Plunder

The last weeks of World War II on the Western Front in Europe witnessed extraordinary scenes of heroism, horror, melodrama and pathos.

PRAISE FOR SWORD :

‘The messy, dirty, bloody reality of Operation Overlord comes alive in Sword , Hastings’s portrait of the individual soldiers who risked their lives on the beaches of Normandy. He brings these men to life with sensitivity and beautiful prose'

The Times

‘The transporting of 150,000 troops across the Channel in total secrecy and the feats they did that day is a story we never tire of – and Max Hastings tells it exceedingly well. His is one of the most reliable brands in popular history and Sword meets his usual standards. A cracking tale in the hands of a practised storyteller'

Spectator

‘D-Day was one of the British army’s finest hours, perhaps the finest. The author has matched that hour admirably'

Country Life

PRAISE FOR OPERATION BITING :

'There are few things in life more dependable than a war story told by Hastings… He’s a master of drama, a writer intimately familiar with the mind of the soldier'

The Times

‘An important book, and proof that the detailed telling of a small piece of history can illuminate our understanding of a much greater whole. It’s one in a long line of Second World War books written by Hastings in an engaging and entertaining way. Now that almost all the veterans of the conflict are no longer with us, his work is especially valuable: all that remains is the history, and the historians who tell it'

Daily Telegraph

MAX HASTINGS is the author of over thirty books, most about conflict, and between 1986 and 2002 served as editor-in-chief of the Daily Telegraph, then editor of the Evening Standard. He has won many prizes both for journalism and his books, of which the most recent are Chastise, Operation Pedestal and Abyss, bestsellers translated around the world. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Fellow of King ’ s College, London and was knighted in 2002. He has two grown-up children, Charlotte and Harry, and lives with his wife Penny in West Berkshire, where they garden enthusiastically.