Dieppe, 1942: The Folly and the Sacrifice

Operation Jubilee

An exemplary account of this wartime fiasco

A story of heroism and futility that will live for the reader long afterwards

Andrew Roberts, author of ‘Churchill: Walking with Destiny’

A masterclass of heart-stopping historical narrative

Bishop's account of the operation is the best I've read

A fascinating, shrewd and timely reflection on leadership in a time of crisis

Henry Hemming, author of 'Our Man in New York'

Patrick Bishop is the author of two hugely acclaimed bestsellers about the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, Fighter Boys and Bomber Boys, and books including Wings, a history of the RAF, and Air Force Blue, which celebrated 100 years of the RAF and was a Sunday Times bestseller. He spent twenty-five years as a foreign correspondent covering conflicts around the world.

On the warm night of 18 August 1942, a flotilla pushed out into the flat water of the Channel. They were to seize the German-held port of Dieppe, destroy key installations, seize intelligence material and then sail for home. 
 
This was the greatest amphibious operation since Gallipoli, with the biggest accumulation of fighter power ever assembled. But by the morning of the attack, one of its architects already feared that the operation would "go down as one of the great failures in history". Its key players claimed it was essential to D-Day, with the media telling listeners that it was a success -- but the tragedy was all too predictable. 
 
Using first-hand testimony from combatants and civilians, and colourful analysis of the roles of Mountbatten and Montgomery, bestselling author Patrick Bishop's gripping account brings Operation Jubilee powerfully and vividly to life, in an epic demonstration of how ambition, folly and courage came together in one of the most tragic episodes of the war.

Patrick Bishop

Bishop pulls no punches in emphasizing that the story of Paris’s liberation from the Germans by its brave citizens was a myth, invented for political purposes by Gen.Charles de Gaulle . . . This is a thrilling account of a notable episode of the last phase of World War II, told with authority as well as a wealth of unpublished anecdotes.

Paris ’44 tells the story of the occupation and the liberation, but it does not read like military history . . . The book resembles some epic thriller, with vividly evoked characters all somewhere on the spectrum between collaboration and resistance, shame and glory . . . Paris ’44 is a wonderful book: droll, moving, with a cinematic eye and not a boring line in it

An evocative account of the city’s liberation . . . Bishop is such a skilful writer, with a sense of nuance and an eye for memorable anecdotes, that even readers familiar with the story will enjoy his book enormously . . . history, like life, is complicated, and Bishop’s admirable book treats it with the respect and care it deserves

Dominic Sandbrook, host of The Rest Is History

Patrick Bishop follows a tradition of British and American historians interrogating aspects of wartime history that the French themselves prefer to avoid. His beady-eyed Paris '44 takes a panoramic view of crumbling Nazi administration, approaching armies, foreign correspondents, Resistance fighters, opportunist Gaullists and various collaborators, sharply depicting the faultlines of rivalry among the liberators

How close Paris came to being laid waste – and many of its citizens being massacred in an almighty bloodbath – is vividly and thrillingly recounted by British war historian and Paris resident Patrick Bishop. We re-live the tension of those terror-filled days

Fascinating . . . gripping . . . Bishop tells the story of the liberation by reporting, as if he were there, how a rich cast of characters lived through its key moments

Gives a vivid impression of what it might have been like to be there on that wonderful day . . . for those who prefer their history to be romantic, this book is the one. It's all here . . . in full Technicolor, told at a blistering pace

Excellent . . . a fresh, unexpected take on the liberation of Paris

Julian Jackson, author of France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain

Bishop writes with admirable brevity and insight

An extraordinary moment of history brought to vivid, pulsing life. Rich with suspense and layered with intrigue

By far the best written study in English of this controversial topic of France under German rule . . . filled with charming anecdotes and lively sketches of the key figures in the liberation of Paris . . . What Bishop has produced is a nothing less than a love letter to the city of Paris

A fascinating narrative about a little known period of Parisian history with a cast of characters worthy of a Balzac or Victor Hugo novel. Yet, this isn’t fiction – it’s a meticulously researched account full of surprising anecdotes and fascinating people that unveils much about modern-day Paris

Edward Chisholm, author of A Waiter in Paris

The Shame and the Glory

** THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ** 
 
‘An epic thriller . . . droll, moving, with a cinematic eye and not a boring line in it' OBSERVER • ‘Fascinating . . . gripping' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH • 'Excellent . . . a fresh, unexpected take on the liberation of Paris' JULIAN JACKSON, author of France on Trial 
 
From the Sunday Times-bestselling Patrick Bishop comes a heart-stopping countdown narrative recreating the liberation of Paris in 1944, one of the great and most dramatic hinge moments of WW2. 
 
When the Germans marched in and the lamps went out in the City of Light the millions who loved Paris mourned. Liberation, four years later, triggered an explosion of joy and relief. It was the party of the century and everybody who was anybody was there. General Charles de Gaulle seized the moment to create an instant legend that would take its place alongside the great moments in French history. After years of oppression and humiliation Parisians had risen to reclaim their city and drive out the forces of darkness – or so the story went. 
 
This fresh new account of the liberation, packed with revelation, tells the story of those heady days of suspense, danger, exhilaration – and vengeance – through the eyes of a range of participants, reflecting all sides of the conflict: Americans, French and Germans; resisters and collaborators. Among them are famous names like Ernest Hemingway, J.D. Salinger and Pablo Picasso, but also some fascinating unknowns including a medic turned Resistance gunwoman, an androgynous Hungarian sculptor and a French bluestocking who quietly set about saving the nation’s art treasures from the Nazi looters. 
 
Paris ’44 looks behind the mythology to tell the real story of the liberation and expose the conflicts and contradictions of France under the occupation – the shame as well as the glory. This gripping war-time narrative will enthral anyone who has a place for Paris in their hearts.

Patrick Bishop

Praise for Paris '44

Bishop pulls no punches in emphasizing that the story of Paris’s liberation from the Germans by its brave citizens was a myth, invented for political purposes by Gen.Charles de Gaulle . . . This is ...

Paris ’44 tells the story of the occupation and the liberation, but it does not read like military history . . . The book resembles some epic thriller, with vividly evoked characters all somewhere on the s ...

An evocative account of the city’s liberation . . . Bishop is such a skilful writer, with a sense of nuance and an eye for memorable anecdotes, that even readers familiar with the story will enjoy his book enormo ...

Bishop pulls no punches in emphasizing that the story of Paris’s liberation from the Germans by its brave citizens was a myth, invented for political purposes by Gen.Charles de Gaulle . . . This is ...

Paris ’44 tells the story of the occupation and the liberation, but it does not read like military history . . . The book resembles some epic thriller, with vividly evoked characters all somewhere on the s ...

An evocative account of the city’s liberation . . . Bishop is such a skilful writer, with a sense of nuance and an eye for memorable anecdotes, that even readers familiar with the story will enjoy his book enormo ...

Bishop pulls no punches in emphasizing that the story of Paris’s liberation from the Germans by its brave citizens was a myth, invented for political purposes by Gen.Charles de Gaulle . . . This is ...

Paris ’44 tells the story of the occupation and the liberation, but it does not read like military history . . . The book resembles some epic thriller, with vividly evoked characters all somewhere on the s ...

An evocative account of the city’s liberation . . . Bishop is such a skilful writer, with a sense of nuance and an eye for memorable anecdotes, that even readers familiar with the story will enjoy his book enormo ...

Books by Patrick Bishop

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