Peter Haining Books In Order

Novels

The Hero (1973)
The Savage (1986)

Anthologies edited

Everyman’s Book of Classic Horror Stories (1965)
The Hell of Mirrors (1965)
Beyond the Curtain of Dark (1966)
The Craft of Terror (1966)
Where Nightmares Are (1966)
Dr. Caligari’s Black Book (1968)
The Evil People (1968)
The Future Makers (1968)
The Midnight People (1968)
The Satanists (1969)
The Unspeakable People (1969)
The Witchcraft Reader (1969)
The Freak Show (1970)
The Hollywood Nightmare (1970)
The Ghouls Book 2 (1971)
The Necromancers (1971)
The Wild Night Company (1971)
The Clans of Darkness (1971)
A Circle of Witches (1971)
Great British Tales of Terror (1972)
Lucifer Society (1972)
Nightfrights (1972)
The Dream Machines (1972)
The Magicians (1972)
The Nightmare Reader Volume 1 (1973)
Summoned from the Tomb (1973)
The Nightmare Reader (1973)
The Ghouls (1974)
The Magic Valley Travellers (1974)
Christopher Lee’s New Chamber of Horrors (1974)
Tales of Unknown Horror (1974)
The Penny Dreadful (1975)
The Fantastic Pulps (1975)
The Ghost’s Companion (1975)
The Black Magic Omnibus Volume 1 (1976)
More of Christopher Lee’s New Chamber of Horrors (1976)
Deadly Nightshade (1977)
The Frankenstein File (1977)
The Shilling Shockers (1978)
More Tales of Unknown Horror (1979)
The Leprechaun’s Kingdom (1979)
Irish Leprechaun’s Kingdom (1979)
Buried Passions (1980)
The Final Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1981)
The Vampire Terror (1981)
The Book of Ghost Stories (1983)
Zombie (1985)
The Ghost Ship (1985)
Dead of Night (1986)
The Television Sherlock Holmes (1986)
LBW – Laughter Before Wicket (1986)
Tales of Dungeons and Dragons (1986)
Werewolf (1987)
The Dracula Centenary Book (1987)
Poltergeist (1987)
Scottish Stories of Fantasy and Horror (1988)
Movie Monsters (1988)
Doctor Who : 25 Glorious Years (1988)
Mummy Stories of the Living Corpse (1988)
Irish Tales of Terror (1988)
Hook, Line and Laughter (1989)
Stories of the Walking Dead (1990)
Murder On the Menu (1991)
Great Irish Stories of the Supernatural (1992)
The Television Detectives’ Omnibus (1992)
Masters of the Macabre (1993)
Vampires at Midnight (1993)
TV Late Night Horror Omnibus (1993)
The Armchair Detective (1993)
Great Tales of Crime and Detection (1993)
Great Tales of Horror (1993)
On Call with Doctor Finlay (1994)
Great Irish Tales Of Fantasy And Myth (1994)
The Flesh Eaters (1994)
The Frankenstein Omnibus (1994)
Peter Cushing’s Monster Movies (1994)
Tales from the Rogues’ Gallery (1994)
The Armchair Horror Collection (1994)
Great Irish Tales of the Unimaginable (1994)
Murder by the Glass (1994)
The Television Crimebusters Omnibus (1994)
Space Movies (1995)
Tales from the Gothic Bluebooks (1995)
The Vampire Omnibus (1995)
Great Irish Tales of Horror (1995)
Murder at the Races (1995)
London After Midnight (1996)
Space Movies II (1996)
The Wizards of Odd (1996)
Ghost Movies II (1996)
Murder on the Railways (1996)
The Vampire Hunters’ Casebook (1996)
On the Case with Agatha Christie’s Poirot (1996)
Pulp Frictions (1996)
The Orion Book of Murder (1996)
Cyber-Killers (1997)
The Flying Sorcerers (1997)
Timescapes (1997)
Time Travelers (1997)
Great Irish Humorous Stories (1998)
The Unexplained (1998)
Knights of Madness (1998)
Scary! (1998)
Classic Science Fiction (1998)
Great Irish Stories of Murder and Mystery (1999)
Vintage Science Fiction (1999)
Great Irish Tales of Fantasy (1999)
Laws and Disorders (1999)
Great Welsh Fantasy Stories (2000)
The Wizard’s Den (2001)
Scary!: More Stories to Make You Scream!: Vol 2 (2002)
Great Irish Drinking Stories (2002)
Magician’s Circle (2003)
Scottish Ghost Stories (2004)
The Mysterious Novice (2007)

