Passchendaele epitomises everything that was most terrible about the Western Front. The photographs never sleep of this four-month battle, fought from July to November 1917, the worst year of the war: blackened tree stumps rising out of a field of mud, corpses of men and horses drowned in shell holes, terrified soldiers huddled in trenches awaiting the whistle.The intervening century, the most violent in human history, has not disarmed these pictures of their power to shock. At the very least they ask us, on the 100th anniversary of the battle, to see and to try to understand what happened here. Yes, we commemorate the event. Yes, we adorn our breasts with poppies. But have we seen? Have we understood? Have we dared to reason why?What happened at Passchendaele was the expression of the 'wearing-down war', the war of pure attrition at its most spectacular and ferocious.Paul Ham's Passchendaele: Requiem for Doomed Youth shows how ordinary men on both sides endured this...

The diary is one little girl's vision of her world as it closes in and destroys her. She is a highly intelligent child; but the full weight of Japanese propaganda can be felt through her thoughts and observations; she is also a classic example of the dutiful Japanese daughter, but one with a keenly observant eye. The book consists of Yoko's diary as well as a stirring prologue from Yoko's brother, a diary entry from Yoko's father after her death and a very moving letter of Yoko's death from the woman who nursed Yoko as she died. While the core of the book is Yoko's diary, it would also include information about the war, the Japanese way of life, Hiroshima today and extra material to complete a poignant and comprehensive view of one of history's most horrific events. Ages: 8-12

WHEN ADOLF HITLER went to war in 1914, aged 25, he lived through what he would later call the 'most stupendous experience of my life'. Twice decorated for bravery, the future dictator thrilled to battle, relished violence and was willing to give everything for his beloved Fatherland.He heard of Germany's defeat as he lay immobilised in a hospital bed, temporarily blinded from mustard gas. He opened his eyes on a terrible new world, of Germany's loss and humiliation, the flight of the Kaiser, a Marxist uprising in Bavaria and the destruction of his beloved army.Hitler would never accept Germany's defeat or the terms of the peace settlement. Out of his fury arose an unquenchable thirst for revenge, against the 'November criminals' who had signed the armistice; against the socialists whom he blamed for stabbing the army in the back; and, most violently, against the Jews, on whom he would load the blame for all Germany's woes and whom he considered a direct threat to the...