War fiction and non-fiction 2
Talking Books
The titles in this booklist are just a selection of the titles available
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Fiction
Great soldiers' tales. 1991. Read by Garard Green, 9 hours 26
minutes. TB 9739.
All the heroism, sacrifice and humour of the soldier at war,
captured in a superb collection of short stories with a wartime
theme. Contributors include C. S. Forester, Leo Tolstoy, Kipling
and Monsarrat. TB 9739.
Wave me goodbye: stories of the Second World War. 1988.
Read by Carol Marsh, 12 hours 43 minutes. TB 7599.
This collection of 28 short stories of the 2nd World War, by leading
authors, is a moving evocation of every aspect of life on the home
front during wartime. Full of courage and compassionate
observation, this compilation focuses on the heroism of the women
who "did their bit" for the war effort at home. TB 7599.
Alexander, Peter
Ryfka. 1988. Read by Robert Ashby, 9 hours 44 minutes. TB
7617.
Based on real-life events during the Second World War, this
exciting novel tells a dramatic story of a chase across occupied
France to find a high-ranking RAF Officer who has been shot down
and who has information which can imperil the planned Allied
invasion. The order is to bring back or eliminate, by decree of
SOE. TB 7617.
Allbeury, Ted
The lonely margins. 1995. Read by David Thorpe, 6 hours 51
minutes. TB 10818.
To live in the shadowland of espionage, where the only certainties
are death and deceit is to live on the lonely margins. James
Harmer and Jane Frazer, brought together by the French
Resistance and broken apart by the Gestapo, are haunted by a
sense of betrayal and a thirst for revenge. TB 10818.
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Andrews, Lucilla
Front line 1940. 1993. Read by Gretel Davis, 11 hours 42
minutes. TB 10085.
London, September 1940. As the Battle of Britain rages overhead,
Ann Marlowe, young staff nurse at St Martha's Hospital, battles to
save the lives of wounded airmen, who are being admitted faster
than she can hope to treat them. American war correspondent,
Josh Adams is caught in St Martha's during London's first daytime
bomb raid. What he sees dispels his professional detachment for
ever, for nowhere is the indomitable spirit of the people more
apparent. As the capital faces the fury of the blitz, Josh's
admiration turns to love, but he cannot persuade Ann to leave,
even when St Martha's is razed to the ground. TB 10085.
Auchincloss, Louis
Watchfires. 1982. Read by James Tillitt, 10 hours 36 minutes.
TB 5147.
Political differences and general dissatisfaction with their marriage
cause a rift between complacent New York lawyer, Dexter Fairchild
and his fiercely abolitionist wife, Rosalie on the eve of the
American Civil War - the watchfires of the title are those in the
battle hymn of John Brown. The war is to change the lives of both.
TB 5147.
Banks, Lynne Reid
Casualties. 1986. Read by Pauline Munro, 8 hours 49 minutes.
TB 6666.
A week's holiday in Holland with an old friend she has not seen for
20 years seems a good idea to Sue McClusky: she senses that
Mariolain wants to unburden herself of her marriage problems, and
as Sue and her husband, Cal, are on the rocks also, she feels it
could be useful. But Mariolain and her husband, Niels, are both
unwounded casualties of the Second World War, she from the
German occupation of Holland in 1940, whilst he had been in
Indonesia when the Japanese invaded... TB 6666.
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Barker, Pat
Double vision. 2003. Read by Robert Glenister, 8 hours 17
minutes. TB 15378.
Stephen Sharkey and Ben Frobisher, journalist and photographer
respectively, are regularly faced with the reality of war. After Ben
dies on assignment in Afghanistan, Stephen embarks on a book
about the images of war - a book that will be based largely on
Ben's work. But the demands of the present - recurring nightmares
of his time in Sarajevo, an affair with a woman twenty years his
junior, and a sudden emergency in the shape of masked intruders are turning Stephen's life into a war zone and threatening his
peace of mind. Contains violence. TB 15378.
Barry, Sebastian
A long long way. 2005. Read by John Cormack, 9 hours 20
minutes. TB 14367.
A long long way evokes the camaraderie and humour of Willie and
his regiment, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, but also the cruelty and
sadness of war, and the divided loyalties that many Irish soldiers
felt. Tracing their experiences through the course of the war, the
narrative brilliantly explores and dramatises the events of the
Easter Rising within Ireland, and how such a seminal political
moment came to affect those boys off fighting for the King of
England on foreign fields - the paralysing doubts and divisions it
caused them. Contains strong language. TB 14367.
Bates, H E
The purple plain. 1947. Read by Franklin Engelmann, 8 hours
21 minutes. TB 1090.
The story of a young British pilot in Burma, and of the Burmese girl
whose love inspired him to live. TB 1090.
Bingham, Charlotte
The chestnut tree. 2002. Read by Judy Bennett, 10 hours 35
minutes. TB 14819.
Bexham; book 1. 1939, and the residents of Bexham are preparing
for war. Beautiful Judy Melton, social butterfly Meggie GoreStewart, Mathilda Eastcott, and Rusty Todd, tomboy daughter of
the local boatyard owner, are all determined to be active while their
men are away fighting. But knitting socks and dodging bombs are
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not what they have in mind. Meeting under the chestnut tree on the
green, the women look over the landscape they have helped to
alter. They too have changed, and yet, as the men return, they are
expected to play "mother", "daughter", "grandmother" once again.
TB 14819.
Blake, Sarah
The postmistress. 2011. Read by Lorelei King, 9 hours 57
minutes. TB 18622.
It is 1940, and bombs fall nightly on London. In the thick of the
chaos is young American radio reporter Frankie Bard. She huddles
close to terrified strangers in underground shelters, and later
broadcasts stories about survivors in rubble-strewn streets. But for
her listeners, the war is far from home. Listening to Frankie are Iris
James, a Cape Cod postmistress, and Emma Fitch, a doctor's
wife. Iris hears the winds stirring and knows that soon the letters
she delivers will bear messages of hope or tragedy. Emma is
desperate for news of London, where her husband is working - she
counts the days until his return. But one night in London the fates
of all three women entwine when Frankie finds a letter - a letter
she vows to deliver. TB 18622.
Burgh, Anita
Clare's war. Read by Jilly Bond, 15 hours 13 minutes. TB
13108.
1938: At seventeen Clare Springer is sent to Paris to complete her
education. Relishing freedom, she's too busy to notice the onset of
war. France is invaded and Clare is trapped, though happy to be
so when her French lover Fabien is reported missing. She is
determined to find him. Yet despite her wish not to become
involved, Clare is sucked into the chaos and suffering around her,
for how can she not help this country and people she has come to
love? TB 13108.
Collins, Norman
London belongs to me. 1945. Read by Robert Gladwell, 30
hours 45 minutes. TB 1961.
A realistic novel of London people in wartime, especially the
inhabitants of one particular boarding house. TB 1961.
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Cook, Gloria
Touch the silence. 2003. Read by Daniel Philpott, 10 hours 33
minutes. TB 14241.
It is 1917 and the First World War is casting its shadow over the
Harvey family of Ford Farm. One brother has been killed, Tristan is
at the Front and Ben is desperate to go but is declared unfit.
Tensions mount as he is forced to stay at home with older brother,
Alec, who has secrets of his own. TB 14241.
Cornwell, Bernard
Sharpe's Christmas: two short stories. 2003. Read by
Jonathan Oliver, 3 hours 32 minutes. TB 15016.
Sharpe's Christmas contains two short stories, Sharpe's Christmas
and Sharpe's Ransom. Sharpe's Christmas is set in 1813, towards
the end of the Peninsular War and falls after Sharpe's Regiment
(book 17, TB 10728). Sharpe's Ransom comes after Sharpe's
Waterloo (book 20, TB 11396), is set in peacetime and provides a
glimpse of Sharpe's life in Normandy with Lucille. TB 15016.
Cornwell, Bernard
Azincourt. 2009. Read by Damien Goodwin, 13 hours 45
minutes. TB 16640.
Agincourt, fought on October 25th 1415, on St Crispin's Day, is
one of the best known battles, in part through the brilliant depiction
of it in Shakespeare's Henry V, in part because it was a brilliant
and unexpected English victory and in part because it was the first
battle won by the use of the longbow - a weapon developed by the
English which enabled them to dominate the European battlefields
for the rest of the century. Bernard Cornwell's Azincourt is an
account of this momentous battle and its aftermath. From the
varying viewpoints of nobles, peasants, archers, and horsemen,
Azincourt skilfully brings to life the hours of relentless fighting, the
desperation of an army crippled by disease and the exceptional
bravery of the English soldiers. TB 16640.
Crisp, N J
Yesterday's gone. 1983. Read by Bruce Montague, 12 hours
22 minutes. TB 6443.
The log book which belonged to Squadron Leader David Kirby,
DSO, DFC, is still in existence, a relic of a forgotten era. There are
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29 operations recorded. 28 are against familiar targets; Stettin,
Berlin, Hamburg, but the final raid is against a target so secret at
the time that it is scarcely appears in histories of the air war, its
tragedy virtually ignored. TB 6443.
Davies, Peter Ho
The Welsh girl. 2007. Read by Charlotte Stevens, 12 hours 2
minutes. TB 15662.
It is Wales 1944 and Captain Rotheram, a Jewish refugee working
for British Intelligence, arrives to interrogate the infamous captive,
Rudolf Hess. In a prison camp near a remote Snowdonian village,
a young German soldier wrestles with the shame of his surrender.
And among the curious locals is seventeen-year-old Esther Evans,
who longs to experience the wider world. When their paths
connect, all three will come to question their deepest loyalties, as
the war irrevocably alters the course of their lives. Contains strong
language. TB 15662.
Delderfield, R F
The Avenue goes to war. 1958. Read by Stephen Jack, 22
hours 30 minutes. TB 118.
The Avenue Story; book 2. Sequel to: The dreaming suburb, TB
108. War has overtaken the families in the Avenue, and we see
how its privations bring out the best and the worst in them. TB 118.
Deighton, Len
Goodbye Mickey Mouse. 1982. Read by Ian Craig, 13 hours 41
minutes. TB 4622.
A group of young fighter pilots wait for their orders on an American
airbase in East Anglia. It is the penultimate winter of the war and
the war is seen through the eyes of Captain James Farebrother,
his friend, the tough, ambitious Mickey Mouse and many other
equally different characters. TB 4622.
Dobbs, Michael
Winston's war. Read by Terry Wale, 19 hours 33 minutes. TB
13840.
Winston Churchill; book 1. Saturday 1 October, 1938. Two men
meet. One is elderly, the other in his twenties. One will become the
most revered man of his time, and the other known as the greatest
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of traitors. Winston Churchill met BBC journalist Guy Burgess at a
moment when the world was about to explode. The encounter was
the first of the extraordinary events that propelled Churchill from
the lowest point of his career to Downing Street, changing the
course of the Second World War. In contrast, the man who played
a part in Churchill's return would later be revealed as a Soviet spy.
TB 13840.
Dorfman, Ariel
Widows. 1983. Read by Jonathan Oliver, 5 hours 19 minutes.
TB 5233.
The setting for this story is Nazi-occupied Greece in 1941-42, but it
could belong equally to El Salvador or Chile or any other
oppressive military dictatorship, for it is about the horror of being
"disappeared". When the men are taken from a patriarchal society,
the women must find strength in each other. Their courage, and
their insistence on knowing who is alive and who is dead, is a
compelling indictment of the cruelty and indifference of such
regimes. TB 5233.
Elgin, Elizabeth
Whisper on the wind. 1992. Read by Diana Bishop, 20 hours 1
minute. TB 10117.
World War Two. Against the express wishes of her absent
husband Barney, Kath joins up as a land girl and moves from
Birmingham to work on Mat Ramsden's farm in the Yorkshire
countryside. Next door the Fairchild estate has been harnessed for
the war effort. Roz, exempted from call-up to work on the land, has
something to hide from her grandmother, who has secrets of her
own. A moving story of women caught in the emotional crossfire of
war. TB 10117.