Non fiction

A Thousand Afternoons (1970)
Witchcraft and Black Magic (1971)
The Warlock’s Book (1971)
Anatomy of Witchcraft (1972)
The Graveyard Wit (1973)
The Monster Makers (1974)
The Witchcraft Papers (1974)
The Channel Islands (1974)
The Fortune Hunter’s Guide (1975)
An Illustrated History of Witchcraft (1975)
The Great English Earthquake (1976)
The Compleat Birdman (1976)
The Monster Trap (1976)
Terror! (1976)
The Art of Mystery and Detective Stories (1977)
The Ancient Mysteries (1977)
Mystery! (1977)
The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring Heeled Jack (1977)
A Sherlock Holmes Compendium (1978)
The Restless Bones (1978)
The H. G. Wells Scrapbook (1978)
Mystery and Horrible Murders of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1979)
Man Who Was Frankenstein (1979)
The Screaming Skull and Other True Mysteries (1979)
Superstitions (1979)
Movable Books (1979)
Hell Hound and Other True Mysteries (1980)
The Legend of Charlie Chaplin (1982)
Legend of Brigitte Bardot (1983)
Traction Engine Companion (1983)
Last Gentleman (1984)
A Dictionary of Ghost Lore (1984)
The Vampire Terror and Other True Mysteries (1984)
Raquel Welch (1984)
Goldie Hawn (1985)
Pictorial History of Horror Stories (1985)
Eyewitness to the Galaxy (1985)
For Mother with Love (1986)
Race for Mars (1986)
The Art of Horror Stories (1986)
Ghosts: The Illustrated History (1987)
Sherlock Holmes Scrapbook (1987)
Elvis in Private (1987)
Hole in Fun (1988)
The Scarecrow (1988)
Book of Learned Nonsense (1989)
Charlie Chaplin (1989)
Bob Hope: Thanks for the Memory (1989)
The Spitfire Log (1989)
The Day War Broke Out: 3rd September 1939 (1989)
Eurotunnel (1989)
Spitfire Summer (1990)
The Legend of Garbo (1990)
Agatha Christie: Murder in Four Acts (1990)
The English Highwayman (1991)
The Dracula Scrapbook (1992)
The Supernatural Coast (1992)
Maria Marten (1992)
Sweeney Todd (1993)
Maigret (1994)
The Essential Seducer (1994)
On Duty with The Chief (1995)
Medics (1995)
Agatha Christie’s Poirot (1995)
The Un-dead (1997)
The MG Log (1998)
The Classic Era of the American Pulp Magazine (2000)
A Dictionary of Vampires (2000)
A Dictionary of Ghosts (2001)
The Classic Era of Crime Fiction (2002)
The Flying Bomb War (2002)
The Jail That Went to Sea (2003)
The Mystery of Rommel’s Gold (2004)
A Slip of the Pen (2004)
Where the Eagle Landed (2004)
The Chianti Raiders (2005)
Lassie (2005)
Cannibal Killers (2006)
The Banzai Hunters (2006)
Creeper’s Secret War (2009)
Wrotten English (2011)

Novels Book Covers

Anthologies edited Book Covers

Non fiction Book Covers

Peter Haining Books Overview

The Fantastic Pulps

Oversized paperback, published by Random House’e Vintage Books line.

