To mark remembrance day,  we would like to share two poems from Heroes: 100 Poems from the New Generation of War Poets

Some Help Here, Please!

Warrant Officer Theodore Knell (59)
Parachute Regiment

Hello God it’s me again.
I know I only call when I’m really in the shit
but at least you know you’re needed
and I’m not faking it.
I’ve heard men call your name
when they’re about to jump;
they promise to never drink again,
to go to church every Sunday

if you’ll only let them survive the fall
and live to see just one more day.

But with me you know it’s different
I only call when it’s something really big,
well God today is one of those days.
I know you’re busy elsewhere
with other
more deserving lives to save
but you must have heard that bloody great bang
and seen the white plumes of our phos grenades

To say we’re outnumbered would be a bit of a joke
the firefight’s in full swing now
the air full of buzzing bullets
and thick with acrid smoke

I have two dead
and of the four that are left
two of us are carrying fresh wounds
so as you can see
we’re in well over our heads

I’ve spoken to Zero
he says they’re on their way
but it could be some time
so it would be really good to get a second opinion
as to whether I’ll live to fight another day

anyway God,
needs must
things to do and lives to take

thanks very much for listening
but I suspect the next time we talk

it could well be
face to face

This is My War,
but No One Shoots at Me

Colonel Simon Marrambe (46)
Royal Regiment of Fusiliers,
Afghanistan (Operation Herrick) 2007 and 2010

This is my war, but no one shoots at me.
Weekly we meet to review strategy.
Clustered in corners of Whitehall labyrinths,
We are the comprehensive government.
Forward looking and customer facing,
We’re joined up, linked in, clever and snappy.

This is my war, but no one shoots at me.
Handshakes and smiles before we take tea
(Coffee the victim of efficiencies).
Sitting in our designated places
We watch VTCs’* broadcasting faces
From the business end. They are audible,
Even visible, but still so remote.

This is my war, but no one shoots at me.
We few, we happy few, serving politely.
Sifting and shifting the words and papers
In artful mazes of prepared phrases.
All stakeholders must feel free to express
The risks, costs; departmental prejudice.

This is my war, but no one shoots at me.
We weave politics and priorities
Into strategies with ends, but no means.
Minimal resources are projected
Departmental budgets are protected.
Agreeing to disagree, we depart.

* Video Telephone Conference

The royal family is almost always in the news, and never more so than when there is a wedding in prospect. A new book on the meaning of English place names reminds us that the royals have been leaving their mark on towns and cities round the country for hundreds of years.

There’s been a royal connection with Windsor for almost a thousand years. The name means ‘bank or slope with a windlass’, presumably because the Anglo-Saxons who first settled here built a winch or windlass to help lift goods out of boats and into the village. Then the Saxon king Edward the Confessor took a fancy to the place and after he died William the Conqueror built a castle here. It’s still there, and it is the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world.

Queenborough in Kent goes back to the fourteenth century, when Edward III built a castle and a town here and named it in honour of his queen, Philippa. No one is sure why: it may have been to protect the French from sneaking up the river and attacking London; or, given that it happened not long after the Black Death had swept across Europe, it may have been somewhere the king and queen could take refuge in case of plague.

Regis is the Latin for ‘of the king’ and places like Lyme Regis and Bognor Regis have, at various times, enjoyed royal favour. So have Royal Leamington Spa and Royal Tunbridge Wells. Queen Victoria obviously loved spa towns: it was she who granted Leamington Spa the right to call itself ‘royal’ and her son Edward VII who did the same for Tunbridge Wells. For over a hundred years they have been the only ‘royal’ towns in England, but later this year Wootton Bassett will also be given this title because of its role in honouring soldiers who have died in Afghanistan.

And finally, to return to the subject of the royal wedding, the new Princess Catherine was born in Reading, a place whose name tells us only that it was settled by the followers of a man called Reada. The Anglo-Saxons were great ones for nicknames, though, so we think it is likely that the unknown Mr Reada had red hair.

Caroline Taggart, author of The Book of English Place Names: How Our Towns and Villages Got Their Names

Alan Titchmarsh was busy promoting When I Was a Nipper last Friday 12th November, starting with radio interviews with BBC Radio Berkshire and R4 You and Yours, before attending a packed signing event at Chapter One bookshop in Woodley. There were queues out the door for the full hour and a half that Alan was there, including a visit from the local primary school’s gardening club who interviewed him!

He then stopped off to sign stock at Waterstones and One Tree Books in Petersfield, before doing interviews for Candis Magazine and the PA and finally attending his sell-out event at Chichester Festivities in the evening. This Friday (19th) will see Alan returning to his home town of Ilkley for further promotional activity, including BBC Radio Leeds, a signing at The Grove Bookshop, Ilkley followed by interviews with The Dalesman, Yorkshire Life and Look North. Alan then has another huge event, this time in conjunction with The Yorkshire Post at 7pm at the Majestic Hotel in Harrogate.