Fallada, Hans
Alone in Berlin. 2009. Read by Steve Hodson, 25 hours 46
minutes. TB 17820.
Berlin, 1940, and the city is filled with fear. At the house on 55
Jablonski Strasse, its various occupants try to live under Nazi rule
in their different ways: the nervous Frau Rosenthal, the bullying
Hitler loyalists the Persickes, the retired judge Fromm and the
unassuming working-class couple Otto and Anna Quangel. Then
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the Quangels receive the devastating news that their beloved son
has been killed fighting in France. Shocked out of his quiet
existence, the usually taciturn factory foreman Otto is provoked
into an action that will endanger both his and Anna's life. TB
17820.
Farrell, J G
The siege of Krishnapur: a novel. 1973. Read by Garard
Green, 15 hours 45 minutes. TB 2503.
Boredom at Krishnapur, a remote town on the vast plains of
Northern India, gives way to panic and violence when the spring of
1857 finds India on the brink of mutiny. This book was the Booker
Prize winner in 1973. TB 2503.
Faulks, Sebastian
Charlotte Gray. 1998. Read by Jamie Glover, 16 hours 47
minutes. TB 12560.
A young woman travels to occupied France in 1942, both to carry
out a mission for British Intelligence and to search for her lover, an
English airman who is missing in action. Once there she witnesses
the horror of French collusion with the Nazis and also the
tremendous courage of the Resistance. TB 12560.
Follett, James
A cage of eagles. 1990. Read by Richard Owens, 7 hours 14
minutes. TB 8311.
The locals call it "Hush, Hush Hall". The British Army calls it No. 1
POW Camp (Officers), Grizedale Hall. British intelligence calls it
the Cage of Eagles. The Hall is the biggest concentration of
German prisoner-of-war talent in wartime Britain. U-boat ace Otto
Kruger, the senior German officer, turns the camp into a clearing
house for sending vital intelligence back to the Fatherland. TB
8311.
Follett, Ken
Jackdaws. Read by Jilly Bond, 12 hours 50 minutes. TB 13907.
Two weeks before D-Day, the French Resistance attack a chateau
containing a telephone exchange vital to German communications
but the building is heavily guarded and the attack fails disastrously.
Flick Clairet, a young British secret agent, proposes a daring new
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plan: she will parachute into France with an all-woman team known
as the Jackdaws and they will penetrate the chateau in disguise.
But, unknown to Flick, Rommel has assigned a brilliant, ruthless
Intelligence colonel, Dieter Franck, and he's on Flicks trail.
Contains strong language. TB 13907.
Forbes, Colin
Tramp in armour. 1969. Read by Sean Barrett, 9 hours 40
minutes. TB 9448.
It is May 1940 and the invading German forces are pouring
through Northern France. Only the British Expeditionary Force
stands between the enemy and the coast. TB 9448.
Forester, C S
Gold from Crete: short stories. 1971. Read by Michael de
Morgan, 7 hours 12 minutes. TB 1642.
Collected stories about the war at sea against the German navy.
TB 1642.
Frizell, Bernard
Timetable for the general. 1972. Read by Robert Gladwell, 10
hours 45 minutes. TB 2093.
A fictional account of an actual escape by a top French general
from the fortress where he was imprisoned in the Second World
War. TB 2093.
Francis, Clare
Night sky. 1983. Read by Judy Franklin, 24 hours 48 minutes.
TB 5090.
This wartime story binds the fate of three characters: Julie
Lescaux, a young Englishwoman exiled in France who helps
smuggle Allied servicemen out of occupied France across the
Channel; the collaborator Paul Vasson, flourishing in war as he
never did in peace; and the scientist David Freymann, caught up in
the Holocaust and losing everything except his faith in his own
discovery and the will to survive. TB 5090.
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Furst, Alan
Dark voyage. 2005. Read by Stephen Thorne, 9 hours 18
minutes. TB 14508.
Tangier, 1941 - for Eric DeHaan, captain of the Dutch tramp
freighter Noordenam, life at sea has always been his great, but not
his only, love affair. Recruited by Dutch navel intelligence while in
the port of Tangier, DeHaan steers his ship, disguised as a neutral
Spanish freighter, through a series of secret missions for British
naval interests. TB 14508.
Gale, Iain
Alamein. 2010. Read by Eamonn Riley, 11 hours 18 minutes.
TB 18317.
In October 1942, Britain and its allies were in difficulties: Germany
and its partners seemed to be triumphant everywhere - in Europe,
in Russia, in the Atlantic and were now poised to take the Suez
Canal. It was in North Africa that the stand was made. It was a
battle of strong characters: the famous battle commander Rommel
and the relatively untested new British commander, Montgomery,
leading men who fought through an extraordinary eleven day
battle, in an unforgiving terrain, amid the swirling sandstorms and
the desert winds. TB 18317.
Gilbert, Michael
Death in captivity. 1952. Read by Garard Green, 7 hours 30
minutes. TB 254.
Allied prisoners in an Italian P.O.W. camp trying various methods
of escape suspect that there is a traitor in their midst. TB 254.
Harry, Lilian
Goodbye sweetheart. 1995. Read by Rachel Atkins, 13 hours
24 minutes. TB 11619.
April grove series; book 1. From the outbreak of World War II to
the evacuation of Dunkirk, this book follows the fortunes of the
people who live in a working class street in Portsmouth. The joys,
sorrows and friendships of April Grove are played out against the
backdrop of a seaport arming for war. TB 11619.
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Hassel, Sven
Legion of the damned. 2004. Read by Daniel Philpott, 9 hours
10 minutes. TB 17621.
This novel is based on the author's experiences in the Germany
army. Convicted of deserting the Germany army, Sven Hassel is
sent to a punishment regiment on the Russian front. He and his
comrades are regarded as expendable, cannon fodder for Hitler's
war. Outnumbered and outgunned on the frozen steppe, they fight
for survival against the implacable Red Army. TB 17621.
Hemingway, Ernest
A farewell to arms. 1929. Read by Peter Reynolds, 11 hours.
TB 413.
Set in Italy in 1917, this story portrays the love of an English Nurse
and an American soldier and their desperate attempt to find
happiness in spite of the war. TB 413.
Henriques, Robert
The Commander: an autobiographical novel of 1940-1941.
1967. Read by David Broomfield, 11 hours 5 minutes. TB 392.
Portrait of ex-regular officer, recalled to duty at the outbreak of the
war, who is beset by inner uncertainty, but equal to rising to great
heights of courage. TB 392.
Hewison, William
Mindfire. 1973. Read by Robert Gladwell, 7 hours 45 minutes.
TB 2393.
The theme of this novel is war, and the reactions of its characters
to the violence and futility of it. TB 2393.
Higgins, Jack
Flight of Eagles. 1998. Read by Patrick Romer, 10 hours 50
minutes. TB 11830.
Cold Harbour is a tiny Cornish fishing port, a place which was
home to the Allies' most daring undercover operations during the
Second World War. In 1997, a wealthy novelist, his wife and their
pilot are forced to ditch in the English Channel. Saved by an alert
lifeboat crew, they are returned to land at Cold Harbour. But it is
the rediscovery of a fighter pilot's lucky mascot - unseen for half a
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century - that excites the greatest interest at the disused airbase.
TB 11830.
Hill, Reginald
The collaborators. 2006. Read by Michael Tudor Barnes, 15
hours 41 minutes. TB 14896.
Paris, 1945. Janine Simonian stands accused of supplying
information to the Nazi occupying forces that led to the arrest and
torture of several members of the French Resistance - and the
brutal murder of her own husband. Contains strong language. TB
14896.
Hislop, Victoria
The return. 2009. Read by Ginita Jimenez, 16 hours 5 minutes.
TB 16653.
Beneath the majestic towers of the Alhambra, Granada's cobbled
streets resonate with music and secrets. Sonia Cameron knows
nothing of the city's shocking past; she is here to dance. But in a
quiet cafe, a chance conversation and an intriguing collection of
old photographs draw her into the extraordinary tale of Spain's
devastating civil war. Seventy years earlier, the cafe is home to the
close-knit Ramirez family. In 1936, an army coup led by Franco
shatters the country's fragile peace, and in the heart of Granada
the family witnesses the worst atrocities of conflict. Divided by
politics and tragedy, everyone must take a side, fighting a personal
battle as Spain rips itself apart. Contains strong language. TB
16653.
Hitchcock, Raymond
The tunnellers. 1986. Read by Robin Browne, 8 hours 36
minutes. TB 6570.
It is 1917 and 90 feet below the German trenches on the Messines
Ridge two young sappers are guarding 60,000 pounds of ammonal
destined to blow the Hun sky high. In foul darkness Clem and Will
talk about their life in their Somerset village and especially about
Alice, the auburn-haired maid at the Hall. A giant explosion wrecks
their tunnel leaving the two men on opposite sides of the blockage
- a story that spares none of the obscene horrors of war. TB 6570.
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Holt, Tim
Lucia in wartime. 1985. Read by Gwen Cherrell, 8 hours 15
minutes. TB 6773.
It is 1939. War threatens Europe and although troops are stationed
near Tilling and rationing leads to queues in the High Street, it has
to be admitted that the hostilities that occupy the attention of Lucia
and Georgie are with Elizabeth Mapp-Flint rather than with the
enemy across the channel. Faced with Elizabeth's elevation to the
head of the Tilling Red Cross and Major Benjy's leadership of the
Home Guard, Lucia feels her star has fallen. But not for long. TB
6773.
Holtby, Winifred
The land of green ginger. 1983. Read by Elizabeth Proud, 10
hours 24 minutes. TB 5570.
Virago modern classics. Joanna Burton, a missionary's daughter,
grows up dreaming of the far-off lands she will visit. Her romantic
love of adventure matches a golden man on his way to the
trenches of the First World War, but life on a Yorkshire farm in
wartime makes harsh reality of the magic lands of the green
ginger. TB 5570.
Jackson, Robert
Desert commando. 1986. Read by Robert Gladwell, 7 hours 20
minutes. TB 7692.
It is the autumn of 1942. At El Alamein, General Montgomery's
Eighth Army is preparing for the big push that will drive Rommel's
Africa Corps back through the Libyan Desert. But a vital initial task
has to be undertaken: the destruction of Rommel's
communications and supply dumps far behind the enemy lines.
The mission is entrusted to two elite forces, the Long Range
Desert Group and the Special Air Service. But the route to Tunis is
hampered by betrayal ... TB 7692.
James, Harold
Tales of the Gurkhas. 1991. Read by Garard Green, 5 hours 2
minutes. TB 9178.
A series of stories about a fictitious Gurkha regiment ranging from
the nineteenth century to the Second World War. TB 9178.
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Jones, Tristan
Dutch treat: a novel of World War II. 1980. Read by Andrew
Timothy, 10 hours 49 minutes. TB 4437.
May 1940 and the German Panzers are tearing across Europe.
Plans are made to evacuate the Dutch Royal family - and their
diamonds - to set up a government in exile. The team carrying out
this dangerous mission arrive in Amsterdam as the first German
tanks roll in. TB 4437.
Joseph, Michael Kennedy
A soldier's tale. 1976. Read by George Hagan, 4 hours 26
minutes. TB 2989.
During the war Saul comes across an isolated farmhouse in
Normandy. Belle, its sole occupant, is frightened, but slowly they
build up an intense relationship that ends in tragedy as the three
Frenchmen on guard claim their victim. TB 2989.
Keneally, Thomas
Confederates. 1979. Read by Marvin Kane, 18 hours 52
minutes. TB 3744.
The Confederates fight, during the American Civil War, in defence
of the Southern secession and the right to own slaves. Through the
stories of ordinary people, abandoning their peacetime
occupations, the vast fabric of the Civil War comes alive. TB 3744.
Kennedy, A L
Day. 2007. Read by Nick Underwood, 10 hours 55 minutes. TB
15099.
