JON E. LEWIS

They include: Henry Villard''s account of the First Battle of Bull Run Rudyard Kipling on the Boer War George Orwell on the Spanish Civil War Ernest Hemingway on D-Day 1944 Martha Gelhorn on the Battle of the Bulge Edwin Tetlow on the overthrow of Batista by Castro''s rebels Michael Kerr at Khe Sahn Seymour Hersh on the My Lai Massacre John Pilger on the last days of Saigon Max Hastings on the surrender of Port Stanley and Eric Schmitt on scud-hunting in the Gulf.

Here are thirty true and graphic accounts of the most heroic SAS and special-forces missions ever undertaken into the most dangerous place of all - behind enemy lines. Bang up to date, this unputdownable collection includes the most recent operations into Iraq in 2003, Afghanistan and Bosnia, and features the entire range of special forces from SAS, Commandos and Rangers to Navy SEALS and Paratroopers. Also included are several accounts that lift the veil - clandestine ''eyes-only'' operations of ultimate danger, such as 1 SAS''s attempted assassination of Rommel and 22 SAS''s ''claret'' raids into Indonesia in 1964. Each account is introduced by a mini-essay illustrating fascinating pieces of special-forces hardware, kit or training, such as SAS Evasion and Rescue training, the Accuracy International L96A1 sniper rifle and US Special Forces selection.

The newspaper has recorded and influenced modern history like nothing else on earth. From The Washington Post''s exposure of Watergate, Tom Wolfe''s 1960''s social documentary in The Electric Cool-Aid Acid Test to Robert Fisk uncovering the slaugher at Chatila, all the articles included here are reportage from the frontline of life. The 100 dispatches collected here are reports which have caught most vividly the greatest events of the twentieth century, the editorials which have changed our thinking, the criticisms which have penetrated most deeply into contemporary culture. Most of all, they offer a snapshot of these modern times.

It was going to be the greatest amphibious operation of all time claimed Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, the naval commander of the Allied invasion of Normandy. He did not exaggerate, for the Allied fleet consisted of over 5,000 craft and had by the end of ''the longest day'' landed 156,000 men and breached Hitler''s much vaunted defensive wall. Yet dramatic and historic though the events of D-Day were, they were just the opening round of a much bigger and equally remarkable battle for the whole of Normandy that followed for the next ten weeks. Sixty years on, this collection of rare, first-hand accounts tells the story of D-Day and the subsequent battle, in the words of soldiers and civilians on both sides of the war. There are classic soldiers'' accounts from the likes of Rommel and Bradley, together with front line reports by the best war correspondents such as Hemingway and Alan Melville.

Nearly all books on Native Americans begin and end with the Indian Wars against the Plains Tribes in the late 19th century. Think horses, buffalo, war-bonnets, tipis and blood and there you have it. But what of the rest of the story of America''s native people - their original settlement, their myths, their songs, their recreations and their organizations? This book takes a fresh approach to the subject of America''s indigenous peoples: it focuses on their way of life instead of the manner of their genocide. And along the way the book communicates all the wisdom and spirituality of the 500 tribes while eschewing the romantic "noble savage" stereotype in favour of an honest, sometimes uncomfortable, appraisal of Native American society and history.