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  • Published: 29 September 2022
  • ISBN: 9780241988916
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $30.00
Categories:

Colditz

Prisoners of the Castle




The bestselling historian with the incredible true story of WW2's most infamous Nazi prison

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.

  • Published: 29 September 2022
  • ISBN: 9780241988916
  • Imprint: Penguin Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $30.00
Categories:

About the author

Ben Macintyre

Ben Macintyre is the multimillion-copy bestselling author of books including Agent Sonya, SAS: Rogue Heroes, The Spy and the Traitor, Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat and A Spy Among Friends. He is a columnist and Associate Editor at The Times, and has worked as the newspaper's correspondent in New York, Paris and Washington. He regularly presents BBC series based on his acclaimed books.

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Praise for Colditz

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