Before Hitler and the bombs Aldred Day was a boy in
Staffordshire, helpless to defend his mother, to resist his abusive
father. The RAF taught him how to burn through lifetimes on night
ops and brief, sweet leaves, surviving the unsurvivable. But it didn't
prepare him for capture, for the prison camp and the chaos as the
war wound down. Now it's 1949 and Alfred is doing the impossible
again, winding back time to see where he lost himself. He has
taken the role of an extra in a Pow film. Shipped out to Germany
and an ersatz camp, he picks his way through the cliches that will
become all that's left of his war and begins to do what he's never
dared - to remember. TB 15099.
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Kennedy, Lena
Down our street. 1986. Read by Marlene Sidaway, 7 hours 43
minutes. TB 8099.
The Flanagan family was the biggest in the small East End street.
Their cosy world was shattered with the outbreak of World War II
and the evacuation of children from London. Bereavement and the
destruction of her home broke Annie's spirit and Amy had to take
over as family provider. TB 8099.
Kuniczak, W S
Valedictory. 1984. Read by Antony Higginson, 15 hours 12
minutes. TB 5512.
The story of 303 Squadron of the RAF, a unit of valiant Polish
airmen who helped to win the Battle of Britain but who were
destined to be betrayed by political expediency. TB 5512.
Langsford, A E
HMS Marathon. 1990. Read by Arthur Blake, 9 hours 44
minutes. TB 9163.
Book 1. There were times when he felt he was going mad, the
black moments when it would have been better if he had died in
the turret ... A Royal Navy convoy is fighting its way to the
besieged island of Malta in 1942, and the cruiser Marathon is
commanded by Captain Robert Thurston. Guilty at the loss of his
previous command, stretched to the limit by battle and violent
death, he has yet to face the most deadly threat of all. TB 9163.
Lee, Maureen
Queen of the Mersey. 2006. Read by Maggie Ollerenshaw, 17
hours 40 minutes. TB 16037.
Liverpool, 1939. The Second World War is about to start when
pretty Laura Oliver meets Queenie Todd. Laura is 21 and happily
married. At 14, Queenie lacks Laura's confidence, and has been
deserted by her good-time mother. The two become friends, but
when the air raids begin Queenie is trusted to look after two young
children, and the three of them are evacuated to a small town on
the coast of Wales. At first it is a haven of peace and quiet. The
girls have a wonderful time - and then something happens, so
terrifying that it will haunt them for the rest of their lives. TB 16037.
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Lefebure, Molly
Blitz! 1988. Read by Di Langford, 14 hours 54 minutes. TB
7686.
Four families whose lives are intertwined as the Second World War
begins, are all faced with personal conflicts as the home front is
threatened and the world torn apart around them. Families are
fragmented and love is found, or lost, and the young are forced to
look at life through older eyes, defiant and united against the
upheaval of war. TB 7686.
MacLean, Alistair
Where eagles dare. 1967. Read by David Broomfield, 8 hours
45 minutes. TB 184.
Seven men and a girl are parachuted into Germany to rescue a
crashed American general from an inaccessible castle,
headquarters of the Gestapo. TB 184.
Manning, Frederic
The middle parts of fortune: Somme and Ancre, 1916. 1929.
Read by Robert Gladwell, 12 hours 11 minutes. TB 3288.
A chapter in the lives of a group of men during the First World War
- fighting, drilling, waiting and womanising - held together by a
strong feeling of comradeship. Unsuitable for family reading. TB
3288.
Manning, Olivia
The great fortune. 1960. Read by Robin Holmes, 13 hours 25
minutes. TB 213.
The Balkan trilogy; book 1. An English lecturer and his bride are
forced to adjust their lives in tension-ridden Bucharest at the
beginning of the war. TB 213.
Marlantes, Karl
Matterhorn: a novel of the Vietnam war. 2010. Read by
Christopher Ragland, 20 hours 12 minutes. TB 18056.
Young marine lieutenant, Waino Mellas, and his comrades in
Bravo Company have been dropped into the mountain jungle of
Vietnam, combatants in an increasingly desperate war. Standing in
their way are the North Vietnamese, the monsoon rain and mud,
leeches and tigers, and disease and malnutrition. As racial tension
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and competing ambition build, the group threatens to crack at any
moment. When the company is surrounded and outnumbered by a
massive enemy regiment, the Marines are thrust into the raw and
all-consuming terror of combat. The experience will change them
forever. Contains strong language and violence. TB 18056.
Marston, Edward
Soldier of fortune. 2008. Read by Christopher Oxford, 9 hours
18 minutes. TB 16610.
Captain Rawson; book 1. Captain Rawson is the quintessential
career soldier who never knows when his life will come to a brutal
and bloody end and therefore lives each day to the full. While still
young, Rawson had seen war destroy his father and seen his
Dutch mother almost raped. Shortly afterwards the pair leave
England for the Netherlands. Three years later Rawson returns as
a soldier in the Dutch army, come to support William of Orange in
his bid to replace James II on the English throne. TB 16610.
Masters, John
Now, God be thanked: a novel. 1979. Read by John Atterbury,
31 hours 23 minutes. TB 7148.
Loss of Eden; book 1. It is July 1914: the storm clouds of the Great
War are gathering, but in the seemingly endless English summer
the assassination in Sarajevo is not considered an event of great
importance. The rich and powerful Rowlands are at the centre of
society, but they are blind to the changes that the war will bring.
For the younger Rowlands, the excitement of war is to become
bloody reality in the mud-filled trenches of Flanders. Contains
strong language. TB 7148.
Maugham, W Somerset
Ashenden. 1928. Read by John Richmond, 9 hours 45
minutes. TB 640.
A collection of stories based on the author's personal experiences
in Secret Service affairs. TB 640.
rnib.org.uk
Michaels, Anne
Fugitive pieces. 1996. Read by Peter Marinker, 9 hours 14
minutes. TB 11625.
Jakob Beer is rescued from the mud of a buried Polish city during
World War II and taken to a Greek island by the humanist Athos
Roussos. They spend the last years of the Occupation in Athos'
house, a precarious refuge made lavish with art. After the War,
Athos accepts an invitation to the University of Toronto's new
Geography department, and Jakob learns the terrain of this city,
just as he discovers the insistent nature of the layered past. His
loss surfaces in all its complexity as does the haunting question of
his sister's fate. TB 11625.
Monsarrat, Nicholas
The cruel sea. 1955. Read by Franklin Engelmann, 19 hours.
TB 949.
A dramatic story of naval warfare in which the men are the heroes;
the ships the heroines; and the villain is the cruel sea. TB 949.
Nemirovsky, Irene
Suite Francaise. 2007. Read by Carole Boyd, 13 hours 44
minutes. TB 15426.
Set during a year that begins with France's fall to the Nazis in June
1940 and ends with Germany turning its attention to Russia, "Suite
Francaise" falls into two parts. The first is the depiction of a group
of Parisians as they flee the Nazi invasion, and make their way
through the chaos of France; the second follows the inhabitants of
a small rural community under occupation, who find themselves
thrown together in ways they never expected. The novel is full of a
variety of characters – haughty aristocrats, bourgeois bankers and
snobbish aesthetes, rub shoulders with uncouth workers and
bolshy farmers. Irene Nemirovsky conceived "Suite Francaise" as
a four or five part novel. It was to be a symphony - her War and
Peace. However, she only completed two sections before her
tragic death in Auschwitz in 1942. TB 15426.
Nichol, John
Stinger. Read by Martyn Read, 11 hours. TB 13116.
RAF pilot Sean Riever heads for the mountains of Afghanistan. His
work with mine-clearance takes him as close to war as he wants to
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get. But when a passenger plane is shot down by a stinger missile,
the ghosts of the past return to haunt him. Contains violence. TB
13116.
Pargeter, Edith
She goes to war. 1989. Read by Di Langford and Raymond
Sawyer, 9 hours. TB 10115.
It is 1940 and Catherine Saxon is on her way to join the WRNS at
Devonport, still unsure why she has joined up. As she trains as a
teleprinter operator, she grows to enjoy service life and soon
adjusts to a posting in war-torn Liverpool. Then, one spring day,
she meets Tom Lyddon, a Spanish civil war veteran, whose
political views strike an immediate chord with her. After an idyllic
holiday in the North Wales countryside, Tom is recalled to active
service abroad and all she can do is wait and hope for his return.
TB 10115.
Price, Anthony
The '44 vintage. 1978. Read by Robert Gladwell, 12 hours. TB
3311.
Dr David Audley; book 1. A few weeks after D-day, Major
O'Connor leads his hand-picked team of ruthless fighters behind
the crumbling German lines on a startling mission unknown to all
except himself. TB 3311.
Radcliffe, Robert
Under an English heaven. Read by Peter Wickham, 12 hours
30 minutes. TB 13513.
Suffolk, 1943: Each dawn, thousands of American airmen take off
to strike Germany's industrial war machine. Each dusk, hundreds
fail to return. The American base in Bedenham brings upheaval,
uncertainty and unease. For Billy Street, a fourteen-year-old
streetwise evacuee, it's a time of unlimited opportunity and
acceptance in a community he loves. For Billy's schoolteacher,
Heather Garrett, awaiting word of her missing husband, it's an
inward spiral of fear and isolation. For Lt. John Hooper, a brilliant
but traumatised US pilot coming to terms with the death of his
entire crew, it's the start of a desperate struggle for sanity and
redemption. Contains passages of a sexual nature. TB 13513.
rnib.org.uk
Reeman, Douglas
Winged escort. 2008. Read by David Rintoul, 9 hours 20
minutes. TB 15627.
July, 1943. As the grim years of the Second World War go by, the
destruction of Allied shipping mounts. Out of the terrible loss of
men and ships, the escort carrier is born. At twenty-six, fighter pilot
Tim Rowan, RNVR, is already a veteran of many campaigns. Now
he joins the escort carrier, Growler, a posting which takes him first
to the bitter waters of the Arctic, and then later to the Indian Ocean
- and the new terror of the Japanese Kamikaze. TB 15627.
Reeman, Douglas
In danger's hour. 1988. Read by Robert Gladwell, 13 hours 22
minutes. TB 7884.
Set in the desperate and dangerous period of the 2nd World War
from April 1943 until June 1944, the mine-sweeper Rob Roy is
thrust into her toughest challenge when the Allies mount their
invasion of Italy. A master story-teller of the sea, Douglas Reeman
graphically and grippingly relates the heroism and human drama of
the "little ships" role in the blazing conflict. Contains strong
language. TB 7884.
Rivers, Carol
East End angel. 2010. Read by Helen Dickens, 12 hours 34
minutes. TB 18156.
June 1941, Isle of Dogs, London. In the dark days following the
Blitz, happiness visits young Pearl Jenkins as she celebrates her
marriage to Jim Nesbitt. Increasingly uneasy at staying at home
when other men are off fighting for their country, Jim enlists,
leaving Pearl at home. Together, Pearl and Ruby must bring up
baby Cynthia while struggling to make ends meet and dodge the
doodlebugs. And all the time, Pearl must hide the dark secret she
harbours, one which would tear the two sisters apart as well as her
marriage. Then tragedy strikes both on the home front and in the
trenches and Pearl is forced to fight like never before to keep her
family safe. TB 18156.
rnib.org.uk
Robinson, Derek
Goshawk Squadron. 1971. Read by Robert Gladwell, 9 hours
30 minutes. TB 1979.
In the last year of the First War, Woolley, a scruffy cold-blooded
C.O., trains the Goshawk Squadron with an approach far removed
from the romance of "chivalry in the clouds" to face death in planes
that are patched and worn out. Unsuitable for family reading. TB
1979.
Robinson, Patrick
U.S.S. Seawolf. 2000. Read by Garrick Hagon, 17 hours 37
minutes. TB 16917.
