Battle of Britain Week Offer

Given that our three best selling categories are the Second World War, Military Biography and Military Aviation (with their obvious overlaps), I probably don't need to tell many of my readers of the significance of the Battle of Britain to the courses of World War II and eventual Allied victory.

Today is the start of Battle of Britain Week, culminating on the 15 September, which marks the climax of the battle.  As well as commemorating the outcome and those from many nations who took part in the battle, the week forms the main fundraising drive for and charities such as the RAF Benevolent Fund and the Royal Air Forces Association which supports the 'RAF family' (serving members, veterans and their families).  This year is particularly special as it also marks the centenary of the formation of the RAF in April 1918.

To mark this week, I have decided to offer 15% all Military Aviation titles ordered between today and midnight on Sunday 16 September 2018.  To take advantage of this offer, do not order through the selling platforms (AbeBooks, Amazon, and Biblio) but by contacting us directly.  I will then send you a PayPal invoice for your books.

Today's Helper

Aviation at D-Day and Market Garden

I've been meaning for some time to highlight the above series of books on the aviation aspects of the Normandy invasions by  Martin Bowman.  The anniversary of D-Day seems an excellent time to do so.

Sadly events have overtaken me and these volumes have proved popular even without the plug: although I have several copies of Winged Pegasus and The Rangers, I only have one full five-volume set left.

Bowman has written a similar series on Operation Market Garden.  Of that set, I only have copies of Volume 1 and Volume 3.  Time to restock soon, I think!

These, and other copies of Bowman's work (must-reads for anyone interested in World War II in the air) can be seen here.

Go On, Make Our Day!

Sometimes we get an e-mail from a customer that just makes our day.  Yesterday was one of those times, and (with permission) we would like to share it with you.

Dear Edwin 

A few months ago you sent me the book A Life in Secrets - the story of Vera Atkins and the lost agents of SOE by Sarah Helm.  It is an extraordinary tale of a brilliant, difficult and troubled woman's life and the researching of it must have involved heroic efforts.  I thought you might like to know how I came to request it. 

Attached is the photo of the tombstone of Vera Atkins sister-in-law Phoebe who was married to Vera's brother Guy.  It is in the churchyard of St Senara's church in Zennor on the far west coast of Cornwall.  I was there with a friend who was researching his family roots and I saw Phoebe's stone which made me smile and think she could have been a good woman to have known.  I then found a memorial plaque set into one of the granite retaining walls to Guy and Vera Atkins mentioning that she had won the Croix de Guerre.  I had recently read a superb history of life on a Zennor farm before and between the wars called Tremedda Days so I was interested in who had been living there and how they fitted in with the characters I had been reading about.  Maybe this is why I Googled Phoebe Atkins when I got home.  I found the instructions for her wake which was to be a big knees-up in Zennor village hall but not much more about her.  However references brought me to Guy and Vera and hence to knowledge of this book. 

I couldn't have guessed what an incredible tale it would turn out to be and now I shall go back and salute all three of them.  I'm sure that knowing Zennor and it's surroundings must have brought them much delight and respite after such turbulent lives.  Thanks so much for your part in helping me travel down this path.

A Life in Secrets is one of those books that we like to keep in stock, and pick up copies when see them.  If anyone is after a copy, or anything else on SOE, they can be found in our Intelligence section.

Happy Birthday RAF!

1 April 2018 marks the centenary of the formation of the Royal Air Force as the first independent air force in the world.  At the time of foundation, it was the largest air force in existance.

For our books on the history of military aviation, see here.

AbeBooks Outage Over

The problems affecting AbeBooks hardware appears to have been resolved.

Enjoy your shopping!

AbeBooks Outage

We have received the following notice from AbeBooks

Dear Seller,

We are currently experiencing a hardware issue which is causing all AbeBooks sites and services to be unavailable. Buyer and seller information remains secure and is not at risk. 

We are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We do not yet have an estimated time when this is going to be resolved 

No orders placed before the outage will be lost. Your seller rating will not be affected by any processing delays caused by this outage. 

Customer Support tools are also affected and they are unable to respond to inquiries at this time so please check our Facebook and Twitter accounts for updates. Customer Support will resume responding to all inquiries as soon as they are able. 

We apologize for the inconvenience and interruption of services. 

