Pick of the picture books

The story of Easy Company – the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, US Army, has been told before – notably in Stephen Ambrose's 1992 book Band of Brothers and in the 2001 TV mini-series of the same name – but never so personally as it is here.

Easy Company: 506th PIR, In Photographs is available as a signed, handmade limited edition of 1,000 copies (Genesis Publications; www.genesis-publications.com, 01483 540 970, £195 plus p+p), with 400 rare photos, diary entries and original interviews with these elite soldiers. The foreword, by Band of Brothers co-producer Tom Hanks, speaks eloquently about the nature of heroism: "they would tell you they wouldn't trade [their war experience] for anything, nor would they want to repeat it for the world". But it is the soldiers' personal accounts that really hit home. From training under a sadistic CO to the capture of Hitler's alpine fortress and the liberation of a satellite of Dachau, this is humbling testimony, in their own words. Right (from left): Buck Taylor, Terrence Harris, Cecil Pace and Walter Gordon. It is taken from the personal collection of Buck Taylor. "Call any of them 'hero', Hanks writes, "and they will look away."