Silent and lethal, USS Seawolf, the US Navy's state-of-the art
stealth submarine, is on an ultra secret mission - to spy on China's
brand new ICBM Zia-Class submarine. Contains strong language.
TB 16917.
Ross, Catherine
Battle dress. 1961. Read by Anne White, 9 hours 45 minutes.
TB 4897.
Set in the heavily-garrisoned Orkneys in November 1942 this story
tells of the WAAF personnel posted to this isolated yet vital place:
their fears and loves, mistakes and tragedies. TB 4897.
Rowe, Alick
Voices of danger. 1990. Read by Rosalind Shanks, 8 hours 14
minutes. TB 8302.
Alex Davies and Seb Carpenter are 16-year-old Cathedral
choristers when the Great War is about to become the horror of the
Somme. The boys enlist under age, and are sent to the Somme,
the target of a terrifying surprise German raid on Pave. In this story
of a teenager's war love and hate, betrayal and loyalty are seen
against the background of one of the most terrifying eras of the
modern world. TB 8302.
Ryan, Robert
Early one morning. 2006. Read by Steven Pacey, 10 hours 36
minutes. TB 16471.
Morning, noon and night; book 1. In the Roaring Twenties an
Englishman and a Frenchman were fierce rivals not only on the
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European race circuits but also for the sensuous Eve Aubicq.
When war breaks out both sign up for missions in Occupied
France. They cause havoc to the Nazis until their cover is blown
and they are captured and tortured. TB 16471.
Sansom, C J
Winter in Madrid. 2006. Read by Jonathan Oliver, 22 hours 56
minutes. TB 16071.
The year is 1940: The Spanish Civil War is over, and Madrid lies
ruined, its people starving, while the Germans continue their
relentless march through Europe. Britain now stands alone, as
General Franco considers whether to abandon neutrality and enter
the war. Into this uncertain world comes Harry Brett: ex-public
schoolboy, traumatised veteran of Dunkirk and, now, reluctant spy
for the British Secret Service. Sent to gain the confidence of Sandy
Forsyth, an old school friend turned shady Madrid businessman,
he finds himself involved in a dangerous game - and surrounded
by memories. TB 16071.
Schlink, Bernhard
The reader. 1997. Read by Peter Wickham, 4 hours 37
minutes. TB 11546.
A schoolboy in post-war Germany, Michael begins a secret affair
with Hanna, a woman in her thirties, until she suddenly disappears.
Some years later, as a law student, Michael is in court to follow a
case. To his amazement one of the defendants is Hanna. Her
attitude is bizarre as she mishandles her defence. But suddenly
Michael understands that her behaviour, both now and in the past,
conceals a secret buried deeper even than her terrible crimes. TB
11546.
Sheers, Owen
Resistance. 2008. Read by Richard Coyle, 11 hours. TB 16280.
In an imagined alternative 1944, after the fall of Russia and the
failed D-Day landings, half of Britain is occupied. Young farmer's
wife Sarah Lewis wakes to find her husband has disappeared,
along with all of the men from her remote Welsh village. A German
patrol arrives in the valley, the purpose of their mission a mystery.
Sarah begins a faltering acquaintance with the patrol's
commanding officer, Albrecht, and it is to her that he reveals the
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purpose of his mission - to claim an extraordinary medieval art
treasure that lies hidden in the valley. But as the pressure of the
war beyond presses in on his isolated community, this fragile state
of harmony is increasingly threatened. Contains passages of a
sexual nature. TB 16280.
Shute, Nevil
Most secret. 1991. Read by Arthur Blake, 11 hours 24 minutes.
TB 8776.
Three men, all driven by private pasts, plan to make a death
defying attack on Nazi ships with a devastating home-made
weapon. TB 8776.
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr
August 1914. 1972. Read by Stanley Pritchard, 26 hours 50
minutes. TB 2394.
An account of the fated campaign of 1914, in which the Russian
army, large but ill-equipped, was destroyed by the Germans at
Tannenberg. TB 2394.
Stevens, Gordon
And all the king's men. 1990. Read by George Hagan, 21 hours
38 minutes. TB 8959.
The outbreak of war in 1939 makes little difference to the quiet
Kent village of Ardley - at first - but when the invasion becomes a
reality, the villagers are thrown into the front line. TB 8959.
Stevenson, D E
Sarah Morris remembers. 1967. Read by Carol Marsh, 13
hours. TB 726.
Sarah Morris; book 1. The story of a family forced to face the
turmoil of a world war. TB 726.
Thomas, Leslie
Waiting for the day. 2003. Read by Michael Tudor Barnes, 13
hours 18 minutes. TB 13661.
Set midwinter 1943, this novel explores the build-up to D Day
through the eyes of servicemen from both the UK and the USA.
Each one is heading inexorably towards the beaches of Normandy
but none of them knows it. Contains strong language. TB 13661.
rnib.org.uk
Thomas, Leslie
Other times. 1999. Read by Gregory York, 15 hours 20
minutes. TB 12452.
As the story opens in autumn 1939, James Bevan is a junior
officer, attached to a small anti-aircraft unit amid the retirement
bungalows of the English south coast. Separated from his wife, the
soldiers he commands are his only family. TB 12452.
Tolstoi, L N
War and peace. 1872. Read by Garard Green, 79 hours. TB
1374.
An epic tale of the Napoleonic invasion of Russia, contrasting the
life of the nobility and the hard life of the soldiers and people. TB
1374.
Trollope, Joanna
Leaves from the Valley. 1980. Read by Ann Kenton-Barker, 9
hours 58 minutes. TB 10132.
Captain Edgar Drummond invites his two sisters Blanche and
Sarah to accompany him to the Crimea. It is, after all, likely to be
"only the smallest of skirmishes", and Constantinople could prove
a most refreshing change of scene. Also on board the ship
transporting the regiment is a young war correspondent Robert
Chiltern, who is far more aware of the dangers. In the Crimea,
Edgar soon finds his beloved reason and order are ineffectual
amidst the chaos of war, and Blanche discovers that her beauty
and frivolity have no place. Only Sarah finds the courage to take
an active role. TB 10132.
Waters, Sarah
The night watch. 2006. Read by Elaine Caxton, 17 hours 21
minutes. TB 14772.
This is the story of four Londoners - three women and a young
man with a past. Kay, who drove an ambulance during the war and
lived life at full throttle, now dresses in mannish clothes and
wanders the streets with a restless hunger, searching. Helen,
clever, sweet, much-loved, harbours a painful secret. Viv, glamour
girl, is stubbornly, even foolishly loyal, to her soldier lover. Duncan,
an apparent innocent, has had his own demons to fight during the
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war. Their lives and their secrets connect in sometimes startling
ways. Contains strong language. TB 14772.
Waugh, Evelyn
Scoop: a novel about journalists. 1938. Read by Gabriel
Woolf, 6 hours 45 minutes. TB 4467.
A story very much of the thirties when it was written. Foreign
correspondents were famous figures and the centre of interest on
board, was beginning to shift from Abyssinia to Spain. Here, Boot
of the Beast reports on the war in Ishmaelia. TB 4467.
West, Morris
The tower of Babel. 1968. Read by Marvin Kane, 12 hours 15
minutes. TB 489.
Set in the Middle East on the brink of war, this novel portrays the
Arab-Jewish confrontation. The successful terrorist becomes a
statesman and a national hero. The unsuccessful one is branded a
criminal. But they all know themselves to be heroes. TB 489.
Wharton, William
A midnight clear. 1982. Read by Joe Dunlop, 8 hours 15
minutes. TB 4915.
Will Knott (known to his friends as 'Wont'), is a sergeant at
nineteen and in charge of his remnant of a squad - death brings
early promotion. The order comes to occupy a chateau deep in the
woods of the Saar valley – an unexpected World War II story about
why not to have a war. TB 4915.
Woodruff, William
Vessel of sadness. 2005. Read by Sam Kelly, 4 hours 27
minutes. TB 17134.
The invasion of Anzio and the four month battle for Rome are
viewed through the minds and struggles of British, American, and
German soldiers. TB 17134.
rnib.org.uk
Wouk, Herman
The 'Caine' mutiny. 1951. Read by Marvin Kane, 21 hours 30
minutes. TB 2747.
The story of a curious episode of near mutiny in a destroyerminesweeper engaged on escort duty in the Pacific in 1944. TB
2747.
Yeates, Victor M
Winged victory. 1934. Read by Duncan Carse, 13 hours. TB
1317.
The author was one of the most experienced pilots of the First
World War, and died of tuberculosis, due to war strain, when he
had barely finished this account of flying on the Western Front;
combat loneliness, fatigue, excitement, fear, comradeship, women,
nerves, death. Yet it is a book full of humour. TB 1317.
War – non-fiction
Boiler suits, bofors and bullets. 1999. Read by multiple
narrators, 1 hour 49 minutes. TB 12334.
This is a collection of personal reminiscences from people who
worked at the Collaro Factory during World War II. Bombed out of
its London Factory for a second time in 1939, Collaro moved to
Langley Mill in Derbyshire. The reality of working in an ammunition
factory is only part of the story. Waving goodbye to sweethearts,
dancing the night away at the town hall, 'sanding' their legs to
make them look tanned and singing along to Joe Loss and Glenn
Miller is the other side of the fascinating story. Never previously
documented, this is an opportunity to visit a world you might never
have known existed. TB 12334.
Submarine: an anthology of first-hand accounts of the war
under the sea, 1939-1945. 2007. Read by Jon Cartwright, 21
hours 42 minutes. TB 16770.
In this oral history collection, submariners of almost all the
participating nations recall their service. There are chapters on
how submarines were worked, on life aboard and on the particular
perils of the service - depth charges, being rammed, staying
submerged for many hours. There is also a chapter for each year
of the war, with tales from the submariner's perspective. Among
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the best are: one Royal Navy stoker who remembers hearing that
his boat had been sunk and he'd been counted as dead; a U-Boat
commander who describes swimming for 49 hours; and an
American submariner who recalls returning to Pearl Harbour after
the attack. TB 16770.
We, also, were there: a collection of recollections of wartime
women of Bomber Command. 1985. Read by Elizabeth de
Silva and David Banks, 8 hours 16 minutes. TB 7529.
Ackerman, Diane
The zoo-keeper's wife. 2008. Read by Suzanne Toren, 10
hours 58 minutes. TB 17016.
A true story in which the keepers of the Warsaw zoo saved
hundreds of people from Nazi hands. When Germany invaded
Poland, stuka bombers devastated Warsaw - and the city's zoo
along with it. With most of their animals dead, zookeepers Jan and
Antonina Zabinski began smuggling Jews into empty cages.
Another dozen "guests" hid inside the Zabinskis' villa, emerging
after dark for dinner, socializing, and, during rare moments of calm,
piano concerts. Jan, active in the Polish resistance, kept
ammunition buried in the elephant enclosure and stashed
explosives in the animal hospital. Meanwhile, Antonina kept her
unusual household afloat, caring for both its human and its animal
inhabitants - otters, a badger, hyena pups, lynxes. TB 17016.
Allen, Charles
The savage wars of peace: soldiers' voices 1945-1989. 1990.
Read by Jonathan Oliver, 13 hours 12 minutes. TB 8561.
"The Savage Wars of Peace" is a fighting soldiers' view of military
campaigns, as recounted in their own words to historian Charles
Allen. Drawing on the spoken recollection of over 70 military
figures of all ranks, these unique first hand accounts give a rare
insight into the closed ranks of the British Army, its hierarchies and
rituals and the bonds that unite fighting men. TB 8561.
rnib.org.uk
Allison, William
The monocled mutineer. 1978. Read by Raymond Sawyer, 7
hours 8 minutes. TB 6575.
As the British Army became locked in the terrible carnage of
Passchendaele in 1917, a huge body of troops mutinied at the
main base camp of Etaples, a small French Channel fishing town.
With the crucial phase of the battle about to begin, the command
gave in and the revolt ended. At the centre of the trouble, two
extraordinary characters were in conflict: a private with a record,
Percy Toplis, and Brigadier-General Thomson, both equally mad in
their own ways. TB 6575.
