Bøker av Nigel Cawthorne

The history of Britain's most iconic aircraft of World War II, with more than 250 photographs.

A superb illustrated history of Britain's greatest night bomber of World War II, with more than 275 photographs.

Raised for vastly different futures, one burdened with the responsibility of becoming the future king and the other destined to live in his shadow, Charles and Andrew have spent their lives on different sides of the same coin. From being separated in their early years and the Queen's supposed overindulgence of Andrew to their competition for Diana and finally, Charles's ascension to the throne, War of the Windsors tell the complete story of the brothers, and their diverging childhoods to their current struggles. Recounting the highs and lows of a brotherhood turned rivalry, War of the Windsors is the incredible inside story of a family in turmoil.

Telling the story of their lives from children to modern day, this fascinating and revelatory new book will look at the fraught relationship (and fiery rivalry) between King Charles and Prince Andrew.Raised for vastly different futures, one burdened with the responsibility of becoming the future king and the other destined to live in his shadow, Charles and Andrew have spent their lives on different sides of the same coin.War of the Windsors tells, for the first time, the complete story of Charles and Andrew from their diverging childhoods to their current struggles. It looks at the distinct but overlapping stories of the two heirs, from being separated in their early years and the Queen's supposed overindulgence of Andrew to the competition for Lady Diana and finally, Charles' ascension to throne while his brother is stripped of Royal duties. And it explores whether, with the scandals around Andrew still fresh in public memory, Charles will ever let his brother back into the family.With extensive research and expert sourcing, War of the Windsors is the incredible inside story of a family in turmoil. Recounting the highs and lows of a brotherhood then turned into a rivalry, royal author and journalist Nigel Cawthorne looks at the makings of a decades long feud and questions whether, ultimately, the brothers will one day band together again.

Royal spares Prince Harry and Prince Andrew easily overshadow most news about the British monarchy. They seem so different, and yet... Liked as teenagers, drawn to the military and American actresses, privileged, bad boys as adolescents, both have proven to have a rare knack for turning their lives into dramatic instalments for the world to watch-as well as a major embarrassment to their family's ruling members. Royal author Nigel Cawthorne unravels the princely duo in this entertaining double portrait and asks what growing up as a royal spare did for them? Join him on the inside of their regal track with many little known stories from inside the palace-and their latest travails of having to keep up regal appearances despite no longer being royal highnesses.

The Third Reich was a manifestation of Hitler''s neurotic personality, his megalomania and desire for destruction. This book explains the tyrant that ran it, and the demons that ran him.

"He is the greatest fighter alive today" Daily Express Tyson Fury is colossal - six feet nine inches tall and a whisker under 20 stones in weight. He is spectacularly fast. He has a punch that could knock over a rhino and he can dance and weave like no one since the great Muhammad Ali. When he destroyed the fearsome Deontay Wilder in Las Vegas to become two-time world heavyweight champion in February 2020, the world held its breath. Fury was born in 1988 and named after Mike Tyson, who was then the world heavyweight champion. Tyson comes from a long line of gypsy bare knuckle fighters. His father, Gypsy John Fury and grandfather, Tiger Gorman, both fought as professionals. Tyson's success has not come easily, but he has fought the terrible battles of his personal life as bravely as those in the ring. In this extraordinary biography you will read how he overcame addiction to cocaine and alcohol and lost a staggering eight stone in weight to make his comeback. His bravery in talking about his mental health problems is an inspiration to many. Now he is happy and at the top of his game. There seems little doubt that, for Tyson Fury, Gypsy King of the World, the best is yet to come...

A great reference work to the key wars and battles fought from ancient times up to the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

Books about the Nazis never go out of fashion, but surprisingly the history of the Waffen-SS has never been widely covered in the market place.

Delightful peeves from Victorian Britain to the Second World War, gathered together as an alternative history of Britain through moans and grumbles.

An affectionate and entertaining book on Prince Philip's straight-forward views of himself, the Queen and others.

Ghislaine Maxwell had it all - model looks, connections, charm, a billionaire father, adoring siblings - yet on 2 July 2020 she was arrested by the FBI on multiple underage-sex charges. Find out the breath-taking real story behind the headlines, programmes and documentaries.

The first unauthorised biography of Keir Starmer by a former Financial Times journalist who went to the same school as the Labour Leader of the Opposition.

First-hand accounts of football violence, from infamous Millwall to Man U. Once dubbed 'the English disease', British match-day thuggery has spread right across Europe and beyond. Here is the inside story of that phenomenon from those that were there, taking part in the mayhem. 'Yob Laureate' Dougie Brimson and his brother Eddy offer a compelling description of match-day madness; Colin Ward goes steaming in, while other pieces detail the irresistible aggro of the local Derby, the tragedy inside Heysel Stadium and the violence surrounding England's 1998 World Cup match against Tunisia. Finally, Dougie Brimson asks if the police are not just another 'firm', simply participants in the violence.

The very best outrage from the Tunbridge Wells Advertiser, the newspaper that coined the phrase 'Disgusted from Tunbridge Wells' for grumpy complaints.

48 assassinations - from Archduke Franz Ferdinand to Osama Bin Laden - that changed the world

An utterly embarrassing sex history of the 44 men who became POTUS, from Donald Trump to George Washington and including Joe Biden as Obama's VP.

Another highly entertaining trawl through the byways of English history by the author of The Strange Laws of Old England.

Over the past few years, piracy has once again become the scourge of the high seas. Throughout 2008, close to 90 ships were seized in the Gulf of Aden alone and, in many cases, the pirates were paid million-dollar ransoms to release them. What is the reason for this modern-day phenomenon and just who are the men behind it?

