Author:Andrew Wheatcroft
In 1683, two empires - the Ottoman, based in Constantinople, and the Habsburg dynasty in Vienna - came face to face in the culmination of a 250-year power struggle: the Great Siege of Vienna.
Within the city walls the choice of resistance over surrender to the largest army ever assembled by the Turks created an all-or-nothing scenario: every last survivor would be enslaved or ruthlessly slaughtered. The Turks had set their sights on taking Vienna, the city they had long called 'The Golden Apple' since their first siege of the city in 1529. Both sides remained resolute, sustained by hatred of their age-old enemy, certain that their victory would be won by the grace of God.
Eastern invaders had always threatened the West: Huns, Mongols, Goths, Visigoths, Vandals and many others. The Western fears of the East were vivid and powerful and, in their new eyes, the Turks always appeared the sole aggressors. Andrew Wheatcroft's extraordinary book shows that this belief is a grievous oversimplification: during the 400 year struggle for domination, the West took the offensive just as often as the East.
As modern Turkey seeks to re-orient its relationship with Europe, a new generation of politicians is exploiting the residual fears and tensions between East and West to hamper this change. The Enemy at the Gate provides a timely and masterful account of this most complex and epic of conflicts.
Impressively researched... he has a forensic grasp of the terrain and the tactics, produces excellent miniatures of the frontline generals and deploys extraordinary eyewitness accounts with great skill... Wheatcroft has done us all a service by bringing another part of the story of Ottoman-European interaction to the attention of English-speaking readers
—— Literary ReviewThe book gives a fine account of the siege itself... thoughtful and thought-provoking, as well as being a cracking good story
—— Sunday TelegraphIt is tremendous stuff, a masterpiece of historical writing
—— Daily TelegraphWheatcroft captures the sweep of great events in this riveting book. He also nails historical myths that still resonate to this day
—— Simon Shaw , Daily MailWell-balanced, readable and timely account of the 1683 siege
—— Jay Dixon , Historical Novels ReviewVibrant, lyrical and engrossing
—— Daily ExpressA mesmerising read
—— BBC HistoryOne closes the books with the odd sense of saying farewell to a group of interesting and interestingly different individuals one might have encountered on a long journey
—— Sunday TimesI love these diaries. They have the attraction of being stories, but REAL stories - better than any novel
—— Margaret ForsterIn her group biography of three monarchs, Carter has succeeded in painting their personalities in vivid colours...she brings an excellent biographer's eye for the telling detail...the great appeal of this book lies in it narration and comparative analysis of the life and personality of her imperial subjects...well-researched and expertly written...an engaging and remarkably even-handed portrayal
—— The Times Literary SupplementThat these three absurd men could ever have held the fate of Europe in their hands is a fact as hilarious as it is terrifying. I haven't enjoyed a historical biography this much since Lytton Strachey's Victoria
—— Zadie SmithMiranda Carter writes with lusty humour, has a fresh clarifying intelligence, and a sharp eye for telling details. This is traditional narrative history with a 21st-century zing. A real corker of a book
A highly original way of looking at the years that led up to 1914
—— Antonia Fraser , Sunday Telegraph Books of the YearCarter deftly interpolates history with psychobiography to provide a damning indictment of monarchy in all its forms
—— Will Self , New Statesmen Books of the YearA depiction of bloated power and outsize personalities in which Carter picks apart the strutting absurdity of the last emperors on the eve of catastrophe
—— Financial Times Books of the YearTakes what should have been a daunting subject and through sheer wit and narrative élan turns it into engaging drama. Carter has a notable gift for characterisation
—— Jonathan Coe , Guardian Books of the Year
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