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Millions Like Us: Women's Lives in the Second World War
by Virginia NicholsonIn 1942 Cora Johnston is grieving over the death of her young husband, torpedoed in the Atlantic; Aileen Morris is intercepting Luftwaffe communications during the siege of Malta - and Clara Milburn, whose son was captured after Dunkirk, is waiting, and waiting ...We tend to see the Second World War as a man's war, featuring Spitfire crews and brave deeds on the Normandy beaches. But in conditions of "Total War" millions of women - in the Services and on the Home Front - demonstrated that they were cleverer, more broad-minded and altogether more complex than anyone had ever guessed.In Millions Like Us Virginia Nicholson tells the story of the women's war, through a host of individual women's experiences. She tells how they loved, suffered, laughed, grieved and dared; how they re-made their world in peacetime. And how they would never be the same again ...
Eva Braun: Life With Hitler
by Heike B. Gortemaker Damion SearlsDAILY TELEGRAPH BOOKS OF THE YEAR and BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE BOOK CLUB title'I want to be a beautiful corpse, I will take poison' Eva Braun, 1945Eva Braun and Adolf Hitler were together for fourteen years, a relationship that ended only with their marriage and double suicide in Berlin. Braun was obsessed with sport, fashion, photography and films, and seems to have had no real interest in politics. She and Hitler were unmarried and they had no children. And so, at the heart of the Nazi regime there was an odd paradox: the leader of a ferocious dictatorship, himself obsessed with imposing an idea of the 'German family' on an entire nation, who chose to spend much of his adult life with a woman 23 years younger than himself in a way that was unideological and bohemian.So who was Eva Braun? Heike Görtemaker's highly praised new book is the first to take Braun's role in the Nazi hierarchy seriously. It uses her to throw fascinating light on a regime that prided itself on its harsh, coherent and unsentimental ideology, but which was in practice a chaos of competing individuals fighting for space around the overwhelmingly dominant figure of Hitler. Braun had a special place 'at court'. She was both marginal and exceptional: a more powerful figure than 'the First Ladies of the Third Reich' such as Magda Goebbels and Margarete Speer, but someone who almost never chose to use that power.Braun's life tells us a huge amount about a particular, catastrophic era in German history, both in her role as Hitler's companion and as the hostess at Nazi social events at the Berghof. Heike Görtemaker's book allows Braun to step out as much as possible from the shadows and fully inhabit her strange role at the heart of a terrible regime.
The Pity of War: Explaining World War I
by Niall FergusonThe controversial revisionist history of World War I that made Niall Ferguson's name The First World War killed around eight million men and bled Europe dry. More than any other event, it made the twentieth century. In this boldly conceived book and provocative, aimed to appeal not only to students but also to the general reader, Niall Ferguson explodes many of the myths surrounding the war. Niall Ferguson is Herzog Professor of Financial History at the Stern School of Business, New York University, Visiting Professor of History, Oxford University and Senior Research Fellow, Jesus College, Oxford. His other books for Penguin include Empire, The Cash Nexus, Colossus, The War of the World, Virtual History, High Financier and Civilization.
The Vanquished: Why the First World War Failed to End, 1917-1923
by Robert Gerwarth'This war is not the end but the beginning of violence. It is the forge in which the world will be hammered into new borders and new communities. New molds want to be filled with blood, and power will be wielded with a hard fist.' Ernst Jünger (1918)For the Western allies 11 November 1918 has always been a solemn date - the end of fighting which had destroyed a generation, and also a vindication of a terrible sacrifice with the total collapse of their principal enemies: the German Empire, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. But for much of the rest of Europe this was a day with no meaning, as a continuing, nightmarish series of conflicts engulfed country after country. In this highly original, gripping book Robert Gerwarth asks us to think again about the true legacy of the First World War. In large part it was not the fighting on the Western front which proved so ruinous to Europe's future, but the devastating aftermath, as countries on both sides of the original conflict were wrecked by revolution, pogroms, mass expulsions and further major military clashes. If the War itself had in most places been a struggle purely between state-backed soldiers, these new conflicts were mainly about civilians and paramilitaries, and millions of people died across central, eastern, and south-eastern Europe before the USSR and a series of rickety and exhausted small new states came into being. Everywhere there were vengeful people, their lives racked by a murderous sense of injustice, and looking for the opportunity to take retribution against enemies real and imaginary. Only a decade later, the rise of the Third Reich and other totalitarian states provided them with the opportunity they had been looking for.