The Television Sherlock Holmes

Published in association with Granada TV, and timed to coincide with a new TV series of six programmes, this book provides information for all Holmes enthusiasts. Plot, cast, production and transmission details for every Sherlock Holmes series and full length drama produced by Granada over the last ten years is included as well as revealing insights on the making of the programmes. A survey of earlier TV interpretations of the great detective, interviews with the stars and the series creators as well as a location fact file are included.

Stories of the Walking Dead

Zombies and other unsavory agents of the undead sleepwalk through this collection of horror stories about those who live in the shadowland between life and death.

Great Irish Stories of the Supernatural

No country is more richly endowed with faerie folk and restless spirits than Ireland, and Irish folklore contains hundreds of tales of ghosts, devils and witches. This collection includes writers ranging from Charles Maturin to W.B. Yeats with stories grouped according to type of spirit.

The Frankenstein Omnibus

‘Frankenstein’, the story of the obsessed scientist’s experiments to create life, has been the inspiration for an extensive group of short stories as well as movie and TV adaptations. This is a collection of these stories along with several novelizations of Frankenstein films.

Peter Cushing’s Monster Movies

The nine macabre stories in this book are all linked to Peter Cushing’s film career either through the author or matter. Included are ‘The Mortal Immortal’ by Mary Shelley, ‘Dracula’s Guest’ by Bram Stoker and ‘The Ring of Thoth’ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as well as six other classic tales of horror. 12 scenes from films starring Peter Cushing are also included, as well as an introduction by the author that explains how he became a monster hunter.

Great Irish Tales of the Unimaginable

Ireland’s ‘rich heritage of mythology’ is in large part responsible for the genre well represented in this anthology. Each of these 24 stories is prefaced by a brief history of the legend that inspired it and a short biography of its author. In the section titled ‘Gods and Heroes,’ Standish James O’Grady depicts Cuchulain, the legendary hero of Irish folklore, in ‘The Hound of Ulster’; W.B. Yeats relates the tale of the Sidhe ‘the people of the hills,’ also known as the fairies in ‘The Wisdom of the King’; and in ‘The Call of Oisin,’ Lady Gregory tells of the great Fenian warrior/poet Oisin and his pursuit of a beautiful golden haired stranger. Collected under ‘The Romantic Sagas’ are stories by Sinead de Valera wife of the former President of Ireland, who, in ‘A Prince in Disguise,’ tells of Prince Cormac of Ulster and his courtship of Etain. Julia O’Faolain daughter of writer Sean O’Faolain writes of a fair lady being rescued from a dragon by a valiant knight in ‘Legend for a Painting’; and Maurice Walsh’s ‘The Woman Without Mercy’ pits brother against brother in a quest for the love of a black hearted woman. An episode from the ‘Cyclops’ section of James Joyce’s Ulysses is among the tales grouped under ‘The Wonder Quests.’ An interesting and varied collection, this volume will be of special interest to those interested in Celtic mythology.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The Vampire Omnibus

This is a collection of early vampire tales, together with the short stories on which many horror films of the genre were based. The book looks at the development of the tales of the ‘undead’ over the past 200 years.

Space Movies II

A second collection of short science fiction and fantasy stories written for television from such contributing authors as Terry Pratchett, John Wyndham, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Nigel Kneale and Evan Hunter.

The Wizards of Odd

Simon Jones, who played Arthur Dent in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, presents a look back at the life and work of a writer who has captivated the imagination of millions. This program is an A Z look at Douglas Adams’ career, taking in extracts from the many radio and TV programs he contributed to. These include guest appearances, his own radio programs, such as Last Chance to See about the search for endangered species and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Future a look at impending technology, and even a ‘lost’ segment of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy which Adams wrote specially for BBC Radio in 1982. Also included are some of the many tributes paid to Adams following his untimely death in May 2001. This is a fascinating and in depth audio biography of a man whose brilliant work has inspired, enraptured and entertained millions of people worldwide.

Ghost Movies II

Collected here are short stories which were either the basis or inspiration for several classic TV productions, such as ‘Ghost Stories for Christmas’, ‘Tales from the Darkside’, and the recent success, ‘Ghosts’.

