'May I have this dance, Hilde' asked Field Marshal Rommel, opening the Grande Ball held in his honour. Did this dance save the life of Hilde's Polish friends? Hilde had come a long way since her dream of becoming a singer was shattered when her father made arrangements for her to work as a housekeeper in Berlin at the tender age of fourteen. Hilde's life is thrown into turmoil in Berlin during the late 1920's early 1930's. Having Polish friends meant it was becoming increasingly unsafe for her to stay there and she finds a new life in the Harz mountains. In Goslar, Hilde meets her husband, Karl, a young officer in the German Army. When he joins the 7th Panzer Brigade led by General Erwin Rommel at the beginning of World War II, Hilde is left to bring up their children in war-torn Germany. Hilde's story is based on facts and is told here by her youngest daughter, Elisabeth.

Based on research in England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand, this is a detailed account and analysis of Rommel's attempt in July 1942 to break through to Cairo and Alexandria, and the 8th Army's successful defence and unsuccessful attempts to destroy the Panzerarmee. The author, a participant in the events described, supports the view of some historians that the Battle of Egypt, rather than the Battle of Alamein three months later, was the turning point of the war in North Africa. The battle is set against the background of the many nationalities involved, as well as the physical conditions on the battlefield and the urgency of the political context. Particular attention is given to the controversy of the armour's failure to support the infantry, and reasons for this are canvassed.

Erwin Rommel, Hitler's so-called 'Desert Fox', is possibly the most famous German Field-Marshal of WWII. He is widely regarded as the one of the most skilled commanders of desert warfare and, in contrast to other leaders of Nazi Germany, is considered to have been a chivalrous and humane officer. The letters of his adjutant provide a unique picture of Rommel during his time in Libya. Hans-Joachim Schraepler was by Rommel's side in North Africa for ten crucial months in 1940-41. During that time, he wrote to his wife almost every day. In most cases, the correspondence went via the usual channels but occasionally he used other methods to avoid the censor's gaze. Through his letters, Schraepler supplies a vivid image of the first phase of the North Africa campaign. He covers the siege of Tobruk, the capture of Benghazi, and the difficulties experienced by those fighting in Cyrenica and the wider North African theatre. He also complains that the Italian were poor Allies, lacking training and leadership, and that Berlin regarded North Africa as a theatre of only secondary importance. Schraepler also provides insights into Rommel's character - his dynamism and tactical skill, along with the growing 'cult of personality' which seemed to surround him. One of his unofficial tasks, for example, was to respond in Rommel's name to much of the fan mail that arrived at the Afrikakorps HQ. Hans-Albrecht Schraepler was only seven years old when his father died. The cache of letters was held by his mother and remained untouched for sixty years. His father's last letter, found the day of his death, remains unfinished.

Winner of the 2008 IP Picks Best First Book Award. An impressive first poetry collection traverses time and place with ease. Acute in her ability to juxtapose cultures in a breath, Gleeson is as much at ease adopting a perspective on Tongan women as the wife of the Desert Fox, Irwin Rommel. 'In the poems of Anne Gleeson, memory is transformed into memorable speech. With wit and passion, skill and fellow feeling, the fragmentations of the past are made whole through a re-imagining as poetry. In Between the Dancing is the premier of a new poet, a first book that is as premier as it is memorable.' - Paul Kane, Antipodes

The true story of five talented young men in exile in the time of Hitler and Mao Tse-Tung. 'Altogether they knew five wars, three revolutions and - in the case of Ian Milner, accused in the Cold War of being a spy - a slander.' Regarded by one critic as 'the best book published in New Zealand in the last twenty years', this is a fascinating story based on letters, diaries and interviews in several countries. It is the story of a group of Rhodes scholars, five young men - James Bertram, Geoffrey Cox, Dan Davin, Ian Milner, John Mulgan - caught up in the turmoil of their times: Spain, Hitler's Germany, Greece and North Africa, Eastern Europe, China. They left New Zealand in the thirties for 'the dreaming spires' of Oxford. War intervened. Only one returned.

This historical Nazi mystery draws an intrepid woman to the Middle East, where she’s entangled in a web of intrigue and desire. In Maggie Davis’s exquisitely written novel, international espionage, forbidden love, and greed surround the search for General Rommel’s gold. During World War II, Rommel buried it in the North African desert, then left to meet with Hitler. Now Sharon Hoyt, with her seductive Western ways, finds herself attracted to an Arab police chief and mixed up in the ex‐Nazis’ search for Rommel’s gold. Will she be able to get out of the crossfire of a brewing Middle East conflict?