Author:Keith Lowe
In July of 1943, British and American bombers launched an attack on the German city of Hamburg that was unlike anything the world had ever seen. For ten days they drenched the city with over 9,000 tons of bombs, with the intention of erasing it entirely from the map. The fires they created were so huge they burned for a month, and were visible for 200 miles. As those who survived emerged from their ruined cellars and air-raid shelters they were confronted with a unique vision of hell: a sea of flame that stretched to the horizon, the burnt-out husks of fire engines that had tried to rescue them, charcoaled corpses and roads that had become flaming rivers of melted tarmac.
Using many new first-hand accounts and other material, Keith Lowe gives the human side of an inhuman story, and the result is an epic story of devastation and survival, and a much-needed reminder of the human face of war.
'His research is prodigious and chilling... a wide-ranging book which offers a warning about the dangers of alternative history'
—— Sunday Telegraph'A stunning digest of the expedition to uncover the beginnings of the Aryan people'
—— Good Book Guide'Hale's fascinating and thoughtful book grips from the start...a thought-provoking and important addition to the history of the twentieth century'
—— Yorkshire Post'Gripping and well-researched...Hale is to be commended'
—— The Sunday TimesBrilliantly readable
—— Lancashire Evening PostWell-paced, a thoroughly polished, professional piece of work. A macabre family saga
—— A. N. Wilson , Evening StandardAn entertaining study of power and personality portrays the strutting absurdity and grotesque glamour of the last emperors on the eve of catastrophe
—— Simon Sebag Montefiore , Financial TimesFascinating. Carter is a gifted storyteller and has written a very readable account
Carter's intelligent, entertainging and informative book folds dynastic and political narratives into a panoramic account of Europe's road to war
—— London Review of BooksIn her group biography of three monarchs, Carter has succeeded in painting their personalities in vivid colours...she brings an excellent biographer's eye for the telling detail...the great appeal of this book lies in it narration and comparative analysis of the life and personality of her imperial subjects...well-researched and expertly written...an engaging and remarkably even-handed portrayal
—— The Times Literary SupplementThat these three absurd men could ever have held the fate of Europe in their hands is a fact as hilarious as it is terrifying. I haven't enjoyed a historical biography this much since Lytton Strachey's Victoria
—— Zadie SmithMiranda 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
—— Antonia Fraser , Sunday Telegraph Books of the YearCarter deftly interpolates history with psychobiography to provide a damning indictment of monarchy in all its forms
—— Will Self , New Statesmen Books of the YearA depiction of bloated power and outsize personalities in which Carter picks apart the strutting absurdity of the last emperors on the eve of catastrophe
—— Financial Times Books of the YearTakes 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
—— Jonathan Coe , Guardian Books of the Year
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