Horse World War

At the outbreak of World War I, Joey, young Albert's beloved horse, is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France. He's soon caught up in enemy fire, and fate takes him on an extraordinary odyssey, serving on both sides before finding himself alone in no man's land. But Albert cannot forget Joey and, still not old enough to enlist, he embarks on a treacherous mission to the trenches to find him and bring him home.

Growing up on a ranch in Sterling, Colorado, Frederick Libby tamed countless horses, drove cattle, and even roped an antelope. When World War I broke out, he enlisted in the Canadian army with the same happy-go-lucky daring and grit with which he approached all things. In France, he became an aviator with the Royal Flying Corp, downing an enemy plane on his first day of battle over the Somme. He went on to become an ace, with 24 victories to his credit, just two less than Captain Eddie Rickenbacher. This is a rare piece of Americana, told in as pure and compelling a voice from the vernacular heart of this country as you will ever hear.

Michael Morpurgo’s classic tale, capturing the power of the human spirit. First published back in 1982, ‘War Horse’ has taken the world by storm. The book was adapted to the stage and was performed at the National Theatre and on Broadway. This full and unabridged edition is beautifully performed here by the National Theatre’s first Albert, OIivier-award-winner Luke Treadaway. At the outbreak of World War 1, Joey, young Albert's beloved horse, is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France.

World War II is remembered as the war of machines: tanks breaking through the Ardennes, bombers darkening European skies, and convoys of trucks pushing supplies to the front. Yet beneath the roar of engines moved another, quieter power — millions of horses and mules, whose muscles pulled the very sinews of war. The Role of the Horse in the Second World War: The Hidden Machine uncovers the forgotten story of these animals, restoring them to the centre of the world’s most mechanised conflict. Far from being relics of the past, horses proved indispensable on every front.

The story of a farm horse sold from Devon into the mire, wire and machine guns of the Great War of 1914-1918 brings together a stellar cast, including Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn and Bob Hoskins, with music and songs from some of the UK's finest folk musicians. This drama was directed by John Tams, who was nominated for an Olivier Award for his work on the phenomenally successful War Horse stage epic at the National Theatre ['the theatrical event of the decade' ( Times)] and which also inspired the Steven Spielberg film.

When Detective Arthur Brand is summoned to a meeting with one of the most dangerous men in the art world, he learns that a clue has emerged that could solve one of the Second World War's unexplained mysteries: what really happened to the Striding Horses, Hitler's favourite statue, which disappeared during the bombing of Berlin. As Brand goes undercover to find the horses, he discovers a terrifying world ruled by neo-Nazis and former KGB agents, where Third Reich memorabilia sells for millions of dollars.

Just days after the Liberation of Paris, US Army Detective Billy Boyle and Lieutenant Kazimierz are brought to Saint Albans Convalescent Hospital in the English countryside. Kaz has been diagnosed with a heart condition, and Billy is dealing with emotional exhaustion and his recent methamphetamine abuse. Meanwhile, Billy's love, Diana Seaton, has been taken to Ravensbrück, the Nazi concentration camp for women, and Kaz's sister, Angelika, who he recently learned was alive and working with the Polish Underground, has also been captured and transported to the same camp.

In the final days of World War II, with the ravenous Red Army marching across Czechoslovakia, a wily band of American soldiers did the unexpected: They teamed up with the Nazis and went behind enemy lines to save the world's rarest horses from imminent extinction at the hands of the Russians - including the exquisite white Lipizzaner, whose bloodlines date back to Genghis Khan.