Romance - RNIB Library



War fiction and non-fiction 1

Talking Books

The titles in this booklist are just a selection of the titles available for loan from the RNIB National Library Talking Book Service.

Don’t forget you are allowed to have up to 6 books on loan. When you return a title, you will then receive another one.

If you would like to read any of these titles then please contact the Customer Services Team on 0303 123 9999 or email library@.uk

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Fiction

Allbeury, Ted

As time goes by. 1994. Read by Robert Gladwell, 12 hours 52 minutes. TB 10713.

The story of three remarkable women in wartime France. Paulette, Vi and Jenny, all volunteers, are parachuted into the Dordogne in 1942, working for the Special Operations Executive network. They all have different reasons for joining up and each hopes to return in a year or two to her ordinary life, but the danger and violence they all have to face will change them all. TB 10713.

Ballard, J G

Empire of the Sun. 1984. Read by Ian Craig, 11 hours 3 minutes. TB 5358.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 shatters the fragile security enjoyed by the European inhabitants of Shanghai's International Settlement. Eleven-year-old Jim becomes separated from his parents in the ensuing confusion and is interned in a Japanese camp for four years. But it is after the dropping of atomic bombs in 1945, when the surrender of the Japanese armies is imminent, that he is in most fear of his life. TB 5358.

Bannister, Don

Long day at Shiloh. 1981. Read by David Sinclair, 7 hours 34 minutes. TB 4077.

Based on the first day of one of the most crucial battles of the American Civil War, this novel concentrates on the feelings and thoughts of those caught up in the battle, and of their commander, Ulysses S. Grant. Unsuitable for family reading. TB 4077.

Barker, Pat

Regeneration. 1997. Read by Michael Tudor Barnes, 10 hours 15 minutes. TB 11448.

Regeneration trilogy; book 1. This novel is not only a vivid evocation of the agony of the First World War, it is a multi-layered exploration of all wars, challenging assumptions about the relationship between doctors and patients, between men and women, and between men and men. It centres on a real-life encounter that occurred at Craiglockhart in 1917 between W H R Rivers, an army psychiatrist and Siegfried Sassoon. The third book in this trilogy was the 1995 Booker Prize winner. TB 11448.

Bates, H E

Fair stood the wind for France. 1944. Read by Tom Crowe, 9 hours 15 minutes. TB 4667.

A bomber crashes in occupied France returning from a raid in 1943. The crew escape and return eventually to England. Their story is that of France and of the men who flew with the RAF, a story of love, compassion and the triumph of the human spirit. TB 4667.

Bernieres, Louis de

Captain Corelli's mandolin. 1994. Read by Nigel Graham, 21 hours 24 minutes. TB 11174.

War has not yet reached the village on the island of Cephallonia where the doctor's daughter is engaged to a fisherman. When the Italians arrive, though, the fisherman joins the resistance and a young captain is billeted in the doctor's house. At first Corelli is ostracised, but he proves to be civilised, humorous and musical, and the working of the eternal triangle seems inevitable. With vicious speed, the war becomes brutal. Can love survive? Contains passages of a sexual nature. TB 11174.

Blake, Ian

The Burma offensive. 1997. Read by Nigel Graham, 8 hours. TB 11012.

This book is based on real operations during World War II. Explosives expert Sergeant Colin 'Tiger' Tiller was selected to undergo training in a highly secret one-man submarine fitted with a lethal explosive device. Posted to the Far East, he joined the Special Operations group, destroying Japanese supply ships and raiding Japanese-held islands. Then he received his special orders to use the midget submarine. TB 11012.

Boston, Anne (editor)

Wave me goodbye: stories of the Second World War. 1988. Read by Carol Marsh. 12 hours 43 minutes. TB 7599.

This collection of 28 short stories of the 2nd World War, by leading authors, is a moving evocation of every aspect of life on the home front during wartime. Full of courage and compassionate observation, this compilation focuses on the heroism of the women who "did their Bit" for the war effort at home. TB 7599.

Bucheim, Lothar-Gunther

The boat: one of the best novels ever written about war. 1999. Read by Gordon Dulieu, 20 hours 53 minutes. TB 12385.

This is the story of a German U-boat, her commander and crew, as they embark upon yet another hazardous patrol in the Battle of the Atlantic. Contains passages of a sexual nature. TB 12385.

Cooper, James Fenimore

The last of the Mohicans. 1990. Read by Jonathan Oliver, 16 hours 53 minutes. TB 8856.

This is a fictional novel with a factual core, namely, the massacre of the British by the Indians at Fort William Henry in 1757. This fictional aspect involves romance, sexuality and heroism, but within the placid character of the novel there lurks a dramatic and violent inner part, which reflects the hatred felt between the two warring factions. TB 8856.

Cornwell, Bernard

Rebel. 1993. Read by Eric Meyers, 15 hours 46 minutes. TB 10694.

Nathaniel Starbuck series; book 1. In the summer of 1861, as America stands on the brink of civil war, northerner Nathaniel Starbuck arrives in the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. He is rescued from a mob by the rich and eccentric Washington Faulconer, who is raising his own elite regiment to combat the Yankees. Starbuck chooses to enlist in the Faulconer Legion, even though it could mean fighting against his own people. TB 10694.

Crane, Stephen

The red badge of courage. Read by Walter Lewis, 5 hours 16 minutes. TB 13461.

This great classic of the American Civil War is one of the most important accounts of the reality of war and its aftermath. It deals with the effects of war on one man, and speaks for a generation. TB 13461.

Deighton, Len

Bomber: events relating to the last flight of an R.A.F. bomber over Germany on the night of June 31st, 1943. 1970. Read by Raymond Sawyer, 19 hours 31 minutes. TB 5353.

