Big heavy bombers. Proper old-fashioned heroism. And triumph of ingenuity over limited funding. So far as I'm concerned, it has the lot and to cap it all it reads like fiction when it's actually fact. I more than enjoyed it, it could have been written specially for me

One helluva great flying story. The gripping narrative reads like a suspense thriller, yet every word is true

Exciting and breathtakingly pacy...This is exactly how modern history should be written

A masterwork of narrative history. Brilliantly described, the story of an impossible British mission is a compelling one; it's telling long overdue

Gripping, endlessly fascinating detail. I read the book in one sitting: it is an utterly compelling war story, brilliantly written

Exceptional...Written like the very best thriller, it draws the reader into the exclusive world of the combat crew in a unique and truly gripping way

Vulcan 607 deserves to become an aviation classic

Absolutely riveting ... takes you right into the planning rooms and cockpits ... Don't miss this one!

As Antony Beevor showed in Stalingrad, he is a master of his craft as a military historian. . . We have here a definitive account of one of the most painful episodes of the Second World War.

It is, in short, a chapter of the Second World War that was crying out for the storytelling talents of Sir Antony Beevor, arguably the finest narrative historian of his generation. This is the result - and his many fans will not be disappointed . . . Beevor's particular skill is his ability to unearth new sources that articulate the experience of war felt by ordinary people: soldiers and civilians, men and women. . . Beevor has produced another superb book, tirelessly researched and beautifully written, that will long be the benchmark for this subject.

Beevor's superlative new book . . . Arnhem sees him return to Stalingrad form. Forensic is too soft a word to describe the breadth of detail he brings.

The compressed time scale and limited strategic scope of Market Garden ideally suit the author's testimony-rich approach . . . Beevor is a highly accomplished architect of what the American literary scholar Samuel Hynes calls 'battlefield gothic': the nightmarish horrors and absurdities of combat

On holiday I read and am wholly absorbed by Antony Beevor's Arnhem. Though I am defeated by much of the military detail, the human side of the action, the troops in the gliders, their fears and all too often their fates, are beautifully told, with some of the bloodshed and killing unbearable

This is destined to be a World War II military history classic . . . Beevor's superb latest offering, in keeping with his established record of excellence, is a must-read

Arnhem brings a wealth of new detail to a major World War II disaster . . . Beevor brings to the familiar story a vast amount of research in German, British, American, Polish, and Dutch archives. As usual, his narrative bristles with specifics, including countless observations gleaned from eyewitnesses to every stage of Market Garden. Devoted readers of military history will enjoy the wealth of details

With devastating command of his subject, Antony Beevor shows how one commander's hubris destroyed an army . . . No one beats Beevor at recreating the bewildering cacophony of war

Arnhem was one of the most epic engagements of WW2 and Antony Beevor gives it his usual excellent and fascinating big battle treatment, which makes for a gripping read

A superb work of history. Shakespeare has assumed nothing and allowed himself to be guided only by what a patient re-examination of the evidence-some of it new, much of it still surprisingly ill-digested until now- actually reveals. That is being an historian. The fact that he is also a novelist just means that it is very well written too, a thriller, in fact.

Shakespeare is better known as a novelist than as a historian. This may change after his superb account of the under-examined Norwegian campaign, for which alone his book deserves to be read… Shakespeare is excellent in tracing the intricate manoeuvres ahead of the debate between groups of parliamentarians… Enthralling

One of the very best history books I have ever read.

An eloquent study in how quickly the political landscape can change—and history with it.

An absorbing account of how events 1,300 miles away across the North Sea let to the most drastic cabinet reshuffle in modern British history... Shakespeare's book grips the attention from beginning to end. He conjures the characters and personalities of the senior commanders in the Norwegian campaign with a novelist's flair and eye for detail.

The most prescient book of the year

In A Spy Named Orphan Roland Philipps’s description of Donald Maclean’s psychological make-up chimes with what I have always felt about the Cambridge spies (Philby excepted) – namely, that their romance with the Soviet Union partook of patriotism as much as it did of espionage… Philipps makes the story and the slow uncovering of his treachery a gripping narrative and an overwhelmingly sad one

A highly intelligent, fair and sympathetic biography.

[ An] absorbing biography of Charles I

This is a striking insight into both developing contemporary thought and religious controversies

White King is a lively attempt to make him [Charles I] flesh and blood