Bastion Books

16/06/2026

Hello Everyone,
The book of the week is about the Battle of Waterloo fought 211 years ago this week, which ended the Napoleonic War and the threat of Invasion.

"The Duke can see little because of the smoke... French roundshot and shell are flying near him, and the noise is pounding the eardrums, screams from the wounded, drummers on the far ridge, the regimental bands playing ...
Wellington's great gift was to remain calm in this turmoil ...
He is watching the far ridge, using his telescope, trying to read what Napoleon intends, but he is also turning that spyglass to the east...

ON THE 18TH JUNE 1815 the three armies of France, Britain and Prussia descended upon a quiet valley south of Brussels. In the previous three days the French army had beaten the Prussians at Ligny and fought the British to a standstill at Quatre-Bras. The Allies were in retreat. The little village north of where they turned to fight the French army was called Waterloo. The blood-soaked battle to which it gave its name would become a landmark in European history.
In his first work of non-fiction, Bernard Cornwell combines his storytelling skills with a meticulously researched history to give a riveting account of every dramatic moment, from Napoleon's escape from Elba to the smoke and gore of the three battlefields and their aftermath.
Through quotes from the letters and diaries of Emperor Napoleon, the Duke of Wellington and the ordinary officers and soldiers, he brings to life how it actually felt to fight these famous battles. His detailed understanding and graphic description of the battles also brings a clarity to the ebbs and flows of these four days. It is a history of many key decisions and moments of amazing bravery on both sides that left the actual outcome hanging in the balance till the bitter end.
Published to coincide with the bicentenary, Waterloo is a tense and gripping story of heroism and tragedy - and of the final battle that determined the fate of Europe.

WATERLOO THE HISTORY OF FOUR DAYS, THREE ARMIES AND THREE BATTLES

By Bernard Cornwell 1st Edition, William Collins 2014, 352pp £14
With a few pictures of some of the other related books in stock.

Mike

11/06/2026

Hello Everyone,
The book of the week is relevant, at this time in 1982, the War in the Falklands was still in full flow. This is a relatively unknown part of it.

ACROSS AN ANGRY SEA THE SAS IN THE FALKLANDS WAR
By Lieutenant General Sir Cedric Delves. 1st Edition 2018 341pp £30

An SAS commander's unflinchingly honest account of the Falklands War.
In early summer 1982—winter in the South Atlantic-Argentina's military junta invades the Falklands. Within days, a Royal Navy Task Force is assembled and dispatched. This is the story of D Squadron, 22 SAS, commanded by Cedric Delves.
The relentless pace of events defies beliet. Raging seas, inhospitable glaciers, hurricane-force winds, helicopter crashes, raids behind enemy lines the Squadron prevailed against
them all, but the cost was high.
Holding fast to their humanity, D Squadron's fighters were there at the start and end of the Falklands War. Theirs was the first Union Jack raised over Government House in Stanley.
Across an Angry Sea is a chronicle of daring, skill and steadfastness among a tight-knit band of brothers; of learning fast, fighting hard, and winning through.

05/06/2026

Hello Everyone,
There is no book of the week this week, because we are celebrating D-Day - 6 June 1944.
D-Day was the largest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare. The statistics of D-Day, codenamed Operation Overlord, are staggering. The Allies used over 5,000 ships and landing craft to land more than 150,000 troops on five beaches in Normandy. The landings marked the start of a long and costly campaign in north-west Europe, which ultimately convinced the German high command that defeat was inevitable.
Rest in Peace all who died, and all the veterans who have died since. For our tomorrows you gave your today...

Mike

-Day

27/05/2026

Hello Everyone,
Today we highlight the Battle of Goose Green and show some of the books on the subject.

On 26 May, 2 PARA was ordered to move south and engage the Argentinian Strategic Reserve and airfield on the Darwin / Goose Green Isthmus. The attack began during the early hours of 28th May with limited naval and artillery support.

The battalion was forced to go to ground at daybreak right across the isthmus, from Boca House in the West to the Darwin feature in the East, outgunned by an enemy who could hold us up at a distance with long, unimpeded fields of fire. The Commanding Officer, Lt Col H Jones, was killed during the battle.

The assault continued with some ferocious trench to trench fighting and by last light enemy positions across the isthmus, less the Goose Green Settlement had been taken. Negotiations with the Argentinians led to their surrender the next day.

R.I.P all who died during that battle, regardless of which side you fought for.
Mike

21/05/2026

Hello Everyone,
The Book of the Week this time is;
THE PEOPLE'S WAR Original Voices of the American Revolution.
By Noel Rae 614pp Hardback First Edition 2012.

An up-close view of the American Revolution as seen through the eyes of the people who fought it and endured it
The outcome was one of history's great, surprising events, David slaying Goliath.
At the beginning of the war, which cast the world's most powerful nation against a shaky collection of its wildly independent colonies, no such outcome was conceivable. But as the upstarts slowly welded themselves into an effective force, step by step the Americans whipped the mighty British to found the world's most enduring democracy.
See the war through the frank and vivid diaries and letters, reflective memoirs, lurid and sensational newspaper accounts, and sober official documents of the American Revolution. Hear the voices of the farmers and merchants, tradesmen and housewives, who joined with the generals and the country's new leaders to wage The People's War.

A lovely book.
£20 in stock for you to look at and buy.
Thanks for reading
Mike

07/05/2026

Hello Everyone,
This Week it's Books of the Week! "IN THE SERVICE OF THE NATION" The NFS Goes Into Action by Centurion. Raphael Tuck & Sons Ltd. 1944. £20.
Small 4to. 24cm x 18cm(16) pp. 12 colour illustrations showing bomb damage etc, with illustration to the inner card covers.Staple bound in the publisher's thick pictorial card covers, with, colour illustration of 3 firemen fighting a fire on a stairwell .The contents and covers clean and tight with no inscriptions.

Next we have THE ADVANCED AUXILIARY FIREMAN By V.J. Wilmoth. Published by Lomax Erskine & Co Ltd 2nd edition 1942. £35
8vo. Pp 252. Figures in the text. Original pictorial card wraps, adverts to insides. General light wear and soiling and some creasing to the front wrap. Internally clean. Both scarce original Wartime publications.
The first is a celebration of the bravery of the members of the NFS especially during the Blitz and the second is an advanced aide memoir for active Auxiliary Firemen of the time so no real synopsis of a story. Both very much of their time.
Mike

01/05/2026

Hello Everyone,
Back after my break is the Book of the Week. THE SPY AND THE DEVIL By Tim Willasey-Wilsey First Edition 2025 428pp. £16

This is the forgotten or hidden tale of MI6's master spy in N**i Germany.
In the world of espionage this is a rare gem, an untold story of an unknown spy. The story of Baron William de Ropp, a Baltic German aristocrat, who was MI6's top spy in Germany from 1926 to 1939. His reports had the power to shape British policy towards Germany in a pivotal period in history.

A right rivoting read as they say!
Regards
Mike

18/04/2026

18/04/2026

Doors are open at and I’m itching to spend all my money 😩 maybe come to visit our stall so I’m too busy to go wandering? We’re in La Roux, next to the merch stall!

18/04/2026

Hello Everyone,
Please be aware that Bastion Books will be closed for the week beginning 20th of April and will reopen on Saturday the 25th of April.
Sorry for any inconvenience.
Mike