From Mean Streets to Casino, Robert De Niro has dominated Hollywood for nearly a quarter of a century. Dynamic and electrifying, his performances have been consistently memorable, and the films he has made with director Martin Scorsese (including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas) make a roll-call of some of the greatest cinema of our times. Despite his fame and success, De Niro's private existence is little known and has seldom been explored. Now, for the first time, here is the full story of this astonishing actor's life. Drawing on first-hand interviews with some of his closest...

In 1942, at the centre point of World War II, an extraordinary event took place not on the battlefield but in a municipal stadium in Kiev. This is the true story of courage, team loyalty and fortitude in the face of the most brutal oppression the world had ever seen. When Hitler initiated Operation Barbarossa in June 1941, he caught the Soviet Union completely by surprise. At breathtaking speed his armies swept East, slaughtering the ill-prepared Soviet forces. His greatest military gains of the entire war were made in a few short months, and the largest single country that he conquered was...