Allies at War: The Politics of Defeating Hitler

"This is just a tremendous read. When you look at the title, you may think that it will be covering very familiar territory, given how many books have been written about the Second World War . But Bouverie writes so well, and with such freshness, that he completely hooks you. Early in the book, for instance, there’s a whole section about the importance of Spain in the Second World War. This has been written about before, of course, but it’s handled here with such intelligence and such freshness and such energy that it feels completely eye-opening as it charts British attempts to bribe the Spanish to keep them out of the war and German attempts to get them to enter. The book is also deeply researched, but beyond this, what makes the book so special are the contemporary resonances that ring out on every page. We watch Churchill as he manoeuvres his way through the war, trying to inveigle the Americans into the war, then trying to control Roosevelt and Stalin, and we cannot help but project forward to today. There are so many echoes with what’s going on now, and it has such contemporary relevance. It’s an absolutely gripping read."