Simon Read

When the news business was literally a matter of life and death... A real-life Barbary Coast, War of Words details the bloody birth of the San Francisco Chronicle, when verbal blows traded between two of the town’s most powerful men escalated into violence on the streets of 1880s San Francisco. Gun-toting newspaper publisher Charles de Young won circulation wars by spilling ink that destroyed political candidates he didn’t like--and Isaac Kalloch, a hellfire preacher whose lust for the ladies equaled his craving to be mayor, was an obvious target. First angry words flew, then bullets, when de Young ambushed Kalloch and shot him. Miraculously, Kalloch survived and won the election, only to see his son enact revenge on his behalf five months later by walking into the newsroom and fatally shooting de Young. The trial lasted 28 days, featured over 200 witnesses and made headlines coast to coast. The verdict? Not guilty, by reason of "justifiable homicide.” This sensational tale of sex, murder, and muckraking enthralled San Franciscans and is sure to captivate modern readers as well.

A True Tale of Newsprint and Murder

War of Words

Long before his finest hour as Britain's wartime leader, Winston Churchill emerged on the world stage as a brazen foreign correspondent, covering wars of empire in Cuba, India's Northwest Frontier, the Sudan, and South Africa. Just as likely to take part in active combat as he was to report on it, Churchill thought little of his own personal safety when he joined the fray. Reporting and fighting between 1895 and 1900, Churchill mastered his command of language, forged his character, and established his reputation for courage and tenacity under fire.

adventures of a young war correspondent

Winston Churchill reporting

Murder and Witchcraft in Rural England

Case That Foiled Fabian

In March and April of 1944, Gestapo gunmen killed fifty POWs—a brutal act in defiance of international law and the Geneva Conventions. This is the true story of the men who hunted them down. The mass breakout of seventy-six Allied airmen from the infamous Stalag Luft III became one of the greatest tales of World War II, immortalized in the film The Great Escape. But where Hollywood’s depiction fades to black, another incredible story begins . . . Not long after the escape, fifty of the recaptured airmen were taken to killing fields throughout Germany and shot on the direct orders of Hitler. When the nature of these killings came to light, Churchill’s government swore to pursue justice at any cost. A revolving team of military police, led by squadron leader Francis P. McKenna, was dispatched to pick up a trail long gone cold. Amid the chaos of postwar Germany, divided between American, British, French, and Russian occupiers, McKenna led a three-year manhunt that brought twenty-one Gestapo killers to justice. In Human Game, Simon Read delivers a clear-eyed and meticulously researched account of this often overlooked saga of hard-won justice. INCLUDES PHOTOS

The True Story of the 'Great Escape' Murders and the Hunt for the Gestapo Gunmen

Human Game

In February 1942, a woman was found strangled in a London air raid shelter. Seven days later, the man dubbed as the 'Blackout Ripper' had struck six times, his crimes becoming more brutal at each turn. The killer left few clues in his bloody wake, until a slip up revealed his true identity, and shocked a city that thought it had seen it all.

Blackout Murders

Selected, re-edited, works from Simon L. Read's previous short story collections, Sloppy Pather (2011) and Spiced Moon (2012). Plus, additional stories.

A Rucksack Full of Bees

The Illustrated Evolution of the Grand Prix & F1 Car Simon Read.Subtitled: The First 1 Years. This book illustrates and describes the technical evolution of GP carsfrom 1895 to today, and includes a look into the future with a representation of the F1 car of 25. Read illustrates approximately 1 milestone cars in superb detail and reveals the technical developments of each. Sftbd., 8"x 9 3/4", 112 pgs., 11 b&w ill., 16 color.

The First 100 Years

The Illustrated Evolution of the Grand Prix/F1 Car

In a period of six days in February 1942, four women were murdered and two others were attacked. Three of his victims were mutilated after death, and the newspapers dubbed the killer "The Blackout Ripper."

The True Story of the Blackout Ripper

In the Dark

Park Square Gallery (Leeds, England)

Entente : from Drawing to Photograph ...

Louise Read

Simon and Louise Read are both doctors. Escaping the NHS in a Mini for a sabbatical in Italy they learned Italian from scratch at the Universita per Stranieri in Perugia. They spent weekends and holidays hunting out the best language schools in Italy - to find that the quality of the brochure and Internet site bore no relation to the quality of the school. In all they drove 18,000 miles and had the best year of their lives. And here is the result - a comprehensive guide to all aspects of learning Italian in Italy. This impartial guide is packed with practical information on planning and organizing your own trip. It contains detailed information on budgeting, enrolling and the practicalities of life in Italy.

