To celebrate the fortieth anniversary of man’s first steps on the moon, a visually striking cornucopia of everything worth knowing about our closest neighbor in space. Can you remember where you were on July 20, 1969, when, in one of the iconic moments of the twentieth century, Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon? The distant object that had fascinated mankind for millennia suddenly got much closer. Rick Stroud has been obsessed with the moon since childhood, and here provides the culmination of that passion—an utterly original and absorbing account of all things lunar, a book that celebrates the physics that created the moon and the technology that took us there as much as its magic and mystery. Opening with the debatable story of how the moon was formed (scientists still don’t agree on this), Stroud then turns to the stories of mankind’s fascination with Earth’s satellite—from Babylonian astronomers thousands of years before Christ, to the Greek, Roman, and Arab scientists who paved the way for the Renaissance, to the astronomers and astronauts of our time. He delves into the mythology and astrology that have inspired civilizations and cultures the world over, alongside the scientific and medicinal advances that have come from our lunar connection. Filled with original lists, intriguing statistics, and compelling images, The Book of the Moon draws us closer to the rocky orb that may hold the secrets of our own Earth’s beginnings.

The Book of the Moon

Stroud, Rick

London: Doubleday

To celebrate the fortieth anniversary of man's first steps on the moon, a visually striking cornucopia of everything worth knowing about our closest neighbor in space. Can you remember where you were on July 20, 1969, when, in one of the iconic moments of the twentieth century, Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon? The distant object that had fascinated mankind for millennia suddenly got much closer. Rick Stroud has been obsessed with the moon since childhood, and here provides the culmination of that passion―an utterly original and absorbing account of all things lunar, a book that celebrates the physics that created the moon and the technology that took us there as much as its magic and mystery. 
Opening with the debatable story of how the moon was formed (scientists still don't agree on this), Stroud then turns to the stories of mankind's fascination with Earth's satellite―from Babylonian astronomers thousands of years before Christ, to the Greek, Roman, and Arab scientists who paved the way for the Renaissance, to the astronomers and astronauts of our time. He delves into the mythology and astrology that have inspired civilizations and cultures the world over, alongside the scientific and medicinal advances that have come from our lunar connection. 
Filled with original lists, intriguing statistics, and compelling images, The Book of the Moon draws us closer to the rocky orb that may hold the secrets of our own Earth's beginnings.

Science & Math

Astronomy & Space Science

Walker Books

In 1940 a group of artists, sculptors, film makers, theatre designers and set painters came together to form the Camouflage Unit. Led by Major Geoffrey Barkas and including among their number the internationally renowned stage magician Jasper Maskelyne, the unit's projects became a crucial battlefield weapon. At the siege of Tobruk the unit made a vital desalination plant appear to have been destroyed by enemy bombers; from then on they used their storytelling skills to weave intricate webs of deception, making things appear that weren't actually there, and things that were, disappear, to deceive the enemy. Their stage was the enormous, flat and almost featureless Western Desert. 
The unit's schemes were so successful that in August 1942 the Unit was ordered by General Montgomery to come up with a way to hide the preparations for the Battle of Alamein, the biggest battle the 8th Army had ever fought. 'Operation Bertram' was born. In six short weeks two divisions, with armour, field guns and supporting vehicles, were conjured from the sand, while real tanks and lethal twenty-five pound field guns vanished from sight. Then, on the eve of the battle, the unit performed the biggest conjuring trick in military history. Right in front of the German's eyes they made 600 tanks disappear and reappear fifty miles away disguised as lorries. Rommel had been bamboozled by an army made of nothing but string and straw and bits of wood. 
The Phantom Army of Alamein tells for the first time the full story of how some of Britain's most creative men put down their brushes, pencils and cameras to join the rest of the world in the fight against the Nazis and played a vital role in the winning of the war.

The Phantom Army of Alamein: How the Camouflage Unit and Operation Bertram Hoodwinked Rommel

History

Africa

A&C Black

Kidnap in Crete: The True Story of the Abduction of a Nazi General

On a moonlit night in April 1944 a small band of partisans, led by the British SOE agent Patrick Leigh Fermor, kidnapped the Nazi general in charge of the German-occupied island of Crete and spirited him away to captivity in Egypt. Drawing on unprecedented access to the testimony of Cretan guerrillas, SOE papers and Fermor's own account, this book tells the full story of this daring raid, the epic drive across the island, and the devastating reprisals that followed.

