's cut out for this life after all. Former housemaid Bella was forced to leave the place she loved and is finally starting to build a new life, but it seems she may have to start over once again.

Thousands of short stories were published during the First World War, which coincided with the heyday of the fiction magazine in Britain. Much of this material has never been republished since the end of the war and is virtually lost to the modern audience. This new collection is an important work of recovery, introducing little-known magazine short fiction - which was primarily written for a civilian readership - by major writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle as well as more neglected authors.

Gincy, autumn 1916: The 9th Battalion, The Royal Dublin Fusiliers, known rather ominously as The Lambs, go over the top. In 1914, Kevin Flynn had hardly given the war a thought; everyone said it would be over by Christmas. Instead, desperate to impress a girl called Mary, Flynn and his friends begin a journey that leads inexorably to the shattered ruins of Ginchy and suffering beyond imagination.