Max Hastings

Acclaimed historian Max Hastings discusses Plunder, his propulsive account of the final weeks of the Second World War. In the crunch point to the conflict, the Western Front in Europe witnessed extraordinary scenes of heroism, horror, melodrama and pathos.

Hastings describes the American coup in capturing Remagen bridge; stories of Nazi Werewolves; of US General George Patton’s reckless and doomed dispatch of an armoured column fifty miles behind German lines to liberate his son-in-law from a prison camp; the heartbreaking liberation of Belsen concentration camp; the extraordinary achievement of Ian Liddell of the Coldstream Guards, among the last VC winners of the war and surely one of the most deserving, and the last big SAS operation of the war. Lastly, he turns his attention to the tortuous succession of German surrenders, and the weeks of Admiral Karl Donitz’s posturing as the Third Reich’s last Fuhrer.

Max Hastings is the author of more than thirty books, including All Hell Let Loose, Catastrophe, Vietnam and Abyss. In his early years as a correspondent, he reported on conflicts around the world including Vietnam, the 1973 Yom Kippur and 1982 Falklands wars for the BBC and various newspapers. A former editor-in-chief of The Daily Telegraph, he has won numerous awards both for his journalism and books, including Journalist of the Year, Reporter of the Year, Editor of the Year, together with a Somerset Maugham Prize and two RUSI Westminster Medals. He contributes to The Times, reviews books for the Sunday Times and writes a column for Bloomberg Inc.