Britain True

Few outside the security services have heard of 14 Company. As deadly as the SAS yet more secret, the operators of 14 Company are Britain's most effective weapon against international terrorism. For every bomb that goes off, 14 Company prevent 12. The selection process is the most physically, intellectually, and emotionally demanding anywhere in the world. This is the true story of one operator and of some of the most hair-raising military operations ever conducted on the streets of Britain.

The True Story of Britain’s Elite at Sea: The SBS and Naval Commandos by Mick Trenlow-Symes is a powerful and detailed exploration of one of the most secretive and highly specialised military forces in the world. Operating in silence, often beyond the reach of conventional forces, the Special Boat Service and Britain’s naval commandos represent a unique form of military capability. Their work is not defined by visibility or recognition, but by precision, discipline, and the ability to operate in environments where uncertainty is constant and risk is unavoidable.

‘Grimly fascinating … engrossing’ Daily Mail NINE HISTORIC CRIMES. ONE FAMILIAR OBSESSION. In early modern England, murder truly was most foul. Trials were gossipy events packed to the rafters with noisome spectators. Executions were public proceedings which promised not only gore, but...

*Shortlisted for best audiobook at the True Crime Awards 2026* In this groundbreaking new book from the UK's leading criminologist, David Wilson explores what our nation's most lethal murderers reveal about us in a thrilling blend of history and true crime. Professor David Wilson is renowned for...

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Jeremy Paxman's Great Britain's Great War. Read by the actor Roy McMillan, this magnificent history of the First World War tells the story of the war in one gripping narrative from the point of view of the British people. NOW A...

Few women in history have stood the test of time, but the true story surrounding the ill-fated Mary Queen of Scots has ensured that her story lives on to intrigue and fascinate. Who was this 16th-century lady and what role did she play in the history of Great Britain? Piece together the Queen of Scots’ turbulent relationship with her cousin Elizabeth I of England, which ultimately proved to be her downfall. When the Queen of England signed Mary’s death warrant, the Queen of Scots, dressed in blood red, played out her final act under the executioner’s axe.

Step back into the soot-stained streets of Victorian Sheffield — a city where the clang of steel mingled with whispers of scandal, and respectability was often just a mask for something far darker beneath. The Sins of Sheffield, storyteller and historian Adrian Finney unearths the true tales that polite society tried to forget. These are stories of murderers and martyrs, forgers and fraudsters, con artists and outcasts — each revealing something about the city’s beating, human heart.

With the Battle of Britain won, Winston Churchill and his military chiefs faced an even more fearsome challenge in the Battle of the Atlantic. Thwarted in his plans to invade, Hitler decided he would starve Britain into submission instead. Operating in conjunction with U-Boats, long-range Condor aircraft manned by élite German airmen attacked Allied ships far beyond the range of any land-based RAF fighters, with devastating results.

For the very first time, The War That Never Was tells the fascinating story of a secret war fought by British mercenaries in the Yemen in the early 1960s. In a covert operation organised over whisky and sodas in the clubs of Chelsea and Mayfair, a group of former SAS officers.

"Royal Family, News Headlines and True Crime: Britain in the 20th Century" is a book in the series "Bitesize Britain". The book will take listeners on a unique voyage through time, offering bite sized chunks of social history helping the listener gain an understanding and appreciation of the key events that shaped Britain.

Five men from Cambridge University infiltrated Britain’s most secretive institutions while secretly working for Soviet intelligence. Known as the Cambridge Five, they passed critical documents to Moscow during World War II and the Cold War, undermining Allied operations and nearly destroying international trust in British intelligence. Cambridge Five is the account of this spy scandal. David G. Stone explores the lives, motivations, and exploits of Philby, Burgess, Maclean, Blunt, and Cairncross—offering insight into how ideology, arrogance, and loyalty to a cause helped them fool the world.

In August 1963, a Royal Mail train carrying 2.6 million pounds was stopped by a single red light. Within thirty minutes, masked men overpowered the crew, unloaded 120 mail sacks filled with cash, and disappeared into the English countryside. It was not fiction. It was not a film. It was the most daring railway heist in British history.

Max the Forger is an artist and gentleman whose colorful lifestyle has spanned over 70 years. He has lived under the strict regime of Barnardo’s children’s homes, been an elephant handler in the circus, lived rough, busked his way from Brighton to Bombay, sold his fakes up and down the country, dined with dukes, socialized with celebrities, associated with gangsters, served time in prison, and donated tens of thousands to charity. And through it all, he never stopped smiling, and loving life - and missing his mum.

No turkey. No fruit to make a decent pudding. No money for presents. Your children away from home; your husband, father and brothers off fighting. How in the world does one celebrate Christmas? That was the situation facing the people of Britain for six years during the Second World War. From the family whose dog ate the Christmas roast, leaving them to enjoy “Spam with all the trimmings”, to the exhibition of handmade toys for children in a Singapore prison camp, these firsthand stories are by turns tragic, poignant and funny.

Individuals who have experienced some of society's biggest issues tell their stories - and search for answers From climate change, fake news and vaccine hesitancy to mental health, addiction and domestic violence, there are no shortage of societal problems facing the UK right now. But while we...

The 2010 Northumbria Police manhunt was the biggest ever police operation in Britain. It was conducted across Tyne and Wear and Northumberland with the objective of apprehending fugitive Raoul Moat, the former Newcastle nightclub bouncer who had just been released from Durham jail. After killing one person and wounding two others in a two-day shooting spree in July 2010, the 37-year-old went on the run for nearly a week. The manhunt concluded when Moat committed suicide, having shot himself in the town of Rothbury, Northumberland, following a six-hour standoff with armed police.