Author:Donald James,Michael Jayston
Best-selling author Donald James grew up in World's End, Chelsea during the Blitz years. Just on the edge of a fashionable middle class world, his childhood experience was in stark contrast to the privileged, bourgeois lifestyle glimpsed a few hundred yards away. He grew up in stark poverty and depredation, a hard existence yet shot through by the humour and courage of his family and neighbours. This was a now vanished world of grimy factories and generating plants, coal drays, flat caps and boozers, betting shops, dog tracks, 'Piccadilly girls', Guinness Trust buildings and bare foot children. World's End was a melting pot of the working class labourers who flooded to London in the previous century to make their fortunes, and Donald's family was no exception. The story tells of the feud between Donald's two grandmothers that meant that though they only lived a few yards away from each other, for a dozen years they never acknowledge one another avoiding even at Donald's parent's weeding, Christmases or birthday celebrations. Yet, though it was hard, Donald's was a happy childhood until the war came. Donald was eight. The radio carried news of impending war and then the declaration of war, difficult to believe in the Indian summer of the 1939. But soon Donald's world would be torn apart by school drills with gas masks and evacuation plans, evacuation itself then an uneasy return to London just as the Blitz itself began and the nights were spent in terror as bombs rained down through the Black Out. Then came the night that Donald's world, did literally end and with it his childhood.
Jan Karski's Story of a Secret State stands in the absolute first rank of books about the resistance in World War II. If you wish to read about a man more courageous and honorable than Jan Karski I would have no idea who to recommend. Yes, it's that good.
—— Alan FurstIt deserves its status as a Penguin Classic, not only because it is a great historic document, but also because it's a cracking good read: Karski's adventures are worthy of the wildest spy thriller
—— Nigel Jones , The TelegraphHis account of his missions is an electrifying tale of false identities, near captures, spies and secret film capsules ... in human terms, Karski's account is invaluable
—— Daily TelegraphThe bravery of the man who risked all to tell the world about the Holocaust is truly staggering ... an extraordinary testament to Man's inhumanity to Man, and the even more remarkable courage required to resist it
—— Ben McIntyre , The TimesUtterly compelling
—— Independent on SundayA gripping story
—— Sunday TimesIt's the story of Trautmann the man rather than the footballer that makes Catrine Clay's biography so extraordinary...enthralling and uplifting.
—— Simon Shaw , Mail on SundayIntensely romantic . . . a remarkable courtship by mail which survived the most testing of separations during the most difficult of times
—— Mail on Sunday[Gives] a flavour of a time when danger and separation made romance especially poignant . . . an uplifting and relevant story
—— SagaPersonal and poignant
—— Manchester Evening NewsEdgerton has written what could prove to be one of the most influential books on the history of the Second World War ... majestic ... [he] has successfully shown us that we still have a lot to learn about the conflict ... it will become the required reading for all students wishing to study the Second World War
—— Reviews in HistoryAn astounding work of myth-busting ... Inspiring and unsettling in equal measure
—— Tom Holland , GuardianMajestic ... a wonderful read. It has probably popped more myths than any other book on the war in recent years
—— Taylor Downing , History TodayBrilliant and iconoclastic ... debunks the myth that Britain was militarily and economically weak and intellectually parochial during the 1930s and 1940s
—— David Blackburn , Spectator Book BlogTruly eye-opening ... Edgerton's carefully researched book will fundamentally change the way you think about World War II
—— Daily BeastRiveting ... a wonderfully rich book ... thoroughly stimulating
—— Richard Toye , HistoryA major new assessment of Britain's war effort from 1939 to 1945. Never again will some of the lazy assessments of how Britain performed over these years ... be acceptable. That's why this is such an important book
—— History TodayInnovative and most important
—— Contemporary ReviewCompelling and engaging ... an excellent read
—— SoldierEdgerton's well-researched volume bursts with data that reveal Britain's true strength even when supposed to be in critical condition
—— Peter Moreira , Military HistoryBritain's War Machine offers the boldest revisionist argument that seeks to overturn some of our most treasured assumptions about Britain's role in the war ... Edgerton [is] an economic historian with an army of marshalled facts and figures at his fingertips ... This is truly an eye-opening book that explodes the masochistic myth of poor little Britain, revealing the island as a proud power with the resources needed to fight and win a world war
—— Nigel Jones , SpectatorMasterful Britain's War Machine promotes the notion that the United Kingdom of the Forties was a superpower, with access to millions of men across the globe, and forming the heart of a global production network
—— Mail on Sunday
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