Alexander McKee – författare

Today it is almost forgotten that the D-Day landings of 6 June 1944 did not bring a single, isolate victory. As this masterly book reminds us, that first foothold on enemy shores was won at enormous cost, and for two months afterwards a fierce battle raged for the control of Caen. Using the personal accounts of those who took part in the fighting, both Allied and German, and of the French civilians caught up in the conflict, McKee brilliantly reconstructs the bitter struggle that ravaged Normandy throughout the summer of 1944 before the Allied position in Europe was finally secured. With fearful losses on both sides, and unspeakable suffering for the French who had to endure constant massive bombardments from the air, the Battle of Caen ranks as one of the most terrible and heroic episodes of the war.

Controversy still rages about the Allied decision to bomb the beautiful and historic city of Dresden on February 13th 1945. By then the war was virtually won and Dresden was peopled mainly by civilians and refugees, most of them women and children. The firestorm created by the bombing of the city killed over 35,000 people. The Devil''s Tinderbox is the only one to present the personal descriptions of eye-witnesses, not only the survivors in the city but the air-crews, both British and American, who flew on the bombing mission and observed the appalling impact of their attacks. Alexander McKee carefully assesses the political and military decisions that led to the raids, drawn from official sources and archive material. Including contemporary photographs that bear witness to the devastating effect of an attack that reduced Dresden to rubble. Meticulously researched and skilfully told, The Devil''s Tinderbox is gripping, shocking and deeply moving.

The River Rhine and its delta in Holland, protecting Germany''s vital industrial area of the Ruhr, helped dictate the course of events in three land campaigns of the Second World War. Some towns and bridges were so important that they were fought over two or even three times in the space of five years. There were three battles for Arnhem, not one, involving the armies of four different nations. In covering for the first time all three campaigns, the author is able to put the most famous of these battles in perspective, as a text-book example of how not to handle airborne forces. The final campaign in the spring of 1945 saw the crossing of the historic German Rhine on a long front from Strasbourg to Emmerich by American, French, British and Canadian troops. The book is based on copious documentation, much of it contemporary and unpublished, and includes many vivid narratives by ''key'' witnesses. We share the feelings of German paratroopers, the ''It''s suicide'' reaction of the Guards tank crews, and the stunning effect on the American soldiers as Remagen Bridge collapses behind them.

“One of the strangest and most horrifying stories ever told.”—John Fowles, author of The French Lieutenant''s Woman“First rate.”—NewsweekIn July, 1816, a French frigate ran aground on a sandbar forty miles off the coast of Africa. Forced to abandon ship, 150 men and women embarked on an overloaded makeshift raft. After twelve days of riots, mutiny, murder, and, ultimately, cannibalism, only fifteen were alive.