New Releases by RICHARD HOLMES

A unique work combining military history and travel, which studies the most fought-over area on earth. De Gaulle called it a "fatal avenue" that broad sweep of low-lying country stretching north east of Paris. Over the centuries, invading armies have swept back and forth over this bloody terrain, and the names of battles fought here read like a dictionary of military history from Agincourt, Calais and Crecy to Verdun, Vimy and Ypres. Fatal Avenue is both a history and a guide a unique study of a region that has witnessed more bitter military conflict than any other area of its size on earth. From the Trade Paperback edition.

As we approach the 21st century our fears are changing shape: no longer will nuclear holocaust hold sway in our minds as God''s destruction by fire and brimstone did for our ancestors at the end of the first millennium. Refugees streaming north from the poverty-stricken south, destruction of the planet''s life-preserving balance and the epidemic of AIDS nurture a more insidious dread that won''t yield to the simple logic of deterrence. What then will have to be faced in future battles? Where will the lines of defence be drawn, and what will be left for the serving soldier to do?

This wide-ranging and exhaustively researched book is an attempt to grasp the very nature of war. It takes us through the soldier''s experience in its entirety - from the humiliation of basic training and the intense comradeship of army life, to the terror, isolation and exhaustion of battle.

A definitive compendium of the weapons of war, from the earliest times to today''s battles fought with sophisticated armaments, is enhanced with a chronology rich with photographs, maps, and drawings

This title covers the Battle of Preston, fought in 1648 during the Second Civil War. In this battle Oliver Cromwell and his force, made up of regiments of the New Model Army and Lancashire militia, defeated the army of Scots and English Royalists under the Duke of Hamilton.