Скачать книгу - Thatcher’s War: The Iron Lady on the Falklands

The Times for over 150 years has been providing the most respected and perceptive verdicts on the lives of outstanding individuals. The Times Great Military Lives is an authoritative and fascinating collection of obituaries depicting the great military commanders of the 19th and 20th centuries.The obituaries collected in this volume are of outstanding military commanders all of whom were remarkable men. Sometimes complex and difficult, often intellectually brilliant and physically brave, always with the confidence and clarity of mind to take the difficult decisions which might carry a vital battle or turn a campaign. Above all, they were great leaders of men, ready to bear the lonely responsibility of high command, ever aware that they had the lives of thousands – even the fate of nations – in their hands.The obituaries are reproduced here as they were printed at the time, with the contemporary assessment followed in each case by a current perspective by Major-General Michael Tillotson, military obituaries writer for The Times, who with Ian Brunskill, the paper's obituaries editor, has selected the subjects for inclusion.Great Military Lives tells stories of grand strategy, tactical boldness, and courage and ingenuity under fire. In depicting an age of almost ceaseless conflict, it bears witness to an enduring ideal of selfless service – on land, at sea and in the air – to which those fortunate enough to enjoy peace will always owe so much.Those commanders featured include:Wellington, Montgomery, Patton, Trenchard, MacArthur, Slim, Ulysses S Grant, Robert E Lee, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Sitting Bull, Count Helmuth Von Moltke, Macmahon, Cetywayo, Togo, Lord Roberts, Paul Von Hindenburg, Erich Von Ludendorff, Lord Fisher, Foch, Haig, Beatty, Scheer, Kemal Ataturk, Lord Allenby, Gustaf Mannerheim, Gerd Von Rundstedt, Heinz Guderian, Earl Wavell, Sir Mav Horton, Alanbrooke, Sir Claude Auchinleck, Cunningham, Karl Donitz, Erwin Rommel, Eisenhower, Albrecht Kesselring, Nimitz, Erich Von Manstein, Rokossovsky, Zhukov, Lord Dowding, Sir Arthur Harris, Adolf Galland, Lord Slim, Orde Wingate, Matthew B Ridgway, Sergei Gorshkov, Sir Walter Walker, Fleet Lord Fieldhouse.

‘Boldly planned, bravely executed and brilliantly accomplished’ was Margaret Thatcher’s assessment of the Falklands campaign. But what did the war mean to the men in the trenches and below decks?This gripping first-hand account of the Falklands War, written by bestselling military historian Patrick Bishop and Sunday Times Editor John Witherow, reveals the true experiences of the British soldiers and seamen on the front line. The authors, then rookie reporters, lived alongside the fighting men, experiencing the daily realities of a British task force that was hugely outnumbered on a barren island 8,000 miles from home. The Falklands: The Winter War looks at the covert role of the SAS and the heroic death of Colonel ‘H’ Jones at Goose Green, and considers just how close Britain came to defeat.This is an extraordinarily frank and unsparing account of a military campaign that has held a defining place within the British national conscience since victory in 1982.

With the wit and geniality that has made him so many friends in politics, Webster gives has written the verdict on the character of the senior politicians he has got to know over the decades, the much criticised Westminster Lobby system, revealing the secrets of the way political journalists operate, the future of print journalism, and the changes in politics in his marathon career.Illustrated with cartoons from the award-winning Peter Brookes, the book includes the dramatic background to Labour’s decision not to enter the Euro in 1997, the interview at Chequers in 2006 that led to the fall of Tony Blair, and the gobsmacking revelation in 2002 of John Major’s affair with Edwina Currie. Unearthed is new information about the defeat of Margaret Thatcher by her party in 1990, the campaign of Major to replace her, the mystery of Michael Portillo's failed attempts to become Tory leader, the election of David Cameron, and the way he played the Coalition with Nick Clegg to his benefit.He reveals more about Brexit, betrayals within Cameron’s government, the long running feud between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, the reasons behind David Miliband's inability to beat his brother for the Labour leadership, the efforts to oust Brown and then Ed Miliband, the drama of Miliband's last day as Labour leader and the shock election of Jeremy Corbyn.It is the book that politicians and journalists have been waiting for. But it is one that will give readers explosive new insights on the way the stories they read at breakfast time emerge into the daylight.

Margaret Thatcher is the towering figure of late-twentieth-century British politics. No other prime minister of modern times has sought to change Britain and its place in the world as radically as she did. This is the story of her remarkable life in her own words – the definitive account of an extraordinary politician, published in a single volume for the first time.She writes candidly about the formation of her character and values, and the experiences that propelled her to the very top in a man's world. Beginning with a touching account of her upbringing in Grantham, Lincolnshire, she goes on to describe her Oxford years, marriage to Denis, and entry into Parliament at a time when there were no more than a handful of women MPs. Rising through the ranks to Education Secretary and then Leader of the Opposition, she led the Conservative Party to a historic victory in the 1979 general election, becoming Britain's first female prime minister.The heart of the book is a riveting first-hand portrait of the events and personalities of her eleven years in power. She recalls the triumphs and the critical moments of her premiership – the Falklands War, the miners' strike, the Brighton bomb, the Westland Affair and her unprecedented three election victories. Her judgements of the men and women she encountered, whether world statesmen or Cabinet colleagues, are astonishingly frank. She is lavish with praise where it is due; devastating with criticism when it is not. The book reaches a gripping climax with an hour-by-hour description from inside 10 Downing Street of her dramatic final days in office.Margaret Thatcher's compelling autobiography stands as a powerful testament to her extraordinary legacy.

A brilliant – and rather transgressive – collection of short stories from the double Man Booker Prize-winning author of Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror & the Light.Including a new story ‘The School of English’.Hilary Mantel is one of Britain’s most accomplished and acclaimed writers. In these ten bracingly subversive tales, all her gifts of characterisation and observation are fully engaged, summoning forth the horrors so often concealed behind everyday facades. Childhood cruelty is played out behind the bushes in ‘Comma’; nurses clash in ‘Harley Street’ over something more than professional differences; and in the title story, staying in for the plumber turns into an ambiguous and potentially deadly waiting game.Whether set in a claustrophobic Saudi Arabian flat or on a precarious mountain road in Greece, these stories share an insight into the darkest recesses of the spirit. Displaying all of Mantel’s unmistakable style and wit, they reveal a great writer at the peak of her powers.