You couldn't make the life of Eddie Chapman up, burglar, thief and super spy.
The only Englishman to be awarded the Iron Cross by Hitler, all the while working for British Intelligence.
I suppose today he would be called a sociopath but his bravery and efforts make for fascinating reading.
He was a man who lived a full life returning to his criminal ways after the war , living until he was 83 years old dying in 1997.
Another great read. Logistically amazing, incredible hardship for the soldiers, worse for the French civilians.
The numbers and the suffering blew me away.
Beevor is very readable, one moment you're with Eisenhower's generals moving 50,000 men , next with a German medic and a British medic who find themselves in the same slit trench taking cover from a bombardment. They searched each other to make sure neither had weapons and then just kept their heads down.
Riveting.
Another book on Churchill, I believe there are about six hundred published, but as this is written by Max Hastings it is very readable.
The entire book is fascinating with little tidbits of information all the way through.
Churchill made some horrendous blunders throughout the war, but Hastings takes the view, likening Churchills war performance to a sportsman- you don't judge a superstar on individual games but rather across his entire career. All in all Churchill performed in a stellar manner especially staving off defeat by his fingernails until the USA joined in.
If the time period interests you this can't be recommended enough.
Another interesting read. Reading it you can almost smell the conditions that people spent night after night "trying" to sleep in in shelters.
43,000 killed in the 8 months, Coventry basically obliterated. An absolutely horrific time.
These are times that should never be forgotten, history should not be re-written, history should be front and centre of every school curriculum in every school.
A very interesting book. Explodes many of the myths built up about PoW exploits as well as bringing many, many unknown stories to the fore that have never been heard about.
Evidently, Douglas Bader was 'a bastard', one example, his Orderly (Officers had servants) had a chance at early repatriation but Bader stopped this and made him stay captive for another two years.
Audrey Hepburn's mother's lover was a Colditz prisoner.
New Zealander Charles Upham was a Colditz prisoner, he only gets a small mention due to the fact he would not talk about his VC exploits preferring to discuss farming.
The book also shows the ingenuity of humans, some escape plans were sensational in their ingenuity, some were basic.
A really good read.
A fascinating read. There was never any doubt that Germany would be defeated but what makes this so interesting is the race between the Russians and the allies to get to Berlin first.
I saw Beevor at the Auckland writers festival a few years back and he stated he is now persona non grata in Russia. They are a bit sensitive about his writing about the raping and pillaging that the Russians did on their track west so he no longer has access to their archives.
The Nazi's were a gang, nothing more , nothing less. I have little sympathy for the German people, they were grinning when they were winning but when it turned they seemed to forget about the misery they had caused across the world.
Time well spent reading this. Beevor is a very easy read ,unlike a lot of history you don't get bogged down with with detail that is not relevant to the now.
The author notes at the start that very little has been written about this part of the war and he's right, it would bear a more in-depth study. There is no way you can cover 5 years off in 200 pages.
As a brief overview its worth the time. It has made me want to track down the TV series
A collection of short stories featuring the same agent. Furst is historically accurate and interesting but his stories are written to the same formula every time. He just changes names, time and location but his hero's are interchangeable.
Entertaining plot but the story runs out of steam toward the end as if the author didn't really know how to finish it off
A man who abused his position like no other public servant in history. A vile little man.