Britain Against Napoleon: The Organization of Victory, 1793-1815
by Roger KnightFrom Roger Knight, established by his multi-award winning book The Pursuit of Victory as 'an authority ... none of his rivals can match' (N.A.M. Rodger), Britain Against Napoleon is the first book to explain how the British state successfully organised itself to overcome Napoleon - and how very close it came to defeat.For more than twenty years after 1793, the French army was supreme in continental Europe, and the British population lived in fear of French invasion. How was it that despite multiple changes of government and the assassination of a Prime Minister, Britain survived and won a generation-long war against a regime which at its peak in 1807 commanded many times the resources and manpower?This book looks beyond the familiar exploits of the army and navy to the politicians and civil servants, and examines how they made it possible to continue the war at all. It shows the degree to which, as the demands of the war remorselessly grew, the whole British population had to play its part. The intelligence war was also central. Yet no participants were more important, Roger Knight argues, than the bankers and traders of the City of London, without whose financing the armies of Britain's allies could not have taken the field. The Duke of Wellington famously said that the battle which finally defeated Napoleon was 'the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life': this book shows how true that was for the Napoleonic War as a whole.Roger Knight was Deputy Director of the National Maritime Museum until 2000, and now teaches at the Greenwich Maritime Institute at the University of Greenwich. In 2005 he published, with Allen Lane/Penguin, The Pursuit of Victory: The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson, which won the Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military History, the Mountbatten Award and the Anderson Medal of the Society for Nautical Research. The present book is a culmination of his life-long interest in the workings of the late 18th-century British state.
The Gun: The Story of the AK-47
by C. J. ChiversThe AK-47, or 'Kalashnikov', is the most abundant and efficient firearm on earth. It is so light it can be used by children. It has transformed the way we fight wars, and its story is the chilling story of modern warfare.C. J. Chivers's extraordinary new book tells an alternative history of the world as seen through these terrible weapons. He traces them back to their origins in the early experiments of Gatling and Maxim, and examines the first appearance of the machine-gun. The quest for ever greater firepower and mobility culminated in the AK-47 at the beginning of the Cold War, a weapon so remarkable that, over sixty years after its invention and having broken free of all state control, it has become central to civil wars all over the world.
Lenin on the Train
by Catherine MerridaleTHE TIMES, THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND ECONOMIST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2016'Twice I missed my stop on the Tube reading this book... this is a jewel among histories' David Aaronovitch, The Times'The suberb, funny, fascinating story of Lenin's trans-European rail journey to power and how it shook the world' - Simon Sebag Montefiore, Evening Standard Books of the Year A gripping account of how, in the depths of the First World War, Russia's greatest revolutionary was taken in a 'sealed train' across Europe and changed the history of the worldBy 1917 the European war seemed to be endless. Both sides in the fighting looked to new weapons, tactics and ideas to break a stalemate that was itself destroying Europe. In the German government a small group of men had a brilliant idea: why not sow further confusion in an increasingly chaotic Russia by arranging for Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the most notorious of revolutionary extremists, currently safely bottled up in neutral Switzerland, to go home?Catherine Merridale's Lenin on the Train recreates Lenin's extraordinary journey from harmless exile in Zurich, across a Germany falling to pieces from the war's deprivations, and northwards to the edge of Lapland to his eventual ecstatic reception by the revolutionary crowds at Petrograd's Finland Station.With great skill and insight Merridale weaves the story of the train and its uniquely strange group of passengers with a gripping account of the now half-forgotten liberal Russian revolution and shows how these events intersected. She brilliantly uses a huge range of contemporary eyewitnesses, observing Lenin as he travelled back to a country he had not seen for many years. Many thought he was a mere 'useful idiot', others thought he would rapidly be imprisoned or killed, others that Lenin had in practice few followers and even less influence. They would all prove to be quite wrong.
