Darkness in Paris
Peter Ferguson
Just when you thought you knew all about the Second World War, here is a superb narrative history of the year Western civilisation hung in the balance.
In May 1940 Germany invaded France, and defeated the Allies in six weeks. The victors of the Great War were mired in complacency, and outmanoeuvred by a new kind of warfare. It seemed that the Nazis were unbeatable, yet by the end of the year Germany had suffered a defeat, and Hitler made the first of two mistakes that were to doom his Thousand Year Reich.
France mobilised five million men in 1940, while the British put up less than one-tenth of that number and most of those came home at half-time. While the British gathered around their radios to hear Churchill make defiant speeches, the French suffered invasion, defeat, occupation, and the imposition of a Fascist regime.
The fall of France was felt by many in the West to be the greatest catastrophe suffered by civilisation since ancient Rome fell to the barbarians. Here is the inside story of 1940 from Paris and London, brought brilliantly to life.
Peter Ferguson
Peter Ferguson became a copywriter in Sydney advertising shortly after leaving school. This early start enabled him to win awards for his writing in Australia, the UK, and the USA, to work in London during the 1960s from whence he made the first of his visits to France, where he studied French language and history. He is now retired and lives at Avalon near Sydney, with his wife, where his interests are writing, history, and sailing. This is his second book. His first, Crocodile on the Thames, was a novel set in London, France, and Egypt.
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Extent: 352
Size: 234mm x 153mm
ISBN (10): 1920769 439
ISBN (13): 9781920769437
RRP: $35.00
Pub date:
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