Books published by publisher Aurora Press

On the 17th of July, 1936, a Nationalist military uprising was launched in Spain. In the face of the rebels' bloody march, the Spanish Republic turned to the leaders of Britain and France for assistance - but its pleas fell on deaf ears. Appalled at the prospect of another European democracy succumbing to fascism, volunteers from across the Continent - and beyond - flocked to Spain's aid, many to join the International Brigades.

All Behind You, Winston tells the story of the most remarkable gathering of leaders in modern British history: the War Ministry that saw the country through its darkest - and finest - hour. When Winston Churchill became Prime Minister on 10 May 1940, it was not with the unanimous support of Westminster or the country. For many, Lord Halifax was the obvious choice to succeed Neville Chamberlain, and Churchill's grasp of the Home Front appeared uncertain at best. He assembled around him, however, a Cabinet of 'all the talents'; which would variously mobilise, arm, feed, fund, shelter, evacuate, heal and, ultimately, save Britain. Among these remarkable men - and women - were Churchill's rivals Lord Halifax and Sir Stafford Cripps, the loyal and dogged Clement Attlee, titanic egos such as Lord Beaverbrook and John Reith, the popular department store owner Lord Woolton (the man who kept the nation fed), the propagandist and playboy Duff Cooper, and many of the statesmen who would go on to build the New Jerusalem in peacetime. By 1945 they had not only steered the country to victory, they had also ensured Churchill's inviolable position in our national myth - an outcome that had seemed far from likely five years earlier. In a series of character-driven chapters, Roger Hermiston, a former deputy editor on Radio 4-s Today and the author of The Greatest Traitor, tells the behind-closed-doors story of the key figures and key ministries, delving deep into the archives to bring to life a Cabinet that was both the brain and the conscience of the nation.

Sobibor is a disturbing novel that deals with eating disorders and the psychological effect of the past. Two stories are skillfully woven together about a teenage girl who is looking for answers and the secret lives of her grandparents who collaborated with the Germans at a concentration camp in Poland. Coincides with the anniversary of the Sobibor inmate uprising.

The moving story of a young woman whose life is abruptly interrupted when her husband bows to pressure and decides he must divorce her after ten years of happy marriage. Despite their genuine love for each other which the woman perceives as an unbreakable and sacred bond, their failure to produce a child is seen as shameful by their ultra-orthodox Jewish family. It is thought that God is not blessing the union so the husband gives into the demands of his family to marry a new wife, irrespective of the facts relating to his own infertility. The loss felt by the young woman at the heart of the story who cannot bring herself to tell her husband the truth and hurt his manhood, is told in an intimate and intensely poignant style. Made into a feature film by Amos Gitai which became a classic with the title 'Kadosh' ('Sacred') and was selected for Cannes Film Festival. Winner Of The 'Prix Des Écrivains Croyants', Finalist for the Prix Femina and the Academy Francaise's Grand Prix du Roman .

Prickly Predicaments is the first of a series of three books for children, aimed at a ten to eleven year old audience. The main characters are two desert hedgehogs that live in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. The action in Prickly Predicaments covers two nights and a day in the lives of Henrietta and Harry as they become separated from one another. Two boys, one Saudi and one American, come into possession of the animals. The story concerns the adventures of the hedgehogs within the two households and how they come to be reunited. All of Harry and Henrietta's actions reflect the natural behavior of hedgehogs and details of Arabic language, ambience and culture are based on my experience as a long time resident of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The boys have in common: their love of animals, trouble communicating with their fathers and their sense that boys live in a secret world apart, not accessible to adults. The hedgehogs display no interest in the humans. It is their indifference to anything but their own condition which establishes their credibility as dignified creatures with a right to be free. The Middle Eastern motif is topical and presents the Arab culture realistically but non-judgmentally. In the course of the story some cultural differences between Americans and Saudis are overcome by mutual human concerns and the friendship of the two boys.

Harry and Henrietta are desert hedgehogs form the Arabian Peninsula. In this story they are inadvertently kidnapped by two sailors from a cargo ship bound for New Zealand. On the ship they encounter a terrifying foe and make an awesome ally. Eventually they make a home for themselves as immigrants to a new land. The hedgehogs display no interest in the humans they encounter. It is their indifference to anything but their own condition which establishes their credibility as dignified creatures with a right to be free.

With a complete statistical record since the 1896 founding of the modern Games—including medals won and times, distances, or scores recorded by the top eight competitors in all events (from staples such as the marathon to long-discontinued competitions such as the tug of war), this encyclopedic tome contains anything anyone could ever need or want to know about the modern Olympic Games. Far from a dry compendium of names, numbers, and scoring systems, this book also contains a summary history of every event at each of the 26 modern Games, enriched with an extraordinary wealth of Olympic lore and anecdote. The authors provide thought-provoking analysis of issues and controversies from shamateurism to drug-taking and corruption, and they have sieved through more than a century of Olympic history to assemble a mind-boggling collection of stories that range from the inspiring, through the comic, to the bizarre. Such long-forgotten characters are included as the boy who was plucked from the streets of Paris to navigate for two Dutch oarsmen in the paired-oar event in 1900 and, after steering them to victory and a Gold Medal, returned to obscurity, his name unknown to this day; or the 72-year-old winner of a silver medal for target-shooting.