Checkpoint Charlie

“A fascinating and telling reminder of what was perhaps the most potent symbol of the Cold War….MacGregor writes with great fluency and narrative drive.” –William Boyd, NewStatesman

“MacGregor’s intimate knowledge of the soldiers and spies who paid their dues in the forty-year undeclared war whose cockpit was Berlin, makes for some truly remarkable and gripping reading. Highly recommended.” –Frederick Taylor, author of The Berlin Wall and Dresden

“As an aspiring student of modern history in the 1980s, my thinking was dominated by the Berlin Wall and the monstrous regime at its heart. It is difficult to believe now–much like the Cold War itself–that we all thought the Wall was so immortal. As a writer of oral history, I look forward to MacGregor bringing the stories of the people who populated this barrier to life. We need to remember.” –Joshua Levine, New York Times bestselling author of Dunkirk

“A lively, evocative account of the life and death of the world’s most notorious wall. In capturing the essence of the old Cold War he may just have helped us to understand a bit more about the new one.” –The Times

“A rich collection of tales from cold war Berlin captures the city’s mad complexities.” –Observer

“This remarkable book about the Berlin Wall, which has been the subject of everything from diplomatic histories to spy thrillers, is different. Based on extensive, detailed interviews with people on both sides of the wall–soldiers and civilians, Communists and anti-Communists, spies, intellectuals and ordinary citizens–it offers a riveting panorama of everyday life as it was actually lived at ground zero of the cold war.” –William Taubman, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Krushchev: The Man and His Era

“The story of divided Berlin has been told so often that there seemed little new to say about it. Iain MacGregor’s book, with its wealth of eye witness stories, proves how wrong that was - and how understanding the last Cold War is crucial for anyone who wants to understand the new one.” –Martin Sixsmith, ex-BBC News Moscow Correspondent

Iain MacGregor is the author of the acclaimed history of Cold War Berlin: Checkpoint Charlie and the award-winning The Lighthouse of Stalingrad: The Hidden Truth Behind WWII’s Greatest Battle. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, has spoken at many literary festivals and conferences in the UK and abroad, and appeared on podcasts and on television documentaries. His writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Spectator, BBC History Magazine, and The Guardian. He lives in London.