On a warm night in June 1943 a force of 700 RAF bombers sets off for a routine heavy raid on the Ruhr. But the next twenty-four hours become a chain of grotesque ironies as the meticulously planned raid goes disastrously wrong ... TB 5353

.

Dobbs, Michael

Last man to die. 1992. Read by Peter Barker, 11 hours 13 minutes. TB 9796.

Refusing to wait for peace and the freedom it will bring, Peter Hencke is a German POW on the run in spring 1945. Fired by a personal mission that drives him to risk everything in his lonely, treacherous journey back to Berlin. Pursued by mighty armies, and the most powerful and ruthless men in Europe, and helped and loved by two most extraordinary women, Hencke's secret will be hidden until the very last moments of the war. Contains passages of a sexual nature. TB 9796.

Dunmore, Helen

The Siege. Read by Jilly Bond, 10 hours 30 minutes. TB 13428.

Leningrad, September 1941. German forces surround the city, imprisoning those who live there. The besieged people of Leningrad face shells, starvation and the Russian winter. Interweaving two love affairs in two generations, the siege draws us deep into the Levin family's struggle to stay alive during this terrible winter. TB 13428.

Faulks, Sebastian

Birdsong. 1993. Read by Peter Firth, 15 hours 41 minutes. TB 10988.

Amiens, 1910, and young Stephen Wraysford has been sent by his employer to study the textile trade. His host, Azaire, is a prosperous manufacturer. Stephen and Isabelle, Azaire's second wife, are immediately aware of a bond between them which oversteps any considerations of propriety. The Somme, 1916, and Stephen is now a lieutenant in the British Army, lonely and brooding and France has become a bloody battlefield. In 1978 a woman finds a diary and begins to relive the horrors of trench warfare with the writer. TB 10988.

Fesperman, Dan

The warlord's son. 2004. Read by Jeff Harding, 13 hours 46 minutes. TB 14718.

Skelly, a burned-out American foreign correspondent, has been dropped into the smoky chaos of post 9/11 Peshawar. To survive, he needs a "fixer" – a nimble, well-connected jack-of-all-trades who can save his skin yet take him where the action is. And for every journalist in Peshawar, the real action is across the border in Afghanistan, where Al Qaeda lurk and armed Taliban fighters cling to power in mountain strongholds. Soon Skelly and Najeeb, the banished son of a tribal warlord, are driving dusty roads west in the wake of a man who hopes to stake his claim as the leader of the next regime. Contains violence. TB 14718.

Follett, Ken

Hornet flight. 2002. Read by Nigel Carrington, 13 hours. TB 13273.

It is June 1941 and Denmark is under German occupation. On the rocky coast of Denmark, two brothers, Harald and Arne Olufsen are straining against the rigid confines imposed by their elderly parents. Meanwhile, a network of MI6 spies is attempting to decipher an encrypted Luftwaffe radio signal which mentions the new Freya-Gerat - a rudimentary form of German radar equipment. Arne's relationship with Hermia Mount, an MI6 analyst draws him into underground politics, putting him under surveillance by the Danish security forces - and by one man in particular who has a personal motive to see Arne fall. Contains strong language. TB 13273.

Forester, C S

The man in the yellow raft. 1969. Read by Marvin Kane, 5 hours 30 minutes. TB 891.

A collection of sea stories about the Pacific war on the eve of, or just after, Pearl Harbour. TB 891.

Frazier, Charles

Cold mountain. 1997. Read by Hayward Morse, 17 hours 21 minutes. TB 11506.

A soldier wounded in the Civil War, Inman turns his back on the carnage of the battlefield and begins the treacherous journey home to Cold Mountain, and to Ada, the woman he loved. As he attempts to make his way across the mountains, through a devastated landscape, Ada struggles to make a living from the land her father left her. Neither knows if the other is still alive. Contains strong language. TB 11506.

Furst, Alan

The Polish officer. 2004. Read by Stephen Thorne, 12 hours 1 minute. TB 14077.

September 1939. As Warsaw falls to Hitler, Captain Alexander de Milja is recruited by the intelligence service of the Polish underground. His mission: to transport the national gold reserve to safety, hidden on a refugee train to Bucharest. In the back alleys and black-market bistros of Paris, in the tenements of Warsaw, with "partizan" guerrillas in the frozen forests of the Ukraine, and at Calais Harbour, de Milja fights in the war of shadows in a world without rules. TB 14077.

Harris, Robert

Enigma. 1995. Read by Stephen Thorne, 11 hours 34 minutes. TB 10585.

Based around an actual event, this book is set in 1943 inside Britain's code-breaking centre. Nazi Germany's U-boats have unexpectedly changed their Enigma cipher and the battle of the Atlantic hangs in the balance. In desperation the authorities turn to brilliant young mathematician and codebreaker, Tom Jericho. What follows is a frantic race to crack the U-boat code. Jericho faces an equally baffling enigma: the woman he loves has disappeared and he suspects there might be a spy in the codebreaking centre ... TB 10585.

Harry, Lilian

Three little ships. 2005. Read by Patrick Romer, 15 hours 10 minutes. TB 14504.

During just nine days in the early summer of 1940 nearly eight hundred 'Little ships' set off across the English channel to rescue almost half a million men of the British and French Armies trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk. Among them were three very different crafts. On a London fireboat is Ollie Mears; a small pleasure steamer is commanded by Robby Endacott; and a motor yacht owned by Hubert Rowley. As each one ferries exhausted men from the beaches to the waiting ships, the men are unknowingly united by a powerful driving force - the desperate need to find one man who matters more to them than anyone else. Contains strong language. TB 14504.