The Rise And Fall of British Naval Mastery
by Paul KennedyPaul Kennedy's classic naval history, now updated with a new introduction by the authorThis acclaimed book traces Britain's rise and fall as a sea power from the Tudors to the present day. Challenging the traditional view that the British are natural 'sons of the waves', he suggests instead that the country's fortunes as a significant maritime force have always been bound up with its economic growth. In doing so, he contributes significantly to the centuries-long debate between 'continental' and 'maritime' schools of strategy over Britain's policy in times of war. Setting British naval history within a framework of national, international, economic, political and strategic considerations, he offers a fresh approach to one of the central questions in British history. A new introduction extends his analysis into the twenty-first century and reflects on current American and Chinese ambitions for naval mastery.'Excellent and stimulating' Correlli Barnett'The first scholar to have set the sweep of British Naval history against the background of economic history' Michael Howard, Sunday Times'By far the best study that has ever been done on the subject ... a sparkling and apt quotation on practically every page' Daniel A. Baugh, International History Review'The best single-volume study of Britain and her naval past now available to us' Jon Sumida, Journal of Modern History
The Deluge: The Great War and the Remaking of Global Order 1916-1931
by Adam ToozeWINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES PRIZE FOR HISTORY FINANCIAL TIMES AND NEW STATESMAN BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2014On the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, Deluge is a powerful explanation of why the war's legacy continues to shape our world - from Adam Tooze, the Wolfson Prize-winning author of The Wages of DestructionIn the depths of the Great War, with millions of dead and no imaginable end to the conflict, societies around the world began to buckle. As the cataclysmic battles continued, a new global order was being born.Adam Tooze's panoramic new book tells a radical, new story of the struggle for global mastery from the battles of the Western Front in 1916 to the Great Depression of the 1930s. The war shook the foundations of political and economic order across Eurasia. Empires that had lasted since the Middle Ages collapsed into ruins. New nations sprang up. Strikes, street-fighting and revolution convulsed much of the world. And beneath the surface turmoil, the war set in motion a deeper and more lasting shift, a transformation that continues to shape the present day: 1916 was the year when world affairs began to revolve around the United States. America was both a uniquely powerful global force: a force that was forward-looking, the focus of hope, money and ideas, and at the same time elusive, unpredictable and in fundamental respects unwilling to confront these unwished for responsibilities. Tooze shows how the fate of effectively the whole of civilization - the British Empire, the future of peace in Europe, the survival of the Weimar Republic, both the Russian and Chinese revolutions and stability in the Pacific - now came to revolve around this new power's fraught relationship with a shockingly changed world. The Deluge is both a brilliantly illuminating exploration of the past and an essential history for the present.