Learning Italian in Italy

The great Australian dream is to own our own home. In fact, it_s probably the same dream right across the world: finish school, get a job, save up, buy a house. But the essential skills needed to make this dream a success are not taught as a part of a basic high-school education.

How to Invest in Property to Live Life on Your Terms

Real World Real Estate

De facto leader of the free world, Todd Croosby, vows to protect the elk of Wyoming by building a wall around Utah... and talks will be held to figure out who's going to pay for it.

Utah Vs. Todd Croosby and the Elk of Wyoming

Amidst the chaos of wartime London, criminals hunted their prey without fear of reprisal. Many operated under the cover of darkness, emerging when the city sank into the oblivion of its nightly blackout; others simply struck whenever opportunity presented itself. At a time when Londoners were pulling together in the face of terrible adversity, there were an increasing number of looters, racketeers, terrorists, criminal gangs, prostitutes, rapists, and murderers stalking the bomb-ravaged, panic-ridden streets, and this book chronicles the rapid rise of crime throughout this turbulent period. The deprivations of war forced many onto the wrong side of the law, stretching the resources of London’s Metropolitan Police Department to the limit. Air raids and the dangers of patrolling London in the dark cost the police more than one hundred men during World War 2. Petrol rationing and mandatory radio silence placed limits on the department’s mobility and communications.

Crime in Wartime London

Dark City

From Bremen to Berlin, Simon Read follows the supreme effort of the RAF to take the war to Germany. As Churchill pointed out, the fighter might win the battle, but the bomber would win the war. According to Goebbels himself, one had only to look into the eyes of Arthur Harris, C-in-C Bomber Command, to see an unquenchable thirst for blood and a passion for slaughter. For some this would seem to be the highest praise, considering its source; for others, the burning of Dresden was a war crime. The author meets the controversy head-on.

RAF Bomber Command at War

The Killing Skies

Dark City is the first book to explore how London became a criminals' paradise during the Second World War

Murder, Vice and Mayhem in Wartime London

National Museum of Photography, Film and Television

Other Works and River Entries

In March and April of 1944, Gestapo gunmen killed fifty POWs--a brutal act in defiance of international law and the Geneva Convention. This is the true story of the men who hunted them down. The mass breakout of seventy-six Allied airmen from the infamous Stalag Luft III became one of the greatest tales of World War II, immortalized in the film "The Great Escape." But where Hollywood's depiction fades to black, another incredible story begins . . . Not long after the escape, fifty of the recaptured airmen were taken to desolate killing fields throughout Germany and shot on the direct orders of Hitler. When the nature of these killings came to light, Churchill's government swore to pursue justice at any cost. A revolving team of military police, led by squadron leader Francis P. McKenna, was dispatched to Germany seventeen months after the killings to pick up a trail long gone cold. Amid the chaos of postwar Germany, divided between American, British, French, and Russian occupiers, McKenna and his men brought twenty-one Gestapo killers to justice in a hunt that spanned three years and took them into the darkest realms of Nazi fanaticism. In "Human Game," Simon Read tells this harrowing story as never before. Beginning inside Stalag Luft III and the Nazi High Command, through the grueling three-year manhunt, and into the final close of the case more than two decades later, Read delivers a clear-eyed and meticulously researched account of this often-overlooked saga of hard-won justice.

Mendel Art Gallery

Arnold, Grant

Biggs, Lewis

Simon Read : Landmarks

Kapil Jariwala Gallery (London, England)

From the acclaimed military history author, this action-packed World War II history describes the Allies' brutal naval engagements and daring harbor raids to destroy the backbone of Hitler's surface fleet. The sea had become a mass grave by 1941 as Hitler's four capital warships -- Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Tirpitz, and Bismarck, the largest warship on the ocean -- roamed the wind-swept waves, threatening the Allied war effort and sending thousands of men to the icy depths of the North Atlantic. Bristling with guns and steeled in heavy armor, these reapers of the sea could outrun and outgun any battleship in the Allied arsenal. The deadly menace kept Winston Churchill awake at night; he deemed them "targets of supreme consequence." The campaign against Hitler's surface fleet would continue into the dying days of World War II and involve everything from massive warships engaged in bloody, fire-drenched battle to daring commando raids in German occupied harbors. This is the fast-paced story of the Allied bomber crews, brave sailors, and bold commandoes who "sunk the Bismarck" and won a hard-fought victory over Hitler's iron sea. Using official war diaries, combat reports, eyewitness accounts and personal letters, Simon Read brings the action and adventure to vivid life. The result is an enthralling and gripping story of the Allied heroes who fought on a watery battlefield.

Simon Read

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