The Vampire Hunters’ Casebook

Outstanding collection of vampire lore by such dark luminaries as Stoker, LeFanu, Kenealy, Claude Askew, Uel Key, Seabury Quinn of Weird Tales Magazine, Sidney Horley, Manley Wellman, Jeff Rice, Robert ‘Psycho’ Bloch, Anne Rice, David Schow, and Peter Tremayne.

The Flying Sorcerers

This sparkling sequel to WIZARDS OF ODD once again turns logic on its head with a galaxy of star writers and stories. Terry Pratchett, the arch priest of the genre, leads off with the eccentric figure of DEATH on new and curious mission, Roald Dahl plays havoc with country superstition, and Arthur C. Clarke shows the funny side of cosmic doom. Add to these dazzling contributions from masters such as Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Angela Carter, C.S. Lewis, P.G. Wodehouse and Michael Moorcock, and you have a blend of comic fantasy, supernatural extravaganza and sf that is almost literally in orbit. The title of the book stems from the fact that many of the stories feature characters who can fly either under their own power or by machines or they simply run into trouble with aerial objects of one sort or another. Bringing together some of the best fantasy available, The Flying Sorcerers is a gloriously bizarre, wonderfully varied collection of stories.

Time Travelers

Time Travelers gathers twenty four tales by the most recognizable names in the genre. Included is the first time travel story ever written penned by American journalist Edward Page Mitchell fourteen years prior to Well’s landmark novel. Here, too, is a selection by master of future history Robert A. Heinlein, who’s ‘All You Zombies ‘ involes a character traveling back and forth through time on a bizarre genetic mission. Also included amont those roming in the fourth dimension are such legendary sci fi writers as Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and Philip K. Dick, along with such contemporary voices as William Gibson and Martin Amis. Of course, there is a selection by H. G. Wells a piece origninally writeen as part of the Time Machine but curiously excised when the book was published.

Vintage Science Fiction

From the cerebral 2001 to the B grade It Came From Outer Space both of which are from stories by Arthur C. Clarke and Ray Bradbury, respectively, and are collected here sci fi films have always drawn from the printed word. In addition to tales by Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Stephen King, and Clive Barker, several stories appear in book form for the first time, such as James Blish’s Star Trek scenario, while others such as Werner von Braun’s The Conquest of Space, are out of print or hard to find.

The Wizard’s Den

This is a spellbinding collection of tales from the 20th century, featuring a story from E. Nesbit, whose writings inspired a young girl to pen her own tales of magic and sign them with only initials J. K. Rowling. Also included are wizard stories from such diverse writers as Philip Pullman, Jacqueline Wilson, Roald Dahl, and Diana Wynne Jones.

Great Irish Drinking Stories

FROM THE PUBLISHER Ireland’s drinking culture has been exported around the world and given the Irish a reputation as an entertaining and talkative nation. It has been an inspiration for Ireland’s other great exports her writers. From James Joyce, Flann O’Brien, and Brendan Behan to Roddy Doyle and Patrick McCabe all have written about drinking and its effects, the stuff of life and the sometimes troubling consequences. Irish revelry is included, wakes and weddings, city bars and country pubs, the craic and the ceilidh in a round of twenty five stories that celebrate drink and drinking. Travel around the most celebrated fictional pubs in Irish literature, attend memorable wakes, listen to the legendary drinkers who hold court at the bar and spin the most spellbinding tales you’re ever likely to hear. Great Irish Drinking Stories spills over with wit, imagination, and the appetite for life that you’ll find in any Irish pub.

Magician’s Circle

Spellbinding tales of wizards and magic from celebrated authors such as Roald Dahl, Ray Bradbury, Charles Dickens, and H. G. Wells are featured in this collection of short stories. Each selection relates a unique and fantastical world of secret rituals, wonder, and intrigue. Roald Dahl’s ‘The Magic Child-Killer,’ in which witches plot to kill the children of Inkland, and Jacqueline Wilson’s ‘Words Like Magic,’ featuring a 100-year-old toad who teaches a young girl to fly, are a sampling of this dynamic compilation.

