Marshalling a wealth of primary and secondary sources into an engrossing narrative, Holland fills a yawning gap in histories of WWII. This magisterial account is a must-read for military history fans.

Perfect territory for a military historian of Holland's talents

Historians too often neglect that emotional tapestry. War is characterised as arrows on a map, tables of munitions, cold casualty statistics. Holland's skill lies in bringing these warriors to life with vivid prose. He's a prolific historian of the war, but each book is constructed with great care and emotional commitment...Holland is obsessed with war, but fortunately does not seem to love it. He recognises its beauty, but also its vileness

Holland argues very effectively that the success of Husky was a turning point in the war

Holland makes the capture of the island one of the great turning-point battles of the war

James Holland delivers the account in his usual engaging style and supplements it with excellent pictures and maps

Revelatory

Brilliantly blending his historical fact with vivid personal testimony by participants, Holland makes a persuasive case for the conquest of Sicily as a turning-point in the war

A brilliant overview of the war in Italy from the perspective of the female partisans

Moorehead skilfully weaves…threads of individual stories together to create a web of interconnected lives… broad narrative is dotted with flashes of detail; the colour of a piece of clothing, the wording of a letter… Moorehead captures a sense of hope and vitality among the women of the Resistance, fighting with courage and determination for a future they believed in

Moorehead … takes up the story of four friends in Turin who decided passive resistance was no longer enough [against Mussolini’s reign] and joined a growing partisan movement based in the remote valleys of Piedmont. This is a bittersweet tale, not of betrayal, exactly, but of subtle excision from the script

A House in the Mountains is a page-turner… This book is to be welcomed as a highly readable story in its own right, and as an accessible introduction to the role of women in the Resistenza

A deeply-researched, fast-paced account of the Italian Resistance, a story not widely known to the general reader

This is a highly satisfying conclusion to the author's series. Excellent, well-presented evidence of the incalculable strengths and abilities of women to create and run a country

[A] moving finale of a quartet of books on resistance to fascism

[An] encyclopedic new account... a vivid, meticulous tapestry, densely weaving the threads of German and Soviet military strategy, political calculation from Washington and London to Moscow, and war's pitiless human cost

[Dimbleby] skilfully tracks the shifts and turns of the campaign, sparing no detail . . . a riveting account

Dimbleby tells the story of strategic miscalculation and (self-)deception on all sides, and then Hitler's 'war of extermination', magnificently

Amazing . . . fascinating

My best history book of 2021 -- a masterful account of maybe the biggest event ever . . . essential!

A very open and honest account of a centenarian's life . . . You cannot help but be amazed

Embark on an enchanting journey into our country's past hundred years through the remarkable life of Captain Sir Tom Moore

This minute-by-minute retelling tackles the big questions, but also - by drawing on the letters and diaries from the Dresden City Archive - never loosed sight of the experiences of people who witnessed, and suffered, the attach first-hand

It's a wonderful book, so absorbing, thoughtful and thought provoking, I didn't want it to end

The story of the Allied bombing of Dresden in 1945 is well known, but McKay's searing account is in a league of its own. His research is first-class, his writing elegant and emotive. He is brilliant at portraying the city's prewar beauty, grimly powerful on the horror of the firestorm, and moving and thoughtful about Dresden's rise from the ashes. By the end, I was itching to jump on a flight to Germany. That tells you about the skill and spirit of this terrific book