True courage is a hugely valued aspect of humanity. Many of the accounts in this volume are in the words of those who were there, of men and women who showed real courage, often with their own lives on the line. The tales include: the death of Sir Thomas More; George Washington at Valley Forge; Nelson losing his arm at Santa Cruz; Oscar Schindler saving the lives of Polish Jews; SOE heroine Violette Szabo in occupied France; the protesters in Tiananmen Square; and the New York firefighters and the airline passengers of flight UA49 on September 11th, 2001.

Exerting a magnetic pull our imaginations, the poles have been the object of many gripping first-hand accounts of exploration - literally, journeys to the ends of the earth A passport to the last wildnernesses of Earth, this is the definitive collection of first-hand accounts of polar exploration - 50 true stories of intrepid travel through the desolate and dangerous regions of both Arctic and Antarctic. Beginning with Sir John Franklin's starvation trek through Alaska in 1821 and ending with Vassilli Gorshkovsky's northern expedition aboard a creaking ice-breaker in 2005, these true stories encompass every kind of triumph and disaster. The inspired but doomed courage of Captain Scott, and the marvellous leadership of Shackleton are well known, but here are many other stories including: The Bear, by Frederick A. Cook, 1908 Meeting with Polar Eskimos by Knud Rasmussen, 1932 By Dog-Sledge to the Top of the World, by Wally Herbert, 1968 Hell on Earth by Reinhold Messner, 1989-90 Solo by Pen Haddow, 2003 And many more.

Murder played out in the spotlight of maximum publicity Does celebrityhood preclude a fair trial? Can the famous get away with behaviour off limits to most ordinary mortals? Here in a fascinating diagnosis of the shifting nature of high-profile justice is the fullest ever analysis of infamous and celebrity murder cases that have come to trial. This A-list selection looks in depth at 25 notable murders involving those who live their lives in the full beam of press and media headlights, including film starlets, tv actors, music legends, comedians, fashion moguls, movie directors, playwrights and aristocracy from the start of the twentieth century to the present day. All, from Fatty Arbuckle to John Lennon, are well known, and in each instance the story of their death is retold and the degree to which fame and its entourage played their part in death's final outcome examined. Among the cases included are: o The investigation surrounding the death of American film and TV star Robert Blake's wife, shot in his car after they dined together in a restaurant o The murder of silent-film star Ramon Navarro in his own home by gay lovers o The death of soul legend Marvin Gaye, shot by his own father during a family row o TV personality Jill Dando's shocking and untimely murder, gunned down on in broad daylight on her doorstep o Italy's trial of Patrizia Gucci for the murder of her husband, Maurizio, inheritor of the fashion family's fabulous fortune. The Mammoth Book of Celebrity Murder provides the clearest analysis yet of murder played out in the spotlight of maximum publicity.

Bursting with the same magic that has brought a whole new following to fantasy, this anthology combines the excitement of the Harry Potter phenomenon with the appeal of Lord of the Rings, the ingenuity of the Discworld series and the adventure of the Conan stories. It features a range of light and dark fantasies - from quests, games and monsters, to wizards, witches, dark spells and even darker secrets - all obsessed with the use of magic in this world or the next. Mike Ashley's masterly selection includes such precursors of the Potter series as 'The Sleuth-Worm' by Edith Nesbit, 'The Wall around the World' by Theodore Cogswell, 'Ged's Apprenticeship' by Ursula K. Le Guin and others that deal with the discovery of magic or apprenticeship into magic by ordinary folk. With plenty of specially commissioned new stories, it all adds up to a spellbinding bumper volume in which contributors include: Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock, John Morressy, Theodore Sturgeon, John Jakes, Patricia McKillip, Esther Friesner, Louise Cooper, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Tom Holt and Charles de Lint.

The biggest and best collection of unsolved murder and mystery cases - updated and expanded. This compelling volume presents thirty-five of the most intriguing crime cases that still defy solution, as reported by leading authors and journalists in the field of crime writing. Expanded and updated, this new edition includes the mystery of 'Jack the Stripper' who preyed on prostitutes in Hammersmith in the 1960s, the death of Starr Faithful whose young body was found on Long Island, the vicious murder of Oxford nurse Janet Brown in her own home in 1995, and the case of Lizzie Borden who, according to the rhyme, 'took an axe, And gave her mother forty whacks'. Other cases include: Colin Wilson and the 'Zodiac' killer of California; Russell Miller and the obsession with the Black Dahlia; Rebecca West on the killing of Stanley Setty, and the man who contracted out of humanity; Brian Masters on the killing of Rachel Nickell; Kenneth Alsop on who shot 'Jake' Lingle, and his connection with Al Capone; Philip Sugden on that most famous Victorian enigma, Jack the Ripper; Sydney Horley on the woman who was cleared of killing her husband, and went on to become a Broadway star. Nearly all the cases involve one or more acts of murder, and all are left with a question mark hanging over them with real-life whodunits that offer a continuing challenge to all who find fascination in the criminal mind.

The spectre of the Great War still haunts us. No other conflict so dramatically illustrates the waste of life, and the slaughter of innocents, as that of 1914-18. And none has so dramatically shaped the modern world: the Russian Revolution, the rise of Hitler, the break-up of Empire, the supremacy of America and World War II all stem from the four years of the 'war to end all wars'. Here is the eye-witness chronicle of that war, from the trenches of Flanders to the staff rooms of the Imperial Germany Army, from T. E. Lawrence in the desert to the 'Red Baron' in the air, from Land Girls in England to German U-boat crews in the Atlantic, it leaves nothing out. And if all the horror of the war fought by the Tommies in the trenches is captured, so too are the machinations of the 'top brass' and politicians.