Andrew Cook – författare

A chance remark on the stairs at Peter Morris Music in London’s Denmark Street, in October 1963, set off a chain reaction that helped Brian Epstein apply some much-needed leverage on America’s Hollywood-based Capitol label.Although February 1963 marked the Beatles’ breakthrough in Britain, by the closing months of that year they still had not conquered the United States. Their manager Brian Epstein had been fighting what seemed like a losing battle to persuade Capitol to release the band’s records in America. Indeed, when the Beatles eventually hit the big time in the United States in February 1964, both Epstein and Capitol executives obscured the truth behind it.What is the story behind this essential step in the Beatles’ meteoric rise to worldwide fame? In Capitol Gains, historian Andrew Cook uses corporate and personal archives to reveal the reality behind this and much more, lifting the lid on Capitol’s unfavourable view of the British record industry and how they set out to remix UK master tapes and create distinct US albums. It shows how, while Capitol’s strategy made the Beatles rich beyond their wildest dreams, Epstein often struggled to balance Capitol’s commercial decisions against the Beatles’ own demands, and explores the efforts made to protect the Beatles’ image as they were caught up in the whirlwind of global success.

The book uncovers the involvement of the Secret Service and how Maundy Gregory exploited sensitive information that enabled him to gain access and influence to pillars of the establishment. It reveals for the first time the contents of the recently de-classified secret file held on Gregory and his activities by the Vatican and exposes the circumstances surrounding Gregory's 1933 arrest for selling honours and the deal he was offered by Cabinet Ministers to quit the country in return for a light sentence and a pension for life.

The name Ian Fleming is synonymous with British espionage, both with his work as a naval intelligence officer in the Second World War as well as with his creation of the most famous fictional spy in literary history: James Bond. This book centres on Ian Fleming the man, his contradictions and his public and private personality. It examines the person behind the myth and how in particular he managed (unsuccessfully at first) to create a film franchise that has lasted over fifty years. It considers Fleming’s reputation as a writer, the ‘formula method’ he perfected and that formula’s reliance on the recycling of real individuals and events, as well as the occasional reliance on plagiarism. It uniquely accesses a number of recently opened government files that shed light on previously unknown wartime operations, such as the Air Ministry’s top secret ‘Operation Grand Slam’, which was used in Goldfinger.

Ace of Spies reveals for the first time the true story of Sidney Reilly, the real-life inspiration behind fictional hero James Bond. Andrew Cook's startling biography cuts through the myths to tell the full story of the greatest spy the world has ever know. Sidney Reilly influenced world history through acts of extraordinary courage and sheer audacity. He was a master spy, a brilliant con man, a charmer, a cad and a lovable rogue who lived on his wits and thrived on danger, using women shamelessly and killing where necessary - and unnecessary. Sidney Reilly is one of the most fascinating spies of the twentieth century, yet he remains one of the most enigmatic - until now.

The murder of Rasputin on the night of 16-17 December 1916 has always seemed extraordinary: first he was poisoned, then shot and finally drowned in a frozen river by Russian aristocrats fearful of his influence on Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra. Or was he? Dramatic new evidence from previously unpublished documents, diaries, forensic reports and intelligence records now means the plot takes a remarkable twist.Grigori Rasputin is probably one of the best-known but least understood figures in the events that ultimately led to the downfall of the Russian tsars. His political role as the power behind the throne is obscured today, as it was then, by the fascination with his morality and private life. Andrew Cook's re-investigation of Rasputin's death reveals for the first time the real masterminds behind the murder of the 'mad monk'.Why does the story of a peasant from a distant Siberian village becoming the all-powerful favourite of the last Russian tsar excite us more than almost any other episode in Russian history? Why are there more lies and concealment than truth in the story of his murder? Was this extraordinary man an evil demon who brought down the royal family, or somebody who could have been its saviour? To Kill Rasputin finally provides the answers to the many mysteries surrounding this pivotal moment in Russian history.

William Melville was one of the most influential counter - espionage figures of the twentieth century. This work presents the true story of the real M, William Melville, MI5s founding father and the inspiration for Ian Flemings character in "James Bond".

Prince Albert Victor, King Edward Vll's (r 1901-10) first son and heir to the throne, and popularly known as Eddy, has virtually been airbrushed out of history. In this book, Andrew Cook, the presenter and historical consultant of the Channel 4 documentary on the life of Prince Eddy, reveals the truth about a key royal figure, a man who would have made a fine king and changed the face of the British monarchy.