Heller, Joseph

Catch 22. 1962. Read by Steve Hodson, 21 hours 10 minutes. TB 15433.

A rational coward in World War II makes the craziest and puzzling dilemma suddenly understandable: if a man was crazy he could be grounded, all he had to do was ask; if he asked then he was showing concern for his own safety in the face of danger, which is the process of a rational mind; if he does not ask he cannot be grounded, but if he does he has proved he is not crazy: Catch-22. Unsuitable for family reading. TB 15433.

Hemingway, Ernest

For whom the bell tolls. 1994. Read by John Chancer, 21 hours 56 minutes. TB 10384.

A passionate evocation of the civil war that tore Spain apart. High in the pine forests of the Spanish Sierra, a guerilla band prepares to blow up a vital bridge. Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer, has been sent to handle the dynamiting. There, in the mountains, he finds the dangers and the intense comradeship of war and there he discovers Maria, a young woman who has escaped from Franco's rebels. TB 10384.

Higgins, Jack

Exocet. 1983. Read by Simon Coady, 6 hours. TB 5198.

At the height of the Falklands War, Argentina desperately needs more Exocet missiles to attack the British fleet. Colonel Montera, a gallant war hero, is sent to Europe to get them. The British assign Tony Villiers, a ruthless SAS major, to stop him. Meanwhile, the KGB are casting a net of death and destruction for all...TB 5198.

Hill, Reginald

No-man's land. 1985. Read by Richard Earthy, 13 hours 39 minutes. TB 5926.

The story of three men who try to cope with the horrors of the Somme in 1916: John, the naive young countryman who has already seen too much horror; Lothar, the renegade aristocrat who resists becoming a dead German hero; and Viney, the brooding, menacing Australian deserter who is the king of this no-man's land. TB 5926.

Howard, Richard

Bonaparte's sons. 1998. Read by Paul Karo, 19 hours 15 minutes. TB 12828.

Confusion reigns in the French Republic of 1796 and French troops face starvation and annihilation. The nation's new rulers begin to enlist condemned criminals into the army. Out of the depths of Paris's prison emerge not only murderers, thieves and rapists, but men like Alain Lausard, fleeing his family's massacre during the terror and imprisoned amid the hysteria of revolution. Trained as a soldier, Lausard turns these miscreants into a ruthless cavalry unit at the spearhead of Bonaparte's drive through Piedmont and Northern Italy. TB 12828.

Huth, Angela

Land girls. 1994. Read by Carole Boyd, 13 hours 12 minutes. TB 10375.

The West Country in wartime, and the Land girls are gathering on the farm of John and Faith Lawrence. Prue, a man-eating hairdresser from Manchester; Ag, a cerebral Cambridge undergraduate; and Stella, a dreamy Surrey girl stunted by love: girls from three very different backgrounds, who find themselves thrown together, sharing an attic bedroom and laying the foundations of a friendship that will last a lifetime. TB 10375.

Jones, James

From here to eternity. 1998. Read by Jeff Harding, 38 hours 21 minutes. TB 12335.

This text captures the brutal world of the Second World War as inhabited by soldiers and the women they love. It portrays the consuming conflicts of a generation set afire by the passions and savagery of war. Contains passages of a sexual nature. TB 12335.

Keneally, Thomas

Schindler's ark. 1982. Read by Gordon Dulieu, 15 hours 29 minutes. TB 4714.

The story of the unlikely saviour of many Jews in Cracow, Oskar Schindler, a Sudetan German. Running his business and dabbling in the black market in order to keep his mistresses in the style to which he had accustomed them, he became the champion of those Jews lucky enough to come within his orbit. He walked a tightrope between the Nazi officials and Jewish contacts which led him even to the gates of Auschwitz to save his chosen people. TB 4714.

MacLean, Alistair

The guns of Navarone. 1957. Read by Peter Reynolds, 12 hours 45 minutes. TB 680.

An exciting war story in which five men set out on a dangerous mission to demolish the German guns which threaten the British soldiers on a lonely Greek island. TB 680.

Mailer, Norman

The naked and the dead. 1993. Read by John Chancer, 30 hours 23 minutes. TB 14232.

The story of a platoon of young American soldiers as they pick their way through treacherous terrain across the Japanese-held island of Anopopei. Caught up in the confusion of close-armed combat, preyed upon by snipers, the men are pushed to the limit of human endurance. Held together only by the raw will to survive and barely sustained dreams of life beyond the maelstrom, each man finds his innermost hopes and deepest fears laid bare by the unrelenting stress of battle. Contains violence. TB 14232.

Mason, A E W

The four feathers. 2001. Read by Nigel Graham, 13 hours 11 minutes. TB 14184.

Just before his regiment sails off to war in the Sudan, British officer Harry Eversham quits the military. He is immediately given four white feathers symbols of cowardice - one each by his three best friends and one by his fiancee. To disprove this grave dishonor, Harry dons an Arabian disguise and leaves for the Sudan, where he anonymously comes to the aid of his three friends, saving each of their lives. Having proved his bravery, Harry returns to England, hoping to regain the love and respect of his fiancee. TB 14184.

Masters, John

The Ravi Lancers. 1972. Read by Garard Green, 18 hours 5 minutes. TB 2109.

The story of an Indian regiment loaned by its ruler to the British for the Great War in France. TB 2109.

Monsarrat, Nicholas

The Kappillan of Malta. 1973. Read by Andrew Timothy, 22 hours 59 minutes. TB 2396.

A story of the agony of the people of Malta during the siege of 1940-1942, and the heroic work among them of a simple priest. TB 2396.

Nichol, John

Exclusion zone. 1998. Read by John Cormack, 10 hours 11 minutes. TB 11748.