Sincerely,
The AbeBooks Team

You can still contact Diplomatist Book's directly here.  As far as I know there are no issues regarding AbeBook's parent company, Amazon.

Competition Winner!

We now have a winner for our New Year competition.

You will remember that the prize was a Diplomatist Books' 2018 Membership, giving 10% off the cost of orders. 

The questions we asked were:-

• Our spreadsheet tells us we have sold 1004 books in the UK.  What is the total number including overseas sales (to the nearest 20)?  Answer - 1247.
• To which non-English-speaking country have we sent most books?  Answer - Italy.

Unsurprisingly, nobody got the answers to these questions, so we went to Plan B and had a draw of the public followers of this blog.

And the Winner is...  Paul Smith!

Paul, the e-mail I have for you is out-of-date.  Please drop me a note so I can explain how the membership deal works.

Oversees Sales

Why have we sent more books to Italy than to Spain or Germany (which are next on the list), or even Ireland?  I don't know!  Perhaps the subject for a future competition...

Back to Normal and Competition Reminder

This is what our backlog looks like after a few days' illness meant I had to miss a couple of post-runs.  It's all now sorted.

A lot of small businesses can get into difficulties with orders during cold/flu seasons (especially if they have to make the stuff!).  I've known some to get into really serious difficulties because they didn't know when to stop taking new orders, take a cash-flow hit, and concentrate on fulfilling the orders they already have.

It's great to support a specialist supplier.  A lot of them are (like us) one-person-shops who just bob along more-or-less solvent.  Please have some patience with them.

Midnight tonight (GMT) is the closing date for our competition.  It looks as if it will come down to a straight draw between public followers of this blog.  So you have just under 11 hours to sign up!  News of the winners tomorrow...

Disruption to Normal Service...

A photo taken chez Diplomatist this morning
(obviously...)

I'm poorly, so I'm afraid that there's been a little delay in dispatching order this week.  Hopefully things will be back to normal by Monday.

Competition Reminder

As it's a week since I announced the New Year Competition and a week until the close for entries, it's time for a reminder and a clue.

The Reminder

Details of the competition are here.

The Clue

Since setting the questions last Monday, we have sent books to the Netherlands, Norway and Spain.  None of these countries is the answer to Question 2, and sending these books out wouldn't have affected the answer.

And Finally...

Remember, that if no-one answers the questions correctly the prize will be awarded to a random follower of the blog.  It's time to become a follower now!

Incoming! RPGs

Just a heads-up to say that I've acquired a batch of RPG publications that I'll be adding to the store in the next few days.  For the sake of somewhere else to put them, they'll be in our Modelling and Wargaming section.

There were also about a dozen unpainted 1980s vintage minis - Grenadier Model's Lord of the Rings and Nightmares ranges.  I've forgotten to photograph these.  These'll go up on eBay, so I'll probably do a separate post once that's done.

Feel free to send a message if you can't wait for the listings.

New Year Competition!

The above picture is of 2018's first post-run.  Yes, we're back on track!

Now, my dodgy performance indicators suggest that the pile includes the 1,000th book we've sent out within the UK.  In honour of this, and because it's New Year I've decided to run a competition.

The winner will receive a Diplomatist Books Membership Discount (B) - 10% off all orders during 2018.  The usual cost of this membership is £20,00, but astute readers will realise that the value could run into thousands...

To enter, simply answer these two questions by sending an e-mail to diplomatist2@gmail.com before the closing date of 16 Jan 2018.  I have disabled the comments on the blog until then.

1. Our spreadsheet tells us we have sold 1004 books in the UK.  What is the total number including overseas sales (to the nearest 20)?
2. To which non-English-speaking country have we sent most books?  Clue: it isn't Denmark, which is where the above parcel is going.

However, if this proves too difficult and no-one gets both answers right, then the competition will turn into a straight draw and a random follower of the blog will be chosen (you have to be a public follower for this).

Good luck!

Winston Churchill

What with the great Gary Oldman apparently doing a sterling job represented Winston Churchill on the big screen at the moment in 'Darkest Hour' in seems an opportune moment to remind you all that we had a section of books by and about Churchill.  We might might as well pick up some of the crumbs from the marketing machine (it's called 'slipstreaming').

Happy New Year everyone!