Blitzkrieg: From the Rise of Hitler to the Fall of Dunkirk - Couverture souple

Len Deighton is the author of over 30 bestsellers of carefully researched fiction and non-fiction. His history writing was encouraged by A.J.P. Taylor and his books are noted for the picture they provide of the German side of the fighting as well as that of the Allies. Fighter: The True Story of the Battle of Britain and Blitzkrieg: From the Rise of Hitler to the Fall of Dunkirk are detailed accounts of the 1940 battles on land and in the air. Hitler's armaments Minister, Albert Speer, called Fighter 'an excellent and thorough examination' and the chief of staff of General Guderian (who led the invasion of France) wrote the Foreword to Blitzkrieg. Both books are available from Pimlico, as is Blood, Tears and Folly: An Objective Look at World War II, described by Jack Higgins as 'an absolute landmark...a remarkable achievment'.

Deightons fictional Bomber and Goodbye Mickey Mouse has become a classic and reliable accounts of the war in the air from the RAF and American point of view respectively. Other novels such as City of Gold set in wartime Cairo, MAMista and Violent Ward set in modern southern California, are equally authentic and no less disturbing. Five of his novels have become feature films and the Hook, Line and Sinker trilogy became a 13-hour TV series screened throughout the world.

All of Deighton's history writing is devoted to the neglected but decisive role that technology plays in peace and war. By means of gripping eye-witness accounts, interviews, extensive research and wide-ranging reference, Deighton persuades the reader that historians have failed to understand that science, engineering, the training and organisation of mass armies and the education of civilian work-forces decided this century's wars. And will decide our future.

Married, with two grown-up children, Len Deighton travels extensively to research his books but likes to return to his house in Portugal.

In Blitzkrieg Len Deighton turns a searchlight on the rise of Hitler, the lightning dash of his armies to the Channel coast in 1940 and on the debacle of Dunkirk, where - in a mistake that was to trigger his eventual downfall - a quarter of a million British troops were allowed to escape.