Mesmerising stuff ... a riveting hour-by-hour account of one day that could have changed the history of humanity

[Dobbs] has made extensive use of untapped archive material to reveal the secrets of the cloak-and-dagger operations behind the nuclear stand-off in the Caribbean... Excellent

A book with sobering new information . . . as well as contemporary relevance . . . filled with insights that will change the views of experts

Dobb's hour-by-hour overview is a worthy study of this much mythologised fortnight . . . Dobb's chronological approach not only provides a natural sense of pace, but also allows him to illustrate the near-fatal time lag in communication between the two sides

In this compelling - and thrilling - new study by Michael Dobbs, there is much new material that forces us to revise our assumptions about the crisis... This is the first book about the crisis to tell the story of the tactical cruise missiles and the first to contain interviews with Soviet veterans. Dobbs adopts a cinematic style, cross-cutting between locations and time zones, and perfectly judges the acceleration of pace in the second half of the book which concentrates on Black Sunday. Unlike previous writers, Dobbs gives due prominence to the subplots, any one of which might have sparked mass destruction

Dobbs writes it up like a thriller

A relentless and determined researcher, Dobbs visited half a dozen countries including Russia and Cuba, over a two year period in his search for the full truth about the October missile crisis... This author seeks to humanise the story and bring it down to the level of the individual pilot or soldier

Dobbs is a master at telling stories as they unfold and from a variety of perspectives... In a densely packed, fast-paced narrative, Dobbs presents the crisis from its early stages through the decision to blockade Cuba and Kennedy's ordering of DEFCON 2, the last step before an attack, to the final resolution

Extraordinary . . . As gripping as any fiction. Dobbs is an impeccable researcher and reporter

A book with sobering new information about the world's only superpower nuclear confrontation - as well as contemporary relevance . . . Filled with insights that will change the views of experts and help inform a new generation

Riveting and highly informative, One Minute to Midnight portrays the intense human drama of mankind on the brink of an unthinkable war

Gripping . . . A significant contribution to our understanding of that perilous autumn

An important work of scholarship . . . Dobbs [is] an experienced investigative journalist, a talented writer and an intelligent historical analyst

Filled with memorable characters in extraordinary circumstances and exotic settings . . . evokes novelists like Alan Furst, John le Carré or Graham Greene

This bold and inspiring biography ..the first account of the Impressionist’s private life, and a work of impressionism in its own right. Jackie Wullschläger captures her subject in sun and shade and shifting colour.

Enthralling ... Jackie Wullschläger gives us a portrait of Monet as full and as carefully calibrated as we could ever wish for. Part of its strength is that it embeds the life story so completely into the making of the art, painting by painting. Some of its finest moments show off some of Wullschläger's best qualities as a journalist, giving us the essence of a painting in just a few sentences, demonstrating with a few deft strokes of the pen, how it contributes to the ever-thickening skein of the ever-shifting moods of the Monet story.

Fascinating.

The many currents of a passionate life flow through this superbly accomplished biography.

By delving deep into his correspondence and researching his life in detail, Wullschläger emerges with a strikingly different portrait of the artist. Passionate, edgy, prickly and unstable, her Monet, the unrecognisable Monet, is a powerful new character in art.

Renowned economist Dr Linda Yueh looks at past financial crashes - from the Wall Street Crash to the dot com boom and bust and the Covid pandemic - to explore what we can learn from them in this entertainingly written book.

Entertaining, well-written . . . [Yueh] has come up with a three-step framework to help spot when financial problems are brewing and identifies where the next may occur.

A gifted writer (een begenadigd schrijver)

The book which impressed me most, and which I most enjoyed, this year is Andrew Roberts's George III. It is based on such astonishingly wide-ranging and original research that I felt I was reading about the period for the first time. Unknown facts and wonderful anecdotes had me turning the pages with a curiosity I seldom feel when reading about supposedly familiar events. Andrew Roberts is remarkably even-handed, and there is no special pleading on behalf of this genuinely misunderstood and wilfully misrepresented monarch who did his best to be a good constitutional ruler during a very choppy period in British history.

meticulously researched ... an eye-opening portrait of the man and his times

A deep, expansive study not only of George III but also of the political and social complexities of England and the United States during his reign.

a deeply textured portrait of George III [and] a capacious, prodigiously researched biography from a top-shelf historian.

an outstanding and surprisingly moving portrait of a misunderstood king, distinguished by refreshing revisionism but also illuminated by deep humanity.

Roberts is in a rich vein of form at present; after bestselling books on Napoleon and Churchill, yet another masterpiece has tumbled from his pen.

Roberts has been justly acclaimed as one of his generation's leading historians ... His new biography seeks to challenge popular myths about the monarch. ... Roberts, employing the same flair for original research and ability to convey historical context and vivid prose that he used in previous books ... thoroughly debunks all the assumptions most people have about the king.

exhaustively researched and written in accessible, non-jargony prose. Meticulous and forensic, it sometimes reads like a defense counsel's case for his client ... Roberts's defense of George III, though, is the fullest, the clearest, and likely to be the most definitive.

Roberts has painted a masterful portrait of a patriotic, diligent and cultivated monarch. ... This new biography is a treasure-house of detail. ... George III is an engaging, humane and at times beautiful testament to the importance of giving our ancestors a fair hearing.