The Second World War by Antony Beevor

Published by Phoenix, 2012, softcover, illustrated, index, 840 pages, condition: very good.

The author was a regular in the 11th Hussars, served in Germany and the UK. He has had a number of books published and his book Stalingrad was awarded the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Wolfson History Prize and the Hawthornden Prize. Among the many prestigious posts he holds, he is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Hard to give this anything other than 5 stars. Being an absolute novice on the subject, I found this book fascinating, horrifying, edifying, and generally mind-blowing. For anyone worried it will be too dry, it is roughly 25% politics and military strategy, and 75% excerpts from countless first-hand accounts by soldiers, civilians, leaders, and poets. For example:

"I saw a woman who's dress and hair had just caught fire, she was trying to run from the inferno but the tarmac had melted and her feet were glued to the road." - From the diary of a german soldier describing the firebombing of Hamburg

I'm not sure I've ever read anything quite so shocking.