Newark Book Festival, hosted by Storytellers Bookshop, will take place this weekend – 8-9 August. Staff from P&S will be attending, with books available to purchase in a designated historical non-fiction marquee.

The ‘Books in the Castle’ event is being held in grounds of Newark Castle. The two-day event is free to attend and will comprise of 35 authors and a guest appearance from Battle of Britain Fighter Pilot Squadron Leader Tony Pickering, AFC (pictured) on Sunday, for an informal chat and signings.

Trevor Frecknall, author of Newark in the Great War and Carol Edwards (Nottingham in the Great War) will be giving talks to remember local heroes who lost their lives in the First World War. Full details are available via the ‘Books in the Castle’ website.

Leslie Howard is the subject of a new documentary entitled The Man Who Gave A Damn which will be screened later this month at the Chichester Film Festival, as seen in The Telegraph.

The Hollywood actor starred in films such as Gone With The Wind before offering his services to the British government when war broke out. He was killed under mysterious circumstances in 1943 when the passenger flight he was travelling on was shot down by the Luftwaffe over the Bay of Biscay.

In Flight 777 – The Mystery of Leslie Howard, Ian Colvin carried out an exhaustive investigation into the incident including interviewing former Luftwaffe personnel. Thomas Hamilton, director of The Man Who Gave a Damn, describes the book as, “a fascinating piece of work and a great source of prime information on the events and surrounding detail of the subject.”

On 6 August 1945, the first of two atomic bombs fell on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, a second A-bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. 15 August is widely celebrated as Victory in Japan Day – the day of Japan’s formal surrender to the Allies.

By Spring 1945, while the war in Europe was coming to a close, in the Pacific there was no end to hostilities in sight. The Japanese, albeit retreating, defended every outpost and island with fanatical determination and all the indications were that Japan would have to be invaded at a terrible cost. The two atomic bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki changed this and the world forever. Victory in the Pacific tells the story of the last six months of the war against Japan in the Pacific, the Philippines, Burma and China in words and pictures, culminating in the Atom Bomb raids and the occupation of Japan.

Images of War – Victory in the Pacific and the Far East is on sale now for only £6.

The landing at Suvla Bay, part of the August Offensive, commenced on the night of 6 August 1915. It was intended to support a breakout from Anzac Beach. Despite early hopes from a largely unopposed landing, Suvla was a mismanaged affair that quickly became a stalemate.

Battleground Gallipoli – Suvla: August Offensive adds to the Gallipoli story by recounting the Suvla Bay landing through a mix of official accounts intertwined with a rich collection of the participants’ letters, diaries, personal accounts, photographs and maps. More Gallipoli guides in the Battleground series covering Sari Bair and Gully Ravine, also by Stephen Chambers, are available.