Julia Boyd – författare

THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP THREE BESTSELLERWinner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for History 2018One of the Daily Telegraph's Best Books of 2017A Guardian 'Readers' Choice' Best Book of 2017Without the benefit of hindsight, how do you interpret what's right in front of your eyes?The events that took place in Germany between 1919 and 1945 were dramatic and terrible but there were also moments of confusion, of doubt - of hope. How easy was it to know what was actually going on, to grasp the essence of National Socialism, to remain untouched by the propaganda or predict the Holocaust?Travellers in the Third Reich is an extraordinary history of the rise of the Nazis based on fascinating first-hand accounts, drawing together a multitude of voices and stories, including students, politicians, musicians, diplomats, schoolchildren, communists, scholars, athletes, poets, journalists, fascists, artists, tourists, even celebrities like Charles Lindbergh and Samuel Beckett. Their experiences create a remarkable three-dimensional picture of Germany under Hitler - one so palpable that the reader will feel, hear, even breathe the atmosphere.These are the accidental eyewitnesses to history. Disturbing, absurd, moving, and ranging from the deeply trivial to the deeply tragic, their tales give a fresh insight into the complexities of the Third Reich, its paradoxes and its ultimate destruction.

Hannah Riddel is a fascinating biography of the British woman who pioneered the treatment of leprosy in Meiji-era Japan.In the late nineteenth century hundreds of Christian missionaries were dispatched to Japan to convert the "heathen," a task that many felt could be accomplished within a few decades. That expectation proved to be wildly optimistic, since today fewer than one percent of Japanese are Christian.The efforts and even the names of those early missionaries are now largely forgotten, but the work of one woman, Hannah Riddell, proved to be vital and lasting. While visiting the Honmyoji temple in Kumamoto, Hannah encountered a group of lepers—"in every degree of loathsomeness"—and her life suddenly changed. Though she continued her efforts to save the souls of ordinary Japanese, Hannah became determined to improve the wretched lives of lepers.Against great odds, she founded one of the first modern leprosariums in Japan, but Hannah''s iron will and splendid lifestyle soon put her at odds with her English colleagues and their small missionary community was torn apart. Undaunted, Hannah continued her work independently and came to know many of the great figures of Meiji Japan.

___________A Waterstones Paperback of the Year 2022A New Statesman Book of the Year 2022‘Fascinating… You’ll learn more about the psychological workings of Nazism by reading this superbly researched chronicle… than you will by reading a shelf of wider-canvas volumes on the rise of Nazism.’Daily Mail‘An utterly absorbing insight into the full spectrum of responses from ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.’The Times‘Boyd is an outstanding micro-historian.’iNews___________Hidden deep in the Bavarian mountains lies the picturesque village of Oberstdorf – a place where for hundreds of years people lived simple lives while history was made elsewhere.Yet even this remote idyll could not escape the brutal iron grip of the Nazi regime.From the author of the Sunday Times bestselling Travellers in the Third Reich comes A Village in the Third Reich: an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Germany under Hitler, shining a light on the lives of ordinary people. Drawing on personal archives, letters, interviews and memoirs, it lays bare their brutality and love; courage and weakness; action, apathy and grief; hope, pain, joy and despair.Within its pages we encounter people from all walks of life – foresters, priests, farmers and nuns; innkeepers, Nazi officials, veterans and party members; village councillors, mountaineers, socialists, slave labourers, schoolchildren, tourists and aristocrats. We meet the Jews who survived – and those who didn’t; the Nazi mayor who tried to shield those persecuted by the regime; and a blind boy whose life was judged ‘not worth living’.This is a tale of conflicting loyalties and desires, of shattered dreams – but one in which, ultimately, human resilience triumphs.These are the stories of ordinary lives at the crossroads of history.___‘Exceptional... Boyd's book reminds us that even the most brutal regimes cannot extinguish all semblance of human feeling'Mail on Sunday‘Masterly… [an] important and gripping book… [Boyd is] a leading historian of human responses in political extremis.’The Oldie‘Gripping… vividly depicted… [a] humane and richly detailed book’ Spectator‘Vivid, moving stories leave us asking "What would I have done?"’ Professor David Reynolds, author of Island Stories“An absorbing, thoroughly recommended read”Family Tree magazine‘Laying bare the tragedies, the compromises, the suffering and the disillusionment. Exemplary microhistory.’ Roger Moorehouse, author of First to Fight‘Compelling and evocative’All About History’The rise of Nazi Germany through the prism of one small village in Bavaria. […] Astonishing’ Jane Garvey on Fortunately… with Fi and Jane‘incredibly engaging’History of War magazine'Intensely detailed, exhaustively researched and rendered in almost cinematographic detail, Julia Boyd's A Village In The Third Reich is deeply evocative, redolent of those times and truly revelatory. I learned so much. This is a book I will need to return to again and again, to relearn, refresh and remember. A triumph.' Damien Lewis, author of The Flame of Resistance

