Antony Beevor is the author of Crete: The Battle and the Resistance (Runciman Prize), Stalingrad (Samuel Johnson Prize, Wolfson Prize for History and Hawthornden Prize), Berlin: The Downfall, The Battle for Spain (Premio La Vanguardia), D-Day: The Battle for Normandy (Prix Henry Malherbe and the RUSI Westminster Medal), The Second World War, Ardennes 1944 (Prix Médicis shortlist) and Arnhem. The number one bestselling historian in Britain, Beevor's books have appeared in thirty-three languages and have sold over eight million copies. A former chairman of the Society of Authors, he has received a number of honorary doctorates. He is also a visiting professor at the University of Kent and an Honorary Fellow of King's College, London. He was knighted in 2017.
This is World War II as Tolstoy would have described it - the great
and the small
*Washington Post (on 'The Second World War')*
Rightly deserves its place on the shelves of any serious historian
of the Second World War. Powerful and authoritative . . . Beevor
weaves a masterful narrative based on the viewpoints of a vast
range of people. Marshalling a coherent narrative out of an
unwieldy sequence of localised attacks, counterattacks, deceptions,
and feints demands the attention of a master military historian. In
Antony Beevor, the Ardennes offensive has found one
*Military History Monthly (Book of the Month)*
What leaves a lasting impression is the huge power the American
army as a whole mustered to smash back the Germans. A superpower
was being born
*Bookseller, Interview with Antony Beevor*
If you're a fan of Beevor's work, find some space on your bookshelf
for this one. If you've never read him before, start here and work
your way back - it's history nerd heaven!
*History of War Magazine*
Unflinching. As Ardennes 1944 makes clear, Hitler misjudged the
strength and resilience of the US army. It was his last gamble and
it failed
*Prospect*
What stands out most . . . is the effects of violent warfare. By
the end of the counteroffensive the snowfields were littered with
frozen corpses and the wreckage of hundreds of tanks and armoured
vehicles
*Literary Review*
A superb addition to the canon which has taken us from Stalingrad
to Normandy in 1944 and the final gruesome battle for Berlin, not
forgetting the masterly single-volume history of the entire war. It
is written with all of Beevor's customary verve and elegance. His
remarkable and trademark ability is to encompass the wide sweep of
campaigns yet never forget the piquant details of what happened to
the individual . . . He focuses brilliantly on the key moments that
turned the battle
*Evening Standard*
As impeccably researched, insightfully observed and superbly
written as its bestselling predecessors
*Sunday Express*
Rich in detail and drama. Enthralling
*Mail on Sunday*
If there's one thing that sets Beevor apart from other historians -
beyond his gifts as a storyteller - it's that he is not afraid to
look at the most uncomfortable, even frightening subjects, but does
so in a way that doesn't threaten the reader. It's like having
Virgil there to lead you through the underworld: he doesn't leave
you stranded amid the horror but leads you back again, a wiser
person for having undergone the journey
*Daily Telegraph*
An indispensable book. It is a great strength of Beevor's writing
that he takes time to explain how small pieces of knowledge - the
kind of thing passed on by battle-hardened soldiers themselves -
could make the difference between survival and a futile death
*The Times*
Beevor weaves a brilliant narrative out of all this drama. As in
his previous books, his gifts are strongest in focusing on telling
details from different perspectives . . . A vital historical
insight
*Sunday Times*
A portrait of war . . . startling in its detail. Beevor has the art
of preserving the individual perspective on the battlefield while
placing it among the perspectives of platoon, regiment, division,
commanders, politicians and civilians. This book clarifies, without
simplifying, the human experiences and political stakes of the
battle for the Ardennes Forest, bringing realism to the battlefield
and coherence to the larger history of the war
*Guardian*
A sweeping, sobering read, written with all the confidence and
aplomb that Beevor fans would expect. Beevor is as good on the rows
behind the front lines as he is on the battles themselves
*Independent*
Formidable . . . Beevor is a field marshal of facts. Under his
brisk control the story of Hitler's final gamble is another example
of the kind of action-packed, densely informed narrative that has
proved such a formidable model
*Telegraph*
Like Beevor's magisterial account of the Second World War, Ardennes
1944 benefits from the same depth of field, seamlessly shifting its
point to focus from the macro level to the micro and back again
*Scotland on Sunday*
Wonderfully compelling. The Ardennes was a short, brutal and
ultimately futile battle - the last spasm of a dying regime - and
no one has recounted it better than Beevor. His gripping,
beautifully written narrative moves seamlessly from the generals'
command posts to the privates in their snow-covered foxholes, and
confirms him as the finest chronicler of war in the business. His
particular genius is for ferreting out those telling details that
paint a picture
*Observer*
First-rank history. Beevor's triumph is to add layers to a book
that is gently but precisely judgmental, acute on character and
gaudy and grisly in detail. With his sure hand on detail and his
strong opinion on how and why the German offensive was prosecuted
and why it failed . . . Beevor shows how plans freeze on icy roads,
how individual acts of bravery have significant effects, how
generals can be wrong but proved right by the vagaries of weather,
fortune or a providence that is unfathomable
*Herald Scotland*
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