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Victory '45
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  • Published: 24 June 2025
  • ISBN: 9780857507952
  • Imprint: Bantam
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 400
  • RRP: $60.00
Categories:

Victory '45

The End of the War in Eight Surrenders

Formats & editions
Tr. Paperback
20 May 2025
Hardback
24 June 2025
EBook
24 Apr 2025
Audiobook
24 Apr 2025
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Celebrating the 80th anniversary of VE Day, bestselling historians James Holland and Al Murray tell the unflinching story of the eight surrenders that brought victory to the Allies and ended the Second World War.

Celebrating the 80th anniversary of VE Day, bestselling historians James Holland and Al Murray tell the unflinching story of the eight surrenders that brought victory to the Allies and ended the Second World War.

‘A gripping, eye-opening and satisfying new account’ The Express
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From the Italian Alps to northern Germany, to London, New York, Washington and Tokyo, Victory ’45 tells the story of the extraordinary summer when the greatest conflagration the world had ever known finally came to an end after eight surrenders that heralded the Allied victory.

Comprised of eight chapters based around each of those surrenders and the victory celebrations which followed, it will be rich in character and human drama with revealing stories and perspectives behind the end of the war not yet told before. Each chapter will follow the viewpoints of a number of key characters as they traverse these world-changing events – from ordinary servicemen and women and civilians to generals and political leaders.

What took place during the negotiations of those surrenders and the terms that were agreed there would determine the directions the participating countries would take in the years that followed and ultimately the shape of our current world.
  • Published: 24 June 2025
  • ISBN: 9780857507952
  • Imprint: Bantam
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 400
  • RRP: $60.00
Categories:

About the authors

James Holland

James Holland is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning historian, writer, and broadcaster. The author of a number of best-selling histories including most recently The Savage Storm and Cassino '44, he is also the author of ten works of fiction and a dozen Ladybird Experts.

He is the co-founder of the annual Chalke Valley History Festival which is now in its twelfth year, and he has presented - and written - many television programmes and series for the BBC, Channel 4, National Geographic and the History and Discovery channels.

With Al Murray, he has a successful Second World War podcast, We Have Ways of Making You Talk, which also has its own festival, and is a research fellow at St Andrew's University and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He can be found on Twitter as @James1940 and on Instagram as @jamesholland1940.

portrait photo of James Holland

Al Murray

Al Murray is one of the most successful and recognisable comedians in the UK and best known for his stand-up persona, The Pub Landlord. He has won the Perrier Award in 1999, the British Comedy Award for Al Murray's Happy Hour in 2007 and My Gaff, My Rules was short-listed for a Laurence Olivier Award in 2002.

portrait photo of Al Murray

Praise for Victory '45

A gripping, eye-opening and satisfying new account

Daily Express

A finely detailed book

San Francisco Chronicle

James Holland has written about nearly every major battle of World War II, from Burma to Berlin. So it makes sense that in Victory ’45: The End of the War in Eight Surrenders he and his co-author, Al Murray, focus on the conclusion of the greatest global conflagration in history . . . The biggest, most well-known capitulations are here . . . But the authors find much to tell in the lesser surrenders.

Wall Street Journal

A hugely engaging account of the rather tortured circumstances of the end of World War Two. If you thought it was all a rather simple process, think again.

Roger Moorhouse, Aspects of History

Finely detailed . . . Not simply targeted to WWII enthusiasts, Victory ’45 illustrates for those with a broader historical interest the myriad challenges in bringing to heel the dogs of war.

Associated Press