Bøker av David Stafford

'A gripping account of Britain's secret war in Italy... Stafford vividly describes these missions with striking detail and telling quotes.' - BBC History Magazine In May 1945 Italy was liberated from Nazism by the British Eighth and American Fifth Armies. By that time the Italian resistance movement had emerged as one of the strongest in Europe - crucially aided and abetted by the UK's Special Operations Executive. As what Winston Churchill graphically described as the 'red-hot rake of the battle-line' advanced bloodily up the Italian peninsula, clandestine cells in the cities and partisan bands in the countryside fought to free their country from enemy occupation and shape the politics of Italy's post-war future. SOE in Italy, known as No.1 Special Force, parachuted in dozens of missions to supply the underground with weapons and ammunition, food and supplies. In a remarkable twist it also secretly collaborated with its former enemy, the Italian military intelligence service, and with the Italian Navy, which used fast torpedo boats and rubber dinghies to land British agents on heavily defended beaches. Based on recently released official files, documents retrieved from other agencies, diaries, memoirs and personal interviews, Mission Accomplished provides the first-ever complete and authoritative account of Britain's secret war in Italy - the heroic exploits, the larger-than-life participants and the extraordinary, against-the-odds achievements. Praise for Mission Accomplished: 'An admirably lucid and carefully balanced account... official histories are rarely as absorbing as this' - Times Literary Supplement 'A page-turning history' - Independent 'The mission was something of which both Britons and Italians can be rightly proud and Stafford does it full justice' - Daily Express 'Although this is an official history commissioned by the Cabinet Office, it is written with a light touch and Stafford is unafraid to give his own opinions' - Literary Review David Stafford is the author of several books on intelligence history, including Britain and European Resistance, Churchill and Secret Service, Roosevelt and Churchill: Men of Secrets, Flight from Reality, Ten Days to D-Day and Endgame 1945. He was Professor of History at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Executive Director of the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, Chairman of the Canadian Association for Security and Intelligence Studies, an Associate Member of St. Antony's College, Oxford, and Project Director at the Centre for the Study of the Two World Wars at the University of Edinburgh, where he is currently an Honorary Fellow.

The spy novel is a twentieth-century phenomenon that quickly established itself as a best-selling genre of thriller writing. Who were the writers of these pacey, danger-ridden adventures? What were their motives? And what was the secret of their success? From the early part of the century, when spy writers wove stories of handsome heroes rescuing beautiful women from the clutches of villains, to the present day's concerns with double-agents and superpower politics, spy novels have reflected the preoccupations of their times. And the best writers, such as John Buchan, Compton Mackenzie, Ian Fleming, John le Carre and Graham Greene, have all had personal experience of the 'silent game' of international espionage. The highly political genre of spy-writing enables writers to explore such powerful themes as patriotism, loyalty, subversion and treason, as well as to create elaborate plots and heroic exploits that are often closer to life than one would suspect. Eloquently written and impeccably researched, The Silent Game is essential reading for everyone who wonders where, in the world of secret agents and international spies, imagination and reality meet. David Stafford is an historian and former diplomat who has written extensively on espionage, intelligence, Churchill, and the Second World War. He is now an Honorary Fellow and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, where he and his wife now live.

Shortly after 11 pm on 10 May 1941, a Scottish ploughman spotted a parachutist floating to the ground in a field at Floors Farm, a dozen miles south of Glasgow. He ran out to find a burning twin-engine Messerschmitt Bf 110 bomber and an injured officer wearing the uniform of a captain of the German air force. The aviator identified himself as Captain Albert Horn and asked to be taken to see the Duke of Hamilton for whom, he claimed, he was carrying an important message. In reality, 'Captain Horn' was none other than Rudolf Hess, Deputy Führer and right-hand man of Adolf Hitler. Arrested and interrogated by various government officials, it soon emerged that Hess was seeking to negotiate a peace deal between Britain and Germany. Held as a prisoner of war for the next four years, he was convicted of conspiracy and crimes against peace at the Nuremberg Trials and sentenced to life imprisonment. Hess's flight to Britain has remained one of the most bizarre and mysterious chapters in the history of the Second World War and has created a multitude of colourful conspiracy theories. Some have claimed that Hess came as an emissary of Hitler or that his mission was engineered by British Intelligence; others that Hitler's deputy had died in a plane crash while flying with the Duke of Kent in 1942 and that a double went to trial in Nuremberg. In Flight from Reality, editor David Stafford has assembled an international team of experts on this episode, including Hugh Trevor-Roper, John Erickson, Warren Kimball and Len Deighton. The result is the definitive account of Hess's mission that separates fact from fiction and sheds new light on its significance in the history of the Second World War. Praise for Flight from Reality: 'Fascinating ... far more intriguing than the wildest conspiracy theory' - Scotland on Sunday David Stafford is the author or editor of several books on intelligence history, including Britain and European Resistance, Churchill and Secret Service, Roosevelt and Churchill: Men of Secrets and Secret Agent: The True Story of the Special Operations Executive. He is Project Director at the Centre for Second World War Studies in the Department of History at the University of Edinburgh.

Their unique relationship was based on linked national histories and partially shared nationality - Churchill was half American - similarities in class and education, a love for the navy, and a common belief in the superiority of Anglo-Saxon institutions. It was cemented by shared enemies: Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. On these foundations, Churchill and Roosevelt constructed a fighting alliance unlike any other in history. But at the heart of this special relationship, hidden by layers of secrecy, was a far-reaching sharing of intelligence that was the most sensitive touchstone of their mutual trust. In Roosevelt and Churchill: Men of Secrets, David Stafford draws on recently declassified information and his own specialist understanding of intelligence to illuminate the relationship between two men who, as leaders and allies, were towering figures of twentieth-century history. Praise for Roosevelt and Churchill: Men of Secrets: 'Provides a great backdrop into the friendship and covert chess match between FDR and Churchill' - Goodreads review'A swift, well-documented assessment of the relationship's "volatile mix of friendship, rivalry and resentment" ' - Kirkus Reviews Educated at Downing College, Cambridge and the University of London, David Stafford is a historian and writer noted for his scholarly works on Churchill and World War II, British espionage and twentieth-century intelligence. He lives in British Columbia, Canada.

The author pens an engaging and original account of 1921, a pivotal year for Churchill that had a lasting impact on his political and personal legacy.

Mary Dutton is accused of killing her husband by poison, though there aren't many who dispute her involvement in his death. The police see it as an open-and-shut case, and even those protesting for her freedom believe she committed the act, but is innocent of wrongdoing after suffering years of domestic abuse.Since his recent success in the high-profile Dryden case catapulted him to the front pages of the national press, unassuming Yorkshireman Arthur Skelton is now one of the most celebrated and recognisable barristers in the land. His services are much in demand and, despite the odds, he agrees to represent Mary Dutton.Yet with a general election on the horizon and both sides of the political divide keen to turn the Dutton case to their advantage, as well as long-held secrets within the Dutton family itself, can Skelton ever really expose the truth?

Traces the history of spy writers and their fiction from creator William Le Queux, of the Edwardian age, to John le Carre, of the Cold War era. Stafford reveals the connections between fact and fiction as seen in the lives of writers with experience in intelligence, including John Buchan, Somerset Maugham, Ian Fleming, and Graham Greene.

Lionel Bart was a writer and composer of British pop music and musicals, best known for creating the book, music and lyrics for Oliver! He also wrote the famous songs Living Doll (Cliff Richard) and From Russia With Love (Matt Munroe).He was a millionaire aged thirty in the Sixties, bankrupt in the Seventies and died in 1999.