The Falklands, 1999 - a vital strategic stronghold in the South Atlantic - relies on a limited British force to defend it from Argentina's pledge to regain control by the year 2000. For pilot Sean Riever it is a place of ghosts. For Jane Clark, female navigator, it's a place of tough decisions. TB 11748.

Ondaatje, Michael

The English patient. 1992. Read by Peter Wickham, 9 hours 43 minutes. TB 9654.

This joint winner of the 1992 Booker Prize takes place as the Second World War is ending. It explores the lives of four people, a young woman and three men, stranded in a damaged villa north of Florence as the war retreats around them. In an upstairs room lies the badly burned English patient, alive but unable to move. His extraordinary adventures and turbulent love affair in the North African desert before the War provide the focus around which the vivid tales of his companions revolve. TB 9654.

Piercy, Marge

Gone to soldiers: a novel of the Second World War. 1987. Read by Arthur Blake, 39 hours 29 minutes. TB 6817.

Opening in pre-war New York, but raging from Germany both during and after the war to London in the Blitz, Vichy France and Detroit in the post-Depression years, the author shows war to be a time of great social upheaval as well as military conflict. The characters in the story address their own confusions within the context of global struggle, discovering their own and each other's identities. Contains passages of a sexual nature. TB 6817.

Pressfield, Steven

Gates of fire: an epic novel of the Battle of Thermopylae. 1999. Read by Michael Tudor Barnes, 16 hours 20 minutes. TB 12823.

Set in Ancient Greece, and based on the true story of the Battle of Themopylae in 480 BC. This is the story of Xeones, the only survivor of 300 Spartan warriors ordered to delay for as long as possible the million-strong invading army of King Xerxes of Persia. TB 12823.

Reeman, Douglas

Battlecruiser. 1997. Read by Patrick Romer, 11 hours 47 minutes. TB 11308.

The battlecruiser was hailed as a triumph, able to outrun and outshoot its heavier opponents. But it had a fatal flaw - the weakness of its armour. In 1943, when Captain Guy Sherbrooke joins H.M.S. Reliant, he knows he may be her last captain. The other battlecruisers have already been destroyed. But H.M.S. Reliant is a legend and a survivor, and as Britain prepares to invade occupied Europe, Sherbrooke knows that only death or glory awaits her. TB 11308.

Remarque, Erich Maria

All quiet on the western front. 1980. Read by Robert Gladwell, 7 hours 41 minutes. TB 5771.

In 1914, at the age of 18, the author went straight from school into the army and was sent to the Western Front. During the course of the war, his mother died and all his friends were killed. At the end of the war, he found himself alone in the world. This book tells movingly of the sacrifice of a generation. TB 5771.

Seymour, Gerald

Holding the zero. 2000. Read by Sean Barrett, 14 hours 10 minutes. TB 12450.

A suspense novel set against the backdrop of the Gulf War where two of the world's greatest snipers fight out a debt of honour in the hills of northern Iraq. TB 12450.

Shute, Nevil

Pastoral. 1974. Read by Michael McStay, 9 hours 5 minutes. TB 11671.

Set during the turmoil of World War II, this novel tells the story of a brave young fighter pilot, Peter Marshall, and a pretty WAAF officer. TB 11671.

Strong, Terence

Wheels of fire. Read by Martyn Read, 17 hours 10 minutes. TB 14720.

Summoned to war-torn Bosnia to replace a Liaison Officer in the Royal Wessex Regiment, ex-SAS man Jeff Hawkins soon realizes he's been pitched into a task far more dangerous than he had imagined. Hawkins' main role is to keep the UN aid convoys running at all costs. But his new Company commander isn't up to the job. It's vital that one huge convoy breaks the siege of Sarajevo to deliver essential provisions and medical supplies before Christmas. Defying all odds, the twin-air horns of a hundred trucks blast defiantly as their giant wheels begin to roll on a journey to hell and back. Contains strong language. TB 14720.

Sykes, Eric

Smelling of roses. 1997. Read by Andrew Sachs, 8 hours 6 minutes. TB 11832.

Set during the North African desert campaigns of World War II, Sparks and Miller, two reluctant Desert Rats desperate to avoid any action and enjoy a nice quiet war can hardly believe their bad luck when, despite all their efforts to duck out of the desert conflict, they become front-page heroes! Contains strong language. TB 11832.

Thomas, Leslie

Dover beach. 2006. Read by Peter Wickham, 10 hours. TB 14651.

Summer 1940. The evacuation of Dunkirk proved that the British can rise to a challenge, but now the soldiers walk the streets of Dover, taking comfort where they can. Toby Hendy, a fighter pilot, is awaiting orders when he meets Giselle, a young Frenchwoman who escaped occupied France with the English troops. Their love affair feels like a summer idyll, but can it withstand the forces of war? Meanwhile, reserve naval commander Paul Instow has been called up to fight in a war for which he feels too old. A young Dover prostitute, distracts him from his worries. But is their tender, happy relationship born out of desperation or is it something more permanent? Contains passages of a sexual nature. TB 14651.

Thompson, Brian

Buddy boy: a novel. 1977. Read by Marvin Kane, 6 hours 15 minutes. TB 3474.

War-time Cambridge as seen through the eyes of the aircrew of the American Eighth Air Force and the children of a nearby small co-educational prep. school. TB 3474.

Wingate, John

Frigate. 1980. Read by Andrew Timothy, 7 hours 43 minutes. TB 3670.

Frigate trilogy; book 1. The problems of human relationships set against the stark reality of modern warfare as HMS Icarus becomes involved in a skirmish with a Russian submarine that was to lead to graver things. TB 3670.