The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade
by Andrew FeinsteinA gripping and urgent investigation into the secretive world of the global arms trade - from a former member of the African National CongressRevealing the corruption and the cover-ups at the heart of ex-President Jacob Zuma's South AfricaAndrew Feinstein delves behind BAE's controversial transactions in South Africa, Tanzania and eastern Europe and the revolving-door relationships that characterise the US Congressional-Military-Industrial Complex. The Shadow World exposes both the formal government-backed trade in arms as well as the illicit deals and lays bare the shocking links between the two.'Essential reading for anyone who cares about justice, transparency and accountability in both the public and private spheres, and for anyone who believes that it is more important to invest in saving lives than in the machinery of death' Archbishop Desmond Tutu'Andrew Feinstein has written an authoritative guide to the business of war. Chilling, heartbreaking and enraging' Arundhati Roy'The nobility and justice of Feinstein's sentiments are indisputable. The arms trade is a loathsome commerce conducted by people who wear suits and occupy big boardroom tables, but should have trouble sleeping at night' Max Hastings, Sunday Times'Remarkable and courageous . . . The Shadow World is a heroic book by an author who, in writing it, has put himself in the firing line' Iain Macwhirter'Feinstein's book is a singularly powerful study, and deserves to be read by anyone who wants to see light shining on such a shadowy world' Independent
War of the Encyclopaedists: A Novel
by Christopher Robinson Gavin KoviteWar of the Encyclopaedists is Christopher Robinson and Gavin Kovite's dazzling literary debut.On a summer night in an arty enclave of Seattle, friends Mickey Montauk and Halifax Corderoy throw one last blowout party before their lives part ways. They had planned to move together to Boston, but global events have intervened: Montauk has just learnt that his National Guard unit will deploy to Baghdad at the end of the summer. And Corderoy is faced with a moral dilemma: his girlfriend Mani has just been evicted and he must decide whether or not to abandon her when she needs him most. The year that follows will transform them all.'This book has sweep and heart and humour. It captures coming of age during foreign wars and domestic malaise, and it does so with electrifying insight' Mary Karr, author of The Liars' Club'As bizarre, hilarious and devastating as the past decade . . . Simultaneously a coming-of-age story, a war story, and a story of the disaffected millennial generation for whom the war hardly happened at all' Phil Klay, author of Redeployment
Diary of a Wartime Affair: The True Story of a Surprisingly Modern Romance
by Doreen Bates'Unflinchingly honest... this diary is exceptional' Elizabeth Buchan'Tuesday 23 October, 1934 Another glorious sunny day. Lunch in Kens Gdns. E had not slept well "as I longed and longed for you". It made me happy that he wanted me. I suppose that is mean. He said, "I could pick you out in the dark from fifty women . . ." ' The diary of Doreen Bates is a candid, spellbinding portrait of a gutsy young woman working in London in the years before and during the Second World War, as well as an extraordinary account of her long affair with an older, married colleague - one that brazenly challenged the strict conventions of the day.'Startlingly frank and readable' David Kynaston'Absolutely engrossing' Virginia Nicholson'Astute, passionate, remarkably intimate, showing us the day-to-day picture of a long relationship' Guardian
Hannibal: The War With Hannibal (Penguin Little Black Classics)
by Livy'We have nothing left in the world but what we can win with our swords.'The remarkable account of Hannibal crossing the Alps with his elephants and winning the Battle of the Trebbia.One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.
Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany
by Norman Ohler Shaun WhitesideThe sensational German bestseller on the overwhelming role of drug-taking in the Third Reich, from Hitler to housewives. 'Bursting with interesting facts' Vice'Extremely interesting ... a serious piece of scholarship, very well researched' Ian KershawThe Nazis presented themselves as warriors against moral degeneracy. Yet, as Norman Ohler's gripping bestseller reveals, the entire Third Reich was permeated with drugs: cocaine, heroin, morphine and, most of all, methamphetamines, or crystal meth, used by everyone from factory workers to housewives, and crucial to troops' resilience - even partly explaining German victory in 1940.The promiscuous use of drugs at the very highest levels also impaired and confused decision-making, with Hitler and his entourage taking refuge in potentially lethal cocktails of stimulants administered by the physician Dr Morell as the war turned against Germany. While drugs cannot on their own explain the events of the Second World War or its outcome, Ohler shows, they change our understanding of it. Blitzed forms a crucial missing piece of the story.
Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future
by Svetlana Alexievich Anna Gunin Arch TaitA startling history of the Chernobyl disaster by Svetlana Alexievich, the winner of the Nobel prize in literature 2015 On 26 April 1986, at 1.23am, a series of explosions shook the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. Flames lit up the sky and radiation escaped to contaminate the land and poison the people for years to come. While officials tried to hush up the accident, Svetlana Alexievich spent years collecting testimonies from survivors - clean-up workers, residents, firefighters, resettlers, widows, orphans - crafting their voices into a haunting oral history of fear, anger and uncertainty, but also dark humour and love. A chronicle of the past and a warning for our nuclear future, Chernobyl Prayer shows what it is like to bear witness, and remember in a world that wants you to forget.
Hero of the Empire: The Making of Winston Churchill
by Candice Millard'Completely engrossing' Andrew RobertsFrom The New York Times bestselling author Candice Millard, this is the gripping true story of one dramatic - and emblematic - year in the early life of Winston ChurchillAt the age of twenty-four, Winston Churchill believed that to achieve his ambition of becoming Prime Minister he must do something spectacular on the battlefield. Although he had put himself in real danger in colonial wars in India and Sudan, and as a journalist covering the Spanish-American War in Cuba, glory and fame had eluded him.Churchill arrived in South Africa in 1899 to write about the brutal colonial war against the Boers. Just two weeks later, he was taken prisoner. Remarkably, he pulled off a daring escape - but then had to traverse hundreds of miles of enemy territory alone. The story of his escape is extraordinary enough, but then Churchill enlisted, returned to South Africa, fought in several battles and ultimately liberated the men with whom he had been imprisoned.Churchill would later remark that this period, 'could I have seen my future, was to lay the foundations of my later life'. Candice Millard tells a magnificent story of bravery, savagery and chance encounters with a cast of historical characters - including Rudyard Kipling, Lord Kitchener and Gandhi - with whom he would later share the world stage, and gives us an unexpected perspective on one of the iconic figures in our history.
The Hurricane Girls: The inspirational true story of the women who dared to fly
by Jo WheelerCelebrating the lives of the magnificent women, the ATA girls, who courageously flew Spitfires, Tiger Moths, Lancaster Bombers and many other aircraft during World War Two.These extraordinary women, Mary Ellis, Jackie Moggridge and Pauline Gower are just a few of the remarkable stories inside . . . Since the invention of aeroplanes, women have taken to the skies. They have broken records, performed daredevil stunts and faced such sexism and prejudice that they were effectively barred from working as pilots. That changed in the Second World War. Led by firebrand Pauline Gower, an elite group of British women were selected as ferry pilots to fly for the Air Transport Auxiliary. They risked their lives flying munitions and equipment for the boys on the front line. Flying day and night without radio; dodging storms, barrage balloons and anti-aircraft fire; and with only a map, compass and their eyesight to guide them, they navigated the treacherous wartime skies.____________ The Hurricane Girls is the thrilling, moving and inspirational story of the female air force who once ruled our skies.
Crusade (The Making of England Quartet #2)
by Stewart Binns1072 - England is firmly under the heel of its new Norman rulers. The few survivors of the English resistance look to Edgar the Atheling, the rightful heir to the English throne, to overthrow William the Conqueror. Years of intrigue and vicious civil war follow: brother against brother, family against family, friend against friend.In the face of chaos and death, Edgar and his allies form a secret brotherhood, pledging to fight for justice and freedom wherever they are denied. But soon they are called to fight for an even greater cause: the plight of the Holy Land. Embarking on the epic First Crusade to recapture Jerusalem, together they will participate in some of the cruellest battles the world has ever known, the savage Siege of Antioch and the brutal Fall of Jerusalem, and together they will fight to the death.
Decision in Normandy: The Real Story of Montgomery and the Allied Campaign
by Carlo D'EsteField Marshal Montgomery's battleplan for Normandy, following the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944, resulted in one of the most controversial campaigns of the Second World War. Carlo D'Este's acclaimed book gives the fullest possible account of the conception and execution of Montgomery's plan, with all its problems and complexities. It brings to light information from diaries, papers and letters that were not available in Montgomery's lifetime adn draws on interviews with senior officers who were involved in the campaign and have refrained from speaking out until now.
