Antony Beevor is a hero to those who devour well-written modern history.
His books on D-Day, the Battle for Normandy and Berlin, the Downfall 1945 as well as his other works on Stalingrad, post-liberation Paris and the Spanish Civil War walk off the shelves.
The D-Day account, still on Irish bestseller lists, is unafraid to ask the pertinent question. Did the French suffer unduly in the Liberation? It is wonderful on the relationships between Eisenhower and the insufferable Montgomery, and the Allies generally particularly with the haughty De Gaulle. Interspersed are engaging stories of immense courage, but also unflinching recognition of the wicked and the cowardly. The heroes, as ever, are the lice-ridden lads with foot rot, no sleep and dysentery who went over the top.
Beevor is also masterly on Berlin as he weaves a narrative of the American and Russian advances on that symbolic city and the German reaction. Fanaticism and propaganda incited unspeakable cruelties on the Eastern Front as Russian soldiers returned in kind what had been inflicted on their compatriots. And as some senior German officers fled, and Hitler killed himself, the old and the young continued to defend their city, hoping that any surrendering would be to the Americans. For many, including countless women, the ravaging Red Army was to be their fate.