AUSTRALIA-WIDE LOW FLAT RATE $9.90
The Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller on the incredible true story of WW2's most infamous Nazi prison, and the colourful characters behind its walls In a forbidding Gothic castle on a hilltop in the heart of Nazi Germany, an unlikely band of British officers spent the Second World War plotting daring escapes from their German captors. Or so the story of Colditz has gone, unchallenged for 70 years. But that tale contains only part of the truth.
The astonishing inside story, revealed for the first time in this instant bestseller by historian Ben Macintyre, is a tale of the indomitable human spirit, but also one of class conflict, homosexuality, espionage, insanity and farce. Through an astonishing range of material, Macintyre reveals a remarkable cast of characters, wider than previously seen and hitherto hidden from history, taking in prisoners and captors who were living cheek-by-jowl in a thrilling game of cat and mouse. From the elitist members of the Colditz Bullingdon Club to America's oldest paratrooper and least successful secret agent, the soldier-prisoners of Colditz were courageous and resilient as well as vulnerable and fearful -- and astonishingly imaginative in their desperate escape attempts. Deeply researched and full of incredible human stories, this is the definitive book on Colditz.
Ben Macintyre is the multimillion-copy bestselling author of books including Agent Sonya, SAS- Rogue Heroes, The Spy and the Traitor, Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat and A Spy Among Friends. He is a columnist and Associate Editor at The Times, and has worked as the newspaper's correspondent in New York, Paris and Washington. Several of his books have been made into films and television series, including Operation Mincemeat, A Spy Among Friends and SAS- Rogue Heroes.
Macintyre specialises in producing the definitive version of often told stories . . . this is a fine feat of storytelling that forces a major reassessment of the rosy picture constructed down the decades, and will surely become the last word on the subject -- Patrick Bishop * Telegraph * His latest page-turner . . . [is] like watching a black-and-white photograph being colourised . . . Macintyre's clever, twinkling prose, rich in humour and quirky detail, lends itself to this history of charming 1940s heroism . . . Macintyre has thrown fresh light on Colditz and aligned the scratches left on its walls into another compelling narrative -- Clare Mulley * Spectator * 'Nuanced and gripping . . . What makes this book so special is that Macintyre looks beyond the sensational into the murky micro-society that was Colditz . . . The Colditz story is told with sensitivity and insight, with an eye for telling detail -- Gerard DeGroot * The Times * The story of how an escape-proof gothic German castle became one of the touchstones of British derring-do is told in this fascinating book * The Sun * Every Ben Macintyre book is a treat -- Jane Thynne * The Tablet * In retelling the story of Colditz, Macintyre makes it his own.... entertaining yet objective and often moving * Wall Street Journal * Macintyre's genius has long been to excavate the nuance, subtlety and ambiguity beneath the myths he explores . . . Seventy-seven years on, this book is a remarkable portrait of the reality eclipsed by the legend -- Matthew D'Ancona * Tortoise Media * Another fine history . . . [Macintyre] specialises in excavating the stories that have been overlooked or bringing new perspectives to old stories . . . His unerring eye for the telling detail that can illuminate a greater story is apparent in Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle -- Ronan McGreevy * The Irish Times * Macintyre offers a more complete and complex account than is typical in popular histories from the Nazi era . . . a treasure trove of details is arrayed on the page. Macintyre so seamlessly fuses so many different accounts that their compilation creates something more profound than a simple escape yarn: a biography of the prison itself and the world detainees built there -- Andrea Pitzer * Washington Post *
Brought Forth on This Continent...
Abraham Lincoln and American Immigration...
Hardback
$75.95
In Stock 😊
