Faber Finds – serie

Sir Alexander Cadogan was one of the most outstanding civil servants Britain has ever known. He kept a diary from 1933 until the year of his death, 1968, at the age of eighty-three. This volume concentrates on the crucial years from 1938 to 1945. In 1938 Sir Alexander became the Under-Secretary of State at the Foreign Office. He was to hold that position for the next eight years. As chief adviser to three Foreign Secretaries, Eden (for two periods), Halifax and Bevin, working under three Prime Ministers in Chamberlain, Churchill and Attlee, Cadogan had longer consecutive service at the centre of British affairs than any of them. His tenure of office lasted from the first rumblings of the Czechoslovak and Munich crises through the entire war years to the establishment of the United Nations Organization (in the birth of which - and later as Britain's Permanent Representative - he had a profound and formative role admired on both sides of the Iron Curtain). As head of the Foreign Office, trusted and respected by statesmen and colleagues alike for his calm courage, integrity and 'common sense and judgement carried to the point where they almost amounted to genius', Cadogan played a vital part in the conduct and decision-making if his country's affairs. For eight years he attended the most important Cabinet and Cabinet Committee meetings, ran a great Department of State, and accompanied Churchill on his many wartime journeys to the Big Power conferences at Washington, Moscow, Cairo, Tehran and Yalta.Sir Alexander's meticulously kept private record of those years is a document of the highest historical value. It illumines the workings of the Foreign Office and the Cabinet, the conduct of alliances and international diplomacy at a time of unparalleled importance. From these diaries and the more personal 'diary letters' sent by Sir Alexander to his wife when he travelled abroad, David Dilks has produced a book of lasting importance.On 15 August 1945, with the announcement of the Japanese surrender, Cadogan wrote: ' . . . here is the culmination. The problems in front of us are manifold and awful. But I've lived through England's finest hour . . . ' In essence, The Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan are a record of the part played in that hour by one of England's finest servants.

Conquerors of Time celebrates 150 years of courage, energy, innovation, resourcefulness and grand ideas, from the late 17th century to the early 20th. It's about the seafarers, engineers, inventors and trailblazers who enabled the British to hold together a vast empire and the Americans to push their frontiers west.Some, such as Captain Cook and Robert Stephenson are famous. Others, like the makers of chromonometers, the collectors of tropical plants or the railway engineers who roughed it in the Canadian wilderness are less well-known. What they all had in common is a desire to understand the world and a determination to harness the forces of nature. 'Trevor Fishlock's brio and broad vision matches those of his subjects and makes for a rattling good read.' Lawrence James, Daily Mail'Fact-filled and highly evocative ... the sheer romance of the story is irresistible.' Sunday Telegraph

Few figures have dominated a nation's destiny as much as Marshal Tito of former Yugoslavia. For nearly thirty years he held together mutually hostile religious groups in a deeply divided country, but his death in 1980 rekindled centuries-old hatreds and by 1992 Yugoslavia ceased to exist. In this revealing biography, Richard West questions the full impact of Tito's reign of power and his implicit responsibility for the ensuing violent, bloody war in Bosnia.'Excellent ... I recommend his book for those who already know about Yugoslavia and want food for thought about the future.' David Owen, Sunday Times'Admirable ... Carefully researched and extremely readable.' Literary Review'A passionate book, in which West's historical sense is interlaced with his own very intimate knowledge of Yugoslavia from the late 1940s on and of the poignancy of [subsequent] events.' Fergus Pyle, Irish Times'Masterly'. Glasgow Herald

'By far the best study of Britain and the First World War that has yet been written.' London Review of BooksThe Myriad Faces of War, first published in 1987, is a unique and compelling study of the First World War from the standpoint of British involvement. It explores the reasons for Britain's entry into the war, the nature and course of Britain's participation, and the far-reaching repercussions of the war on British society. The result is a rich and comprehensive chronicle of the social, political, diplomatic and military aspects of the 'Great War.''Professor Trevor Wilson's mighty work on the first world war... is a truly significant contribution to our understanding of what the war meant to the British people... a disciplined, unsentimental and thoughtful book - and it also retains strongly the human touch.' Spectator'Wilson ranges impressively over all major aspects of the conflict... a judicious, readable overview of a monster subject.' New York Times

'There is the puzzle which it is the purpose of this book to try to elucidate. On the one hand, we have the alleged deficiencies of suburban taste; on the other we have the appeal it holds for ninety out of a hundred Englishmen, an appeal which cannot be explained away as some strange instance of mass aberration...'Sir James Richards (1907-1992), editor of the Architectural Review for 34 years, was arguably the leading advocate in Britain for the modern movement in architecture. The Castles on the Ground (1946) constitutes Richards' argument for and appreciation of the virtues of the built environment and the architectural aesthetic of suburbia. Concise and elegantly phrased, the volume is further blessed with superb illustrations by John Piper.

