Britain at Bay

AT EASE

The Epic Story of the Second World War 1938 – 1941

JUST LIKE Tolkien’s hobbits in Lord of the Rings, the majority of humble men and women facing the realities of war show fortitude, a sense of fairness and grace.

But with wit and candidness, Allport swiftly steers the reader away from fantasy – his honest, insightful descriptions of people taking a hands on, get-on-with-it approach to each daily disaster are breathtakingly good.

Just how well do we understand the conflict that stretched on long after the German surrender in May 1945? In this first volume, the author determines how World War Two became the “defining experience of modern British history”. 

The author’s interrogation of each aspect of the conflict offers us a new truth far more complex than the one we have become familiar with. And while the story in volume one of this book deals mostly with defeat, the erudite Liverpudlian Allport – who holds the post of associate professor of history at Syracuse University, Italy – explains how Britain overcame its early mistakes to hold out against Hitler and construct a plausible theory of victory.

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