Ambrose, Stephen E
Band of brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st
Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest. 2010. Read
by Tim Jerome, 12 hours 40 minutes. TB 18335.
A description of life in the Easy Company, 101st Airborne Division,
US Army, from the time of their rigorous training in Georgia in 1942
to D-Day and victory. Drawing on interviews, journals and letters,
the author tells - often in their own words - the story of these
American heroes. Contains strong language and passages of a
sexual nature. TB 18335.
Andrews, Kenneth Raymond
Drake's voyages: a re-assessment of their place in
Elizabethan maritime expansion. 1967. Read by David
Broomfield, 6 hours 36 minutes. TB 405.
Asbridge, Thomas S
The Crusades: the war of the Holy Land. 2010. Read by
Alistair Maydon, 31 hours 11 minutes. TB 17326.
In the eleventh century, a vast Christian army, summoned to holy
war by the pope, rampaged through the Muslim world of the
eastern Mediterranean, seizing possession of Jerusalem, a city
revered by both faiths. Over the two hundred years that followed
this First Crusade, Islam and the West fought for dominion of the
Holy Land, clashing in a succession of chillingly brutal wars, both
firm in the belief that they were at God's work. This book tells the
story of this epic struggle from the perspective of both Christians
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and Muslims, reconstructing the experiences and attitudes of those
on either side of the conflict. TB 17326.
Ashcroft, Michael
Special Forces heroes: extraordinary true stories of daring
and valour. 2008. Read by Jon Cartwright, 10 hours 30
minutes. TB 16660.
This book tells the stories of forty heroes, all awarded bravery
medals for their conduct during Special Forces missions over the
last 150 years. These are men who would die for their country, no
questions asked. With many incredible stories from particularly the
Second World War, including the Cockleshell Heroes and other
conflicts from the twentieth century, such as the Iranian Embassy
siege, this collection of real action adventure brings Britain's wars
to life. Contains strong language. TB 16660.
Barker, Ralph
That eternal summer: unknown stories from the Battle of
Britain. 1990. Read by Ronald Markham, 7 hours 48 minutes.
TB 8414.
In the summer of 1940, the most critical battle of the Second World
War was fought over the fields and towns of southern England. In
this book Ralph Barker has unearthed 12 untold but unforgettable
stories of men without whose selfless tenacity Britain would not
have survived. This is a book full of tragedy and courage. TB 8414.
Beevor, Antony
Berlin: the downfall, 1945. 2002. Read by Sean Barrett, 17
hours 25 minutes. TB 12768.
This is the story of those caught up in the nightmare crescendo of
the Third Reich's final defeat - encompassing sufferings inflicted
through folly, cruelty, and the exercise of naked power. The battle
for Berlin is revealed as a terrifying example of violence, mass
rape, and murder. Unsuitable for family reading. TB 12768.
Bennett, Geoffrey
Coronel and the Falklands. 1962. Read by David Broomfield, 7
hours 10 minutes. TB 1332.
British battle series. How the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau
defeated Admiral Cradock's cruisers off Coronel but were
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themselves destroyed at the Falklands by Admiral Sturdee's
Invincible and Inflexible. TB 1332.
Bierman, John
Righteous gentile: the story of Raoul Wallenberg, missing
hero of the holocaust. 1981. Read by Gabriel Woolf, 8 hours
29 minutes. TB 4232.
The story of the man who has been called the greatest unsung
hero of World War II - a man who risked his life daily as he
provided the Swedish passports and papers that made escape
possible for thousands of Jews. His only reward: to be arrested by
the Russian liberators in 1945 as a spy and sent to the Gulag
Archipelago. His final destiny is still unknown. TB 4232.
Bingley, Xandra
Bertie, May and Mrs Fish: a wartime country memoir. Read by
Jilly Bond, 5 hours 3 minutes. TB 14564.
A wartime memoir about life on a farm in the Cotswolds, seen
through the eyes of a child. Bingley's mother is left to farm the land
whilst her husband is away at war, isolated in the landscape. With
its eccentric cast of characters, this book captures both the
essence of a country childhood and the remarkable courage and
resilience displayed by ordinary people during the war. TB 14564.
Bowlby, Alex
Recollections of Rifleman Bowlby: Italy 1944. 1989. Read by
Alexander John, 7 hours 26 minutes. TB 10114.
The battalion in which Bowlby served was renowned throughout
the Eighth army, but luck deserted it after the North African
campaign. Stripped of its hard core of regulars it was sent as
heavy infantry to Italy, instead of the specialised role for which it
had been trained, and lost its first and second battles. The
battalion's struggle to regain its reputation ended on the jagged
teeth of the Gothic line. Bowlby describes exactly how men behave
when the heat is on, and his account of life in an infantry platoon in
Italy 1944 is realistic. TB 10114.
rnib.org.uk
Braddon, Russell
The naked island. 1981. Read by Robert Gladwell, 13 hours 58
minutes. TB 6519.
The author describes the brief but disastrous Malayan campaign of
1942 and the long, appalling captivity that followed. For almost four
years his Japanese captors - believing that only death could
redeem those who had "dishonoured" themselves by surrender subjected their 40,000 prisoners to a pitiless regime of starvation
and slavery. They, in return, drew on all their resources of hatred,
humour and defiance in order to survive. TB 6519.
Brickhill, Paul
Reach for the sky: the story of Douglas Bader. 1954. Read by
Corbett Woodall, 15 hours 15 minutes. TB 1176.
The exploits of Douglas Bader, an amputee who is famous as a
fighter pilot of the RAF. TB 1176.
Brown, Mike
Christmas on the home front. 2004. Read by multiple
narrators. 5 hours 55 minutes. TB 15041.
Drawing upon personal recollections, contemporary Mass
Observation reports, newspaper articles and advertisements,
personal and archive photographs, the author looks at each
wartime Christmas on the British Home Front, from 1939 to 1944.
Life in Britain changed dramatically as the war progressed; the
annual celebration of Christmas provides fascinating yearly
'snapshots', illuminating the changes over six years of conflict. TB
15041.
Bryant, Arthur
The years of endurance, 1793-1802. 1942. Read by Duncan
Carse, 18 hours 5 minutes. TB 2148.
The history of the Napoleonic Wars from 1793 to 1802. TB 2148.
Burt, Kendal
The one that got away. 1958. Read by Robert Gladwell, 10
hours 17 minutes. TB 1000.
A grim story of war-time adventure, telling how a young German
fighter pilot escaped from P.O.W. camps in England and later
made a daring and successful breakaway in Canada. TB 1000.
rnib.org.uk
Carew, Tim
The vanished army: the British Expeditionary Force, 1914-15.
1964. Read by David Geary, 8 hours 46 minutes. TB 373.
The exploits of the British Regular Army at Mons, the Marne, Aisne
and 1st battle of Ypres, drawn from the recollections of men and
officers who were there. TB 373.
Carver, Michael Carver
Dilemmas of the desert war: a new look at the Libyan
campaign 1940-1942. 1986. Read by Garard Green, 7 hours.
TB 6875.
Field Marshal Lord Carver examines in detail the North African
campaign waged by the British during the summer of 1942 when
the Eighth Army was driven back to El Alamein from Tobruk by
Rommel. His portrayal of General Ritchie and his fellow
commanders, and of their efforts to defeat the German army with
the "machine" at their disposal, brings a new assessment of men
like Auchinleck, Messervy, Norris and Gott as well as Ritchie
himself. TB 6875.
Casey, William
The secret war against Hitler. 1989. Read by George Hagan, 12
hours 47 minutes. TB 9140.
Reveals the critical role of allied intelligence and covert operations,
and the tragic blunders and international clashes that marred the
record from Normandy to Hiroshima. TB 9140.
Connell, John
Wavell, scholar and soldier: to June 1941. 1964. Read by Alvar
Lidell, 24 hours 30 minutes. TB 48.
The career of a great General who, as Commander in the Middle
East from 1939 to 1941, won the early desert victories, but whose
personality eventually clashed with Churchill's. TB 48.
Deedes, W F
At war with Waugh. 2004. Read by W F Deedes, 4 hours 35
minutes. TB 13766.
A delightful book of memoir from one of Britain's most beloved
journalists One of Evelyn Waugh's most popular novels is SCOOP.
rnib.org.uk
It is an exuberant, hilarious comedy of mistaken identity and a
brilliant satire on Fleet Street and its relentless and hectic pursuit
of hot news set during the Italo-Ethiopian War of 1936. It tells the
story of William Boot, a nature journalist mistakenly dispatched to
cover a foreign war, and finding himself deep in the middle of
danger and political absurdity. Unknown to many, the story is
based on the true exploits of one Bill Deedes, upon whom Waugh
based Boot, and here for the first time Deedes tells the real story of
his adventures in Abyssinia in the 1930s, in his own unique and
hilarious way. It is a story of amateurish bungles and almost
Pythonesque incongruities. TB 13766.
Deighton, Len
Fighter: the true story of the Battle of Britain. 1977. Read by
Andrew Timothy, 10 hours 4 minutes. TB 3707.
The true story of the Battle of Britain, described as much from the
German as from the British point of view. TB 3707.
De Souza, Ken
Escape from Ascoli: story of evasion and escape. 1989. Read
by Jonathan Oliver, 7 hours 48 minutes. TB 8695.
We were never heroes, Hal and I, just two men separated from
their loved ones by war. By the time we became POWs, we had
developed a mutual trust which made our escape possible. What
we had in common was our determination to get to our wives. TB
8695.
Dickison, Arthur
Crash dive: in action with HMS Safari, 1942-43. 2003. Read by
Robbie MacNab, 12 hours 1 minute. TB 15414.
This record of life on board HMS Safari is based on original firsthand accounts. As the boat's leading telegraphist, Arthur Dickison
had a privileged position in the crew, with access to all signals
traffic and the navigation officer as his boss who gave him an
insight into why they were doing what they did. Over 18 months of
war patrols he kept a personal diary of life aboard Safari. In it he
records daily events ranging from the tedium of long sea passages
to stalking enemy convoys, crash dives and fighting it out on the
surface. TB 15414.
rnib.org.uk
Dorrian, James
Storming St Nazaire: the gripping story of the dock-busting
raid, March, 1942. 1998. Read by Alexander John, 13 hours 23
minutes. TB 12374.
The author tells the story of the raid to destroy the docks at St
Nazaire so as to deny a berth to the German battleship TIRPITZ.
He describes the strategic situation, outlines the plan, and gives
some background on the primary individuals involved before
providing a highly-detailed account of the raid itself. TB 12374.
Evans, Richard J
The Third Reich at war: how the Nazis led Germany from
conquest to disaster. 2009. Read by Jon Cartwright, 33 hours
45 minutes. TB 17608.
Third Reich; book 3. Sequel to: The Third Reich in power, 19331939, TB 17053. In 1939 Hitler mobilized Germany into all-out war.
Richard Evans's astonishing, acclaimed history conjures up a
whole society plunged into conflict - from generals and front-line
soldiers to Hitler Youth activists and middle-class housewives tracing events from the invasion of Poland and the Battle of
Stalingrad to Hitler's plans for genocide and his eventual suicide.
Contains strong language. TB 17608.
Farwell, Byron
The great Boer War. 1977. Read by Stanley Pritchard, 25 hours
49 minutes. TB 3289.
A definitive history of the great conflict that raged from 1899 to
1902 between the British Empire, at its peak of power and
arrogance, and a tiny nation, stubbornly fighting to maintain its
independence. TB 3289.
Fenby, Jonathan
Alliance: the inside story of how Roosevelt, Stalin and
Churchill won one war and began another. 2008. Read by
Steve Hodson, 20 hours 57 minutes. TB 15933.