War – non-fiction

A woman in Berlin: diary 20 April 1945 to 22 June 1945. 2005. Read by Diana Bishop, 9 hours 42 minutes. TB 14500.

This anonymous diary written by a woman in Berlin describes life within the falling city as it was sacked by the Russian Army. Fending off the boredom and deprivation of hiding, she records her experiences, observations and meditations in this stark and vivid diary. Reports of the bombing, the rationing of food, the overwhelming terror of death and the rapes are written in dispassionate, though determinedly optimistic prose. Contains violence. TB 14500.

Ash, William

Under the wire: the wartime memoir of Spitfire pilot, legendary escape artist and 'cooler king'. Read by John Chancer, 10 hours 15 minutes. TB 14563.

Bill Ash, an American, joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and before long found himself in England and flying Spitfires in combat. Then, in March 1942, he was shot down. Tortured and sentenced to death as a spy, he was saved from the firing squad by the intervention of the Luftwaffe who sent him to the 'Great Escape' POW camp, Stalag Luft III. It was from there that Bill began his extraordinary 'tour' of occupied Europe, breaking out of one camp, being dispatched to the next - in Poland, Germany and Lithuania. Bill became one of only a handful of serial escape artists to attempt more than a dozen break-outs - over the wire, under it in tunnels, through it with cutters or simply strolling out of the camp gates in disguise. His memoir stands as a tribute to the bravery and resolve, not only of Bill Ash, but of an entire generation. TB 14563.

Beck, Pip

A WAAF in bomber command. Read by Marie McCarthy, 7 hours 30 minutes. TB 12803.

Pip Beck volunteered for the WAAF in 1941 and was posted to RAF Waddington, one of the bomber stations, where she was trained as R/T operator. In 1943 she went to Bardney, Lincs, where she applied to remuster as Radar Mechanic (Air) to satisfy her desire to fly, but her mathematics failed her. She then took a wireless operator's course and was transferred to Upper Heyford, Oxon, where she spent the last two years of the war. TB 12803.

Beevor, Antony

Stalingrad. 1998. Read by Michael Tudor Barnes, 17 hours 28 minutes. TB 11635.

This book recreates the battle for Stalingrad which became the focus of Hitler's and Stalin's determination to win the war for the Eastern front. It focuses on the experiences of soldiers on both sides, driven beyond the limits of physical and mental endurance. TB 11635.

Brickhill, Paul

The dam busters. 1951. Read by Corbett Woodall, 9 hours 24 minutes. TB 700.

Brickhill, Paul

The great escape. 2000. Read by Stephen Thorne, 8 hours 22 minutes. TB 12884.

The Great Escape tells how more than six hundred men in a German prisoner of war camp worked together to achieve an extraordinary break-out. Every night for a year they dug tunnels, and those who weren't digging forged passports, drew maps, faked weapons and tailored German uniforms and civilian clothes to wear once they had escaped. All of this was conducted under the very noses of their prison guards. When the right night came, the actual escape itself was timed to the split second - but of course, not everything went according to plan... TB 12884.

Brown, Malcolm

The Imperial War Museum book of the Somme. 1996. Read by Alexander John, 14 hours 41 minutes. TB 10982.

The shadow of the Somme has lain across the century. For many it is the ultimate symbol of the folly and futility of war. Others see it as a hallmark of heroic endeavour and achievement. This book offers a remarkably fresh perspective on that bitterly fought 1916 campaign. Using hitherto unpublished evidence from the archives of the Imperial War Museum, it tells its powerful and dramatic story through the letters and diaries of those who were there. TB 10982.

Butler, Josephine

Cyanide in my shoe. 1991. Read by Diana Bishop, 8 hours 33 minutes. TB 10099.

Dr Butler, French educated and with a medical degree from the Sorbonne, was recruited by Churchill as the sole woman in his "Secret Circle", twelve intelligence agents who answered only to him. Flown more than fifty times into occupied France, arrested by the Gestapo for insulting two officers and under constant threat of discovery and death, here is the dramatic story of an Englishwoman who led a Resistance group. She describes both the inner circles who planned the war and the ordinary people of an invaded land. TB 10099.

Chancellor, Henry

Colditz: the definitive history. Read by Sean Barrett, 13 hours. TB 13427.

During the Second World War, this medieval fortress served as the only high-security camp in Germany. Its massive walls contained every persistent escaper, troublemaker and valuable hostage captured by the Germans. Colditz was considered escape-proof; it proved the very opposite. For the first time, Colditz contains the prisoners' own story. Using seventy-six original interviews, the English, French, Dutch and Polish officers and their guards describe their experiences. TB 13427.

Chesterton, Neville

Crete was my Waterloo: a true eyewitness account of the sinking of the Lancastria, the Battle of Crete and P.O.W. experiences 1940-45. 1995. Read by Anthony Jackson, 4 hours 4 minutes. TB 14164.

In January 1940, at the age of 19, Neville Chesterton was conscripted into the Royal Engineers. He witnessed the sinking of the Lancastria which claimed 4200 lives, and the evacuation of St Nazaire. He was taken as a German prisoner of war during the battle for Crete. TB 14164.

Dunn, Peter M

The first Vietnam war. 1985. Read by Garard Green, 17 hours 40 minutes. TB 6282.

Immediately after the Japanese surrender at the end of the Second World War, Saigon was occupied by the British forces directed from Mountbatten's South East Asia Command. These forces became the first of a Western nation to clash with a Communist-led revolution in Asia and by thwarting the Viet Minh's desperate attempts to seize power, made it impossible for South Vietnam to hold out when North Vietnam fell to the Communists in 1954. TB 6282.

