Cecil Packer was a farm labourer, a factory worker, a shepherd and a devoted family man from Wiltshire who like so many others was sent to France to fight for his country in the First World War, and never returned. Cecil survived both the Gallipoli and Somme campaigns, so for his descendants, his death on the Western Front when his battalion was far from the front line was a mystery as well as a tragedy. Alan Gaunt, whose wife Shirley is Cecil’s great-granddaughter, set about researching Cecil’s humble but interesting life and finally established the tragic circumstances of his accidental death in December 1916 at the age of 31.

“This is not the story of a traditional hero in the mould of Nelson or Wellington but that of a village shepherd, a local man who did not come from the nobility or the ranks of the nation’s leaders but simply loved his family and died in the service of his country.”

Clive Hopkins’s parents were Salvation Army Officers, which meant their sons had to endure six hours of religious meetings every Sunday (and no football), most kinds of pleasure (including girls) were off limits and friendships were disrupted by frequent moves to new postings. When finally at the age of 14 Clive was coerced into becoming a Soldier himself, it was a step too far, and like his older brother he rebelled and became a ‘backslider’. He has now written this entertaining and moving memoir of a youth spent trying to balance the desire to enjoy a normal boyhood with the demands of his parents’ calling. In his story, Clive captures evocatively a lost world – and finally resolves a family mystery.

Pigeon expert, countryman and MENSA member Jim Emerton has been a leading light in the pigeon world for several decades. In retirement, his main aim is to share his experience and skill with fellow pigeon enthusiasts young and old. Jim In Conversation is a collection of his interviews with other prominent figures from the Fancy, interspersed with some profound personal thoughts of his own.

Maria Sharp was born Maria Zdenka Besan in Croatia in 1941, just after the Nazis had invaded Yugoslavia, and as a young child she witnessed “events that imprinted themselves upon my soul forever”. At the age of nine she emigrated to the USA and struggled along with her parents to succeed in the “New World”. Years later she married an American and has since written this book for her two grandchildren to explain to them “who they are and how they came to be”. The book paints a warm and moving picture of life in Croatia in the first half of the 20th century. It then goes on to describe the horrors of World War II and the subsequent devastating aftermath brought on by the communist regime.