The New Zealand Experience at Gallipoli and the Western Front by WRIGHT MATTHEW

$49.99 NZD

Category: First World War

In The New Zealand Experience at Gallipoli and the Western Front, historian Matthew Wright goes to the heart of how the First World War affected the lives of ordinary New Zealanders. The book analyses what it was like for New Zealand soldiers at the two main battle fronts where they fought, and frames i t with the social effects back home. Beginning with an outline of pre-war New Zealand society, Wright portrays the extraordinary world of war into which its young men plunged as they entered the baptism of fire at Gallipoli. The end of innocence that the withdrawal from the Dardanelles implied led to a harder, more fatalistic approach in the theatre of mechanised death that was the Western Front. By war's end, hope and glory had faded, replaced by a new view of military heroism - in a country forever changed ...Show more

Freyberg: Churchill's Salamander by Laurie Barber

$30.00 NZD

Category: Biographies | Reading Level: very good

A study of New Zealand's most famous general during the years 1941-1945. His command capability is seen in a new light, with the declassification of intelligence material used in Crete and Mareth. He is portrayed here as an innovative, able, tenacious and brave commander.

Hitler by John Toland

$15.00 NZD

Category: Second Hand & Rare Books | Series: Wordsworth Military Library

This text is Jones's account of his part in British Scientific Intelligence between 1939 and 1949. It was his responsibility to anticipate German applications of science to warfare, so that their new weapons could be countered before they were used. Much of his work had to do with radio navigation, as i n the Battle of the Beams, with radar, as in the Allied Bomber Offensive and in the preparations for D-Day and in the war at sea. He was also in charge of intelligence against the V-1 (flying bomb) and the V-2 (rocket) retaliation weapons and, although the Germans were some distance behind from success, against their nuclear developments. ...Show more

Churchill: A Biography by Roy Jenkins

$15.00 NZD

Category: Biographies | Reading Level: very good

From the admiralty to the miner's strike, from the Battle of Britain to the Nobel Prize, Churchill oversaw some of the most important events the world has ever seen. Roy Jenkins presents these events, while also managing to convey the contradictions and quirks in Churchill's character. Paperback (B-Form at) ...Show more

Before the Dawn by Gerry Adams

$15.00 NZD

Category: Biographies

Bill Gentry's War, 1939-1945 - Letters by Bill Gentry; Sally Mathieson

$10.00 NZD

Category: Biographies

Contact by A. F. N. Clarke

$10.00 NZD

Category: The Irish Troubles

This newly expanded edition of AFN Clarke's best selling and controversial memoir CONTACT is a raw, visceral, "no-holds-barred" account from one of the men we paid to kill. When first published it caused a furore for its devastating honesty and chilling revelations. Clarke takes us into the private worl d of soldiers operating under extreme stress and living each day with their senses on high alert. Where the enemy wears no uniform and shoots from the shadows, and the bomber's trip-wire is an ever-present nightmare. We experience their emotions, fear, courage, humour, bravado and the anguish of death.In this powerful classic, Clarke vividly recounts his experiences of two tours in Northern Ireland (in Belfast and Crossmaglen) as a Platoon Commander with Britain's elite Parachute Regiment during the blood soaked 1970's. The dangers, political agendas and religious roots underlying the conflict are eerily and heartbreakingly similar to Iraq and Afghanistan today, where soldiers are ordered to hold the lines in an ancient quarrel they have little affinity for, but whose consequences are deadly.This expanded edition includes a section omitted by the publisher from the original book, where Clarke reveals what it was like to be in his twenties, go to hell and come back having nearly died with half his insides missing, suffering from PTSD and being expected to return to a "normal life." It's a story of the scars of war that affect generations on all sides of a conflict. Of heartache, courage and hope for peace. (Available as an ebook and paperback.)REVIEWS..".the best account we have had of what it is like to serve in Northern Ireland..." Richard West, The Times Literary Supplement." ... a major contribution to our understanding of war and how people act ... Contact is the work of a brave writer." Kevin Toolis, Irish News."Clarke's tale of his actions in Northern Ireland are eye-opening to this American... like the stories I have heard first-hand from the men who served in Vietnam." Robert, USA...".Contact is one of the best military stories that I have ever read and I recommend it to you in the highest terms; it's a book from a past conflict that has timely and resonant lessons for a present one." Steven McLaughlin, Author of Squaddie: A Soldier's Story. UK."A very truthful account... As an ex Infantry man myself of the era, this book speaks for us all about our time in Ulster." Peter Poland, UK.ADDITIONAL INFORMATIONCONTACT was reviewed by soldiers who served with Captain Clarke as verification of his recollections. It was first published in the UK in 1983 by Martin Secker & Warburg, was serialized for 5 days in The Mirror, and became an instant best seller. In 1984 it was published in paperback by PAN Books, by Schocken Books New York and made into an award-winning BBC TV film, directed by the renown Alan Clarke. The expanded eBook edition was published in 2012, the paperback in 2014.AFN Clarke is a full-time author with 8 published works. Though his latest books "The Orange Moon Affair" and "The Jonas Trust Deception" are thrillers and works of fiction, they do continue a thread established in CONTACT, revealing the inner turmoil of a former soldier who wants nothing more than to forget his past and live a "normal" life but whose circumstances make it difficult to do so."CONTACT" - BOOK CATEGORIES Biography and Memoirs of Military People Memoirs of a Soldier Military Best Sellers Biography and True Accounts Classic Best Seller Books Made Into Film Controversial Books Leaders and Notable People Parachute Regiment History of Northern Ireland Politics and Philosophy" ...Show more

