Professional Killers

Which countries were under a dictatorship? Where did the Beatles perform live outside the UK? Where were atomic bombs tested? Which nations boycotted the 1966 World Cup? What was the route of the Hippy Trail? The 1960s was a momentous decade whose legacy is colourful and enduring. Here is a book that maps those years - through their culture, their politics, their technological and scientific advances, their conflicts and their natural disasters. What emerges is a fresh and revealing portrait of a decade which saw enormous social change, seemed to offer boundless potential, but also had its darker side.

Situated at the crossroads of three continents, the Middle East has confounded the ambition of conquerors and peacemakers alike. Christianity, Judaism and Islam all had their genesis in the region but with them came not just civilization and religion, but also some of the great struggles of history. A Short History of the Middle East makes sense of the shifting sands of Middle Eastern History, beginning with the early cultures of the area and moving on to the Roman and Persian Empires; the growth of Christianity; the rise of Islam; the invasions from the east; Genghis Khan''s Mongol hordes; the Ottoman Turks and the rise of radicalism in the modern world symbolized by the Islamic State. This updated and expanded new edition describes the turmoil of recent years including the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas and the bloody and brutal Gaza War that followed.

A concise, accessible history of one of the most important and fascinating conflicts of the 20th centuryOn March 8, 1965, 3,500 U.S. Marines of the 9th Marine Expeditionary Brigade made an amphibious landing at Da Nang on the south central coast of South Vietnam, marking the beginning of a conflict that would haunt American politics and society for many years, even after the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1972. For the people of North Vietnam it was just another in a long line of foreign invaders. For 2,000 years they had struggled for self-determination, coming into conflict during that time with the Chinese, the Mongols, the European colonial powers, the Japanese, and the French. Now it was the turn of the United States, a far-away nation reluctant to go to war but determined to prevent Vietnam from falling into Communist hands. This history explains how the U.S. became involved in its longest war, a conflict that, from the outset, many claimed it could never win. It details the escalation of American involvement from the provision of military advisors and equipment to the threatened South Vietnamese, to an all-out shooting war involving American soldiers, airmen, and sailors, of whom around 58,000 would die and more than 300,000 would be wounded. Their struggle was against an indomitable enemy, able to absorb huge losses in terms of life and infrastructure. The politics of the war are examined and the decisions and ambitions of five presidents are addressed in the light of what many have described as a defeat for American might. The book also explores the relationship of the Vietnam War to the Cold War politics of the time.

Beginning in the 1830s and ending with the death of Queen Victoria in 1901, the Victorian Era saw the British Empire--the largest the world had seen--dominate the world. British ingenuity in the fields of technological development and the heavy industry of its Industrial Revolution led to Britain being dubbed "the workshop of the world" while its Royal Navy policed the world's oceans helping to create what has become known as a "Pax Britannica." This book details the sweeping social and economic changes that took place during this period but also examines the events of the time and the lives of the eminent Victorians who contributed so much to British success--men and women such as Florence Nightingale, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Charles Darwin. This is the story of the greatest period in British history, a period that still resonates in today's Britain.

An enthralling story of love and betrayal, weaving superbly between 1999 and 1944, between Britain and the Italian Alps. The sudden death of his wife has left Michael Keats bereft, the subsequent discovery of her adultery devastates him. Michael resolves to discover the identity of her lover. That journey leads him to northern Italy where he becomes embroiled in a story of passion and treachery amongst the Partisans and villagers during the darkest days of World War II. As Michael gets closer to the truth he realizes that some secrets should never be told.

The Italian Alps,1944. The Resistance is fighting a bitter battle against German forces on the treacherous mountains of the Valtellina. Eighteen-year-old Sandro Bellini falls in love with the wife of his Commander. No good can come of it. London,1999. Michael Keats is mourning the death of his wife, killed in a hit and run accident in Northern Italy. His discovery that she had been having an affair devastates him and he sets out to find the identity of her lover. That journey leads him to the villages of the Valtellina, where he becomes embroiled in a crime of treachery and revenge. The brutal repercussions of the war are still reverberating, and as Michael uncovers the truth of his wife's affair, he reveals five decades of duplicity and deception.