Phil Craig

'Excellent, grappling with aspects of end of empire that tend to fall through the cracks' - Al Murray'A wonderful book, I absolutely adored it and it gave me a gateway to understanding the war in a different way.' - Antonia Senior'Phil Craig's excellent 1945 The Reckoning is the saga of how some empires ended and others emerged during a tumultuous year. His method is the voices of individuals - their thoughts and aspirations - in an endlessly interesting book with many fascinating stories to tell.' - Aspects of History'Engrossing, good natured and perceptive...His style is conversational, like a popular podcaster, but never glib or shrill. His judgments are often understated but shrewd...Craig's fashionably inclusive approach does not exclude conservative, collaborationist voices. Instead, the author seeks to understand them within their particular social and historical context. At the same time, he dismembers anti-colonial mythologies.'-The Australian'This thought provoking account comes with a glorious cast of characters and is written with a keen eye for detail - A MUST READ!' - Mirror'Dramatic human stories, written in the engaging style of Craig's bestselling Finest Hour, combined with surprising revelations' - Express 'This is a book that crosses the globe from Britain to Germany and from India to Indonesia...it is ambitious, deeply thought-provoking and, as with all the very best history, compellingly told' -James Holland As the fate of the world is decided, so too is that of the British, Dutch and French empires. In India a generation committed to independence must decide whether to support 'the Raj' or fight alongside the Japanese. One military family is bitterly divided. Will it be the brother who fights under British command, or the one who follows Subhas Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army, who goes on to help build a new and free India? In Borneo a little known Australian special forces campaign - secretly controlled from London - goes horribly wrong as questions are asked about whether its true purpose is military or imperial. And in Indochina and the East Indies British Generals free and arm Japanese prisoners of war and use them in savage campaigns that aim to put colonial rulers back into their palaces.Clearing away the haze of nostalgia, many uncomfortable truths emerge - but so too does a humane and balanced exploration of what victory in the Second World War truly means.

Seventy years ago, as Hitler's army continued its relentless advance across Europe, Britain - a country ill-prepared for war - faced its darkest hour.Acclaimed as 'Brilliant' by the Daily Mail and 'Compelling' by the Telegraph, Finest Hour recreates the terror, tragedy and triumph of the Battle of Britain through the testimony of the very men and women who were there. Taken from the diaries, letters and memoirs of those who survived it - and those who lost their lives - Finest Hour creates a powerful and incisive account of the events of 1940. Containing individual accounts of love and loss by these witnesses of war, the book also contains a provocative analysis of the conflicts and the politics of the period, and questions some cherished national myths. Cutting through the nostalgic haze, Finest Hour enables readers to experience a time when a nation's darkest hour became its finest.

Two hundred years ago, Napoleon Bonaparte dominated Europe and threatened Britain with invasion. Against him stood the Royal Navy and the already legendary Admiral Horatio Nelson.On 21 October 1805, a massive naval battle off the coast of Spain decided mastery of the seas. Then, over the following days and nights, the battleships and their exhausted crews endured a gale of awesome fury. As Captain Charles Tyler wrote to his wife Margaret, 'the wind blew a perfect storm'.The authors of the bestselling FINEST HOUR tell this story not only through the diaries, letters and memoirs of the men who wrestled with the enemy and the elements, but also through the eyes of their wives and children. Whether you are already familiar with this period of history or are coming to it for the first time, TRAFALGAR is a book that will enthral as it illuminates an event whose repercussions still echo today.

Based on the groundbreaking ITV/The Learning Channel documentary series, and drawn from years of research and dozens of interviews with friends and associates speaking on the record for the first time, Diana contains never-before-revealed information and stunning insights about the beloved -- and largely misunderstood -- Princess of Wales. From claims that Diana was ready to leave Charles just weeks before the wedding to her lifelong battle against depression, from world-exclusive interviews with Diana's beau James Hewitt and her "surrogate mother-in-law" Shirley Hewitt to details about the unconventional "arrangements" in the royal household -- between Diana and James, Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles -- Diana is an honest, objective, and unparalleled biography. With thirty-two photographs -- including several never before published -- Diana shows all facets of this fascinating woman: her magic, her manipulations, her dazzling public persona, and her place in her people's hearts and history.

1942 - British troops are stranded in the desert, struggling to hold back Rommel's Afrika Corps. Hitler's armies have reached Moscow, and there are murmurs of discontent at home as new doubts emerge about Churchill's leadership. Elsewhere in Europe there is chilling evidence of the mounting persecution of the Jews, stretching from Poland to the Channel Islands. For many, it seems there is little hope. As in their acclaimed bestseller FINEST HOUR, the authors use the personal testimony of ordinary people to tell the story of the war at a moment of great crisis. In END OF THE BEGINNING we meet again some of the people first encountered in FINEST HOUR, and get to know many more. Troops fighting for Montgomery in the desert, RAF pilots bombing German towns, a young Jewish woman deported to Auschwitz from Guernsey, the reality of the Home Front - these stories and many more paint a vivid picture of human endeavour in time of war. And, sixty years on from the Battle of Alamein, END OF THE BEGINNING tells the controversial truth about one of the most famous battles in history - the importance of its lesser-known predecessor and the months of bitter in-fighting between the Allied generals. With precision and compassion, Phil Craig and Tim Clayton again debunk the myths and explore the realities of a crucial year in the history of Britain.