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Australian Book Retailer of the Year 2021
Bernard O'Connor
In the mid-1980s I attended a course on the Archaeology of Shropshire in which I studied some of the prehistoric hillforts found in the county. Little did I know how…
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Following Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Britain negotiated an agreement with their Soviet ally to supply them with military aid. There was also a secret agreement…
On the road between Craven Arms and Much Wenlock in Shropshire there are five pubs. One, the Crown Inn, formerly the Hundred House, boasts having a timber over the inglenook…
Gamlingay Park in Cambridgeshire is not marked on today's Ordnance Survey maps yet in the 18th century there was a fine Georgian mansion, landscaped gardens, a labyrinth, statues, an ornamental…
Mawddach Crescent is an isolated row of eight three-storey, Victorian houses situated in a secluded cove with glorious views across the Mawddach estuary, North Wales. Very few are aware of…
In the mid-1840s a new industry started in southeast Suffolk, that of digging fossils. Known as 'coprolites', some thought them to be fossilised dinosaur droppings. Rich in phosphate they were…
Britain allied with Russia and France during the First World War but the October Revolution in 1917, the Russian Civil War and the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist…
96-year-old Doreen Roberts is the oldest resident of Bouldon, a hamlet of fourteen houses and a dairy farm at the foot of the Brown Clee in Shropshire. Born in Brighton…
In the 1840s a bed of ‘coprolites’, thought by some to be fossilised dinosaur droppings, was discovered in the Cambridgeshire fens. By the 1860s it was being dug up across…
In the 1840s a bed of 'coprolites', thought by some to be fossilised dinosaur droppings, was discovered in the Cambridgeshire fens. By the 1860s it was being dug up across…
In the 1840s a bed of 'coprolites', thought by some to be fossilised dinosaur droppings, was discovered in the Cambridgeshire fens. Rich in phosphate it was much in demand by…
In the 1840s an unusual industry started in Cambridgeshire, open-cast mining of a fossil deposit, thought by some to be dinosaur droppings. It was used as the raw material in…
In the two centuries after the Norman invasion, Britain's population more than tripled. Demand for food meant more land had to be brought under cultivation. As the climate was generally…
After years of economic depression, when Adolph Hitler came to power in the 1930s he re-armed Germany's army, navy and air force. Even before war broke out, French and Polish…
In February 1944, the Nazis began planning R-Netz, networks of trained espionage agents, wireless operators, saboteurs and assassins. Once the Allies invaded Western Europe, their missions were to stay behind…
What do Thomas Telford, a shebeen, excisemen, opium, Duncraig Castle, landowning Scottish MPs, an evangelical Free Church minister, Sabbatarianism, riots, the Stone of Destiny, the Wicker Man, Hamish Macbeth, Pavarotti…
Most people who live in Wales will probably have never heard of Meifod. Maybe they know it as Meivod. Those living in Montgomeryshire will know of this small village, north…
The Special Operations Executive (SOE), Britain's TOP SECRET subversive organisation during the Second World War, were informed before and after D-Day that some surrendered or captured German prisoners of war…
During the Second World War, the German Intelligence Service infiltrated specially-trained agents into Iceland to collect military, naval, aviation and meteorological intelligence to be transmitted back to Hamburg by wireless…
Norwegians trained in industrial sabotage at Brickendonbury Manor, near Hertford, U.K. were infiltrated by the ‘Shetland Bus’, fishing boats, motorboats, submarines or parachuted in by planes to attack targets across…
'Nobby' Clarke, after leaving Greenwich Hospital School, fought in France and Italy during the First World War, winning a Military Cross. Settling in Bedford, he set up the Low Loading…
Some readers in Shropshire may have never heard of the Special Operations Executive. It was a top-secret subversive organisation set up in July 1940 with the aim of 'setting Europe…
Shortly after the start of the Second World War, the British Admiralty compulsorily purchased land near Ditton Priors, Shropshire, to store armaments. Using the Cleobury Mortimer and Ditton Priors Light…
Following D-Day, the Allied invasion of France, plans were made to invade Germany. The British Special Operations Executive (SOE), set up by Winston Churchill in 1940 'to set Europe ablaze…
This book investigates the role played by William Donovan, the OSS mission in London and the Carpetbaggers, the US Squadron which was sent to RAF Tempsford to be trained by…
Some captured German and Austrian personnel were brought to Britain as prisoners of war. Those who were identified as anti-Nazi were 'turned' and, codenamed 'Bonzos', were trained in paramilitary and…
Between 1942 and 1944, at least 36 French women were recruited by British, French, Soviet and American intelligence agencies, trained as organisers, wireless operators, couriers and saboteurs and infiltrated into…
Between 1843 and 1918, tens of thousands of acres of Britain were dug over in the search for fossils. Pits were dug to excavate a fossil bone bed, some reaching…
Each year the institutions of the European Union tender for contracts with a total value of between 18 - 20 billion. These already large figures are likely to increase in…
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The fascinating story of the mysterious Tempsford airfield used to ferry secret agents into occupied Europe.
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'There's Life in Corfton' is another of Bernard O'Connor's accounts of rural life in Corvedale based on 250 years of newspaper articles. It follows his accounts of Bouldon, Clee St…
At the beginning of the English Civil War, the Royalist Army in Shropshire needed cannons and cannonballs. King Charles I's master of ordnance would have liaised with Sir Charles Smyth…
What do Thomas Telford, opium, Duncraig Castle, landowning Scottish MPs, the Stone of Destiny, an evangelical Free Church minister, Sabbatarianism, riots, a shebeen, excisemen, the Wicker Man, Hamish Macbeth, Pavarotti…
Bernard O'Connor's 'There's Life in Seifton, Salop' is a documentary history of the last two hundred years of life in this small Shropshire community based on newspaper articles. It follows…
New B-format paperback - The amazing stories of 38 female spies who operated in occupied France and Vichy France, many told for the very first time.