Emden, Richard Van

Veterans: the last survivors of the Great War. 1998. Read by various narrators, 8 hours 5 minutes. TB 12623.

Veterans of the First World War give personal testimony, providing a final insight into the war which has shaped this century. The stories, moving and heartbreaking, funny and perceptive, tell of how a new volunteer army went to war in 1914 to fight at the battles of Loos, the Somme and Passchendaele. TB 12623.

Escott, Beryl E

Women in air force blue: the story of women in the Royal Air Force from 1918 to the present day. 1989. Read by Rosemary Davis, 11 hours 53 minutes. TB 7796.

In this fascinating book, the author traces with infectious enthusiasm the progress of women in the Royal Air Force of Britain throughout the last 70 years, and their relatively unknown story is brought to life with a generous spicing of comments and descriptions from the women themselves. TB 7796.

Farwell, Byron

The great Boer War. 1977. Read by Stanley Pritchard, 25 hours 49 minutes. TB 3289.

A definitive history of the great conflict that raged from 1899 to 1902 between the British Empire, at its peak of power and arrogance, and a tiny nation, stubbornly fighting to maintain its independence. TB 3289.

Frank, Anne

The diary of a young girl. 1997. Read by Patricia Jones, 11 hours 14 minutes. TB 11054.

A diary kept by a young girl, Anne Frank, during the Second World War recounting the suffering of the Dutch people under the German occupation. There are several versions and Otto Frank, father of the author, has selected material from these versions and edited them into a shorter version. TB 11054.

Frayn-Turner, John

Battle of Britain. 1998. Read by Alexander John, 11 hours 3 minutes. TB 12442.

The story of one of the most crucial conflicts in British history. A day-by-day account, it considers events from all vantage points, from Churchill and Dowding, to the emergency services and civilians involved and those men who actually fought in the air. TB 12442.

Griffin, H J

An eighth army odyssey. 1997. Read by Jon Cartright, 8 hours 12 minutes. TB 12161.

The author's memoirs of wartime service overseas, from 1941 to 1945, in the deserts of North Africa and onwards through Sicily and Italy with the eighth army; a graphic and personal account of events in two of the most demanding theatres of war. TB 12161.

Hastings, Max

Bomber command. 1981. Read by Frank Duncan, 20 hours 25 minutes. TB 9565.

Bomber Command's offensive against the German cities of Hamburg, Berlin and Dresden was one of the epic campaigns of the Second World War. This book traces the development of area bombing through a wealth of documents, letters, diaries and interviews with key surviving witnesses. "Bomber Command" at last lays bare the reality of one of the most controversial struggles of the War. TB 9565.

Hastings, Max

The battle for the Falklands. 1983. Read by Steve Hodson, 20 hours 23 minutes. TB 5767.

Max Hastings was with the war from the sailing of the task force to the surrender of Port Stanley; Simon Jenkins followed the political and diplomatic twists in London and Washington. Together they give a comprehensive account of this "War that should not have happened". TB 5767.

Hillen, Ernest

The way of a boy: a memoir of Java. 1994. Read by Garard Green, 6 hours 15 minutes. TB 11873.

Brought up on a tea plantation in Java in the 1930s, Ernest Hillen and his brother Jerry had a magical and exotic boyhood, until the Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies in 1942. The following three and a half years were spent in Japanese prisoner of war camps, where Ernest experienced hunger, squalor, cruelty, despair and sickness. TB 11873.

Hudson, Christopher

The killing fields. 1984. Read by Garrick Hagon, 9 hours 11 minutes. TB 12025.

"This is a story of war and friendship, of the anguish of a ruined country and of one man's will to live". The book is based on a true story of the American journalist Sydney Schanberg and his loyal Cambodian assistant Dith Pran at the time of the collapse of the Cambodian Government in 1975 and the subsequent ordeal of Dith Pran under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime. Contains strong language. TB12025.

Keegan, John

The first world war. 1998. Read by Michael Tudor Barnes, 20 hours 20 minutes. TB 12483.

The First World War created the modern world. A conflict of unparalleled ferocity which extended far beyond its European epicentre, it broke the century of relative peace and prosperity which we associate with the Victorian era and unleashed the demons of the twentieth century - pestilence, military destruction and mass death - and also the ideas which continue to shape our world today - modernism in the arts, new approaches to psychology and medicine, and radical ideas about economics and society. Contains violence. TB 12483.

Kolitz, Zvi

Yosl Rakover talks to God. 1999. Read by David Graham, 2 hours 33 minutes. TB 12380.

As the German tanks advance street by street, destroying the Warsaw Ghetto, one of the few remaining fighters, Yosl Rakover, writes out his last words to God. His writings surface in Europe in the 1950s and are acclaimed by Thomas Mann as a religious masterpiece. But what is hailed as the greatest testament of the entire Holocaust is in fact a short story, written for a Yiddish newspaper by a remarkable young Jew, Zvi Kolitz. The story of what happened to the text and to Zvi Kolitz, and their eventual rejoining, forms the second part of the book. TB 12380.

La Billiere, Peter de

Storm command: a personal account of the Gulf War. 1992. Read by Jon Cartwright, 11 hours 39 minutes. TB 9696.

Desert Storm was a war fought with weapons of a sophistication beyond anything previously seen in battle against a ruthless dictator; a conflict waged with an unparalleled sense of international common purpose. This is a fascinating chronicle of war from the allied nerve centre, and the portrait of an exceptional commander in action. TB 9696.

Lawrence, John

When the fighting is over: a personal story of the battle for Tumbledown Mountain and its aftermath. 1988. Read by Simon Vance and Derek Chandler, 6 hours 45 minutes. TB 7451.

