A compelling new book

A compelling new book based on diaries and eye-witness accounts

Weaves together the memories of those who were intimately involved in the politics and planning of war and those so-called ordinary men and women who would also bear its privations and dangers for nearly six years

Gas-proof dog kennels, fines for striking matches, intimate liaisons in the blackout - the Home Front vividly recalled by ordinary Britons

This is an immensely readable book - informative, scholarly, but never dry

Close-knit account

Pearce enlivens the narrative with crisp characterisations of the figures on the stage

Children are history's forgotten people; amidst the sound and fury of battle, as commanders decide the fate of empires, they are never seen. Yet as Nicholas Stargardt reveals in his heart-rending account of children's lives under the Nazis, to ignore them is to leave history half-written. This is an excellent book and it tells a terrible story... As Stargardt so eloquently reminds us, the tragedy is that children were part of the equation and suffered accordingly

'Nicholas Stargardt evokes the individual voices of children under Nazi rule. In re-creating their wartime experiences, he has produced a challenging new historical interpretation of the Second World War