John Lukacs
Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat

On May 13, 1940, Winston Churchill stood before the House of Commons to deliver his first speech as Prime Minister. Europe was in crisis: three days earlier, Germany had invaded France and the Low Countries. Facing little resistance, Hitler's armies were rapidly sweeping westward. Neville Chamberlain's government collapsed and Churchill was chosen to succeed him. In Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat, the eminent historian and master storyteller John Lukacs reveals Churchill as he has rarely been seen before: as a man both unsure of himself and deeply fearful of his nation's defeat.

Mark Barrowcliffe
The Elfish Gene

Coventry, 1976. For a brief, blazing summer, a young Mark Barrowcliffe had the chance to be normal. He blew it. While other teenagers concentrated on being coolly rebellious, Mark - like millions of other boys in the '70s and '80s - chose to spend his entire adolescence pretending to be a wizard or a warrior, an evil priest or a dwarf. Armed only with pen, paper and some funny-shaped dice, this lost generation gave themselves up to the craze of fantasy role-playing games, stopped chatting up girls and started killing dragons. Extremely funny, not a little sad and really quite strange, The Elftsh Gene is an attempt to understand the true inner nerd of the adolescent male....

The tenth volume of The Flashman Papers finds the arch-rotter of the Victorian age unable to resist the lure of a pretty foot. This time, though, his pursuit sets his own feet on a desperate journey in which his disgraceful American past catches up with him. Revenge-ridden old enemies, blackmailing secret societies, escaped slaves, eccentric clergymen, scheming and passionate beauties of assorted colours all await Flashy in the great war against slavery. His reply - flights, escapes, dalliances and a sardonic eye cast over the thunderous action.