Politics of Forgetting: New Zealand, Greece and Britan at War by Martyn Brown

$15.00 NZD

Category: Second World War

Greece was a poor country in turmoil and pain during the 1940s. A military dictatorship was followed by invasion and terrifying occupation by Germany and its allies, starvation, civil war, political unrest and mutiny in its free military armed forces. New Zealand entered this arena and found a bond with a people that it still celebrates to this day. Absent is the complex, divisive and sometimes violent and surreal relationship between the two countries and the inescapable influence of Britain. Their story stretches from the mountains and open country of Greece and Crete to Middle East deserts, autumn-swept plains of Italy, and the blood-splattered streets of post-liberated Athens. Ironically New Zealand has forgotten the unpalatable but also sacrificed something that would have enhanced its own national storytelling about the war. ...Show more

The Last Lion - Visions of Glory1874-1932: Vol I by William Manchester

$10.00 NZD

Category: Biographies

When Winston Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace in 1874, Imperial Britain stood at the splendid pinnacle of her power. Yet within a few years the Empire would hover on the brink of catastrophe. Against this backdrop, a remarkable man began to build his legacy. From master biographer William Mancheste r, "The Last Lion: Visions of Glory "reveals the first fifty-eight years of the life of an adventurer, aristocrat, soldier, and statesman whose courageous leadership guided the destiny of his darkly troubled times--and who is remembered as one of the greatest figures of the twentieth century." "Praise for "The Last Lion: Visions of Glory" "Absolutely magnificent . . . a delight to read . . . one of those books you devour line by line and word by word and finally hate to see end."--Russell Baker "Bedazzling."--"Newsweek" "Manchester has read further, thought harder, and told with considerable verve what is mesmerizing in [Churchill's] drama. . . . One cannot do better than this book.""--The Philadelphia Inquirer"" " "An altogether absorbing popular biography . . . The heroic Churchill is in these pages, but so is the little boy writing forlorn letters to the father who all but ignored him."--"People" "Superb . . . [Manchester] pulls together the multitudinous facets of one of the richest lives ever to be chronicled. . . . Churchill and Manchester were clearly made for each other."--"Chicago Tribune"" " "A vivid, thoroughly detailed biography of the Winston Churchill nobody knows."--"Boston Herald"" " "Adds a grand dimension . . . rich in historical and social contexts.""--Time" ...Show more

Alexander the Great: The Invisible Enemy - A Biography by John Maxwell O'Brien

$30.00 NZD

$64.99 (53% off)

Category: Biographies

Alexander and Dionysus:The Invisible Enemy differs from other biographies of Alexander in its assessment of the role of alcohol in his life. O'Brien uses the figure of Dionysus as a symbol of the destructive effects of alchohol on Alexander's psyche. The deity serves as an agent through whom a cluster o f ambivalent considerations is explored: the heroic and the Dionysiac, the rational and the irrational, male and female, sanity and madness. Alexander's story unfolds as a tragedy in the Aristotelian sense of the word. Alexander is treated from birth to death as a total personality. His culture, his gods, his parents, his aspirations, his exploits, his fears, his insecurities, his sexuality, his drinking, and the psychology of alcoholism are examined from an interdisciplinary perspective. The book utilises recent discoveries in archaeology and incorporates new interpretations from anthropology, psychology, mythology, philosphy and literature. The historical context provides a structure for these diverese insights. Key passages in the narratvie are illuminated by telling quotations from Homer and Euripides, the authors known to have constituted Alexander's favourite reading. ...Show more

Sea Kings of Britain : Keppel to Nelson and Albemarle to Hawke

$20.00 NZD

Category: Naval History

Tribes with Flags["A Journey Curtailed"] by Charles Glass

$10.00 NZD

Category: Biographies | Series: Picador Bks.

Charles Glass began work on a book chronicling the land and culture of the Levant in 1987. This book is the result, tracing Glass' journey from Southern Turkey around the bay of Alexandretta through Syria, Israel, Jordan and Lebanon. It also includes an account of his kidnap experience in Beirut.