Truly superb - a magnificent achievement. It is hard to imagine how a better - and more readable - history of the emergence of today's Europe from the ashes of 1945 could ever be written; I can't think of another work on the latter half of the 20th century that comes close to matching it. I learnt an immense amount from it, and had unbounded admiration for the way Tony Judt seemed to feel equally at ease with macro-economic comparisons, the bureaucratic niceties of the European Union, the complexities of developments in different East European countries before and after 1989, and the changing cultural scene across the Continent. All in all, a real masterpiece.

This is a book which is not just wholeheartedly to be recommended; it ought to be an obligatory part of the school curriculum across the continent. It is a monumental work, which would make an excellent bookend or doorstop. But please read it first.

Tony Judt is splendidly equipped to write the history of Europe since the second world war... One of Postwar's great achievements is to break with the orthodox, almost triumphalist narrative of European history since the war, and to show just how complicated, confused and contingent that story really was... The other really striking thing about Judt's account is that it gives so much time and thought to what Donald Rumsfeld calls 'New Europe'... [Judt] moves fluently and deftly from politics and economics to films and television... Judt's clear-eyed judgment and mastery of detail are at their absolute best... This magnificently rich and readable book

A hidden gem of a diary on a little known episode of the Second World War. It speaks to everyone with its drama, pathos, humour and above all, compassion. It should be read by every history student

Simply wonderful. One of the best accounts of WWII that I have ever read

The soldiers on the Dunkirk beaches who jeered the RAF for not making their presence felt in the skies above them would have cheered if they had read this stirring vivid account of the torment suffered by one of Britain's most heroic pilots during the battle for France in May to June 1940.

It is the best account of the chaos and confusion of war outside the pages of Evelyn Waugh

One can't help feeling awe and reverence. There are enough adventures here for a lifetime, let alone six weeks

An amazing story of bravery and courage in the air and on the ground

This story grips you by the lapels and sometimes by the throat, and all who love tales of war will devour every page

Extraordinary ... The clarity of this book is as surprising as its humanity ... both great drama and poignant social commentary ... His story deserves to be told

What comes over is the extraordinary life of these airmen, who were living in care-free comfort one moment and dying horrible deaths only a few minutes later

A brilliant and gripping account of the almost unimaginable horrors of surgery and post-operative infection before Lister transformed it all with his invention of antisepsis. It is the story of one of the truly great men of medicine and of the triumph of humane scientific method and dogged persistence over dogmatic ignorance

Engaging and extensively researched ... A riveting and sympathetic description of one man's quest to help humanity

Electric. The drama of Lister's mission to shape modern medicine is as exciting as any novel

Book of the Week

In The Butchering Art, Lindsey Fitzharris becomes our Dante, leading us through the macabre hell of nineteenth-century surgery to tell the story of Joseph Lister, the man who solved one of medicine's most daunting - and lethal - puzzles. With gusto, Dr. Fitzharris takes us into the operating 'theaters' of yore, as Lister awakens to the true nature of the killer that turned so many surgeries into little more than slow-moving executions. Warning: She spares no detail!

With an eye for historical detail and an ear for vivid prose, Lindsey Fitzharris tells a spectacular story about one of the most important moments in the history of medicine-the rise of sterile surgery. The Butchering Art is a spectacular book-deliciously gruesome and utterly gripping. You will race through it, wincing as you go, but never wanting to stop

An absolutely fascinating and grisly read that vividly brings to life the world of the Victorian operating theatre

Fitzharris slices into medical history with this excellent biography of Joseph Lister, the 19th-century "hero of surgery." ... She infuses her thoughtful and finely crafted examination of this revolution with the same sense of wonder and compassion Lister himself brought to his patients, colleagues, and students

The Butchering Art is medical history at its most visceral and vivid. It will make you forever grateful to Joseph Lister, the man who saved us from the horror of pre-antiseptic surgery, and to Lindsey Fitzharris, who brings to life the harrowing and deadly sights, smells, and sounds of a nineteenth-century hospital

Fascinating and shocking ... [Fitzharris] offers an important reminder that, while many regard science as the key to progress, it can only help in so far as people are willing to open their minds to embrace change

Roper’s Luther is an angry man: a renegade and a rebel… [She] paints a vivid picture of the political and economic context in Mansfeld, where Luther grew up, and of the situation of Wittenberg and its political governance. There are important findings here, particularly relating to Luther’s early life

Roper writes with the virtuosity of an unsurpassed archival researcher, the grace of an elegant stylist, and the compassion of a seasoned student of human nature. Her nuanced and insightful portrait brilliantly evokes the inner and outer worlds of the man Luther. The book is a complete triumph.

Magnificent and surely definitive – a work of immense scholarship, acute psychological insight and gloriously fluent prose. Lyndal Roper has got under the skin of her subject and the result is thrilling.

Roper’s scholarly strengths plus 10 years of careful research have yielded a richly contextualised biography of a man whose influence has been and remains enormous, for good or ill or both.

This is a helpful and insightful examination of Luther’s attitudes and relationships… Highly recommended.

Roper portrays a deeply flawed but fascinating human being to rival any of the major personalities of Tudor England.

I heartily commend Martin Luther… It is simply the best English-language biography of Luther I’ve read and I’d be amazed if its combination of rigorous scholarship and approachable tone is bettered.

[A] superb new biography… A challenging and deeply stimulating study of a major historical figure.

The work of a brilliant scholar, who had devoted years of research to the project, and it repays careful reading… There are rich treasures in the book, without a bout. Roper has a great gift for narrative… Roper’s exploration of the cultural and social world of the Saxon miners is masterly… Fascinating.

A probing psychological account.