Shines a light on some of the darkest and most dramatic moments of the six-year conflict.

The artwork is gloriously retro, echoing the original Ladybird house style but containing completely up to date information.

An intimate account . . . rich in detail

An extraordinarily deeply moving and astonishingly evocative story. Reading it, you feel you are in the Spitfire with him, at 20,000ft, chased by a German Heinkel, with your ammunition gone

A brilliantly fresh, achingly written memoir. Thrilling and frightening on virtually every page . . . Wellum takes you into battle with him. A book for all ages and generations, a treasure

Amazingly fresh and immediate . . . absolutely honest, it is an extraordinarily gripping and powerful story

There have been countless books about the Battle of Britain. But the combination of immediacy - Geoffrey Wellum had jotted down notes in an exercise book at the time - and distance - another 35 years would pass before he expanded his notes into a narrative - gives this account extraordinary depth and resonance . . . First Light will rank among the finest of Second World War memoirs

One of the most gripping personal accounts of aerial warfare ever written

Wellum's story is astonishing . . . moving yet startlingly clear-eyed

No other account of flying in the Battle of Britain has been articulated as well as Geoffrey's in First Light

A brilliantly fresh, achingly written memoir. Thrilling and frightening on virtually page . . . Wellum takes you into battle with him. A book for all ages and generations, a treasure

Amazing fresh and immediate . . . absolutely honest, it is an extraordinarily gripping and powerful story

Superb...Enthralling.

Superb: he has pieced together the various sources (sometimes quite different in their accounts) and written what can almost be read as a detective story.

Nicholas Shakespeare's impeccably researched, coherent and revelatory explanation about how Churchill became Prime Minister at the exact time of Hitler's onslaught in the West is totally captivating. It will stand as the best account of those extraordinary few days for very many years.

Magnificent… The book, though totally anchored in the facts, has a novelist’s eye for feeling and atmosphere

Utterly wonderful… It reads like a thriller

A superb work of history. Shakespeare has assumed nothing and allowed himself to be guided only by what a patient re-examination of the evidence-some of it new, much of it still surprisingly ill-digested until now- actually reveals. That is being an historian. The fact that he is also a novelist just means that it is very well written too, a thriller, in fact.

Shakespeare is better known as a novelist than as a historian. This may change after his superb account of the under-examined Norwegian campaign, for which alone his book deserves to be read… Shakespeare is excellent in tracing the intricate manoeuvres ahead of the debate between groups of parliamentarians… Enthralling

One of the very best history books I have ever read.

An eloquent study in how quickly the political landscape can change—and history with it.

An absorbing account of how events 1,300 miles away across the North Sea let to the most drastic cabinet reshuffle in modern British history... Shakespeare's book grips the attention from beginning to end. He conjures the characters and personalities of the senior commanders in the Norwegian campaign with a novelist's flair and eye for detail.

The most prescient book of the year

This book’s fascination is as a joint portrait of the royal couple, the most human of historical actors in England’s greatest political drama.

A highly intelligent, fair and sympathetic biography.

[ An] absorbing biography of Charles I

This is a striking insight into both developing contemporary thought and religious controversies

White King is a lively attempt to make him [Charles I] flesh and blood