The Mysterious Novice

The Gothic ‘Bluebooks’ were the hugely popular paperbacks of their time, eagerly sought by uncounted numbers of readers in the Nineteenth Century who could not afford the more decorous three-volume novels favoured by the gentry. Containing sensational tales of lustful monks, terrified females, dashing heroes and a whole variety of supernatural creatures, these one-hundred-page little works bound in blue-coloured paper became notorious as ‘Shilling Shockers’-after the price they were sold at-but with repeated handling soon became impossibly rare. In this unique collection some of the best are reprinted, complete with their original illustrations, for all readers who love to thrill to tales of Gothic horror and melodrama.

Witchcraft and Black Magic

Discusses the history and practices of Witchcraft and Black Magic.

The Great English Earthquake

The event was a stunning blow to Victorian England, the heart of the great British Empire. Consequently, its extent and damage were played down by the authorities and the national press. Based on contemporary reports, personal statements and exhaustive research, this illustrated history is a dramatic and exciting reconstruction of the event. On the morning of 22 April 1884, the unthinkable happened a major earthquake struck the British Isles. In under a minute almost the entire length and breadth of England had been shaken by a violent tremor which devastated the county of Essex its epicentre and caused damage and panic as far north as Altrincham, Cheshire, and to the south was registered across the English Channel in Boulogne and Calais. It was about 9. 20 a.m. that a peculiar and alarming noise was suddenly heard, which to some, seemed to be overhead, to others, underground, and which has been variously compared to distant thunder, to the rumbling of a heavy wagon, to the discharge of a volley of Infantry, or to the whirring of a huge flock of birds as they rise from the ground or floor beneath one’s feet, and of the swaying to and fro of walls, houses, and all kinds of fixed objects. Doors opened and shut, bells rang, articles tumbled from their shelves, and outdoors, bricks, tiles, chimneys, etc, began to clatter down. The noise seemed loudest indoors, but perhaps the experience of those who were standing still in the open air was yet more alarming, for they could see the solid earth, as well as whatever was upon it, tremble and heave up and down. In some places, the earth even in the Scripture phrase, ‘Opened her mouth’. An eyewitness’s account of the 1884 earthquake.

The Art of Mystery and Detective Stories

Presents a pictorial history of magazine, periodical, and book illustration of mystery and detective stories, featuring the work of both well known and anonymous artists.

A Sherlock Holmes Compendium

The phenomenon that is Sherlock Holmes is based on the series of novels and short stories written almost a century ago that have generated a world wide network of enthusiasts who have spent the intervening years endlessly debating and investigating the life and cases of the most famous of all detectives. The Sherlock Holmes Compendium was originally published to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who created this remarkable saga and has now been revised by Peter Haining to include a wealth of unique articles, thought provoking essays and rare illustrations that will delight old Sherlockians and fascinate new Holmesians. As well as covering the Great Detective’s career in the cinema and on TV, the book also includes a number of puzzles and quizzes to test the reader’s knowledge of the world of 221b Baker Street.

Agatha Christie: Murder in Four Acts

The book tells the story of how Agatha Christie’s world famous mysteries have been adapted for TV.

The English Highwayman

A historical survey of the ‘English outlaws’ who flourished in an era of political upheaval. From the Royalist captains Hyde and Howard to the pragmatic Jonathan Wild; from Moll Cutpurse to Dick Turpin this book follows the careers of famous highwaymen.

The Dracula Scrapbook

Since its publication in 1897, Bram Stoker’s novel ‘Dracula’ has been adapted for the cinema, dramatized for the stage and inspired a whole series of books and films on the Dracula theme. This success story is explored here, with fascinating revelations about how Stoker’s novel came about, alongside details of the growth of the Dracula screen cult and interviews with the major film stars. In addition there is a detailed listing of the films themselves and a chronology of famous real life cases of vampirism from around the world.

