Book of the Year Bronze Award Winner

They were the bravest of the brave... [an] absorbing history

A sensitive, colourful and moving account... Compelling

Another excellent book by Will Iredale, delving into the story of Bomber Command's Pathfinder Squadrons with drama and pace. The human stories, and the incredible advancements in aerial warfare, leap from the page from start to finish

Fascinating and utterly gripping ... Will Iredale's painstaking research is impeccable, as is his storytelling. This stunning book is scored with unforgettable characters, reminding us this is a human story of resourcefulness, ingenuity, and above all, extraordinary courage

Painstakingly researched and brilliantly told: Will Iredale has really captured the essence of the RAF's elite pathfinder force

A highly-readable account of raw courage and technical innovation, brought to life by a master historian

A superb book full of evocative stories

Mesmeric ... their contribution to Britain's victory was vital ... skillfully interweaves details of the brave pilots' lives with a weighty account of British military strategy

This book, from a man who had a front-row seat to much of the history he describes, draws on his experiences and those of his friends to bring events to vivid life

Garton Ash deftly combines scholarship, journalistic experience, and personal observations and stories in Homelands ... delightful and thought-provoking

Garton Ash has carved out a unique niche as a 'historian of the present.' Homelands combines his eye-witness account of Europe's evolution with his keen historical insight to offer an innovative and compelling book

Insightful

Rich with originality and memoiristic detail

A fluent and authoritative account of Europe since the Second World War

An insightful analysis of the transformation of central and eastern Europe in the decades between the Hungarian revolution of 1956 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Garton Ash is a clear-headed chronicler of the Continent [and] Homelands is an engaging read

An authoritative big picture well matched with revealing, important human details

Timothy Garton Ash tells the epic story of ... [postwar] Europe

Excellent ... Read as a letter, such gemlike vignettes can be treasured. Because in them, Garton Ash has captured something of what it means to be European. Though he is proudly in love with Europe, he is not blind to its faults

Part memoir, part history and is fascinating, rich in anecdote, and at times intensely moving

A panoramic contemporary history of Europe, in which sharp political analysis is enlivened with personal memoir — drawn from decades of distinguished work as a journalist and academic

Vivid and starkly unsentimental... X Troop is a gripping story of Jewish courage and empowerment in the midst of darkness and sorrow

The Lion House presents a historical universe that captivates and astonishes and is near-impossible to put down. A superb example of historical literature and research

Full of breath-taking events at the cross-roads of empires at a moment in history when notions such as Europe, Asia, Christianity and Islam were infinitely more fluid and permeable than they are today

Original... de Bellaigue... offers a vivid presentation of events, re-imagined as scenes and episodes... a different, literary kind [of history]

De Bellaigue writes with impecable scholarship, piecing together contemporary accounts to create a thrilling narrative

De Bellaigue is an expert stylist, sensitive to rhythm and vocabulary, and passionate in his pursuit of the fugitive detail that gives meaning to a whole episode

An exhilarating read

An engrossing book... This is history turned into drama and poetry, awesomely spectacular yet also intensely intimate

The world of Suleyman the Magnificent...is brought to life in this history

A masterpiece

Jessie Child's The Siege of Loyalty House turns an English Civil War stand-off into a fable of murderous polarisation: gripping, timely history

The Siege of Loyalty House ... tingles with a discerning historical imagination

[A] thrilling tale of war

[A] gripping tale of a royalist house standing its grown against the Roundheads ... Atmospheric, unflinching, and at times extraordinarily witty

[A] poignant book... the story is timeless

Compelling

Exhaustively researched and beautifully written, [The Siege of Loyalty House] tells the story of the epic two-year siege of Basing House, a royalist mansion finally captured by Oliver Cromwell in 1645.

When you are as good a writer as Jessie Childs, and as assuredly immersed in the archives, the pages zing with the technicolour of celluloid. ... [A] masterpiece.

Childs writes an engrossing, spellbinding narrative while laying out a clear and comprehendible history

The broad subject of this poignant book is what happens to people during civil war: how quickly and imperceptibly order becomes chaos and decency yields to cruelty. In other words, how close to inhumanity humanity always is. The focus is on an episode in the English civil war, but the story is timeless

A gripping account of the agony at Basing, The Siege of Loyalty House is also a potted social history of the civil wars and how they started. Jessie Childs, [is] a gifted storyteller