Throughout the war the 'Big Three' - Churchill, Roosevelt and
Stalin - met in various permutations and locations to thrash out
ways to defeat Nazi Germany - and, just as importantly, to decide
the way Europe would look after the war. This was the political
rather than military struggle: a battle of wills and diplomacy
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between three men with vastly differing backgrounds, characters and agendas. Focusing on the riveting interplay between these
three extraordinary personalities, Jonathan Fenby re-creates the
major Allied conferences including Casablanca, Potsdam and
Yalta to show exactly who bullied whom, who was really in control,
and how the key decisions were taken. Contains strong language.
TB 15933.
Figes, Orlando
Crimea: the last crusade. 2010. Read by Richard Burnip, 21
hours 57 minutes. TB 18251.
The terrible conflict that dominated the mid 19th century, the
Crimean War killed at least 800,000 men and pitted Russia against
a formidable coalition of Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire.
Drawing on a range of sources, Figes gives the lived experience of
the war, from that of the ordinary British soldier in his snow-filled
trench, to the haunted, gloomy, narrow figure of Tsar Nicholas
himself as he vows to take on the whole world in his hunt for
religious salvation. TB 18251.
Francia, Paul
Mortar fire: Normandy to Germany 1944-45. Read by John
Hosken, 3 hours 1 minute. TB 10018.
This is the story of "D" company, 1st Middlesex Regiment, during
the liberation of Europe. Paul Francia traced and interviewed his
former company comrades and compiled a rare and vivid military
history, as experienced by the rank and file who actually faced the
enemy. The author is himself blind as a result of service with "D"
company in the push to the Rhine. John Hosken, the narrator, has
for many years described the Cenotaph service on Remembrance
Sunday for radio listeners. TB 10018.
Fraser, David
Alanbrooke. 1982. Read by Derek Chandler, 28 hours 5
minutes. TB 4402.
From November 1941, when Churchill made him Chief of the
Imperial General Staff, Alanbrooke was working at the unnewsworthy task of welding it into the most efficient machinery for
running a war that any country had ever known, while others won a
more public glory on the battlefields of Africa and Europe. An
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elegant corrective of a (probably) underestimated soldier, by a
fellow soldier. TB 4402.
Fraser, George Macdonald
Quartered safe out here: a recollection of the war in Burma.
1992. Read by Joe Dunlop, 10 hours 53 minutes. TB 9399.
A factual, and highly personal account of the war in Burma,
describing life and death in Nine Section, a small group of hardbitten and eccentric Cumbrians. The author, then aged nineteen,
served in the last great land campaign of the war, when the 17th
Black Cat division captured a strong point deep in Japanese
territory and held it, spearheading the final assault in which the
Japanese armies were torn apart. Fearsome, sometimes appalling,
often funny and always a disturbing reminder of how the world and
its attitudes to soldiers and soldiering have changed. TB 9399.
Fraser-Smith, Charles
Secret warriors: hidden heroes of MI6, OSS, MI9, SOE and
SAS. 1984. Read by Richard Earthy, 5 hours 3 minutes. TB
5545.
During the Second World War Charles Fraser-Smith's government
department supplied the Special Operations Executive with
ingenious gadgets that meant life and freedom for many special
agents and prisoners of war in Occupied Europe. This is the story
of those hidden heroes and their brave deeds. TB 5545.
Gibson, Donald
Haul taut and belay: the memoirs of a flying sailor. 1992. Read
by George Hagan, 8 hours 19 minutes. TB 9849.
Into battle series. Donald Gibson had neither the qualifications, nor
the influence to enter the Royal Navy, which he was determined to
do. So he joined the Merchant fleet, and when war broke out,
entered the Navy through the back door. Becoming a naval aviator,
he flew dive bombers and fighters from carriers, and managed to
see the funny side of some appalling situations, including being
pulled out of the cockpit of his Sea Fury by his parachute, and
court-martialled when captain of Ark Royal. The last chapter
chronicles the Defence Review's effect on the Fleet Air Arm and
the Argentine conflict. TB 9849.
rnib.org.uk
Gissing, Vera
Pearls of childhood. 2007. Read by Vera Gissing, 7 hours 50
minutes. TB 15462.
In June 1939, shortly before her eleventh birthday, Vera Gissing
escaped from occupied Czechoslovakia, leaving behind her
parents, family and friends, to spend six years in Britain.
Throughout the war years she kept a diary, recording her day-today experiences, her longing for her parents, her hopes and
prayers for the freedom of her country. TB 15462.
Gordon, Ernest
Miracle on the River Kwai. 1995. Read by Gordon Reid, 9
hours 1 minute. TB 11406.
The author was twenty-four when he was captured and marched,
with other British prisoners, into the jungle to build the infamous
Bridge over the River Kwai. Amid the inhumane treatment,
unrelenting labour, inadequate food and disease, a miracle began
in the death camp: a miracle of Christ-like love that made men
forgive their enemies. Contains violence. TB 11406.
Halter, Roman
Roman's journey. 2008. Read by Bill Wallis, 10 hours 1
minute. TB 15670.
Roman Halter is an optimistic, boisterous schoolboy in 1939 when
he and his family gather behind net curtains to watch the
Volksdeutsch neighbours of their small town in western Poland
greeting the arrival of Hitler's armies with kisses and swastika
flags. This begins a six-year journey through some of the darkest
caverns of Nazi Europe, and the loss of every other member of his
family and the 800-strong community of his boyhood. Unsuitable
for family reading. TB 15670.
Hamilton, Nigel
Monty: the making of a general 1887-1942. 1981. Read by
Garard Green, 35 hours 28 minutes. TB 4328.
Monty; book 1. Nigel Hamilton had access to "Monty's" secret
diaries, letters and documents and also interviewed many people
who had known Montgomery at various times of his life. Thus the
private man is shown as well as the general, and some new light
cast on the early years of the Second World War. TB 4328.
rnib.org.uk
Hart, Basil Henry Liddell
History of the Second World War. 1970. Read by John
Richmond, 38 hours. TB 4083.
This is a military history of the war. Trenchant and thoughtprovoking, it is a study in realism and objectivity. TB 4083.
Hastings, Max
Overlord: D-Day and the battle for Normandy. 1984. Read by
David Rider, 14 hours 55 minutes. TB 5411.
On 6 June 1944, the British and American armies staged the
greatest amphibious landing in history to begin operation Overland,
the battle for the liberation of Europe. Forty years later with the
wealth of untapped sources and documents now available, Max
Hastings offers a new study of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy
which overturns a host of traditional legends. TB 5411.
Hastings, Max
Nemesis: the battle for Japan, 1944-45. 2008. Read by John
Rayment, 28 hours 15 minutes. TB 17185.
A masterly narrative history of the climactic battles of the Second
World War. The battle for Japan that ended many months after the
battle for Europe involved enormous naval, military and air
operations from the borders of India to the most distant regions of
China. The great naval battle of Leyte Gulf; the war in China; the
re-conquest of Burma by the British Army under General Slim; the
Marines on Iwojima and Okinawa; LeMay's Super-fortress assaults
on Japan; the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the
kamikaze pilots of Japan; the Soviet blitzkrieg in Manchuria in the
last days of the war; and the terrible final acts across Japaneseoccupied Asia. Contains strong language. TB 17185.
Hayward, Victor
HMS 'Tiger' at bay: a sailor's memoir, 1914-1918. 1977. Read
by John Richmond, 8 hours 7 minutes. TB 3393.
The author, an ex-seaman, describes life in the Navy during the
First World War. TB 3393.
rnib.org.uk
Hector, John
Poplar memories. 2002. Read by Peter Barker, 3 hours 48
minutes. TB 13729.
This book explores Cockney London before and during the Second
World War. The author's account of his early life in the 1920s and
1930s talks of pavement buskers, Saturday night knees-ups round
the piano, eel and pie stalls, chimneysweeps, Clarnico's toffees
and a little shop called Woolworth's selling 'nothing over sixpence'
- unless it's a shilling. All this was to disappear forever in the
horrors of the Blitz. TB 13729.
Hetherington, Brid
Under the shadow: letters of love and war 1911-1917: the
poignant testimony and story of Captain Hugh Wallace Mann
7th & 5th Battalions The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders
and Jessie Reid. 1999. Read by multiple narrators, 6 hours 41
minutes. TB 13494.
This work tells the true story of young minister Hugh Wallace Mann
and his one and only love Jessie, from the earliest days of their
friendship in 1911, to a military hospital bed on the Normandy
coast after the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. Hugh evokes the
strenuous routine of army camps, the relative calm of billets, the
horror, brutality and excitement of trenches and battle, and in
writing, he immortalises his love for Jessie. TB 13494.
Hibbert, Christopher
Nelson: a personal history. 1994. Read by Christopher Oxford,
16 hours 26 minutes. TB 14098.
In this tale of Nelson's life on and off the high seas, the author
illuminates the admiral's personality, his personal and political
friendships, and his passionate love affair with Sir William
Hamilton's wife, the beautiful Lady Emma, daughter of a
blacksmith and once a London prostitute. TB 14098.
Hillen, Ernest
The way of a boy: a memoir of Java. 1994. Read by Garard
Green, 6 hours 15 minutes. TB 11873.
Brought up on a tea plantation in Java in the 1930s, Ernest Hillen
and his brother Jerry had a magical and exotic boyhood, until the
Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies in 1942. The following
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three and a half years were spent in Japanese prisoner of war
camps, where Ernest experienced hunger, squalor, cruelty, despair
and sickness. TB 11873.
Horne, Alistair
The price of glory: Verdum: 1916. 1962. Read by Alvar Lidell,
18 hours 30 minutes. TB 133.
The absorbing story of the incredible and tragic struggle, with due
attention to the German as well as the French point of view. TB
133.
Horne, Alistair
To lose a battle: France 1940. 1969. Read by Robert Gladwell,
24 hours. TB 1036.
The author presents the day-to-day course of the battle for France
in May 1940, when Hitler's armoured divisions crushed the French
in the most savagely brilliant campaign in history, and analyses the
social, political and economic forces which created victory for the
Germans. TB 1036.
Hutton, John
Kitchener's men: the King's Own Royal Lancasters on the
Western Front, 1915-1918. 2008. Read by Jonathan Oliver, 5
hours 18 minutes. TB 16145.
This text provides an account of the raising, training and fighting
experiences of the Service and Territorial battalions of the King's
Own Royal Lancasters in France during the Great War. It gives a
graphic insight into the daily routine and grim reality of warfare on
the Western Front. TB 16145.
James, Lawrence
The golden warrior: the life and legend of Lawrence of Arabia.
1990. Read by Jonathan Oliver, 18 hours 33 minutes. TB 9121.
Controversial and provocative, this biography penetrates and
overturns the mythology which surrounds T.E. Lawrence. The
author does not accept everything that Lawrence wrote as true;
instead, he probes motives and asks questions. His book is bound
to reopen debate and interest in one of the most remarkable men
of this century. TB 9121.
rnib.org.uk
Joll, James
The origins of the First World War. 1984. Read by Crawford
Logan, 9 hours 38 minutes. TB 5842.
James Joll re-examines the events of that fateful summer of 1914.
His themes include strategic planning and the arms race, the
pressures of domestic politics, and the cultural and psychological
atmosphere of 1914. He relates these factors to the decisions
taken at the time, and shows how each affected the policies of the
belligerent powers. TB 5842.
Junger, Sebastian
War. 2010. Read by Jeff Harding, 8 hours 30 minutes. TB
17755.
For one year, in 2007-2008, Sebastian Junger accompanied a
single platoon of thirty men from the storied 2nd battalion of the
U.S. Army, as they fought their way through a remote valley in
Eastern Afghanistan. Over the course of five trips, Junger was in
more firefights than he can count, men he knew were killed or
wounded, and he himself was almost killed. War is a narrative
about combat: the fear of dying, the trauma of killing and the love
between platoon-mates who would rather die than let each other
down. Contains strong language. TB 17755.
Kennedy, Ludovic
Pursuit: the chase and sinking of the Bismarck. 1974. Read by
Michael Stirrup, 9 hours 34 minutes. TB 5738.
