Defiant Courage

The incredible true story of one man’s escape from Nazis in Norway. “I remember reading We Die Alone in 1970 and I could never forget it. Then when we went to Norway to do a docudrama, people told us again and again that certain parts were pure fiction. Since I was a Norwegian that was not good enough; I had to find the truth. I sincerely believe we did,” writes author Astrid Karlsen Scott. Defiant Courage is the true story of what Jan Baalsrud endured as he tried to escape from the Gestapo in Norway’s Troms District. In late March 1943, in the midst of WWII, four Norwegian saboteurs arrived in northern Norway on a fishing cutter and set anchor in Toftefjord to establish a base for their operations. However, they were betrayed, and a German boat attacked the cutter, creating a battlefield and spiraling Jan Baalsrud into the adventure of his life. The only survivor, a wounded Baalsrud begins a perilous journey to freedom, swimming icy fjords, climbing snow-covered peaks, enduring snowstorms, and getting caught in a monstrous avalanche. More than sixty people of the Troms District risk their lives to help Baalsrud, suffering from snow blindness and frostbite, to freedom. Meticulously researched for more than five years, Karlsen Scott and Haug bring forth the truth behind this captivating, edge-of-your-seat, real-life survival story. Skyhorse Publishing, along with our Arcade, Good Books, Sports Publishing, and Yucca imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs. Our list includes biographies on well-known historical figures like Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, and Alexander Graham Bell, as well as villains from history, such as Heinrich Himmler, John Wayne Gacy, and O. J. Simpson. We have also published survivor stories of World War II, memoirs about overcoming adversity, first-hand tales of adventure, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

“With good judgment, little else matters. Without it, nothing else matters.” Whether we’re talking about United States presidents, CEOs, Major League coaches, or wartime generals, leaders are remembered for their best and worst judgment calls. In the face of ambiguity, uncertainty, and conflicting demands, the quality of a leader’s judgment determines the fate of the entire organization. That’s why judgment is the essence of leadership. Yet despite its importance, judgment has always been a fairly murky concept. The leadership literature has been conspicuously quiet on what, exactly, defines it. Does judgment differ from common sense or gut instinct? Is it a product of luck? Of smarts? Or is there a process for making consistently good calls? Noel Tichy and Warren Bennis have each spent decades studying and teaching leadership and advising top CEOs such as Jack Welch and Howard Schultz. Now, in their first collaboration, they offer a powerful framework for making tough calls when the stakes are high and the right path is far from obvious. They show how to recognize the critical moment before a judgment call, when swift and decisive action is essential, and also how to execute a decision after the call. Tichy and Bennis bring their three-dimensional model to life with interviews with world-class leaders who have thrived or suffered because of their judgment calls. These stories include: • Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, whose judgment to grow through research and development transformed GE into the world’s premier technology growth company. • Joel Klein, chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, who made tough calls about teachers, students, and parents while turning around a troubled school system. • Jim McNerney, CEO of Boeing, whose strategic judgment helped him reinvigorate his company and restore a culture of trust and respect. • The late general Wayne Downing, who found an unexpected opportunity in the midst of crisis when he led the Special Operations raid to capture Manuel Noriega. • A. G. Lafley, CEO of Procter & Gamble, who bet $57 billion to purchase Gillette and reinvent his company. • Brad Anderson, CEO of Best Buy, who made the call to commit totally to a customer-centric strategy and led his people to execute it. Whether you’re running a small department or a global corporation, Judgment will give you a framework for evaluating any situation, making the call, and correcting if necessary during the execution phase. It will show you how to handle the overlapping domains of people, strategy, and crisis management. And it will help you teach your entire team to make the right call more often. No organization can afford to neglect this crucial discipline—and no previous book has ever brought it into such clear focus.

German POWs held in England during WWI record their experience in this volume of detailed accounts, diary entries, drawings, and more. In Munich in 1920, just after the end of the First World War, German prisoners of war in England published a book they had written and smuggled back home. Through vivid text and illustrations, they describe their experience of life in a camp at Skipton in Yorkshire. Their work, now translated into English for the first time, gives us a unique insight into their feelings about the war, their captors, and their longing to go home. In their own words they record prison camp conditions, daily routines, their relationship with the prison authorities, their activities and entertainment, and their thoughts of their homeland. The challenges and privations they faced are part of their story, as is the community they created within the confines of the camp. The whole gamut of their existence is portrayed here, in particular through their drawings and cartoons which are reproduced alongside the translation. German Prisoners of the Great War offers an inside view of a hitherto neglected aspect of the wartime experience.

An annual publication, The Birthday Book examines emerging challenges and opportunities for Singapore, based on a selected prompt. The number of writers each year matches Singapore’s age—52 for 2017, 53 for 2018, and so on. This edition presents 52 responses to “What Should We Never Forget?” The contributors have drawn from personal encounters, academic and professional experiences, and cornerstone values in their lives. Read their stories for a glimpse of our nation’s spirit—mortal, vulnerable, restless, resilient, and aspirational. What’s your response?

Elizabeth II is a model of feminine excellence and an example for young people who may not be born to royal families, but who should consider themselves as princesses and princes of the family to which they have been born. Like Elizabeth, who even as a child knew the significance of the role into which she had been born and started training for the future task, young people should prepare for their future by acquiring training early in their life. Like Elizabeth, who married the first man she fell in love with, young women should insist on marrying the first man they fall in love with, to preserve and protect their womanhood and honour. Finally, Elizabeth trained as a car mechanic and driver, despite her wealthy royal background. How many women have the courage today to train in skills which society considers a man's domain? The Queen of England recommends training to young people with this remark: "It's all to do with the training: you can do a lot if you are properly trained." In this era when the monarchy is considered to be an outdated institution, the British Royal Family has made it known that they will step aside when the British people will ask them to do so. What makes the British monarchy different from other royals in the world? What, in the 1870s, might have motivated the pre-colonial Kings of Douala on the coast of today's Cameroon to apply to Queen Victoria, the great-grandmother of Queen Elizabeth II, to colonise them? Unity Elias Yang is also the author of: - The Third World, where is it? - A Global State through Democratic Federal World Government - Your Baby's long journey to school - Little Anita visits the Bank - Children and Citizenship levels 1-6 - Women and Children's Chamber of Parliament: democratising representation.