___________A Waterstones Paperback of the Year 2022A New Statesman Book of the Year 2022‘Fascinating… You’ll learn more about the psychological workings of Nazism by reading this superbly researched chronicle… than you will by reading a shelf of wider-canvas volumes on the rise of Nazism.’Daily Mail‘An utterly absorbing insight into the full spectrum of responses from ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances.’The Times‘Boyd is an outstanding micro-historian.’iNews___________Hidden deep in the Bavarian mountains lies the picturesque village of Oberstdorf – a place where for hundreds of years people lived simple lives while history was made elsewhere.Yet even this remote idyll could not escape the brutal iron grip of the Nazi regime.From the author of the Sunday Times bestselling Travellers in the Third Reich comes A Village in the Third Reich: an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Germany under Hitler, shining a light on the lives of ordinary people. Drawing on personal archives, letters, interviews and memoirs, it lays bare their brutality and love; courage and weakness; action, apathy and grief; hope, pain, joy and despair.Within its pages we encounter people from all walks of life – foresters, priests, farmers and nuns; innkeepers, Nazi officials, veterans and party members; village councillors, mountaineers, socialists, slave labourers, schoolchildren, tourists and aristocrats. We meet the Jews who survived – and those who didn’t; the Nazi mayor who tried to shield those persecuted by the regime; and a blind boy whose life was judged ‘not worth living’.This is a tale of conflicting loyalties and desires, of shattered dreams – but one in which, ultimately, human resilience triumphs.These are the stories of ordinary lives at the crossroads of history.___‘Exceptional... Boyd's book reminds us that even the most brutal regimes cannot extinguish all semblance of human feeling'Mail on Sunday‘Masterly… [an] important and gripping book… [Boyd is] a leading historian of human responses in political extremis.’The Oldie‘Gripping… vividly depicted… [a] humane and richly detailed book’ Spectator‘Vivid, moving stories leave us asking "What would I have done?"’ Professor David Reynolds, author of Island Stories“An absorbing, thoroughly recommended read”Family Tree magazine‘Laying bare the tragedies, the compromises, the suffering and the disillusionment. Exemplary microhistory.’ Roger Moorehouse, author of First to Fight‘Compelling and evocative’All About History’The rise of Nazi Germany through the prism of one small village in Bavaria. […] Astonishing’ Jane Garvey on Fortunately… with Fi and Jane‘incredibly engaging’History of War magazine'Intensely detailed, exhaustively researched and rendered in almost cinematographic detail, Julia Boyd's A Village In The Third Reich is deeply evocative, redolent of those times and truly revelatory. I learned so much. This is a book I will need to return to again and again, to relearn, refresh and remember. A triumph.' Damien Lewis, author of The Flame of Resistance

*AN FT BEST SUMMER BOOK 2026Wigmore Hall does not boast a grand façade, but behind it lies something extraordinary: one of the world’s most beloved concert halls, within whose walls we find exceptional performers, composers, impresarios and, of course, audiences. The story of Wigmore Hall is the story of music in the 20th and 21st centuries – and of London itself.In this illuminating book, bestselling author Julia Boyd digs deep into the Hall’s rich history to uncover the secrets of its success. One of London’s prime cultural gems, Wigmore Hall has witnessed fame and failure, love and loss, joy and despair, triumph and tragedy. Reflecting the remarkable changes that have taken place in performance, repertoire and concert-going during its 125 years, it is a tale that encompasses the whole gamut of human experience. Above all, it reminds us of the wonder of music and the artists who create it.With a stellar cast of performers, among them Ferruccio Busoni, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Benjamin Britten, Myra Hess and Leoš Janáček, not to mention audiences that included Virginia Woolf, Maurice Ravel and Bertrand Russell, this is the sometimes surprising but always intriguing history of ‘London’s most sumptuous temple of music’. Praise for Julia Boyd:‘Utterly absorbing’ The Times‘Fascinating’ Daily Mail‘Exceptional' Mail on Sunday ‘Gripping’ Spectator ‘A triumph’ iNews