Military

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

On a moonlit night in April 1944 a small band of fearless partisans, led by the British SOE agent Patrick Leigh Fermor, kidnapped a high-ranking Nazi general on the German-occupied island of Crete. In 1941 the German army invaded the strategically important Mediterranean island with the largest airborne force in history. The years of Nazi occupation that followed saw mass executions, widespread starvation and the brutal destruction of homes - but amid the horror, the Cretan resistance, the Andartes, with the support of a handful of British SOE agents, fought on heroically. In Cairo, Patrick Leigh Fermor came up with a plan to avenge the islanders' suffering. Under cover of darkness on 4 February 1944, he parachuted onto Crete's deserted Mount Dikti in preparation for his secret and high-risk mission. This is the story of the abduction of General Kreipe by Leigh Fermor, his second-in-command William Stanley Moss and their tight-knit group of partisans; of the midnight ambush of the general's car and the perilous drive through the garrison town of Heraklion and twenty-two heavily guarded roadblocks; of their epic, dangerous journey on foot and mule across rocky peaks, hiding from their German pursuers in mountain caves and ditches, towards the coast where a Royal Navy launch was waiting to spirit the general to Egypt. But success came at a price for the islanders left behind: German reprisals were swift, unsparing and devastating. With unprecedented access to first-hand accounts of the Cretan guerrilla fighters themselves, as well as SOE files, Leigh Fermor's own account and other private papers and diaries, this astonishing true story of daring in the battle against Hitler is told in full for the first time.

Soldier, Spy: A Survivor's Tale

Beginning in 1946, when Victor Gregg was demobbed after the end of the Second World War and deposited in London Paddington, Soldier, Spy is the story of a soldier returning to civilian life and all the challenges it entails. 
Facing a new and ever-changing London a shifting political landscape and plenty of opportunities to make a few bob, repairing the bomb damage and doing construction work on the Festival of Britain site, Vic moves from one job and pastime to the next, becoming by turns cyclist, builder, decorator, trade union official, Communist Party member and long distance lorry driver. Finally he is offered 'a nice clean job' as chauffeur to the chairman of the Moscow Narodny Bank where he will be able to come home to his wife and children every night. However, there is more to his new employers than meets the eye, and it is not long before his wartime work with the Long Range Desert group catches up with him in the form of an approach from the security services. Lured by the excitement his postwar life has lacked, Vic adds spy to his roster of employment, risking everything in the process.

Biographies & Memoirs

Gregg, Victor

Leaders & Notable People

Bloomsbury Publishing

‘A fascinating, superbly researched and revelatory book – told with tremendous pace and excitement’ William Boyd 'This compelling and complete account of the extraordinarily courageous women of SOE is

Lonely Courage: The True Story of the Soe Heroines Who Fought to Free Nazi-occupied France

Europe

Simon&Schuster

The Phantom Army of Alamein

Paragon (?}

This is the story of how a small SOE unit led by Patrick Leigh Fermor kidnapped a German general on the Nazi-occupied island of Crete in 1944. For thirty-two days, they were chased across the mountains as they headed for the coast and a rendezvous with a Royal Navy launch waiting to spirit the general to Cairo. 
 Rick Stroud, whose Phantom Army of Alamein won plaudits for its meticulous research and its lightness of touch in the telling, brings these same gifts to bear in this new project. From the adrenalin rush of the kidnapping, to the help provided by the Cretan partisans and people, he explains the overall context of Crete's role in World War II and reveals the devastating consequences of this mission for them all.
 There have been other accounts, but Kidnap in Crete is the first book to draw on all the sources, notably those in Crete as well as SOE files and the accounts, letters, and private papers of its operatives in London and Edinburgh.

Bloomsbury USA

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Stroud, Rick. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Stroud, Rick

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Stroud, Rick. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Book of the Moon

The Book of the Moon

The Phantom Army of Alamein: How the Camouflage Unit and Operation Bertram Hoodwinked Rommel

Kidnap in Crete: The True Story of the Abduction of a Nazi General

Kidnap in Crete: The True Story of the Abduction of a Nazi General

Soldier, Spy: A Survivor's Tale

Lonely Courage: The True Story of the Soe Heroines Who Fought to Free Nazi-occupied France

The Phantom Army of Alamein

Kidnap in Crete: The True Story of the Abduction of a Nazi General