Alanbrooke War Diaries 1939-1945

Superb * SPECTATOR *
These are almost certainly the last secrets to be unlocked about the British high command in World War II * DAILY MAIL *
The Alanbrooke diaries chart a deeply troubled journey by a deeply moral man through the confusion and indecision of high command at the most difficult time in world history … This is a marvellous book, one that finally honours a man who helped save European civilisation * IRISH TIMES *
The diaries provide a fascinating daily snapshot of the direction of the greatest war in history by one of the key decision makers * SUNDAY TIMES *
This welcome publication of [Alanbrooke’s] unexpurgated diaries - earlier versions were censored - should make him more widely known … an essential tool for students of the war … It is also to the credit of the editors that we see beyond the fascinatingly personal to the truly historical * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *
Those who thought the major documents of the war against Hitler had already appeared must think again. For with the publication of the unvarnished text from the diaries of Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke of Brookeborough, we can all focus more sharply on how high command in a great war works * THE TIMES *

Alex Danchev was Professor of International Relations at the University of St Andrews until his death in 2016. His interests included art, politics and military history although his focus was chiefly biographical. His life of the military historian Basil Liddell Hart was listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize and his unexpurgated edition of the Alanbrooke Diaries was listed for the WHSmith Prize for Biography. Danchev is also the author of major lives of the artists Georges Braque, Paul Cezanne and Rene Magritte.

Daniel Todman is Professor of Modern History at Queen Mary, University of London. He is the author of a number of books including The Great War: Myth and Memory and Britain’s War: A New World, 1942-1947.

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