Description

THE #1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER – AND PERFECT GIFT FOR HISTORY BUFFS!

‘A master at setting the pulse racing’ Daily Mail
‘A fine feat of storytelling . . . will surely become the last word on the subject’ Telegraph
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FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SAS: ROGUE HEROES

Colditz Castle: a forbidding Gothic tower on a hill in Nazi Germany. You may have heard about the prisoners and their daring and desperate attempts to escape, but that’s only part of the real story.

In Colditz: Prisoners of the Castle, bestselling historian Ben Macintyre takes us inside the walls of the most infamous prison in history to meet the real men behind the legends. Heroes and bullies, lovers and spies, captors and prisoners living cheek-by-jowl for years in a thrilling game of cat and mouse – and all determined to escape by any means necessary.

Deeply researched and full of incredible stories, this is a tale of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances – and will change how you think about Colditz forever.
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‘Like watching a black-and-white photograph being colourised’ Spectator
‘Every Ben Macintyre book is a treat’ The Tablet

Sunday Times bestseller, November 2022

Publisher Review

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 *