Robert Lawrence's experiences in the Falklands War and after were the subject of the BBC film drama "Tumbledown". "When the fighting is over" is Robert's own story - how he strove to gain a place in the highly respected Scots Guards; his role in the war itself; his personal battle to overcome his injuries, and the effect that his experiences have had on his whole outlook on life. TB 7451.

Linklater, Andro

The code of love: a true story. 2000. Read by Daniel Philpott, 9 hours 30 minutes. TB 12574.

In 1939 Pamela Kirrage met RAF pilot Donald Hill. When Hill was transferred to Hong Kong, he started a diary about his love for Pamela. Officers abroad were forbidden to keep such records, so Hill transformed all his words into a numerical code, only translated 50 years later by his wife. Unsuitable for family reading. TB 12574.

Lomax, Eric

The railway man. 1995. Read by Hugh Ross, 8 hours 52 minutes. TB 10457.

Eric Lomax, a railway enthusiast, was taken prisoner in Malaya in 1941 while serving with the Signal Corps. He was put to work on the Burma-Siam railway; and he helped to build an illicit radio with which to follow the progress of the war. The discovery of the radio brought on two years of dreadful torture and distress - one tormentor in particular remained in Lomax's memory for half a century. Late in life, Lomax learned how to believe in the possibility of hope. He then discovered that his Japanese interrogator was alive, and found out where he was with an extraordinary will to remember and forgive. TB 10457.

Lusseyran, Jacques

And there was light. 1964. Read by Alvar Liddell, 10 hours 56 minutes. TB 339.

A former French resistance leader relates his experiences from the time he was blinded at the age of eight, to his internment in a Nazi concentration camp. TB 339.

Lynn, Vera

Unsung heroines: the women who won the war. 1990. Read by Eva Haddon, 6 hours 38 minutes. TB 8715.

A collection of experiences of women involved in the Second World War: WRNS, WRACS and ATS officers, ambulance drivers, nurses and land girls. TB 8715.

Macdonald, Lyn

Somme. 1983. Read by John Richmond, 18 hours 38 minutes. TB 5113.

A vernacular history of the Battle of the Somme, the baptism of fire for those who had rushed to join the colours in 1914. The planning was meticulous but one hundred and fifty thousand men were killed and over three thousand more maimed and wounded. For the soldier at the front survival came first, then the next meal and a village girl. The free use of personal recollections makes this a human chronicle of life in war as well as death. TB 5113.

McNab, Andy

Bravo two zero. 1993. Read by Jonathan Hackett, 12 hours 57 minutes. TB 9869.

On the night of 22 January 1991, at a remote airfield in Saudi Arabia, under cover of darkness and in conditions of utmost secrecy, 8 members of the SAS regiment boarded a helicopter to infiltrate deep behind enemy lines. They were to sever the underground communication link between Baghdad and north east Iraq and to destroy Scud launchers before Israel was provoked into entering the war. Their call sign was Bravo Two Zero. Contains violence. TB 9869.

Marks, Leo

Between silk and cyanide: a codemaker's story 1941-1945. 2000. Read by Nigel Graham, 22 hours 46 minutes. TB 13804.

A cryptographer and then an award-winning scriptwriter, Leo Marks is credited by Roosevelt as having shortened the war by at least three months due to the innovations he devised in signals intelligence saving countless lives. This text reveals the code operations of SOE during the war. Contains strong language. TB 13804.

Minney, R J

Carve her name with pride. 1956. Read by Tania Szabo, 6 hours 45 minutes. TB 7230.

Violette Bushell was the daughter of an English father and a French mother. An ordinary London shop assistant before the Second World War, she undertook the exacting training for a war-time secret agent. Married in 1940 to Etienne Szabo, she was twice sent to occupied France: the second time she did not return. A fellow agent tells the story of her Resistance work, her capture by the Gestapo and the award of her George Cross to her daughter, Tania. TB 7230.

Neillands, Robin

D-Day, 1944: voices from Normandy. 1994. Read by Peter Barker, 14 hours 22 minutes. TB 10112.

This is the story of one day, fifty miles of French coast and about 200,000 men: of Operation "Overlord" and the events of June 6th, 1944. Told in the words of those who were there, from commanding officers to privates, are the tales of British, Canadian, American and German soldiers, sailors and airmen and the men and women of the French resistance. Here is a full account of the largest, most complex invasion in the history of warfare. TB 10112.

Nicolson, Nigel

Napoleon: 1812. 1985. Read by Gordon Dulieu, 7 hours 50 minutes. TB 5928.

In the six months between June and December 1812, nearly half a million men died. As Napoleon commenced his invasion of Russia, he was at the height of his powers; by the end, he faced the destruction of his empire. Why did he invade Russia, and why did he fail? The author goes back to the original documents to try to find an answer to these and other questions. TB 5928.

Oliver, Kenneth

Chaplain at war. 1986. Read by Ray Jones, 4 hours 14 minutes. TB 6894.

Although the Reverend Kenneth Oliver was virtually a pacifist during the early 1930s, he realised that the Nazis must be resisted, even if it meant war. He joined the Honourable Artillery Company as their chaplain and they became part of the 8th Army in the desert. In an account of the disastrous battles which forced the Army back on the Alamein line, Kenneth Oliver shows how a chaplain, although a non-combatant, has a vital part to play with a regiment in battle. TB 6894.

Omaar, Rageh

Revolution day: the human story of the battle for Iraq. 2004. Read by Peter Kenny, 9 hours 22 minutes. TB 14042.