A Good American
by Alex GeorgeGermany, 1904: When Frederick and Jette must flee her disapproving mother, where better to go than America, the land of the new? Originally set to board a boat to New York, at the last minute they take one destined for New Orleans, and later find themselves, more by chance than by design, in the small town of Beatrice, Missouri. Not speaking a word of English, they embark on their new life together.From bare-knuckle prizefighting and Prohibition to sweet barbershop harmonies and the Kennedy assassination, the family is caught up in the sweep of history as they find their place in their adopted country. Accompanied by a chorus of unforgettable characters, from a chicken-strangling church organist to a malevolent bicycle-riding dwarf, each new generation discovers afresh what it means to be an American.Poignant, funny and heartbreaking, A Good American is a universal story about our search for home.
Making Friends with Hitler: Lord Londonderry and Britain's Road to War
by Ian KershawBritain, as the most powerful of the European victors of World War One, had a unique responsibility to maintain the peace in the aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles. The outbreak of a second, even more catastrophic war in 1939 has therefore always raised painful questions about Britain's failure to deal with Nazism. Could some other course of action have destroyed Hitler when he was still weak? In this highly disturbing new book, Ian Kershaw examines this crucial issue. He concentrates on the figure of Lord Londonderry - grandee, patriot, cousin of Churchill and the government minister responsible for the RAF at a crucial point in its existence. Londonderry's reaction to the rise of Hitler-to pursue friendship with the Nazis at all costs-raises fundamental questions about Britain's role in the 1930s and whether in practice there was ever any possibility of preventing Hitler's leading Europe once again into war.
Down South: A Falklands War Diary
by Chris ParryDown South by Chris Parry - one man's astonishing diary of war in the Falklands'A gripping account of heroism - and chaos - in the South Atlantic' Mail on Sunday'Compelling, gripping. A vividly written, thought-provoking and engaging account' The TimesIn 1982 Lieutenant Chris Parry sailed aboard destroyer HMS Antrim to liberate the Argentine-occupied Falkland Islands. Parry and his crew, in their Wessex helicopter, were soon launched into action rescuing an SAS party stuck on a glacier in gales that had already downed two others. Soon after they single-handedly pursued and fatally wounded a submarine before taking part in terrifying but crucial drop landings under heavy fire. Down South is a hands on, day-by-day account of war fought in the most appalling conditions by men whose grit and fighting spirit overcame all obstacles.This important and extraordinary book of recent history will be enjoyed by readers of Antony Beevor and Max Hastings.'Gripping. A graphic description of just how they pulled off a real-life Mission Impossible' Daily Express 'Excellent. A fascinating war diary' Daily Telegraph'Vivid and insightful. Parry excels in revealing the day-to-day challenges of fighting a campaign in hostile surroundings' Financial Times'A truly gripping historical account' Niall Ferguson 'A priceless contribution to military history. Riveting' Literary ReviewChris Parry joined the Royal Navy after university and then became an Observer in the Fleet Air Arm in 1979. After the Falklands War he had a successful career in the navy, and on promotion to Rear Admiral in 2005 he became the Ministry of Defence's Director of Developments, Concepts and Doctrines. He was appointed a CBE in 2004. Now retired from the armed services, he heads a company which specializes in geo-strategic forecasting.