The Great Train Robbery of 1963 is one of the most infamous crimes in British history. The bulk of the money stolen (equivalent to over £40 million today) has never been recovered, and there has not been a single year since 1963 when one aspect of the crime or its participants has not been featured in the media. Despite the wealth and extent of this coverage, a host of questions have remained unanswered: Who was behind the robbery? Was it an inside job? And who got away with the crime of the century? Fifty years of selective falsehood and fantasy has obscured the reality of the story behind the robbery. The fact that a considerable number of the original investigation and prosecution files on those involved and alleged to have been involved were closed, in many cases until 2045, has only served to muddy the waters still further. Now, through Freedom of Information requests and the exclusive opening of many of these files, Andrew Cook reveals a new picture of the crime and its investigation that, at last, provides answers to many of these questions.

European Air Traffic Management: Principles, Practice and Research is a single source of reference on the key subject areas of air traffic management in Europe. It brings together material that was previously unobtainable, hidden within technical documents or dispersed across disparate sources. With a broad cross-section of contributors from across the industry and academia, the book offers an effective treatment of the key issues in current, and developing, European ATM. It explains the principles of air traffic management and its practical workings, bridging the academic and operational worlds to give an insight into this evolving field, with a number of fresh perspectives brought to the text. On-going research and developments are closely integrated into the themes, demonstrating the likely directions of future ATM in Europe and the challenges it will face. It is anticipated that many readers will already have expertise in one or more of the chapters’ subject matter, but wish to develop a further understanding of the areas covered in others, taking advantage of the many thematic and operational links which have been illustrated. The book will appeal to both aviation academics and practitioners, equally for those whose area of expertise is outside ATM but want a clearly elucidated source of reference, as to those wishing to broaden existing knowledge.

European Air Traffic Management: Principles, Practice and Research is a single source of reference on the key subject areas of air traffic management in Europe. It brings together material that was previously unobtainable, hidden within technical documents or dispersed across disparate sources. With a broad cross-section of contributors from across the industry and academia, the book offers an effective treatment of the key issues in current, and developing, European ATM. It explains the principles of air traffic management and its practical workings, bridging the academic and operational worlds to give an insight into this evolving field, with a number of fresh perspectives brought to the text. On-going research and developments are closely integrated into the themes, demonstrating the likely directions of future ATM in Europe and the challenges it will face. It is anticipated that many readers will already have expertise in one or more of the chapters’ subject matter, but wish to develop a further understanding of the areas covered in others, taking advantage of the many thematic and operational links which have been illustrated. The book will appeal to both aviation academics and practitioners, equally for those whose area of expertise is outside ATM but want a clearly elucidated source of reference, as to those wishing to broaden existing knowledge.

MI14 was set up in 1940 as a clearing house for intelligence from and about Nazi Germany. In addition to their own networks and operations, MI14 also had the benefit of intelligence from MI5, MI6 and MI9.The Gestapo was one of the main areas of MI14 interest. Established in 1933 as Department 1A of the Prussian State Police, the Gestapo (a contraction of Geheime Staatspolizei – state secret police) soon became identified as the Nazis’ leading instrument of repression and synonymous with the brutality and terror of the regime.Charged with state security, the Gestapo singled out opponents, real or imaginary, within Germany and the occupied territories, brutally suppressing them with torture and execution, and actively seeking to promote the Nazi state’s perverse policies.This book also reveals that the Gestapo was not as all-powerful as it is often assumed, and was often under-resourced and overstretched, relying to a great extent on the willingness of ‘ordinary Germans’ to provide information on their fellow citizens.

Air traffic management (ATM) comprises a highly complex socio-technical system that keeps air traffic flowing safely and efficiently, worldwide, every minute of the year. Over the last few decades, several ambitious ATM performance improvement programmes have been undertaken. Such programmes have mostly delivered local technological solutions, whilst corresponding ATM performance improvements have fallen short of stakeholder expectations. In hindsight, this can be substantially explained from a complexity science perspective: ATM is simply too complex to address through classical approaches such as system engineering and human factors. In order to change this, complexity science has to be embraced as ATM's 'best friend'. The applicability of complexity science paradigms to the analysis and modelling of future operations is driven by the need to accommodate long-term air traffic growth within an already-saturated ATM infrastructure. Complexity Science in Air Traffic Management is written particularly, but not exclusively, for transport researchers, though it also has a complementary appeal to practitioners, supported through the frequent references made to practical examples and operational themes such as performance, airline strategy, passenger mobility, delay propagation and free-flight safety. The book should also have significant appeal beyond the transport domain, due to its intrinsic value as an exposition of applied complexity science and applied research, drawing on examples of simulations and modelling throughout, with corresponding insights into the design of new concepts and policies, and the understanding of complex phenomena that are invisible to classical techniques.