Sweeney Todd

Sweeney Todd, the notorious Demon Barber, has been called the greatest mass murderer in English history. With the aid of an ingenious revolving chair and a cut throat razor, he is said to have robbed and butchered more than 160 victims in his barber shop in Fleet Street, before taking the remains to nearby Bell Yard where his accomplice, Margery Lovett, cooked their flesh for her meat pies. Despite being as infamous in London’s history as Jack the Ripper, Todd’s story has been almost completely ignored by historians. In this definitive biography, Peter Haining delves into the grim underworld of London 150 years ago to expose the man behind the myth. Separating fact from fiction, he reveals a gruesome and bizarre story with a unique criminal heart.

The Essential Seducer

In this entertaining and enlightening collection of quotations, Peter Haining has distilled the writings of generations about the erotic power struggle in which men and women have served as tempter or tempted. Seduction is the key to this art, and though the technique may prove successful and the pleasure exciting, there can be penalties, too as playwrights, poets, and novelists who have been attracted to the subject have also pointed out.

The Un-dead

A biography of Bram Stoker.

The Classic Era of the American Pulp Magazine

The era between the wars in America was on of dramatic change and uncertainty, a time of sexual liberation, Prohibition, organized crime and the Great Depression. At such times of flux people look to escapism and fantasy to fill out their humdrum and troubled lives. Along with movies and radio, came the spectacular rise of the pulp magazines. The pulp magazines developed out of the 19th century dime novels and were eventually overtaken by comics and the arrival of the first paperback books, but for a brief period between the 20s and 40s the pulp magazines ruled supreme. Their lurid colour cover art depicting alluring sex and thrilling violence, with stories to match inside, fuelled the dreams and nightmares of a generation of readers. Ten inches by seven, for a few cents they offered what young red blooded Americans want: sex, action and adventure. And what’s more amongst the sleaze these magazines were the first to foster the talents of writers such as Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov and John Wyndam, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and James M. Cain. From the cheap thrills of the ‘hot’ and ‘spicy’ pulps and the sexual sadism and Grand Guignol of the ‘shudder’ pulps to the weird worlds of fantasy, sci fi and horror pulps, Peter Haining takes us on a tour of their publishing history and in particular their artistry.

A Dictionary of Vampires

An impressively researched A Z reference work about one of the most fascinating and feared creatures in supernatural legend.

A Dictionary of Ghosts

A Dictionary of Ghosts defines all the various types of apparitions and creatures of superstition known through the centuries. Recounting legends of famous hauntings, it introduces you to the many mediums, authorities, and victims associated with ghosts. Now you can learn about the domovoys, noisy Russian spirits who are willing to do household chores; Lord Byron’s encounters with a phantom monk; and the Hairy Hands ghost who is said to strangle travellers along with banshees, poltergeists, exorcisms, screaming skulls, UFOs, and all the other intriguing phenomena that have raised hair on the heads of believers and non believers around the world.

The Classic Era of Crime Fiction

This lavishly illustrated history features rare covers and classic illustrations, revealing how crucial artists were to establishing the identity and popularity of crime fiction. During its classic era from 1850 to 1950 a variety of writers developed every important element of the genre: the police detective, the professional sleuth, the hard boiled private eye, the secret agent, and of course, the criminal masterminds, crooks, and gangsters. From Sherlock Holmes and James Bond to Edgar Allan Poe and Joseph Conrad, this book explores an exciting cultural history. Crime enthusiasts can here see how famous and sometimes infamous works of crime fiction originally looked, and how unknown writers and illustrators became responsible for one of the cornerstones of popular culture.

