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

Captain Tom Moore's charming autobiography is an inspiration . . . A great personal history of the past century, and we can all learn something from Captain Tom

His story is of a man whose insatiable curiosity and appetite for life have led him around so many unexpected corners - and serves to unite and inspire every generation

Lively and entertaining . . . beautifully captures Captain Tom's mixture of amazement and pride at what happened in 2020

An incredible insight into a hundred years of British social history - and the story of a remarkable man

Captain Tom has a message of hope for us all

His autobiography will continue to inspire. A hundred-year history of Britain and a life well lived

His optimism and courage shine through in this uplifting account of his life and times

A national hero . . . He tells the story of his life with unfailing optimism and charm

In this delightful memoir, we see the build-up to that 'I said I'll do it and I will' attitude

Uplifting and inspiring

There is so much more to the humble centenarian exserviceman's life than his garden laps for the NHS. A life-affirming memoir

A very open and honest account of a centenarian's life . . . You cannot help but be amazed

Embark on an enchanting journey into our country's past hundred years through the remarkable life of Captain Sir Tom Moore

Harald Jähner's deeply researched, panoramic account of how Germany rebuilt and discovered itself from 1945-1955 is an eye-opening, thrilling read

A magnificent overview of the astonishing decade in Germany that followed the defeat of Nazism

Eye-opening and often moving... a sobering look at how societies rebuild

Highly readable... Counter-intuitive but thoughtful

[A] thoughtful narrative... filling the yawning gap on bookshop shelves between a growing number of modern German history texts and the oversupply of Nazi studies that end in Hitler's bunker

Aftermath takes in the immediate postwar years where Germany was administered by the Allies... Jähner excels

Fascinating... Books about Word War II continue to spill out by the ton, but there has been less attention paid to how Germans coped with the country's shameful Nazi past after the conflict was over

Rarely has a non-fiction book so skilfully combined vividness, drama and eloquence.

Jähner's gripping 500-page X-ray-vision tale of an often overlooked and misperceived phase of German history reveals, like all great history books, as much about the first decade after the war as about today.

Clearly written, full of empathy for everyday life, which is far too seldom taken into consideration... You devour it like a novel.

A popular work of non-fiction in the best sense.

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