In May 1941 the German battleship "Bismarck" escaped into the
Atlantic, posing a deadly threat to the convoys that were keeping
Britain alive. She had to be sunk. The search for and destruction of
the most formidable fighting ship afloat, is one of the great sea
sagas of all time. TB 5738.
Kershaw, Alex
The Bedford boys: one small town's D-Day sacrifice. 2008.
Read by William Dufris, 8 hours 21 minutes. TB 17476.
"The Bedford Boys" is an account of the D-Day landings in World
War Two, and their impact on the small American community of
Bedford, Virginia, which lost 22 of its young men in the first hours
of the landings at Omaha Beach. Contains strong language and
passages of violence. TB 17476.
rnib.org.uk
Kershaw, Alex
The longest winter. 2009. Read by Grover Gardner, 9 hours 44
minutes. TB 18268.
In the Ardennes Forest, 1944, Hitler launches his last and most
audacious attack on the unprepared allies. A small band of
eighteen American soldiers repulsed the German attack three
times, inflicting severe casualties and defending a strategically vital
hill despite being vastly outnumbered. This account draws on the
words of the decorated men who fought this heroic action, bringing
to life their struggle on the battlefield and later off it as POWs.
Contains strong language and passages of violence. TB 18268.
Kershaw, Robert J
Tank men: the human story of tanks at war. 2009. Read by
Jonathan Oliver, 18 hours 48 minutes. TB 16771.
Ex-soldier and military historian Robert Kershaw brings to life the
grime, the grease and the fury of a tank battle through the voices
of ordinary men and women who lived and fought in those
fearsome machines. This text draws on newly researched personal
testimony from the crucial battles of the First and Second World
Wars. TB 16771.
Kramer, Clara
Clara's war. 2009. Read by Rula Lenska, 13 hours 2 minutes.
TB 17760.
In the small town of Zolkiew 15-year-old Clara Kramer and her
family hid perilously in a hand-dug cellar. Living above and
protecting them were the Becks. Life with Mr Beck was far from
predictable. From the house catching fire, to Beck's affair with
Clara's cousin, to the nightly SS drinking sessions in the room just
above. Sixty years later, Clara Kramer has created a memoir that
is lyrical, dramatic and heartbreakingly compelling. TB 17760.
Last, Nella
Nella Last's war: the Second World War diaries of Housewife,
49. 2006. Read by Lesia Melnyk, 13 hours 55 minutes. TB
16772.
In September 1939, housewife and mother Nella Last began a
diary. When war broke out, Nella's younger son joined the army
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while the rest of the family tried to adapt to civilian life. Writing
each day for the "Mass Observation" project, Nella, a middle-aged
housewife from the bombed town of Barrow, shows what people
really felt during this time. This was the period in which she turned
50, saw her children leave home, and reviewed her life and her
marriage - which she eventually compares to slavery. TB 16772.
Lawrence, T E
Seven pillars of wisdom: a triumph. 1935. Read by Alvar
Lidell, 31 hours 25 minutes. TB 2101.
Round this account of the revolt of Arabia against the Turks,
Lawrence hung a fabric of portraits, adventures and dreams. TB
2101.
Lewis, Cecil
Sagittarius rising. 1982. Read by Alistair Maydon, 10 hours 20
minutes. TB 4804.
Recollections of flying in the First World War and afterwards as a
pilot in China that give a penetrating glimpse into the minds of
these very young fliers who went straight from their school playing
fields into the front lines. Sagittarius, the Archer, is the ninth sign of
the Zodiac and governs voyages, weapons, and all swift things. TB
4804.
Lewis, Norman
Naples '44: an intelligence officer in the Italian labyrinth. 2002.
Read by Daniel Philpott, 7 hours 16 minutes. TB 16135.
Norman Lewis arrived in Naples as an Intelligence Officer attached
to the American Fifth Army. By 1944 the city’s inhabitants were so
destitute that all the tropical fish in the aquarium had been
devoured, and numbers of respectable women had been driven to
prostitution. The mafia gradually became so indispensable to the
occupying forces that it succeeded in regaining its former power.
Despite the cruelty and suffering he encountered, Lewis writes in
the diary, "A year among Italians has converted me to such an
admiration for their humanity and culture that were I given the
chance to be born again, Italy would be the country of my choice."
Contains strong language. TB 16135.
rnib.org.uk
Longmate, Norman
How we lived then: a history of everyday life during the
Second World War. 1971. Read by David Broomfield, 29 hours
19 minutes. TB 1750.
A picture of everyday life in England from September 1939 to
August 1945. TB 1750.
Lyme, Edward
Soldier in the circus: how to survive five years as a prisoner
of war. 1997. Read by Robert Gladwell, 9 hours 43 minutes. TB
11394.
Edward Lyme, captured in 1940, spent five years in the Stalags of
Germany and Poland. He made several escapes, and contributed
to the war effort by becoming one of the most incompetent workers
in captivity. Laced with the humour and sense of comradeship that
sustained so many POWs during World War Two, this is the story
of an ordinary soldier's survival. TB 11394.
Lynn, Vera
Some sunny day: my autobiography. 2009. Read by Diana
Bishop, 7 hours 38 minutes. TB 16787.
Born Vera Welch on 20 March, 1917 in the East End of London,
Dame Vera Lynn's career was set from an early age - along with
her father, who also did a 'turn', she sang in Working Men's Clubs
from just seven years old. She had a successful radio career with
Joe Loss and Charlie Kunz in the 1920s and '30s, but it was with
World War II that she became the iconic figure that captured the
imagination of the national public. TB 16787.
Macintyre, Ben
Agent Zigzag: the true wartime story of Eddie Chapman: lover,
betrayer, hero, spy. 2007. Read by Steve Hodson, 12 hours 58
minutes. TB 15429.
On a chill December night in 1942, a Nazi parachutist landed in a
Cambridgeshire field. His mission: to sabotage the British war
effort. His German masters called him Fritz, or Fritzchen. The
British police knew him as Eddie Chapman. Within weeks
Chapman was in the hands of MI5 and operating as Agent Zigzag.
Here is his story, weaved together through diaries, letters,
photographs and memories. TB 15429.
rnib.org.uk
Macintyre, Ben
Operation Mincemeat: the true spy story that changed the
course of World War II. 2010. Read by Geoffrey Drew, 13 hours
3 minutes. TB 17582.
Operation Mincemeat was the most successful wartime deception
ever attempted, and certainly the strangest. It hoodwinked the Nazi
espionage chiefs, sent German troops hurtling in the wrong
direction, and saved thousands of lives by deploying a secret
agent who was different, in one crucial respect, from any spy
before or since: he was dead. Ben Macintyre weaves together
private documents, photographs, memories, letters and diaries, as
well as newly released material from the intelligence files of MI5
and Naval Intelligence, to tell for the first time the full story. TB
17562.
Macy, Ed
Apache. 2008. Read by James Hutchinson. 10 hours 36
minutes, TB 17181.
Taking the reader right to the heart of the war in Afghanistan,
'Apache' is a story of courage, comradeship, technology and
tragedy, from the cockpit of the most sophisticated fighting
helicopter the world has ever known. Contains strong language
and violence. TB 17181.
McKay, Sinclair
The secret life of Bletchley Park: the history of the wartime
codebreaking centre and the men and women who were there.
2010. Read by Sinclair McKay, 10 hours 51 minutes. TB 18005.
Bletchley Park was where one of the war's most famous and
crucial achievements was made: the cracking of Germany's
Enigma code in which its most important military communications
were couched. This book is the history of life at Bletchley Park, and
an amazing compendium of memories from people now in their
eighties of skating on the frozen lake in the grounds of a youthful
Roy Jenkins, useless at codebreaking, of the high jinks at nearby
accommodation hostels and of the implacable secrecy that meant
girlfriend and boyfriend working in adjacent huts knew nothing
about each other's work. TB 18005.
rnib.org.uk
McLaughlin, Steven
Squaddie: a soldier's story. 2007. Read by Glen McCready, 12
hours 11 minutes. TB 15494.
Squaddie is a snapshot of infantry soldiering in the twenty-first
century. It takes us into the heart of an ancient institution that is
struggling to retain its tough traditions in a rapidly changing world.
All of the fears and anxieties of the modern soldier are laid bare, as
well as the occasional joys and triumphs that can make him feel
like he is doing he best job in the world. This is an account of army
life by someone who has been there and done it. Contains strong
language. TB 15494.
Manvell, Roger
The July Plot: the attempt in 1944 on Hitler's life and the men
behind it. 1964. Read by Andrew Gemmill, 8 hours 39 minutes.
TB 366.
In 1944, men of the German Resistance planned to kill Hitler, but
he survived the bomb which exploded in the conference room. TB
366.
Markham, Felix
Napoleon. 1963. Read by Peter Snow, 11 hours. TB 375.
Expounds Napoleon's military genius and showed how increasing
despotism led to his downfall. TB 375.
Masters, John
Bugles and a tiger. 1986. Read by Garard Green, 11 hours 32
minutes. TB 10193.
Autobiography; book 1. Beginning with the author's 18 months at
Sandhurst, the book describes his return to India in 1934 to join the
Gurkhas and his service with them until the outbreak of war. A
chronicle of adventure which recaptures the true flavour of life in
British India, of vicious fighting on the North-west frontier and of
the young officer's privilege in serving with the Gurkhas. TB 10193.
rnib.org.uk
Meyer, Christopher
DC confidential: the controversial memoirs of Britain's
ambassador to the U.S. at the time of 9/11 and the run-up to
the Iraq War. 2006. Read by Christopher Oxford, 12 hours 18
minutes. TB 16130.
Christopher Meyer was Ambassador to the United States from
1997 to 2003, during which time he was an eyewitness to and
participant in the events following 9/11 and the preparations for the
Iraq war. Meyer presents an account of what he saw, what he
heard and how he felt. Those featured in this book includes
Margaret Thatcher, Bob Hope, the Clintons, Steven Spielberg,
Condoleeza Rice, Alastair Campbell and Jack Straw. The book
reveals close encounters with Tony Blair, Robin Cook and Peter
Mandelson; KGB honey traps in Russia; a major row with Bill
Clinton; inside stories on Number 10 and the Foreign Office; and
life behind the scenes with Blair and George W. Bush. Contains
strong language. TB 16130.
Middlebrook, Martin
Arnhem 1944: the airborne battle, 17-26 September. 1994.
Read by Robert Gladwell, 22 hours 48 minutes. TB 10098.
Arnhem was to end the war in Europe; three airborne divisions
would capture and hold the bridges over the great rivers of Holland
and unleash allied forces in Germany. Had it worked, the war
might have been over by Christmas 1944. In fact it all went wrong.
The initial operation succeeded, but troops did not reach Arnhem
in time and military intelligence had not discerned the real strength
of German units around the town. Here original documents and the
experiences of over 500 participants are blended to describe the
British Army last major defeat in battle. TB 10098.
Moffat, John
I sank the Bismarck. 2010. Read by Gareth Armstrong, 8 hours
46 minutes. TB 18314.
Reminiscence. In the early hours of the 27th of May, 1941, the
German warship Bismarck was sailing towards a fateful encounter.
Two days previously Winston Churchill had issued the order to
'Sink the Bismarck'. Along with 12 other pilots, John Moffat took
down the warship that had destroyed the famed HMS Hood within
minutes. These men, in their Swordfish, managed to avoid the
rnib.org.uk
fearful anti-aircraft fire and launched their torpedoes. One of them
hit, holing the German warship. As the only surviving member of
his fellow pilots, John Moffat tells of everything that led him to be
able to say, 'I sank the Bismarck'. TB 18314.
Murray, William
Atlantic rendezvous. 1970. Read by Michael de Morgan, 11
hours 20 minutes. TB 1834.
The author's personal story beginning with the sinking in 1940 of
the ship on which he served, and recounting his experiences in
prison ships and attempts to escape. TB 1834.
