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Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle (Paperback)
Ben Macintyre (author)Published: 25/05/2023
The master storyteller of real-life espionage turns his attention to the Second World War's most notorious prison and the rich cast of colourful characters who attempted to break free from its walls.
In a forbidding Gothic castle on a hilltop in the heart of Nazi Germany, an unlikely band of British officers spent the Second World War plotting daring escapes from their Nazi captors. Or so the story of Colditz has gone, unchallenged for 70 years. But that tale contains only part of the truth.
The astonishing inside story, revealed for the first time by bestselling historian Ben Macintyre, is a tale of the indomitable human spirit, but also one of class conflict, homosexuality, espionage, insanity and farce.
Through an astonishing range of material, Macintyre reveals a remarkable cast of characters, wider than previously seen and hitherto hidden from history, taking in prisoners and captors who were living cheek-by-jowl in a thrilling game of cat and mouse.
From the Indian doctor whose hunger strike and eventual escape reads like a thriller, to America's oldest paratrooper and least successful secret agent, the soldier-prisoners of Colditz were astonishingly imaginative in their escape attempts; but there were many other ways to survive while awaiting their unknown fate. Deeply researched and full of incredible colour, this is the definitive book on one of the greatest war stories ever told.
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780241986974
Number of pages: 384
Weight: 313 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 24 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
A fine feat of storytelling . . . will surely become the last word on the subject - Patrick Bishop, Telegraph
Like watching a black-and-white photograph being colourised . . . rich in humour and quirky detail . . . another compelling narrative - Clare Mulley, Spectator
Nuanced and gripping . . . told with sensitivity and insight, with an eye for telling detail - Gerard DeGroot, The Times
Fascinating - The Sun
Every Ben Macintyre book is a treat - Jane Thynne, The Tablet
Entertaining yet objective and often moving - Wall Street Journal
Macintyre's genius has long been to excavate the nuance, subtlety and ambiguity beneath the myths he explores . . . remarkable - Matthew D'Ancona, Tortoise Media
Another fine history . . . His unerring eye for the telling detail that can illuminate a greater story is apparent in Colditz - Ronan McGreevy, The Irish Times
Macintyre so seamlessly fuses so many different accounts that their compilation creates something more profound than a simple escape yarn: a biography of the prison itself and the world detainees built there - Andrea Pitzer, Washington Post
Macintyre recreates the daring escape stories with punchy flair . . . a lively page-turner - NJ McGarrigle, Independent.ie
My book of the year . . . a masterful history of Colditz. It's absurdly readable (and at times just absurd) as well as being informative, hilarious and deeply moving - Geoff Dyer, LitHub
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“Great Book”
Not so much an escape book, more about endurance, and the cold reality of being a POW, sheds a new light on how people behaved, recommended
“An illuminating insight of events and life in Colditz”
Having read Pat Reid's book many years ago and grown up with the knowing those friends of my parents who had been sent to Colditz, I started to read this with some trepidation. I finished it with a broader and... More
“Colditz”
An enlightening and for once open missive about the real world not the fantasy tales we have been programmed with before. There is in fact nothing new in the book but telling it is all new. The best book on the topic... More
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