This is a book about men and war. Not real conflict but war as it has filtered down to generations of boys and men through toys, comics, games and movies. Harry Pearson belongs to the great battalion of British men who grew up playing with toy soldiers - refighting World War II - and then stopped growing up. Inspired by the photos of the gallant pilot uncles that decorated the wall above his father's model-making table, by Sergeant Hurricane, Action Man and Escape from Colditz, dressed in Clarks' commando shoes and with the Airfix Army in support, he battled in the fields and on the beaches, in his head and on the sitting-room floor and across his bedroom ceiling. And thirty years later he still is. ACHTUNG SCHWEINEHUND! is a celebration of those glory days, a boy's own story of the urge to play, to conquer - and to adopt very bad German accents, shouting 'Donner und Blitzen' at every opportunity. This is a tale of obsession, glue and plastic kits. It is the story of one boy's imaginary war and where it led him.

How should Christians respond to war? This age-old question has become more pressing given Western governments’ recent overseas military interventions and the rise of extremist Islamist jihadism. Grounded in conservative evangelical theology, this book argues the historic church position that it is inadmissible for Christians to use violence or take part in war. It shows how the church’s propensity to support the “just wars,” crusades, rebellions, or “humanitarian interventions” of its host nations over time has been disastrous for the reputation of the gospel. Instead, the church’s response to war is simply to be the church, by preaching the gospel and making peace in the love and power of God. The book considers challenges to this argument for “gospel peace.” What about warfare in the Old Testament and military metaphors in the New? What of church history? And how do we deal with tyrants like Hitler and terrorists like Islamic State? Charting a path between just war theory and liberal pacifism, numerous inspiring examples from the worldwide church are used to demonstrate effective and authentically Christian responses to violence. The author argues that as Christians increasingly drop their unbiblical addiction to war, we may be entering one of the most exciting periods of church history.

The shimmering, windswept first novel by the internationally acclaimed author of Out Stealing Horses. Echoland is the powerful and emotionally resonant first novel from Per Petterson. Written in the mold of his early story collection Ashes in My Mouth, Sand in My Shoes, it features a young Arvid Janssen, who is now twelve, on the verge of his teenage years and beginning to understand more about the world and his place in it. Set over the course of a single formative summer, the novel captures a series of episodes from Arvid’s long visit to his grandparents’ home in Denmark. He rides his bike around town, befriends other children on the beach, fishes for plaice, and weathers misunderstandings with his mother and grandparents, all of which Petterson imbues with the hope and yearning that come with this stage of life. Echoland is an assured and poignant beginning for an author—and character—who would go on to be loved the world over.

This is a book about men and war. Not real conflict but war as it has filtered down to generations of boys and men through toys, comics, games and movies. Harry Pearson belongs to the great battalion of British men who grew up playing with toy soldiers - refighting World War II - and then stopped growing up. Inspired by the photos of the gallant pilot uncles that decorated the wall above his father's model-making table, by Sergeant Hurricane, Action Man and Escape from Colditz, dressed in Clarks' commando shoes and with the Airfix Army in support, he battled in the fields and on the beaches, in his head and on the sitting-room floor and across his bedroom ceiling. And thirty years later he still is. ACHTUNG SCHWEINEHUND! is a celebration of those glory days, a boy's own story of the urge to play, to conquer - and to adopt very bad German accents, shouting 'Donner und Blitzen' at every opportunity. This is a tale of obsession, glue and plastic kits. It is the story of one boy's imaginary war and where it led him.

An extensive reference guide to the exciting hobby, for beginners as well as longtime players. Wargaming is a fascinating, engrossing, and exciting pastime that encompasses a wide range of different talents. The average wargamer uses the skills of artist, designer, sculptor, illustrator, historian, librarian, researcher, mathematician, and creative writer, as well as the more obvious ones of general, admiral, or air marshal for large games, or perhaps lieutenant, commodore, or squadron leader for skirmishes. Aside from calling upon many skills, wargaming also covers many aspects of combat, spanning the history of Earth. With science fiction gaming, we plunge into imagined worlds many thousands of years into the future, and a fantasy gamer, of course, deals with eons of imagined history, as anyone who has read The Lord of the Rings will know. A wargamer may find themselves recreating an encounter between a handful of adversaries one day, or a massed battle involving perhaps hundreds of miniature troops the next. Moreover, it is possible to play wargames that recreate warfare on land, on sea, in the air, or even in outer space. This book demonstrates the wonderfully varied hobby of wargaming with miniatures, looking at the broad scope of what it has to offer as well as detailed explanations of how to get involved, including comprehensive rules for gladiator combat, Wild West skirmishes, and the horse and musket era, as well as lots of advice for anyone new to wargaming. Whether you’re a complete newcomer to the hobby, or a veteran of many years, you’ll find plenty in The Wargaming Compendium to entertain and inspire you.

What do men like to read? This latest title in the successful 100 Must-read series provides a rich crop of selected reads of eternal fascination to men everywhere. With 100 titles fully featured and over 500 recommended, there is something for everyone, from the macho to the sentimental, sex, drugs and rock and roll, old age, childhood, power, seduction, courage and adventure. Written by two experienced male booksellers and writers, the selection draws from a wide range of genres: crime, thrillers, cult classics, classics, biography and non-fiction. Deftly researched with the male audience in mind, this book is an enabling tool for extending your range of reading. A lengthy introduction examines mens attitudes to reading, the differences between male and female reading tastes, the varying ways in which the sexes use/respond to language and how this is reflected in their choices of reading matter. Books featured include: Crash by J. G. Ballard, Junkie by William S. Burroughs, American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse, Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian, The Book of Dave by Will Self, Touching the Void by Joe Simpson and Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe.

Using an innovative auto-ethnographic approach to investigate the otherness of the places that make up the childhood home and its neighbourhood in relation to memory-derived and memory-imbued cultural geographies, Remembering the Cultural Geographies of a Childhood Home is concerned with childhood spaces and children's perspectives of those spaces and, consequentially, with the personalised locations that make up the childhood family home and its immediate surroundings (such as the garden, the street, etc.). Whilst this book is primarily structured by the author's memories of living in his own Welsh childhood home during the 1970s - that is, the auto-ethnographic framework - it is as much about living anywhere amid the remembered cultural remnants of the past as it is immersing oneself in cultural geographies of the here-and-now. As a result, Remembering the Cultural Geographies of a Childhood Home is part of the ongoing pursuit by cultural geographers to provide a personal exploration of the pluralities of shared landscapes, whereby such an engagement with space and place aid our construction of cognitive maps of meaning that, in turn, manifest themselves as both individual and collective cultural experiences. Furthermore, touching upon our co-habiting of ghost topologies, Remembering the Cultural Geographies of a Childhood Home also encourages a critical exploration of children’s spirituality amid the haunted cultural and geographical spaces and places of a house and its neighbourhood: the cellar, hallway, parlour, stairs, bedroom, attic, shops, cemeteries, and so on.