Rageh Omaar reported from Iraq for six years prior to the conflict in 2003. He evaded the official minders to meet ordinary Iraqis, finding out how they lived under Saddam's brutal regime. Then war came, and instead of retreating he chose to stay in Baghdad, to see firsthand the country he loved crumble beneath the Allied onslaught. His shocking account of the years of siege, of the war that followed and its terrifying fallout is a heartbreaking and fascinating testament to a people enduring deprivation and destruction, told by the man who was there before, during and after. Contains strong language. TB 14042.

O'Neil, Reg

A lighter shade of pale blue: A radar operator's memories of World War Two. 1999. Read by Peter Barker, 8 hours 45 minutes. TB 13393.

The author has set out to record the life of an ordinary 'Erk' in the other ranks of the RAF during World War Two. An unusual wartime tale, told with humour. TB 13393.

Ounsley, Renee

Snaith knights: tales from bomber command 1941-1945. Read by Michael Tudor Barnes and Rosemary Davis, 9 hours 22 minutes. TB 13310.

The text provides a collection of wartime stories about the men and women of 51 and 150 Squadrons and Snaith Aerodrome missions. The book provides a microcosm of life on an operational station at the height of the war with Germany. TB 13310.

Pape, Richard

Boldness be my friend. 1989. Read by Arthur Blake, 14 hours 40 minutes. TB 8618.

Imprisoned and interrogated in Germany in 1941, Richard Pape stopped at nothing to regain his freedom. Changing his identity, he was put to work in a coalmine and tortured. Escaping to Hungary, only to be recaptured, he feigned fatal illness to achieve repatriation in 1944. This is a completely revised, expanded and updated version of the first edition of this book. TB 8618.

Pierce, Doris V

Memories of the civilians war 1939-1945. 1996. Read by Diana Bishop, 4 hours 34 minutes. TB 13478.

This text chronicles the lives of an ordinary working class family during the six years war. The events are described by the narrator, Doris, thirteen, when the war starts. The story is told chronologically, beginning with evacuation from London, through the Blitz, the constant bombings night after night, the food shortages, rationing and surviving... TB 13478.

Pope, Stephen

Hornblower's Navy: life at sea in the age of Nelson. 1998. Read by Peter Wickham, 3 hours 17 minutes. TB 12301.

Most of those aboard Nelson's warships were society's dregs and disasters, many had been victims of violent kidnap, and all existed in conditions that would shame a medieval dungeon. What alchemy made such men the trusted, almost invincible guardians of an Empire? TB 12301.

Ramsey, Jack

SAS: the soldiers' story. 1996. Read by Nigel Carrington, 8 hours 19 minutes. TB 11043.

Drawn entirely from the personal testimony of individual SAS soldiers who actually took part and know the truth behind the myths, this extraordinary book builds a picture of what the SAS is really like and just what it takes to survive as one of its soldiers. TB 11043.

Ryan, Chris

The one that got away. 1995. Read by Alan Gilchrist, 10 hours 7 minutes. TB 10551.

The SAS mission conducted behind Iraqi lines is one of the most famous stories of courage and survival in modern warfare. Of the eight members of the SAS regiment who set off, only one escaped capture. This is his story. TB 10551.

Ryan, Cornelius

The longest day: June 6 1944. 1960. Read by Clive Champney, 9 hours 30 minutes. TB 542.

Champney. The first hand story of people who took part in the Normandy landings in 1944. TB 542.

Smith, Michael

Station X: the codebreakers of Bletchley Park. 1998. Read by Richard Derrington, 8 hours. TB 11663.

Station X tells the story of the amazing achievements of the codebreakers of Bletchley Park, during the Second World War. TB 11663.

Thompson, Julian

The Imperial War Museum book of victory in Europe. 1994. Read by Robert Gladwell, 12 hours 25 minutes. TB 10276.

The story of the victory in Europe, as seen by the British soldiers, sailors and airmen in their memoirs, letters, diaries and interviews. The participants tell of the tension and apprehension they felt before battle, as they faced the prospect of breaching Hitler's Atlantic wall; landing in darkness by parachute, or crossing a narrow strip of beach under fire. They tell of the exhilaration of pursuit and of the months of battle in the winter. Under the grimness, there is humour too and the human spirit shines through. TB 10276.

Van Der Vat, Dan

The last corsair: the story of the Emden. 1983. Read by David Rider, 8 hours 10 minutes. TB 5330.

The author relates perhaps one of the best sea stories of the First World War: the lone campaign of the German light cruiser SMS "Emden" against the British Empire in the Indian Ocean. TB 5330.

Van Der Vat, Dan

The ship that changed the world: the escape of the Goeben to the Dardanelles in 1914. 1985. Read by David Sinclair, 10 hours 28 minutes. TB 6047.

In 1914, Germany's one capital ship, the battlecruiser, "Goeben", was in the Mediterranean. Her importance in bringing Turkey into the war, closing the Dardanelles and catapulting Russia into a major revolution arose from a naval battle that never happened, due largely to the breathtaking incompetence of both British and French fleets, incompetence that led directly to the unique tragedy of Gallipoli. TB 6047.

Walker, Diana Barnato

Spreading my wings: one of Britain's top woman pilots tells her remarkable story. 1994. Read by Norma West, 9 hours 13 minutes. TB 12221.

This is an account of Diana Barnato Walker's life, including her Second World War service with the Air Transport Auxiliary, set up at the start of the war to ferry aircraft to RAF and FAA squadrons and bases all over the country. Daughter of a millionaire racing driver, Diana deliberately stepped beyond the world of chaperoned privilege to fly. TB 12221.

Wicks, Ben

The day they took the children. 1989. Read by David Rider, 3 hours 59 minutes. TB 8002.

It is a collection of memories of evacuation, written in the evacuee's own words - funny, sad, and always moving. A treasure trove of recollections that will elicit both laughter and tears. TB 8002.

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