Peter Caddick-Adams has brought highly perceptive and much-needed fresh analysis to this new account of the Cassino battles. Both authoritative and compellingly written, his immense knowledge and understanding of the Second World War exudes off every page. It will unquestionably remain the standard text on this bloody episode of the war for many years to come

Part-history, part-memoir, [Achebe's] moving account of the war is laced with anger, but there is also an abiding tone of regret for what Nigeria might have been without conflict and mismanagement

A blend of historical overview, personal memoir and political manifesto ... fascinating

No writer is better placed than Chinua Achebe to tell the story of the Nigerian Biafran war from a cultural and political perspective ... Achebe relays [the war's] horrors ... with stoic brevity; his strongest expressions are his poems, ... scattered between chapters, offering affecting interludes ... [The book] makes you pine for the likes of Achebe to govern ... We have in There Was a Country an elegy from a master storyteller who has witnessed the undulating fortunes of a nation

Long-awaited ... urgently needed

Hums with energy, quotable insights and pithy summaries

Gripping

This book shows what a murderous place Hitler's Reich was, and that the Fuhrer had the devil's own luck

The first detailed account of the numerous attempts to kill one of history's most reviled dictators

Osborne has written a fluent and fascinating book.... Read and enjoy this remarkable book

A rich and fascinating portrait of a genius whose life was tragically ended before its time