King Alexander III 'the Great' of Macedon was one of the greatest military commanders the world has ever known. This book seeks to dispel some of the myths which have grown up around him and to provide an up-to-date account of his life. This includes the Macedonian background and Alexander's early years, his campaigns in Thrace and Illyria and the destruction of Thebes, the invasion of the Persian Empire and the battles which led to its conquest, his expeditions to India and finally his death in Babylon. Dr Rice also assesses Alexander's personality, and provides a summary of his legacy to the western world.

There are few figures in British history more famous and more influential than Vice-Admiral Horatio, Lord Nelson, KB. This book offers a comprehensive overview by the world's leading Nelson scholars of all aspects of the Nelson story. It has become the standard reference work for 'The Nelson Legend' and is ideal for anyone who wants to find out more about this remarkable character and the ways in which he has been portrayed, both during his lifetime and after his death. The book is a treasure trove of fascinating information — from Hitler's plan to move Nelson's column to Berlin, to the naming of over fifty streets after Nelson and his battles in the Greater London area alone. Complemented by a gazetteer and chronology, together with over one hundred illustrations and eight pages of colour plates, The Nelson Companion is a guide to a fascinating subject.

«In 1910, the revered maritime strategist Sir Julian Stafford Corbett published The Campaign of Trafalgar, with the intent of providing the first «staff account» of the celebrated battle. Beautifully written, and possessed of the historian’s classical precision, Corbett examines the underlying reasoning, both diplomatic and military, that wrought the framework of these famous endeavours.»

Fidel Castro is a dynamic and charismatic leader, who has led Cuba through success and failures since 1959. Son of a rich landowner, he became a radical revolutionary who attempted to overthrow the government in 1956 with a tiny band of followers. Using propaganda and subversion as much as sudden attacks from his mountain hideout, he gained victory in 1959. He liberated his country from one dictator and the overwhelming influence of the United States, only to turn it into another dictatorship firmly under the control and patronage of the Soviet Union. The failure of the American attack at the Bay of Pigs in 1961 added to his reputation, while the missile crisis of 1962 put Cuba right at the centre of the Cold War. Later, by sending his army to Africa and supporting guerrilla movements in Latin America, he made Cuba a significant player on the world stage. Despite many attempts to remove him and the economic collapse of the USSR, Castro survived and in 1999, celebrated 40 years of his regime.

The Battle of Berlin was a conflict of unprecedented scale. The Soviets massed 1,600,000 troops for Operation Berlin, and but Marshal Zhukov’s his initial attack floundered and was so costly that he had to revise his plans for taking of the city when Stalin allowed his rival, Marshal Koniev, to intervene. The fight for Berlin thus became a contest for the prize of the Reichstag, fought in the sea of rubble left by Allied aerial bombardments, now reduced further by the mass of Soviet siege artillery. Meanwhile, Hitler and his courtiers sought to continue the struggle in the totally unrealistic atmosphere that prevailed in his bunker, while soldiers and civilians alike suffered and perished unheeded all around them.

This book describes the critically acclaimed life of the infamous Queen of Egypt. Cleopatra was intimately involved in the critical years that saw the Roman Republic transformed into the Roman Empire. How this transition appeared to the Queen of Egypt — and the part she played in it — is the subject of Pat Southern's engrossing new biography. Descended from the first Ptolemy, one of the companions of Alexander the Great, Cleopatra was the last in a long line of Macedonian rulers of Egypt. It was Julius Caesar's involvement in an Alexandrian civil war that led to her being set up as the Queen of Egypt. She also had an affair with Caesar and for two years, was his guest in Rome. On his assassination, she returned to Alexandria — where, in turn, Mark Antony was to become her guest and lover. Over the years of their acquaintance, they produced three children. Their behaviour allowed Octavian (the future emperor Augustus) to brand the Egyptian Queen as Rome's arch enemy: worse than Hannibal, nearer than the Parthians — and powerful, as she had access to Mark Antony's legions. In the civil war that followed, Cleopatra failed to revive Antony's fighting spirit after their defeat at Actium. He was to die in her arms, having committed suicide. A few days later, she too was to die.