Read an extract

Jenny - Press Officer

Immodesty Blaize’s second book, Ambition, was published in October and to celebrate we sent some spectacular showgirls out into central London. Did you catch a glimpse of them? If not, we’ve got some great pictures of the activity below…

Read an extract from Ambition

Watch Immodesty read from Ambition

“Entertaining and moving … This is a brilliant introduction for anyone seeking to understand the origins and outcomes of the battle. A dramatic tale, well told” News of the World

“No one can relive the battle except the men who fought it, and here they are in a tide of telling testimony…expertly tracked down and anthologised by our foremost oral historian of the war, the self-effacing Max Arthur…The Battle of Britain has been encrusted with myth. The Few have sometimes been caricatured as cheerful, beer-swilling slang-using, devil-may-care kite prangers. There is none of that jolly exaggeration here. Read it, and remember.” Daily Mail

Today is the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and Max Arthur’s Last of the Few, published earlier this year, is a remarkable collection of first-hand memories from this pivotal conflict. Recreating the events of the summer of 1940, it tells the story of the young men of the RAF who became lauded by Churchill as The Few. Max will be heard on BBC local radio stations across the country this morning, but some of the extracts below give a flavour of the testimonies within the book:

Flying Officer Al Deere
(New Zealander) 54 Squadron
“We used to try and get up above them and come in from out of the sun. But it didn’t always work that way. Sometimes you didn’t see them – they were somewhere up in the sun. When you became engaged it was every man for himself. One minute there were Spitfires and Me 109s going around in circles; the next you were all by yourself. That was if you were still there”

Sergeant James A Goodson
(American) 43 Squadron
“Even the Germans got to respect the Spitfire. Peter Townsend went to see one of the German pilots he has shot down. The German said to him: ‘I’m very glad to meet the Spitfire pilot who shot me down.’ Peter said: ‘No, no. I was flying a hurricane.’ The German kept arguing and Peter kept saying: ‘No – you were shot down by a Hurricane.’ The German said: ‘Would you do me a favour? If you ever talk to any other Luftwaffe pilots, please tell them I was shot down by a spitfire.”

Pilot Officer George Bennions
41 Squadron
“I was annoyed at myself for having been shot down. I felt very sorry for myself, which is not a good situation for anybody. But one person put me on a more even footing. As I opened the door in Ward 3 I saw what I can only describe now as the most horrifying thing I have ever seen. This chap had been really badly burned: his hair was burned off, and his eyebrows and eyelids. You could just see his staring eyes, two holes in his face. His nose and lips were also badly burned. I looked down and saw that his hands and feet were burned. I got through the door on my crutches, and then this chap started propelling a wheelchair down the ward. He picked up the back of a chair with his teeth…Then he brought this chair down the war and threw it alongside me and said ‘Have a seat, old boy.’ It was then that I cried. I thought, ‘What have I got to complain about?’”

Pilot Office Bob Doe
234 and 238 Squadrons
“I wasn’t fighting for the King. I was fighting for my mum. I didn’t want them over here.”

Caroline - Deputy Publicity Director
Read more of this book

Last week Louise Wener visited Random House for a glass or two of Pimm’s to celebrate the publication of her book Different for Girls. With the soundtrack from the book in the background (courtesy of a Spotify playlist put together by Louise in Marketing using tracks mentioned in the book) she was joined by fans from all over the building who were fans of Sleeper and of Louise’s writing. As well as signing copies of her book Louise autographed some of her hit singles and a fanzine brought in by a keen fan who shall remain nameless…

Different for Girls has attracted some great reviews on Amazon:

***** A joy from start to finish!, 8 Jun 2010
Evie1970
An hilarious, poignant, painfully honest, clever and nostalgic insight into both growing up in the 70’s and the Britpop explosion. Wener’s intelligent, funny obvservations and self-deprecating narration draw you in from the off. Her self-awareness and unflinching honesty is disarming and very engaging… so much more than a “Britpop Babylon”.
I didn’t expect to enjoy it this much, but “Different for Girls” is definitely the best rock memoir I’ve read in years.

***** Different for girls, but still funny even for blokes., 19 Jun 2010
Mr. S. Turpin
By turns funny, reflective and bittersweet, it charts the highs and lows of the band with a great turn of phrase. Louise isn’t afraid to point at herself and laugh, and her pen sketches of some other Britpop luminaries are funny and revealing.

***** a mini-history of 70’s / 80s music, 20 Jun 2010
A.Kinson
“Different for Girls” is one of those rare books that you can read cover to cover in one day. If you grew up listening to music in the 70’s and 80’s, there is plenty to spark off some warm nostalgia in “Different for Girls”.

***** Best music book by far.., 11 Jun 2010
Ms. Meleri W. Thomas
I rarely laugh out loud like I did reading Different For Girls. I’ve never held a book in my hand whilst I’m waiting for the toaster to pop.

Watch Louise talk about her memoir:

Read an extract

Visit the Louise Wener website

Hannah - Publicity Manager

When Lehman Brothers went under, the world gasped. One of the world’s biggest and most successful banks, its downfall was the event that sparked the slide of the world economy toward a Great Depression II.

See below to read the prologue of A Colossal Failure of Common Sense, the gripping inside story of the destruction of Lehman Brothers, by insider Larry McDonald…

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