30 inside stories of the American Mafia, Sicilian Cosa Nostra, Camorra and 'NdranghetaImages of life in the Mob pervade our film and TV screens, some glamorous, some horrific - what is the reality? Investigative journalist Roger Wilkes has put together the largest ever collection of insider stories from prominent ex-mafiosi, infiltrators and award-winning writers. It contains tell-all accounts by the likes of:Richard 'The Iceman' Kuklinski, the contract killer who claimed to have murdered over 200 people in a career lasting 43 years.Frankie Saggio, who 'freelanced' for all five of New York's Mafia families, narrowly escaping assassination before being busted for a major scam.Joey Black, the Hitman, chillingly professional murderer of 38 victims and regarded by many as the 'original Soprano'.Albert DeMeo, the son of a gangster, who later became a lawyer.'Donnie Brasco', real name Joseph Pistone, the FBI agent, who worked undercover in the Bonanno and Colombo crime families in New York for six years.Tommaso Buscetta, the Sicilian mafioso, the first pentito, or informant, of real significance to break omert . The two judges with whom he worked, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, were both later killed by the Mafia.This is the reality of the world of men you wouldn't want to cross.

London abounds with all manner of ludicrous laws, and not all of these curious statutes have been relegated to the past. Despite the efforts of the Law Commission there are medieval laws that are still in force, and the City of London and its livery companies have their own legal oddities. Laws are made in the capital because parliament is here; so are the Old Bailey, the Law Courts, the House of Lords and, now, the Supreme Court. The privy council, which sometimes has to decide cases, also sits in London, and there were other courts that used to sit in London, from prize courts concerning war booty to ecclesiastical courts. Having maintained its 'ancient rights and freedoms' under Magna Carta, the City felt free to enact its own laws, many of which seem to have had to do with what people could wear. Until quite recently, for example, a man could be arrested for walking down the street wearing a wig, a robe and silk stockings - unless he was a judge. And all human folly has been paraded through the law courts of London, to the extent that it is difficult to know where the serious business of administering justice ends and where farce begins. As law is made in the courtroom as well as in parliament and elsewhere, judges like to keep a firm hand, but sometimes so-called jibbing juries will simply not do what they are told. All sorts of oddities get swept up into the law. Legislators particularly love to pass Acts about sex. If sexual services are being offered in a London massage parlour, for example, a police officer must then search the premises for school children. According to The Children and Young Persons Act of 1933 it is against the law for children and 'yowling persons' between the age of four and sixteen to frequent a brothel. A writ was introduced under both Edward III and Henry IV to ban lawyers from parliament as there were too many of them, the reason being that it was easier for a lawyer to spend his time in London attending parliament that it was for a knight of the shires. But because parliament was already packed with lawyers it was difficult to make any such rule stick. Then an effective way of excluding them was found. They were denied the wages paid to members in those days. Sadly, these days, parliament and the government are packed with lawyers once again. And they are being paid.A law passed in 1540 - and still in force today - makes it illegal for barbers in the City of London to practise surgery; with impeccable impartiality, the Act also forbids surgeons to cut hair. Finally, never forget that under the Vagrancy Act of 1824, you can be convicted of being 'an idle and disorderly person, or a rogue, vagabond, or incorrigible rogue'. The same act also outlaws people 'professing to tell fortunes', including 'palmistry'. Under the Act, it is an offence merely to be suspected.

Agatha Christie s 80 novels and short-story collections have sold over 2 billion copies in more than 45 languages, more than any other author. When Christie finally killed off her Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, the year before she herself died, that detestable, bombastic, tiresome, ego-centric little creep in Christie s words, received a full-page obituary in the New York Times, the only fictional character ever to have done so. From her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, a Poirot mystery, to her last, Sleeping Murder, featuring Miss Marple, Crawford explores Christie s life and fiction. Cawthorne examines recurring characters, such as Captain Arthur Hastings, Poirot s Dr Watson; Chief Inspector Japp, his Lestrade, as well as other flat-footed policemen that Poirot outsmarts on his travels; his efficient secretary, Miss Felicity Lemon; another employee, George; and Ariadne Oliver, a humorous caricature of Christie herself. He looks at the writer s own fascinating: her work as a nurse during the First World War; her strange disappearance after her first husband asked for a divorce; and her exotic expeditions with her second husband, the archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan. He examines the author s working life her inspirations, methods and oeuvre and provides biographies of her key characters, their attire, habits and methods, including Poirot s relationships with women, particularly Countess Vera Rossakoff and Miss Amy Carnaby. In doing so, he sheds light on the genteel world of the country house and the Grand Tour between the wars. He takes a look at the numerous adaptations of Christie s stories for stage and screen, especially Poirot s new life in the eponymous long-running and very successful TV series.

Who was Robin Hood? Throughout history the figures of the hooded man of Sherwood forest and his band of outlaws have transfixed readers and viewers; but where does the myth come from? The story appeared out of the legend of the Green man but found its location during the reign of Richard II, the Lionheart, who was away from England fighting in the crusades. In his absence his brother John lay waste to the country. But does this tell the full story? Was Robin a bandit prince ahead of a troop of brigands? Who was the Sherrif and was he in fact the legitimate law in the land fighting vigilantes?

Throughout history the English have been a warlike lot. Often we fight among ourselves - there have been a good few civil wars - and when we were not slaughtering each other, we practiced on our neighbours, the Scots, the Irish, the French . . . When that got too easy, we set off around the world to find other people to fight. This was usually done with a hubris that invited some ludicrous pratfall. In THE BEASTLY BATTLES OF OLD ENGLAND, Nigel Cawthorne takes us on a darkly humorous journey through some of our ill-advised military actions. From the war over a severed ear to a general seeking out his rival's mistresses to even the score, it is a miscellany of insufferable arrogance, reckless gallantry, stunning stupidity, massive misjudgements and general beastliness.