Best Selling Books by Richard Holmes

One August morning in 1993, the military historian, Richard Holmes, nudged his heels into the flanks of his horse, Thatch, and set off with his four friends to follow the route taken by the British Expeditioary Force nearly 80 years previously, on its retreat from the German offensive at Mons. His ride took him from the Belgian border over the haunting battlefields of the First World War, across the plains and rivers of northern France, to the banks of the Marne, where in September 1914 the BEF played its part in General Joffre''s counter-attack against Von Moltke''s German armies.

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?

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.

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En biografi om Sir John French - en britisk rytterofficer og feltmarskal - der var hovedperson i en række afgørende britiske militære begivenheder under Boerkrigen 1899 -1902 i Sydafrika og i begyndelsen af 20. århundrede under 1. Verdenskrig.

Dramatic, hard hitting, and intensely moving, this book is a unique visula testament to the many millions of men and women who lost their lives in the war, and a reminder to today''s younger generations.

Skillfully clarifies the complexities of four major World War II military campaigns: El Alamein, Italy, Arnhem, and the Battle of Britain. In this study of war Holmes recreates what it was really like to be in the midst of bloody conflict from the eye-witness accounts of servicemen and women.

"This is the room from which I will direct the war," Churchill declared upon seeing the dank storage basement in an improbably central location near the Houses of Parliament. The chambers would become his base of operations during the heaviest enemy bombardment of London. In Churchill''s Bunker, distinguished Churchill biographer Richard Holmes provides the first comprehensive history of the Cabinet War Rooms, from which Churchill managed to turn a seemingly inevitable defeat at the hands of the Nazis into a victory for the free world. Here was the Map Room that charted the advances and retreats of armies, the locations of warships, and the often painful progress of the convoys that kept the nation supplied with munitions. Here the planners worked on future operations and the intelligence staff pondered the enemy''s next moves. And remarkably, all of this highly charged work was known only to those who needed to know. Drawing on a wealth of original material, including new firsthand accounts of the people who lived and worked there, Holmes reveals how and why the bunker and its war machine developed, how life was conducted in a realm where "only the clock told whether it was night or day and . . . an electric bell gave warning of an air-raid," and how Churchill interacted with his staff in very close quarters. A unique exploration of the calculus of secrecy during the Second World War, Churchill''s Bunker provides an intimate portrait of Churchill and his closest advisors in one of the most fascinating and underexplored venues of twentieth-century history.

The British Army that fought in the Great War was the first largely literate and articulate army, producing not just the celebrated war poets but also the powerful writing of the ordinary soldier. Through these unique first-hand accounts - letters, diaries and memoirs - Holmes lets the soldiers speak for themselves, brilliantly interpreting their testimony to glimpse the truth of their lives. Charting the disintegration of the Western Front, from tidy hamlets and verdant forests to a landscape as ''bare as a man''s hand'', Tommy also looks at the development of the war, examining how advances in weaponry changed the role of the soldier on the ground, how trench warfare actually worked, and the evolving chain of command.

D-Day - the largest amphibious invasion in history - took place on 6 June 1944. The subsequent battle of Normandy, which lasted until the end of August, involved over a million men from Britain, the US, Canada, France, Poland and Germany, and helped seal the fate of Hitler''s Third Reich. Written by one of Britain''s best-known and respected military historians, D-Day contains facsimile items of rare memorabilia including: Top-secret hand-drawn map of Paratroopers'' drop zones; German radio signal reporting "Thousands of ships tracked. They''re coming"; Extract from the pocket diary of Sergeant G.E.Hughes, 1st Battalion, Hampshire Regiment. --Publisher description.

The story of Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, one of Britain''s finest soldiers, both on and off the battlefield. Accompanies the BBC TV series.