'Thirst for information, faith in commerce and industry, inventiveness and technical daring, energy and tenacity, and a tendency to mix up religion with visible success - all these qualities have to be remembered as one embarks on a conducted tour of some of the exhibits of 1851.'The Great Exhibition of 1851 at the Crystal Palace was opened by Queen Victoria and would attract more than six million visitors. Writing one hundred years later, Nikolaus Pevsner makes a brilliant survey of what the Exhibition - 'the final flourish of a century of great commercial expansion' - offered to posterity as the hallmarks of High Victorian Design; also as windows into the mentality of mid-nineteenth-century England.

Conceived as a showcase for Britain's burgeoning manufacturing industries and the exotic products of its Empire, the Great Exhibition at the Crystal Palace was Britain's first truly national spectacle. Michael Leapman explores how the exhibition came into being; the key characters who made it happen (from Prince Albert, who was credited with the idea, to Thomas Cook, whose cheap railway trips ensured its accessibility to all); and the fascinating tales behind the exhibits that fired the imagination of the era. 'The best kind of popular history: exact, imaginative and full of fun.' Sunday Telegraph`Splendid... Michael Leapman brings a child's delight to the wonders of the Exhibition and his enthusiastic prose makes his readers feel they are almost walking down its aisles.' Mail on Sunday`Entertaining and engaging' Independent

Literary biography is an endlessly fascinating form, not least because of the fierce controversies that attend the question of how much of a writer's real life ought to be related to readers. Ian Hamilton, a first-rate biographer who encountering his share of adversity in writing the life of J.D. Salinger, is the perfect chronicler of such controversies in this brilliant study, first published in 1992, which charts the course of literary biography from Donne and Shakespeare to Plath and Larkin.'Such a compelling read.' Antonia Fraser, Times'Lively and informative, powerfully and humorously written.' Anthony Burgess, Observer'Surely the funniest book ever written on the doom-laden issue of posthumous literary fame.' Jonathan Keates, Independent

Son of the eccentric Adolphus, seventh and favourite son of George III, Prince George was born in 1819 and was briefly heir presumptive to the throne of England until the birth that same year of his cousin Victoria. Instead he became George, second Duke of Cambridge, and rose to be Commander-in-Chief of the Army aged 37, holding that position for 39 years. Often considered a hidebound reactionary, he nonetheless took a keen interest in reform of the Army, and made considerable efforts to improve the soldier's lot.In the year that the title of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge was bestowed by HRH the Queen upon Prince William and Catherine Middleton on the morning of their wedding, this charming, substantial and formidably researched life of 'The Royal George' has a renewed topicality.

Dan Billany's The Trap, first published in 1950, still stands - in the opinion of M.R.D. Foot - as 'one of the most powerful English novels to come out of the [Second World War].' It echoes the wartime experiences of its author, who is believed to have died in 1943 while on the run from an Italian POW camp, but not before entrusting the manuscripts of The Trap to safekeeping.The book's narrator, army lieutenant Michael Carr, tells of his early years in Cornwall, of the girl he met and loved there, and of the hard times her family endured between the wars. These troubles and joys give way to the tragedy of war, and the book's narrative becomes one of comradeship, suspense and fighting in the North African desert. 'The Trap is an outstanding novel by a writer of natural genius... written with great force and honesty... profoundly impressive.' Times Literary Supplement

First published in 1964, Alison Adburgham's Shops and Shopping, 1880-1914: Where and in What Matter the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes is a rightly celebrated and groundbreaking contribution to the social history of retail selling. Adburgham charts the Victorian origins and subsequent ascent of the 'department store', a mode of shopping that offered the customer an enviable selection of wares, a fixed price, and a recreational browsing experience that began with goods placed temptingly behind plate-glass and continued through shops carefully arranged so that customers might wander. These great emporia changed the labours and livelihoods of craftspeople and small shop-keepers, enhanced the reputation of England's capital and regional cities, and even altered the social climate of England.Immaculately researched from primary sources, Shops and Shopping is one of the key texts in the scholarly analysis of early mass consumer culture.

'To describe Alan Ross as a polymath does scant justice to the eclecticism of an extraordinary man . . . Ross was a war hero, poet, bon viveur, travel writer, incorrigible gossip, racehorse owner and brilliant magazine editor.' Richard Whitehead, Observer'This is Alan Ross's fourth volume of autobiography (following on from Blindfold Games, Coastwise Lights, and After Pusan)... Winter Sea, like his previous volumes, is an intriguing mix of memoir, poetry, and travel writing.' PN Review'Fragmentary and delightfully idiosyncratic... [Winter Sea] has a distinctly maritime flavour, and the wartime memories recalled after 50 years mostly concern North Sea or Baltic cities... The smell of the Baltic, Ross writes, is 'a fusion of salt, sand dunes, pine trees and tar'... Wherever Ross travels, he has a book in his pocket, and more often than not his reading is by way of homage to a native poet or writer... The symphonic quality of this wistful and, at times, very moving collection is maintained with a final section of 15 new poems, mostly relating to the author's more recent travels. Winter Sea is a book to savour; Alan Ross brings history to life as only a poet can.' Euan Cameron, Independent

Gerald Abraham's reputation as an authority on Russian music has tended to obscure his deep interest in the music of Poland and Czechoslovakia, and of the nineteenth-century generally. From a lifetime's devoted scholarship in these fields Abrahams selected his best work to make up this volume (first published in 1968), one of exceptional breadth and fascination. The subjects range from the relationship of Slavonic music to the western world, to detailed essays on figures such as Chopin, Dvorák, Rubinstein and Mussorgsky. A study of realism in Janacek's operas contains a particularly fine analysis of From a House of the Dead and there is an account of the fantastic 'erotic diary' for piano in which Zdenek Fibich, one of the finest nineteenth-century Czech symphonists, recorded the secrets of his love affair with former student and librettist Anezka Schulzová.Gerald Abraham (1904-1988) was a distinguished musicologist, among his official posts those of Professor of Music at the University of Liverpool and Assistant Controller of Music at the BBC.

