John Blake: 861 books

In the summer of 2012 Robin Van Persie, or RVP as he is affectionately known by his fans, made the controversial move from Arsenal to Manchester United. As one of the Premier League's most lethal strikers he became the Gunners' eighth alltime top scorer with 132 goals, taking on the captain's armband...

A fascinating memoir of life as a lady's maid in a big house in the 1930s, covering the beauty of the house, the housing of royals escaping the Nazis, the hard work of staff, and the experience of joining the army to serve a Countess Hilda Newman was a maid to Lady Coventry at the Worcestershire...

In the current conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan, Britain's Special Forces are on the front line, these heroes are so respected that they are even called upon by the Americans when a particularly difficult and dangerous job has to be done. Time after time they have proved their worth on the battlefield,...

A generation ago, the Ryman family arrived in the Dordogne to follow a dream: to live in France in an elegant chateau and make wine in a vineyard of their own. It didn't take them long to discover and fall in love with Chateau de la Jaubertie, a beautiful 400-year-old country mansion set in the heart...

"I was screaming for my life, buried alive under tonnes of rubble in a sweltering coffin of dust after a mortar attack. If I wanted to get out of this, I just knew I had to scream and scream." When Corporal Hannah Campbell was hit by a mortar attack in Basra, Iraq, she was engulfed...

When the news broke in May 2013 that three women had been held captive for over ten years in Cleveland, Ohio, the world was stunned. Not only had the women been imprisoned in an ordinary house a few blocks from where they had disappeared, but their captor, Ariel Castro, had never been a suspect in...

From piracy on the high seas to the recent Securitas depot robbery in Kent, Britain has a long and inglorious tradition of armed robbery as a way of life. In this uniquely compelling history, reformed career criminal Terry Smith brings the benefit of hard-won wisdom to his analysis of all the major...

With a frightening capacity for extreme violence, Tyneside protection hardman Viv Graham struck fear into the hearts of his enemies, yet his benevolence to local charities and schemes to keep kids away from drugs and crime was well known. A legend in his own lifetime, he was the ultimate maverick...

Reg Presley has encountered many things in his life—as the lead singer of The Troggs, he has lived the life of a rock star to the full. But nothing he encountered on the road is as strange as the extraterrestrial forces he believes permeate the world in which we live. His notions may seem incredible,...

Blood on the Thistle is an examination of the life and times of a remarkable Scottish family, the Cranstons of Haddington, East Lothian. It focuses on a period from about 1880, when the young, hard-working parents, Alec and Lizzie Cranston, arrived in Haddington, through to 1920, when the family they...

In the sequel to Slave Girl, a survivor of the sex trade details her recovery process, which she realizes must include a return to the site of her trauma to aid others In Slave Girl, Sarah Forsyth told of her terrible ordeal as a young woman sex-trafficked from England to the red-light district...

In 1984, a small group of metropolitan homosexual men and lesbian women stepped away from the vibrant culture and hedonism of London's defiant gay scene to befriend and support the beleaguered villages of a very traditional mining community in the remote valleys of South Wales. They did so...

IN THEIR DAY THEY WERE BIGGER THAN BECKHAM. THEY WERE THE WORKING CLASS FACTORY GIRLS WHO PLAYED IN FRONT OF VAST CROWDS THROUGHT BRITAIN AND BECAME CELEBRITIES ACROSS THE WORLD. THEY THREATENED THE ENTIRE MALE-DOMINATED BASTION OF 20TH CENTURY FOOTBALL. SO THE FA PLOTTED TO SHUT THEM DOWN.Boxing...

Imagine Wayne Rooney, Andy Murray, and Mo Farah exchanging the glamour of their careers for the brutality of war—and quietly giving their lives for their country. Today the news would be dominated by the sacrifice of Britain’s most famous sporting icons. A century ago the brightest sporting stars...