Nichol, John
Medic: saving lives - from Dunkirk to Afghanistan. 2009. Read
by Peter Wickham, 16 hours 15 minutes. TB 17276.
Doctors, nurses, medics and stretcher bearers go where the
bullets are thickest, through bomb alleys and mine fields, ducking
mortars and rockets, wherever someone is hit and the shout goes
up - 'Medic! This is the story of those brave men and women who
go to war armed with bandages not bombs, scalpels not swords,
and put saving life above taking life. Contains strong language. TB
17276.
Nolan, Liam
Small man of Nanataki. 1966. Read by David Broomfield, 5
hours 24 minutes. TB 1115.
Uncle John, as he was called by the British prisoners, was an
interpreter at a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp who was revolted
by the cruelty and suffering he saw. He risked his life to smuggle in
medical supplies, became a Christian and demonstrated a superb
and lonely courage. TB 1115.
O'Neill, Gilda
Our street: East End life in the Second World War. 2006. Read
by Carole Boyd, 9 hours 1 minute. TB 16490.
Focuses on the lives of Londoners in the East End during the
Second World War. Showing the concerns, hopes and fears of
these so-called 'ordinary people'. Our Street illustrates these times
by looking at the every day rituals which marked the patterns of
daily life during WWII. It is a affectionate record of an often fondly
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remembered, more communal, way of life that has all but
disappeared. TB 16490.
Orwell, George
Homage to Catalonia. 2000. Read by David Thorpe, 9 hours 4
minutes. TB 16646.
When George Orwell joined up to fight in the Spanish Civil War, it
seemed like the beginning of 'an era of equality and freedom'. The
text chronicles his experiences: the revolutionary euphoria of
Barcelona, the courage of the ordinary Spanish men and women
he fought alongside, the terror and confusion of the front, his nearfatal bullet wound and the cynical betrayal of his allies. TB 16646.
Passmore, Richard
Blenheim boy. 1981. Read by Ronald Markham, 9 hours 10
minutes. TB 8944.
As the result of instructions given to British aircraft manufacturers,
the R.A.F. took delivery of a passenger aircraft which was to prove
to be the prototype of the successful Blenheim bomber. This book
describes the raids undertaken by these planes during the second
world war, from the gunner's point of view. The book begins with
the startling assertion that 'only fools and birds fly'. TB 8944.
Patch, Harry
The last fighting Tommy: the life of Harry Patch, the oldest
surviving veteran of the trenches. 2008. Read by Bill Wallis, 7
hours 58 minutes. TB 15886.
Harry Patch, the last British soldier alive to have fought in the
trenches of the First World War, is now 108 years old and one of
very few people who can directly recall the horror of that conflict.
Fighting in the mud and trenches during the Battle of
Passchendaele, he saw a great many of his comrades die. In vivid
detail he describes daily life in the trenches, the terror of being
under intense artillery fire, and the fear of going over the top. The
Second World War saw Harry in action on the home front as a firefighter during the bombing of Bath. He also warmly describes his
friendship with American GIs preparing to go to France, and, years
later, his tears when he saw their graves. TB 15886.
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Phillips, C L Lucas
Cockleshell heroes. 2000. Read by Geoffrey Drew, 9 hours. TB
17903.
In December 1942, 10 Royal Marines launched a daring canoe
attack on German ships lying in Bordeaux harbour - a hazardous
and successful offensive, in which only two survived. This book
tells the story of those "cockleshell heroes". TB 17903.
Rappaport, Helen
No place for ladies: the untold story of women in the Crimean
War. 2008. Read by Eunice Roberts, 11 hours 58 minutes. TB
15754.
It is usually assumed that women did not become involved in
international conflict until the First World War. But Helen
Rappaport proves otherwise: numerous women were actively
involved in the Crimean war in a variety of ways. Four wives would
be chosen to accompany each regiment of 100 men, enduring the
vermin ridden troop ships and then left to fend for themselves in
the barren Crimean terrain, before combing the battlefields in
search of their men. Yet the suffering of the soldiers' wives left
behind was more terrible. At home, vast numbers of women including Queen Victoria herself - knitted socks to cheer the
soldiers stranded in freezing Sevastopol. TB 15754.
Reid, Fred
In search of Willie Patterson: a Scottish Soldier in the Age of
Imperialism. 2002. Read by Jonathan Hackett, 6 hours 4
minutes. TB 12652.
The author was curious about his grandfather, Corporal Willie
Patterson. Knowing him only from his mother's stories of the 'black
sheep of the family', he wondered if there was a better side to the
man. When he discovered that Willie had won the Military Medal in
the First World War, he decided to research his life. This book is
more than the story of a man who struggled to rise from a semiliterate background in Calton, Glasgow to be a war hero and a
white-collar worker. The author, who is blind, also tells of his own
confrontation with the archives and of his safari over seven
thousand miles of East Africa to find the grandfather he had never
known. TB 12652.
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Reynolds, L C
Dog boats at war: a history of the operations of the Royal
Navy D Class Fairmile motor torpedo boats and motor
gunboats 1939-1945. 1998. Read by Graham Padden, 12 hours
49 minutes. TB 12020.
An account of the operations carried out by the Royal Navy's D
Class MGBs and MTBs in the 2nd World War. It covers actions in
Home, Mediterranean and Norwegian waters. As well as drawing
on both British and German official records, the author has
contacted several hundred Dog Boat veterans. TB 12020.
Rose, Michael
Fighting for peace: lessons from Bosnia. 1999. Read by Jon
Cartwright, 14 hours 31 minutes. TB 13541.
Known for his role as a commander in the Falklands war, and for
directing operations at the Iranian Embassy siege, General Sir
Michael Rose tells the story of his role as Commander of the UN
Protection Force in Bosnia in 1994. TB 13541.
Roskill, Stephen Wentworth
The Navy at war 1939-1945. 1998. Read by Bob Rollett, 21
hours 27 minutes. TB 16835.
Wordsworth Military Library. Roskill describes the major sea
battles such as River Plate and Matapan as well as the
characteristic convoy actions of the Battle of the Atlantic,
Murmansk and Malta. He covers the contribution made by British
technology, in the shape of Asdic (or Sonar) and Radar systems,
and also shows the courage and skill of the officers and men who
made the victory possible. TB 16835.
Schindler, Emilie
Where light and shadow meet: a memoir. 1997. Read by
Norma West, 4 hours 29 minutes. TB 11365.
The author, who was married to Oskar Schindler, tells the story of
their life together. On realizing the costs of the Nazi takeover, they
worked to save the Jews employed in their two factories during the
Second World War - leading to "Schindler's list". It is the story of
one woman's daily acts of bravery, of a marriage and of survival.
TB 11365.
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Sereny, Gitta
Into that darkness: from mercy killing to mass murder. 1995.
Read by Elizabeth Proud, 17 hours 38 minutes. TB 17785.
Franz Stangl was one of only four men to command Nazi
extermination (as opposed to concentration) camps. This text is an
investigation into this man's mind and the influences which shaped
him. Stangl was found guilty of co-responsibility for the slaughter of
at least 900,000 people. Contains strong language. TB 17785.
Stern, Robert Cecil
Destroyer battles: epics of naval close combat. 2008. Read by
Hayward Morse, 9 hours 37 minutes. TB 16921.
This book recounts some of the most significant, spectacular or
unusual actions in the history of destroyer warfare, from the first
employment of torpedo craft during the Russo-Japanese War to
the recent terrorist attack on USS Cole. With individual chapters
devoted to each incident, each reflects a development in the
tactics or technology, so taken as a whole the book amounts to an
outline history of the destroyer. TB 16921.
Street, Robert
The siege of Kohima, the battle for Burma: once upon a
wartime XIII. 2003. Read by Steve Hodson, 6 hours 34 minutes.
TB 15358.
This book tell the story of the Siege of Kohima where the battle of
Burma was fought and the Japanese advance to India was halted.
It is told through the eyes of Raymond Street who was part of the
everyday life in Burma at this time. TB 15358.
Sun, Tzu
The art of war. 2010. Read by Eamonn Riley, 1 hour 23
minutes. TB 17354.
Twenty-Five Hundred years ago, Sun Tzu wrote this classic book
of military strategy based on Chinese warfare and military thought.
Since that time, all levels of military have used the teachings of
Sun Tzu on warfare and civilization and have adapted these
teachings for use in politics, business and everyday life. TB 17354.
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Tinker, David
A message from the Falklands: the life and gallant death of
David Tinker: from his letters and poems. 1983. Read by
Richard Earthy, 8 hours 35 minutes. TB 4569.
Lieutenant Tinker was killed in the Falklands action. This collection
of his letters home begins before his Falklands service days, but it
is his clear perception of what is happening and how his views on
war are changing that gives the book its relevance - and its
poignancy. TB 4569.
Tout, Ken
By tank: D to VE Days. 2007. Read by Geoffrey Newland, 11
hours 11 minutes. TB 16777.
Follow the very ordinary young lads of the Northamptonshire
Yeomanry through the massive enemy defences on Bourguebus
Ridge, to the snows of the Ardennes, the night crossing of the
River Rhine, when Sherman tanks were traded in for amphibious
Buffaloes, and final roll-call in Zwolle's Grote Kerkl, where they
celebrated with liberated Dutch citizens. The author graphically
describes the total experience inside the Sherman tank,
nicknamed by their enemy the 'Tommy Cooker'. This text recalls
the whole experience of battle. Contains strong language. TB
16777.
Townsend, Peter
Duel of eagles. 1991. Read by George Hagan, 21 hours 14
minutes. TB 9293.
The Battle of Britain was the collision towards which aviation
developments on both sides had been heading for more than
twenty years. Group Captain Townsend traces the background, of
two air forces with a common past of rivalry and respect. This
dramatic account vividly recalls the days when Britain's fate hung
in the balance until allied airmen, the author among them, secured
a victory which saved Britain from invasion and paved the way for
Hitler's final defeat. TB 9293.
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Van Der Vat, Dan
The last corsair: the story of the Emden. 1983. Read by David
Rider, 8 hours 10 minutes. TB 5330.
The author relates perhaps one of the best sea stories of the First
World War: the lone campaign of the German light cruiser SMS
"Emden" against the British Empire in the Indian Ocean. TB 5330.
Vaughan, Edwin Campion
Some desperate glory: the diary of a young officer, 1917.
1981. Read by Patrick Romer, 9 hours 19 minutes. TB 4322.
Written by a young man who marched into battle with Palgrave in
his pocket, this is a moving account of life on the Western Front
during the first eight months of 1917. Of his group of ninety men,
only fifteen returned. TB 4322.
Whicker, Alan
Whicker's war. 2006. Read by Peter Wickham, 6 hours 35
minutes. TB 15067.
Alan Whicker joined the Army Film and Photo Unit as an 18-yearold army officer, following the Allied advance through Italy, from
Sicily to Venice. He filmed the troops on the front line, met
Montgomery, and other military luminaries, filmed the battered
body of Mussolini after his execution and accepted the surrender
of the SS in Milan. This is an account of the Italian campaign of
1943 and 1944, as he retraces his steps over sixty years later.
Contains strong language. TB 15067.
Wright, Lawrence
The looming tower: Al-Qaeda's road to 9/11. 2006. Read by
Harrick Hagon, 17 hours 52 minutes. TB 14887.
This book tells the full story of Al Qaeda from its roots up to 9/11.
Drawing on interviews and first-hand sources, it investigates the
extraordinary group of ideologues behind this organization - and
those who tried to stop them. Interweaving this story with events
including the Israeli-Palestine conflict, the Soviet invasion of
Afghanistan and the first attack on the World Trade Center,
Lawrence Wright takes us into training camps, mountain hideouts
and top secret meetings to explore how it all fed into the planning
and execution of 9/11 - and reveals the complex origins of Al
Qaeda's hatred of the West. Contains strong language. TB 14887.
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