Full of death, and the excitement of a fighter who wildly enjoys his own part of the dangerous business

Unique

Here is the stink and stench of war... horrifying, scarifying and very humbling as well

Brilliantly evokes the terror, horror, elation, friendship, gore and depression that made a combat infantryman's life so dangerous, so traumatic and, if he survived, so memorable

His observations on life in the line and of his emotions in a battle strike a chord. Difficult to put down - it has the feel of being written by a soldier for soldiers

This vivid first-hand account of the experiences of an ordinary infantryman, Somme Mud reaches us as the voice of an ordinary, but highly literate, private soldier who simply endured the horrors that surrounded him and got on with his job

In its honesty and earthiness it has quite justifiably been compared with All Quiet on the Western Front... A frest look at life in a front-line trench

The fascinating diary of a young Viet Cong doctor who died in the Vietnam War.

A remarkable true story

Here we go again: the self-deception, the corruption of intelligence, and the abuse of authority, amid a full cast of the usual suspects in the White House and the Pentagon. It's a crucially important story, and it comes wonderfully alive in Curveball. It would be almost fun to read if the message wasn't so important-and so devastating to the integrity of the American processes.

pacey, insightful and compelling

Miranda Carter writes with lusty humour, has a fresh clarifying intelligence, and a sharp eye for telling details. This is traditional narrative history with a 21st-century zing. A real corker of a book

A highly original way of looking at the years that led up to 1914

Carter deftly interpolates history with psychobiography to provide a damning indictment of monarchy in all its forms

A depiction of bloated power and outsize personalities in which Carter picks apart the strutting absurdity of the last emperors on the eve of catastrophe

Takes what should have been a daunting subject and through sheer wit and narrative élan turns it into engaging drama. Carter has a notable gift for characterisation