During World War I W. Somerset Maugham, already by then an established playwright and author, was recruited to be a British intelligence agent. These stories reflect his wartime experiences in intelligence gathering. Though fictionalized, they managed to retain enough authentic elements for Winston Churchill to advise Maugham that their publication might be a violation of the Official Secrets Act, resulting in the author burning an additional 14 stories. Set in various locales across the continent, these remaining Ashenden stories are a precursor to the jet-setting spy novels of the 1950s and 1960s. Maugham is known as a master short story writer and these stories are no exception, combining wit and realism to create memorable characters in a unique and highly critical portrait of wartime espionage. Initially released to a mixed reception—with an early review by D. H. Lawrence being especially scathing—Ashenden has since been credited as an inspiration for numerous authors, including John Le Carré, Graham Greene, and Raymond Chandler. The latter in particular was especially impressed, writing in 1950, “There are no other great spy stories—none at all. I have been searching and I know.” This book is part of the Standard Ebooks project, which produces free public domain ebooks.

Ashenden, Or The British Agent is founded on Maugham's experiences in the English Intelligence Department during World War I, but rearranged for the purposes of fiction. This fascinating book contains the most expert stories of espionage ever written. For a period of time after it was first published the book became official required reading for persons entering the secret service. The plot follows the imaginary John Ashenden who during World War I is a spy for British Intelligence. He is sent first to Geneva and later to Russia. Instead of one story from start to finish, the chapters contain individual stories involving many different characters. All of the people whom Ashenden meet during his travels have their own reason for being involved in the spy game, and each are more complex than they first look.

The role of the secret agent before and during World War 2 was often not as glamorous as we are led to believe and many of the practitioners were amateurs, poorly equipped and often working against formidable state security agencies as this book reveals

An epic saga of the upstairs and downstairs residents of an English country house which spans some 240 years and includes the stories of its original architect, a Victorian family that shared four decades of family history, soldiers billeted in the house during World War I, and a young couple who restores the house in the 1950s.

"The heroes are as rugged and wild as the landscape."—MAISEY YATES, New York Times bestselling author, for Come Home to Deep River Small town romance heads to the wilds of New Zealand in the first installment of a brand-new contemporary series by Jackie Ashenden. He's hell-bent on telling her what to do. She's determined to make it on her own. They're both going to learn a thing or two about first impressions. Brightwater Valley, New Zealand, is beautiful, rugged, and home to those who love adventure. But it's also isolated and on the verge of becoming a ghost town. When the town puts out a call to its sister city of Deep River, Alaska, hoping to entice people to build homes and businesses in Brightwater, ex paratrooper Chase Kelly is all for it. He sees the benefits of building the economy, but only if those who come to Brightwater are ready for its challenges. Former oil executive Isabella Montgomery and her plan to open an art gallery don't seem up to the test. Now Chase is determined to help her learn the ways of his formidable hometown.

VHDL, the IEEE standard hardware description language for describing digital electronic systems, has recently been revised. The Designer's Guide to VHDL has become a standard in the industry for learning the features of VHDL and using it to verify hardware designs. This third edition is the first comprehensive book on the market to address the new features of VHDL-2008. - First comprehensive book on VHDL to incorporate all new features of VHDL-2008, the latest release of the VHDL standard - Helps readers get up to speed quickly with new features of the new standard - Presents a structured guide to the modeling facilities offered by VHDL - Shows how VHDL functions to help design digital systems - Includes extensive case studies and source code used to develop testbenches and case study examples - Helps readers gain maximum facility with VHDL for design of digital systems

Navy SEAL Lucas Tate distanced himself from the wealthy, wicked patriarch who adopted him and has devoted his life to the band of brothers from his unit. So when the widow of one of his former comrades finds herself in apparent danger, Lucas makes it his job to protect her. Original.

Tennant Creek and Australia’s Unresolved Past Winner of the 2022 Australian Political Book of the Year Award 'A drily elegant, bracing work from a pained and open heart' —Helen Garner 'Refreshing and original. A unique window on Australia's past and its barbed resonance today … Essential reading for anyone interested in the challenge of truth-telling.' —Mark McKenna 'A graceful, unostentatiously scholarly, wise (and highly readable) book on a subject of overwhelming and enduring significance for all Australians.' —Robert Manne The tale of a town, and a nation Returning after fifty years to the frontier town where he lived as a boy, Dean Ashenden finds Tennant Creek transformed, but its silence about the past still mostly intact. Provoked by a half-hidden account, Ashenden sets out to understand how the story of 'relations between two racial groups within a single field of life' has been told and not told, in this town and across the nation. In a riveting combination of memoir, reportage and political and intellectual history, Ashenden traces the strange career of the great Australian silence – from its beginnings in the first encounters of black and white, through the work of the early anthropologists, the historians and the courts in landmark cases about land rights and the Stolen Generations, to still-continuing controversy. In a moving finale, Ashenden goes back to Tennant Creek once more to meet for the first time some of his Aboriginal contemporaries, and to ask how the truths of Australia's story can best be told.

VHDL-2008: Just the New Stuff, as its title says, introduces the new features added to the latest revision of the IEEE standard for the VHDL hardware description language. Written by the Chair and Technical Editor of the IEEE working group, the book is an authoritative guide to how the new features work and how to use them to improve design productivity. It will be invaluable for early adopters of the new language version, for tool implementers, and for those just curious about where VHDL is headed.* First in the market describing the new features of VHDL 2008;* Just the new features, so existing users and implementers can focus on what's new; * Helps readers to learn the new features soon, rather than waiting for new editions of complete VHDL reference books. * Authoritative, written by experts in the area; * Tutorial style, making it more accessible than the VHDL Standard Language Reference Manual.

A sizzling weekend changes the Italian billionaire’s life—forever—in this “enjoyable and sexy ‘secret baby’ second chance romance” (Harlequin Junkie). Enzo Cardinali had never known a passion like the one he shared with Matilda St. George during their red-hot Caribbean fling. Beautiful, irresistible Matilda made brooding Enzo crave something more for the first time. But when she left abruptly, he vowed to forget her, rebuilding the walls around his damaged heart. Now Matilda has reappeared—with his son! Enzo demands his heir, but will he claim vibrant Matilda, too? Feel the heat in this tantalizing tale—with a hidden heir twist!