Rudolf Hess, Hitler's Deputy Fuhrer, Leader of the Nazi Party, flew alone in an unarmed aeroplane, through a night of fire and ruin, on the most dangerous flight of his life. This is an amazing true story of his secret peace mission in 1941, with plans to end the war but on Germany's terms. Leasor tells how Hess flew his Messerschmitt to Scotland, parachuting to safety seconds before his plane crashed. A dramatic reconstruction of Hess' landing, his capture, his desire for an audience with the Duke of Hamilton and his interrogation are recounted here, concluding with the Nuremberg Trials of...

'Superbly authentic atmosphere, taut narration' The Observer "The most clinically accurate description of India and Burma about the time of the Kohima breakthrough I have yet seen." - Daily Telegraph 'Mr. Leasor brings to 'Nothing to Report' a journalist's straightforwardness, and an on-the-spot sureness about how frightened men behave, that are both refreshing and effective.' Spectator In the early spring of 1944, when the British fortunes of war in the East were low, the Japanese invaded India. From General Headquarters, the word went out that the invasion must be stayed whatever the cost...

Filmed as The Sea Wolves, this is the story of the undercover exploit of a territorial unit. The Germans had a secret transmitter on one of their ships in the neutral harbour of Goa. Its purpose was to guide the U-boats against Allied shipping in the Indian Ocean. There seemed no way for the British to infringe Goa's Portuguese neutrality by force. But the transmitter had to be silenced. SOE was tasked with dealing with the problem, but how? Then it was remembered that 1,400 miles away in Calcutta was a source of possible help. A group of civilian bankers, merchants and solicitors were the...

This book chronicles the horror and human suffering of two of the most terrible years in London's long and vivid history. 1665 brought the plague and cries of "Bring Out Your Dead" echoed the city. A year later, the already decimated capital was reduced to ashes in four days by the fire that began in Pudding Lane. James Leasor weaves in the first-hand accounts of Daniel Defoe and Samuel Pepys, among many others. New York Times 'Could hardly be a more timely parable for our day' Evening Standard 'An engrossing and vivid impression of those terrible days' Sunday Express 'Absorbing. . .an...

The R101 airship was thought to be the model for the future, an amazing design that was 'as safe as houses. . .except for the millionth chance'. On the night of 4 October 1930 that chance in a million came up however. James Leasor brilliantly reconstructs the conception and crash of this huge ship of the air with compassion for the forty-seven dead, including a cabinet minister - and only six survivors. One of the biggest disasters of British aviation history, which marked the end of commercial airships as a serious form of transport, this book also reads as a textbook of how state attempts...

William Richard Morris, later Viscount Nuffield, set up business as a cycle agent and manufacturer in Oxford, in 1893, at the age of sixteen. He was, through sheer hard work, to go on to make the Morris-Oxford car and set up the famous car works at Cowley, where many other Morris designs were manufactured, becoming Britain's largest motor manufacturer. This is an account of his life and of his vision: 'the 100 car', a car the public could afford to buy. Leasor tells of this unusual and determined man's success, the millions he made and the millions he gave away. His direct industrial legacy...