Books by Colin Smith

Two perfectly ordinary couples - hosts David and Caroline, guests Helen and Edward - are enjoying a dinner party. David is having an affair with Helen and Caroline knows all about it. Once the cat is out of the bag there is no way to stop the evening developing into a battleground of recriminations, explanations and cruel home truths. Explosively and observantly written.

Have you ever imagined the concrete benefits that you could have from a quick learning? If you could become better at communicating, if you were more creative or simply if you were able to quickly learn everything you've always wanted to know. Wouldn't it be great?In accelerated learning, you will discover pragmatic and actionable guidelines that will bring you a huge step closer to becoming a learning prodigy.¿ Discover a secret blueprint to become an information processing machine.¿ Discover simple yet decisive techniques to sharpen your learning instincts.¿ Cut thorough complexity with a proven toolbox conventional schools won't tell you.¿ Discover the one easy technique to master complexity.¿ Save your valuable time by processing information 2-3 times faster.¿ Double your reading speed and finish books within half of the time.¿ Dramatically improve your short- and long-term memory.If you're unfamiliar with the concept of accelerated learning, you may be going about your studies all wrong. Motivation is pivotal to success, but raw drive isn't enough to carry you ahead in life. Don't just work hard. Work smart, and you can realize any dream.

HEAVEN KNOWS I'M MISERABLE NOW Is death really the end? Andy Reardon is about to find out, and he's beginning to wish it was. When Andy discovers his number is up, he finds the afterlife is not exactly fluffy clouds, harps and Saint Peter. What will Andy do about his dead wives? He has three of them, all chomping at the bit to see Andy again but none of them quite how Andy remembers. With Jesus Christ and Adolph Hitler dishing out advice, Andy might make the right decision and be happy for all eternity. This black comedy takes Andy on the trip of a death time, and leaves him to make choices he'd never dream he would ever have to make.

'Excellent ... a remarkable achievement and ought to be recognised as one of the most successful histories of the Western Desert and North African fighting yet to have appeared' John Keegan, Daily TelegraphFor the British, the battle fought at El Alamein in October 1942 became the turning point of the Second World War. In this study of the desert war, John Bierman and Colin Smith show why it is remembered by its survivors as a 'war without hate'. Through extensive research the authors provide a compellingly fresh perspective on the see-saw campaign in which the two sides chased each other back and forth across the unforgiving North African landscape.

The Poema de mio Cid is a major text of early Spanish literature and an epic of great power. This book proposes the view that the Poema was a wholly new work of the early thirteenth century and examines the sources that the poet used for the structure of his work.

Practical and entertaining, This Cold House illuminates the concepts behind energy efficiency and translates them into ideas you can use, whether you live in a castle, igloo, or house.

Genuinely new story of the Second World War - the full account of England's last war against France in 1940-42.

This report provides a detailed understanding of employers' motivations for offering flexible working and the outcomes of different policies and practices for both employers and employees.

Churchill's description of the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942, after Lt-Gen Percival's surrender led to over 100,000 British, Australian and Indian troops falling into the hands of the Japanese, was no wartime exaggeration. The Japanese had promised that there would be no Dunkirk in Singapore, and its fall led to imprisonment, torture and death for thousands of allied men and women. With much new material from British, Australian, Indian and Japanese sources, Colin Smith has woven together the full and terrifying story of the fall of Singapore and its aftermath. Here, alongside cowardice and incompetence, are forgotten acts of enormous heroism; treachery yet heart-rending loyalty; Japanese compassion as well as brutality from the bravest and most capricious enemy the British ever had to face.