War Memorial: The Story of One Village's Sacrifice from 1914 to 2003
by Clive AsletClive Aslet's War Memorial: The Story of One Village's Sacrifice from 1914 to 2003, is a powerful story of those who died in war.Who were the men and women whose names are commemorated on war memorials around the country? Where did they live - and how and why did they die?Such questions usually go unanswered, but this book for the first time unravels the story of one war memorial, in the Dartmoor village of Lydford. Through original documents, Clive Aslet traces in vivid detail the lives of the twenty-two men, and one woman, who made the supreme sacrifice fighting for Britain in the two World Wars, the Falklands and Iraq.The result is an intimate portrait of one corner of the countryside in the twentieth century, and an extraordinary tale of the endurance and bravery of otherwise ordinary people - farmers, masons, railway-workers, landowners, schoolchildren - who, but for the war memorial, would be forgotten. The perfect book for those who loved The Real Dad's Army by Colonel Rodney Foster, War Memorial is about the people who laid down their lives for us, and who will always be remembered.Praise for War Memorial:'With this book Aslet makes an important contribution to social history... the stories are not tidy portraits of heroism but achingly real portraits of wartime loss experienced by a changing rural community' Daily Express'Leaves one with a profound sense of the vagaries and cruelties of fate, particularly during times of war' Country Life'[A] fascinating history . . . Aslet tells their stories with great elegance, and though the period has been gone over in exhaustive detail, he still manages fresh insights that bring it to vivid life' Daily TelegraphClive Aslet is an award-winning journalist and former Editor of Country Life who has spent his career observing Britain and its ways. An authority on British life, he has written several books on the subject - including The Last Country Houses, Landmarks of Britain, and Villages of Britain.
Savage Continent: Europe in the Aftermath of World War II
by Keith LoweKeith Lowe's Savage Continent is an awe-inspiring portrait of how Europe emerged from the ashes of WWII.The end of the Second World War saw a terrible explosion of violence across Europe. Prisoners murdered jailers. Soldiers visited atrocities on civilians. Resistance fighters killed and pilloried collaborators. Ethnic cleansing, civil war, rape and murder were rife in the days, months and years after hostilities ended. Exploring a Europe consumed by vengeance, Savage Continent is a shocking portrait of an until-now unacknowledged time of lawlessness and terror.Praise for Savage Continent:'Deeply harrowing, distinctly troubling. Moving, measured and provocative. A compelling and plausible picture of a continent physically and morally brutalized by slaughter' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times'Excellent', Independent 'Unbearable but essential. A serious account of things we never knew and our fathers would rather forget. Lowe's transparent prose makes it difficult to look away from a whole catalogue of horrors...you won't sleep afterwards. Such good history it keeps all the questions boiling in your mind', ScotsmanKeith Lowe is widely recognized as an authority on the Second World War, and has often spoken on TV and radio, both in Britain and the United States. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Inferno: The Devastation of Hamburg, 1943 (Penguin). He lives in north London with his wife and two children.
City of Women
by David GillhamCity of Women by David Gillham is a gripping tale of life in Berlin at the height of the Second World War. 'In the very darkest hour, who do you trust, who do you love, and who can be saved?'It is 1943 - the height of the Second World War. With the men taken by the army, Berlin has become a city of women. And while her husband fights on the Eastern Front, Sigrid Schroder is, for all intents and purposes, the model soldier's wife: she goes to work every day, does as much with her rations as she can, and dutifully cares for her meddling mother-in-law. But behind this facade is an entirely different Sigrid, a woman who dreams of her former Jewish lover, who is now lost in the chaos of the war. Sigrid's tedious existence is turned upside-down when she finds herself hiding a mother and her two young daughters: could they be her lover's family? Now she must make terrifying choices that could cost her everything.'Gillham's Berlin is a terrified city, where nobody dare speak the truth and the smallest decision can cost you your life. A terrifically tense first novel' The Times'In this moving and masterful debut, David Gillham brings war-torn Berlin to life and reveals the extraordinary mettle of women tested to their limits and beyond. Powerful and piercingly real. You won't soon forget these characters.' Paula McLain, New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Wife'David Gillham's excellent new novel, City of Women, is built on one of the most extraordinary and faithful recreations of a time in history - Berlin in World War II - that I've ever read.' Alan FurstDavid Gillham lives with his family in western Massachusetts.