Magisterial... based on access to a Who's Who of senior politicians, diplomats and intelligence sources.

An exhaustive profile

Exceptional... unlikely to be matched as a study of the man... It is readable, judicious, critical but balanced and focused on Putin the person rather than on the Putin regime

[A] revealing and compellingly granular biography

Anyone wanting to learn more about Putin's personality, ideas, power and the threat he has come to pose to world peace should read this outstanding biography

A masterly portrait of one of the most calculating and impenetrable individuals on the world stage

As a chronicle of Putin's public doings, the book is near faultless... [with] some sharply worded insights

A perfect mirror to its subject... This new biography should be compulsory reading

Philip Short's timely new biography ... provides a comprehensive, extensively researched account of Putin's life, in the process debunking some of the more tenacious clichés about the Russian leader

Short brings to this project extensive research and fluid prose. This book is comprehensive in the best sense, a detailed and meticulous chronicle of Putin's life

[Offers] a number of fascinating insights into Putin [among] the massive array of facts on offer

I got so absorbed in Philip Short's biography of Putin that I overshot my [train] stop

Stupendous... The definitive biography of the man, and I do not expect it to be eclipsed as such in my lifetime, or ever

A monument of information and sober common sense. Of all the books I have read about Putin, this is the most comprehensive and sensible

Elegantly written and pacy

(Praise for Philip Short on Mao): 'It is everything one could hope for: magisterial, beautifully written... and rich in material'

(Praise for Philip Short on Mao): 'A beautifully written, grippingly readable biography... A formidable piece of research'

(Praise for Philip Short on Pot Pot): 'Extraordinary and brilliant'

(Praise for Philip Short on Pot Pot): 'A superb, chilling, yet human portrait of a monster'

(Praise for Philip Short on Mitterand): 'A stunningly detailed investigation of a monumental political character'

(Praise for Philip Short on Mitterand): 'Deeply researched and marvellously readable'

Comprehensive

[A] meticulously researched biography

Superb, totally fascinating and compelling, Katja Hoyer's first full history of East Germany's rise and fall is a work of revelatory original research - and a gripping read with a brilliant cast of characters. Essential reading

A beyond-brilliant new picture of the rise and fall of the East German state. Katja Hoyer gives us not only pin-sharp historical analysis, but an up-close and personal view of both key characters and ordinary citizens whose lives charted some of the darkest hours of the Cold War. If you thought you knew the history of East Germany, think again. An utterly riveting read

A fantastic, sparkling book, filled with insights not only about East Germany but about the Cold War, Europe and the forging of the 20th and 21st centuries

The joke has it that the duty of the last East German to escape from the country was to turn off the lights. In Beyond the Wall Katja Hoyer turns the light back on and gives us the best kind of history: frank, vivid, nuanced and filled with interesting people

A refreshing and eye-opening book on a country that is routinely reduced to cartoonish cliché. Beyond the Wall is a tribute to the ordinary East Germans who built themselves a society that - for a time - worked for them, a society carved out of a state founded in the horrors of Nazism and Stalinism

A colourful and often revelatory re-appraisal of one of modern history's most fascinating political curiosities. Katja Hoyer skilfully weaves diverse political and private lives together, from the communist elite to ordinary East Germans

Katja Hoyer is becoming the authoritative voice in the English speaking world for all things German. Thanks to her, German history has the prominence in the Anglosphere it certainly deserves.

Katja Hoyer brilliantly shows that the history of East Germany was a significant chapter of German history, not just a footnote to it or a copy of the Soviet Union. To understand Germany today we have to grapple with the history and legacy of its all but dismissed East

Katja Hoyer's return to discover what happened to her homeland - the old East Germany - is an excellent counterpoint to Stasiland by Anna Funder