The extraordinary character and career of Saladin are the keys to understanding the Battle of Hattin, the fall of Jerusalem and the failure of the Third Crusade. He united warring Muslim lands, reconquered the bulk of Crusader states and faced the Richard the Lion Heart, king of England, in one of the most famous confrontations in medieval warfare. Geoffrey Hindley's sympathetic and highly readable study of the life and times of this remarkable, many-sided man, who dominated the Middle East in his day, gives a fascinating insight into his achievements and into the Muslim world of his contemporaries. Geoffrey Hindley is a distinguished medieval historian who has written widely on many aspects of the period. He has made a special study of medieval warfare and of sieges in particular. His previous books include Castles of Europe, Medieval Warfare, England in the Age of Caxton, Under Siege, Tourists, Travellers and Pilgrims, The Book of Magna Carta and The Crusades. His most recent publications are is A Brief History of the Anglo-Saxons and Medieval Siege and Siegecraft.

The name John Muir has come to stand for the protection of wild land and wilderness in both America and Britain. Born in Dunbar in 1838, Muir is famed as a pioneer of American conservation and his passion, discipline and vision still inspire. Combining acute observation with a sense of inner discovery, Muir's writings of his summer in what would become the great national park of Yosemite in California's Sierra valley raise a close awareness of nature to a spiritual dimension. His journal provides a unique marriage of natural history, lyrical prose and amusing anecdote, retaining a freshness, intensity and brutal honesty which will amaze the modern reader.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, destroyers have been all-purpose ships, playing vital roles in the war effort: from passing the mail at sea to screening larger ships from hostile torpedo attacks. This book covers the 175 ships of the 2100-ton Fletcher class plus the 67 Allen.M Sumner-class destroyers commissioned during war, as well as the five vessels of the 45-strong Gearing class which saw action. These were the definitive destroyers of the Pacific War, taking part in action from Guadalcanal through the concurrent occupation of the Central Pacific islands and New Guinea, to the recovery of the Philippines and the taking of Iwo Jima, and which bore the brunt of the kamikaze onslaught which reached its peak at Okinawa. The author Dave McComb is the president of the Destroyer History Foundation.