'Britain's equivalent to Patricia Highsmith, Celia Fremlin wrote psychological thrillers that changed the landscape of crime fiction for ever: her novels are domestic, subtle, penetrating - and quite horribly chilling.' Andrew TaylorClare Wakefield - protagonist of Celia Fremlin's 1991 novel, her fourteenth - is more dismayed than elated when she learns of her journalist husband's escape from Middle Eastern kidnappers. Edwin is a difficult man, and home life had been so much more relaxed without him. But dismay turns to fear once Clare begins to suspect that Edwin has practiced an extraordinary deception - and for the purpose of murder. 'A thoughtful, entertaining thriller.' Booklist 'I cannot recommend [it] too highly.' Time Out'Celia Fremlin is an astonishing writer, who explores that nightmare country where brain, mind and self battle to establish the truth. She illuminates her dark world with acute perception and great wit.' Natasha Cooper

'Britain's equivalent to Patricia Highsmith, Celia Fremlin wrote psychological thrillers that changed the landscape of crime fiction for ever: her novels are domestic, subtle, penetrating - and quite horribly chilling.' Andrew Taylor The Echoing Stones (1993) was Celia Fremlin's fifteenth novel. Arnold Walker's decision to take early retirement and become caretaker and tourist guide at a Tudor mansion changes his life dramatically. His wife Mildred leaves him, and his wayward daughter Flora arrives unexpectedly and agrees to help out. Together, they must reckon with Emmerton Hall's former curator, Sir Humphrey Penrose, a sufferer from senile dementia given to spontaneous acting out of bizarre historical events, whose antics will lead to sheer bloody murder. 'Celia Fremlin is an astonishing writer, who explores that nightmare country where brain, mind and self battle to establish the truth. She illuminates her dark world with acute perception and great wit.' Natasha Cooper

'Britain's equivalent to Patricia Highsmith, Celia Fremlin wrote psychological thrillers that changed the landscape of crime fiction for ever: her novels are domestic, subtle, penetrating - and quite horribly chilling.' Andrew TaylorKing of the World (1994), Celia Fremlin's sixteenth and final novel, is the story of flat-mates Bridget and Diane. Despite ten years in age between them they get on well - aside from the constant presence of Alistair, Diane's self-impressed boyfriend, in the flat. The women decide to look for a third tenant, and find Norah, who claims to be a battered wife seeking refuge. But Norah is telling lies that will put all of them in mortal danger.'Celia Fremlin is an astonishing writer, who explores that nightmare country where brain, mind and self battle to establish the truth. She illuminates her dark world with acute perception and great wit.' Natasha Cooper

'Britain's equivalent to Patricia Highsmith, Celia Fremlin wrote psychological thrillers that changed the landscape of crime fiction for ever: her novels are domestic, subtle, penetrating - and quite horribly chilling.' Andrew Taylor Listening in the Dusk (1990), Celia Fremlin's thirteenth novel, concerns Alice Saunders, a woman striking out on her own following a traumatic marital breakup. But when she rents a drafty attic room in a ramshackle London boarding house she meets the mysterious Mary - a young woman clearly terrified of something, or someone.'Tart and chilling piece of superior Fremlin Gothic, with some wonderful characterization and great comic passages.' Sunday Times'Suspense and mystery at its elegant best.' Birmingham Post'Celia Fremlin is an astonishing writer, who explores that nightmare country where brain, mind and self battle to establish the truth. She illuminates her dark world with acute perception and great wit.' Natasha Cooper

'Britain's equivalent to Patricia Highsmith, Celia Fremlin wrote psychological thrillers that changed the landscape of crime fiction for ever: her novels are domestic, subtle, penetrating - and quite horribly chilling.' Andrew TaylorCelia Fremlin's third collection of stories, first published in 1984, is a baker's dozen of gripping tales by the mistress of suspense. Within these covers are stories of family frustrations and fury - a young wife who wants rid of her husband, an elderly daughter who cannot endure her mother. Fremlin deals in the uncanny, too, constantly confounding our expectations, and those of her characters.'Wonderfully written, subtle and disturbing.' Times'Written with such perception and elegance that they repay many readings.' Glasgow Herald'Celia Fremlin is an astonishing writer, who explores that nightmare country where brain, mind and self battle to establish the truth. She illuminates her dark world with acute perception and great wit.' Natasha Cooper