Produktdetaljer
Biographical note
James Holland (Author)
James Holland is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning historian, writer, and broadcaster. The author of a number of best-selling histories including most recently Brothers In Arms and Normandy '44, he is also the author of ten works of fiction and a dozen Ladybird Experts.
He is the co-founder of the annual Chalke Valley History Festival which is now in its twelfth year, and he has presented - and written - many television programmes and series for the BBC, Channel 4, National Geographic and the History and Discovery channels.
With Al Murray, he has a successful Second World War podcast, We Have Ways of Making You Talk, which also has its own festival, and is a research fellow at St Andrew's University and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He can be found on Twitter as @James1940 and on Instagram as @jamesholland1940.
Al Murray (Reader)
Al Murray is one of the most successful and recognisable comedians in the UK and best known for his stand-up persona, The Pub Landlord. He has won the Perrier Award in 1999, the British Comedy Award for Al Murray's Happy Hour in 2007 and My Gaff, My Rules was short-listed for a Laurence Olivier Award in 2002.
Holland is excellent on telling detail...This is a notable account of an epic human experience, told with the informality and enthusiasm that distinguish Holland's work...If the story is familiar, Holland tells it with authority and exuberant panache
- Max Hastings, The Sunday Times
Holland is one of a new generation of historians who were born long after the war but who bring to the subject a freshness and proper spirit of enquiry. A great achievement
John Sergeant, Sunday Express
Excellent on all the technicalities of the conflict ... full of lively pen portraits and unusual insights
Spectator
Stuffed with personal accounts that drive the narrative along at a cracking pace
Patrick Bishop, Mail on Sunday
Ambitious and comprehensive ... the pace never flags as the narrative ranges effortlessly from the cockpit of the Spitfire to the gallery of the House of Commons
Saul David, Daily Telegraph
Comprehensive and readable
The Economist
Holland is superb at switching the focus of the action while maintaining the pace and drama of the story
Spectator
A definitive record...The fact we won is remarkable, and Holland brings the events vividly to life *****
News of the World
A full and fascinating account...Edge-of-the-seat exciting
Saga
Holland is a narrative historian <i>par excellence </i>who believes that people should be at the heart of any story and brings the characters of the age to life...[an] excellent, highly-readable volume
Navy News
Brought to you by Penguin.
This audio edition includes an exclusive Q&A between James Holland and Al Murray.
'If Hitler fails to invade or destroy Britain, he has lost the war,' Churchill said in the summer of 1940.He was right.The Battle of Britain was a crucial turning point in the history of the Second World War. Had Britain's defences collapsed, Hitler would have dominated all of Europe and been able to turn his full attention east to the Soviet Union.
The German invasion of France and the Low Countries in May 1940 was unlike any the world had ever seen. It hit with a force and aggression that no-one could counter and in just a few short weeks, all in their way crumbled under the force of the Nazi hammer blow. With France facing defeat and with British forces pressed back to the Channel, there were few who believed Britain could possibly survive.Soon, it seemed, Hitler would have all of Europe at his feet.
Yet Hitler's forces were not quite the Goliath they at first seemed, while her leadership lacked the single-minded purpose, vision and direction that had led to such success on land.Nor was Britain any David.Thanks to a sophisticated defensive system and the combined efforts of the RAF, Royal Navy as well as the mounting sense of collective defiance led by a new Prime Minister, Britain was not ready to roll over just yet.
From clashes between coastal convoys and Schnellboote in the Channel to astonishing last stands in Flanders, and from the slaughter by the U-boats in the icy Atlantic to the dramatic aerial battles over England, The Battle of Britain tells this most epic of stories from all sides, drawing on extensive new research from around the world. In so doing, it paints a complete picture of that extraordinary summer - a time in which the fate of the world truly hung by a thread.
© James Holland 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020
Produktdetaljer
Biographical note
James Holland (Author)
James Holland is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning historian, writer, and broadcaster. The author of a number of best-selling histories including most recently Brothers In Arms and Normandy '44, he is also the author of ten works of fiction and a dozen Ladybird Experts.
He is the co-founder of the annual Chalke Valley History Festival which is now in its twelfth year, and he has presented - and written - many television programmes and series for the BBC, Channel 4, National Geographic and the History and Discovery channels.
With Al Murray, he has a successful Second World War podcast, We Have Ways of Making You Talk, which also has its own festival, and is a research fellow at St Andrew's University and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He can be found on Twitter as @James1940 and on Instagram as @jamesholland1940.
Al Murray (Reader)
Al Murray is one of the most successful and recognisable comedians in the UK and best known for his stand-up persona, The Pub Landlord. He has won the Perrier Award in 1999, the British Comedy Award for Al Murray's Happy Hour in 2007 and My Gaff, My Rules was short-listed for a Laurence Olivier Award in 2002.