‘There I met and was introduced to 13 men, one of whom I already knew. Three of these men and another who joined the group later have never, to my knowledge, been wanted by the police in connection with the train robbery so, for their protection, I will refer to them as, Joe, Bert, Sid, and Fred.’ - Ronnie BiggsIn the early hours of Thursday, 8 August 1963, sixteen masked men ambushed the Glasgow-Euston mail train at Sears Crossing in Buckinghamshire. Making off with a record haul of £2.6 million, the robbers received approximately £150,000 each (over £2 million in today’s money). While twelve of the robbers were jailed over the next five years, four were never brought to justice – they evaded arrest and thirty-year prison sentences, and lived out the rest of their lives in freedom. In stark contrast to the likes of Ronnie Biggs, Buster Edwards and Bruce Reynolds, they became neither household names nor tabloid celebrities.Who were these men? How did they escape detection for so long? And how, almost sixty years later, are their names not common knowledge?In No Case to Answer, Andrew Cook gathers and examines decades of evidence and lays it out end-to-end. It’s time for you to draw your own conclusions.

While we conveniently package the past into decades when talking about the ‘Roaring ’20s’, ‘the Rock and Roll era’ of the ’50s or the ‘Swinging ’60s’, these tend to be labels of convenience rather than of historical accuracy. In reality, the first four years of the 1950s were more akin to the 1940s, with austerity and rationing still facts of every-day life. Likewise, the first three years of the ’60s were, in terms of fashion, social attitudes and living standards, really part of the 1950s. The year 1963 was to be the seminal year when most of the things we now associate with the ‘Swinging ’60s’ really began.Most years are fortunate to experience three or four seminal events during their allotted twelve months; a cursory look through a chronology of 1963, however, shows just how many significant events took place. This year alone saw a huge number of watershed moments in popular culture, national and international politics.Arranged in a chronological, month-by-month format, 1963: That Was the Year That Was pieces together these happenings, exploring their immediate and long-term effects and implications. This is a fascinating read for both those who lived through these momentous times, and those who want to learn more about the start of the swinging ’60s.

Based on exclusive access to MI5 documents and newly discovered Russian papers, the true fate of the Romonovs. The overthrow and execution of Tsar Nicholas II and the Russian Imperial family is a cause celebre of twentieth-century history. Andrew Cook's re-investigation of the story finally solves one of the greatest mysteries of world history. The author draws upon new forensic evidence and newly discovered British and Russian Secret Service records reveal the truth about the family's murder, the proposed British rescue of the Imperial family led by Major Stephen Alley, and the Secret Service mission inside Russia after the family's reported deaths to discover the truth about their fate.

Finally solves the mystery of the Victorian serial killer who murdered and mutilated up to 11 women in London in 1888. The most famous serial killer in history. A sadistic stalker of seedy Victorian backstreets. A master criminal. The man who got away with murder - over and over again. But while literally hundreds of books have been published, trying to pin Jack's crimes on an endless list of suspects, no-one has considered the much more likely explanation for Jack's getting away with it - He never existed. Andrew Cook goes in search of the real story of Jack the Ripper - and this story isn't set in the brothels of the East End but in the boardrooms of Fleet Street. this is a tale of hysteria whipped up by competing tabloid editors and publishers. The central thesis is that Jack the Ripper was the invention of tabloid journalists. The key evidence for the existence of the Ripper - a serial killer responsible for at least seven bestial murders - came in the form of two letters to the Central News Agency, from a man who identified himself as the killer and called himself 'Jack'. These letters can now be plausibly traced back to shadowy tabloid journalists - not intent on solving the crime, but on boosting their careers and their papers' sales. The effect of these poison pen letters combined with the gruesome crimes was to give the tabloid media its first hate figure and to boost the circulations of ailing newspapers. The media had discovered the power of a national witch-hunt.