The Flying Bomb War

Sixty years ago in October 1942, the prototype German V2 rocket the world’s first practical liquid fuel rocket was launched from a secret base on a Baltic island. Just over two months later, on Christmas Eve, a second prototype, the V1 or Doodlebug, the first pilotless, weapon carrying aircraft, was also fired from the same site. Together these two unique and deadly ballistic missiles were destined to attack England in a merciless and bloody onslaught ‘The Flying Bomb War‘. Memories of the V1 and V2 have never dimmed; in England their impact was devastating they killed over 9000 people and seriously injured another 25000. Based on interviews and research, The Flying Bomb War is a fascinating insight into a significant part of World War Two. The chilling truth is that London and southern England were the testing ground for a direct forerunner of the rocket that enabled Neil Armstrong to be the first man on the moon.

The Jail That Went to Sea

In 1941 the British people had their backs to the wall in their lone fight against the might of Hitler’s Germany. America was neutral, at least until the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Glasgow became the starting point for one of the most amazing and, until now, untold episodes of the war. Government officials desperate for men to sail merchant ships across the Atlantic to collect vital equipment and supplies from North America devised a plan to enlist convicts from Barlinnie Prison and use them as crew for a 25,000 ton merchantman, the George Washington. Quite simply a choice of death or glory, this book relates the extraordinary story of those men through the accounts of two survivors, the log and memories of Captain David Bone, and Glasgow police records and documents.

The Mystery of Rommel’s Gold

The whereabouts of a stolen ho*ard of treasure knowns as ‘Rommel’s Gold’ is one of the most elusive and enduring mysteries of World War II. The fabulous cashe, mainly comprising gold ingots and believed to be worth millions of pounds, was first heard of in 1941 following the German Blitzkrieg of Yugoslavia. Rumours have abounded regarding what actually happened to the missing gold, and where it might be. These include claims that it was seized by a renegade Panzer unit and hidden in the North African desert for reclamation after the war; that it was despatched to Germany as a gift for Hitler but never reached its destination; or that it was taken by Italian prisoners who set sail for Corsica, where their boat mysteriously sank just offshore. ‘The Mystery of Rommel’s Gold‘ examines all the various theories, tracking down the route taken by the missing treasure and reviewing the searches that have taken place since the mid 20th century.

Where the Eagle Landed

In the summer of 1941, when the likelihood of an invasion was a daily threat to the people of England, one of the most intriguing and persistent legends of the World War II was born: that German troops did land on the coast of East Anglia in a prelude to the invasion that was then only weeks, perhaps even days, away. It is a legend that has inspired writers such as Graham Greene The Lieutenant Died Last, the filmmaker Alberto Cavalcanti Went the Day Well?, and of course, Jack Higgins, whose 1975 novel The Eagle Had Landed was an international bestseller and became a hugely popular film. But all of these stories are fiction. Using recently declassified documents, eyewitness accounts, contemporary reports, and newspaper and magazine features, Peter Haining investigates the story and ultimately provides the solution to an enduring mystery, while at the same time illuminating a particularly fraught period of Britain’s wartime history.

The Chianti Raiders

In this account of the Battle of Britain, Peter Haining tells the story of Italian led air raids on England, the fighter pilot with Mafia connections, eyewitness testimonies from civilians and RAF squadrons, as well as crashes, imprisonments, and escapes.

Lassie

The biography of Eric Knight, whose short story, Lassie Come Home, was the inspiration for the famous collie character that continued to appear in TV shows and movies long after his death.

The Banzai Hunters

General W. J. ‘Bill’ Slim’s bloody and fraught victory over the Japanese on the mainland would not have been possible without the springboard provided by a remarkable assortment of army and navy men. In this thoroughly researched and accessible analysis, Peter Haining details their insidious assaults. They traveled in small boats, landing craft, and even frogman suits, making their way along the rivers and onto the islands along the eastern coast of Burma. Together, they opened the way for a turning point as vital as El Alamein in the Western Desert or D Day on the Normandy beaches. The Japanese response is also illustrated, depicting how Lieutenant General Sakurai instituted his own missions, ordering his men to show no mercy and take no prisoners. Largely based on personal stories by the men who served, it also draws on documents and information from naval and army records.