The Devil's Disciples

A highly readable and original account of Hitler's closest lieutenants.

It is of paramount importance that well-researched, authoritative accounts of the Nazi era continue to be written. Anthony Read's study of Hitler's inner circle is just such one.

Anthony Read became a full-time writer after a successful career in television production. He has co-written a number of books with David Fisher, including several about Germany and the Second World War. This is his first major book as sole author.

The Nazi regime was essentially a religious cult, relying on the hypnotic personality of one man, Adolf Hitler, and it was fated to die with him. But while it lasted, his closest lieutenants competed ferociously for power and position as his chosen successor. This deadly contest accounted for many of the regime's worst excesses, in which millions of people died, and which brought Western civilization to its knees. The Devil's Disciples is the first major book for a general readership to examine those lieutenants, not only as individuals but also as a group. It focuses on the three Nazi paladins closest to Hitler - Goring, Goebbels and Himmler - with their nearest rivals - Bormann, Speer and Ribbentrop in close attendance. Others who were removed in various ways - like Gregor Strasser, Ernst R-hm, Heydrich and Hess - play supporting roles. Perceptive and illuminating, The Devil's Disciples is above all a powerful chronological narrative, showing how the personalities of Hitler's inner circle developed and how their jealousies and constant intrigues affected the regime, the war, and Hitler himself.

India's Long Road to Independencre

The Proudest Day

A vivid, colourful and fast-paced account of the events leading up to an Indian independence in 1947.

A thoroughly splendid history of an exceedingly complicated subject...Read and fisher review events before the 20th century at a brisk pace, as a prologue to the great drama spread across three quarters of their book...and as the narrative proceeds towards the final act at midnight on 14 August 1947, so it becomes more scholarly. the characteristics of the principal cast are memorably presented

What Indians needed in their golden jubilee year was some good old personality-driven political history of the Raj...and that is exactly what Read and Fisher have done...They have made the most eventful years of our history as fascinating as they should be

The narrative goes beyond the chronicling of historical fact and assumes a quality of subtle story-telling. It is well-paced, intelligent and perceptive, scripted with a measure of the assurance that bridges the best of fiction and non-fiction writing. More importantly, there is love and sympathy for its subject, a human quality is achieved only when the text goes beyond mere documentation. The quality of writing - its pungency and sense of theatre - is matched by the rigorousness of the research...One of the profound epic tales of modern world history

Anthony Read and David Fisher had extremely successful careers in television as writers and producers before embarking on their collaboration as authors. The bestselling books include The Fall of Berlin, Berlin: The Biography of a City, Operation Lucy, Colonel Z, The Deadly Embrace and Kristallnacht, for which they were awarded the H.H Wingate Prize in 1989.

At midnight on 14 August 1947, Britain finally granted independence to the peoples of India. Throughout the world, the end of the colonial era was in sight. India was the first great domino to fall, setting off a train of events that was so spread across Asia and Africa, culminat-ing in the collapse of th Soviet empire. The story of the winning of freedom by the peoples of the Indian empire is one of the great sagas of the twentieth century. Bathed in the rosy glow of retrospect, the birth of modern India and Pakistan has come to be guarded in the West as a great achievement, `the proudest day in Britain`s history', as predicted by Lord Macauley in 1835. But how justified is the romantic popular image? Was Indian independence a noble gesture by abenevolent colonial power or was freedom wrested from the British by indian nationalists after more than a quarter of a century of bitter struggle? Was the result a triumph or a tragedy? The Proudest Day sets the record straight.

Anthony Read

A thrilling account of a brief historical moment in which world revolution seemed an attainable dream

Well-written, intriguing and nicely-produced book

Impressive in geographical scope and rife with incident

Read's mastery of his materials is truly a marvel, and as he unscrolls his highly detailed accounts from far corners of the globe, the narrative gains a cumulative impact that is potent and liberating.  ...  Every reporter should have to read this book and mull over certain similarities to present-day group behaviour

World on Fire is a well researched, brilliantly organised and very accessible piece of history that comes highly recommended

1919 and the Battle with Bolshevism

At the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, Western leaders drafted a peace treaty that would punish German militarism and 'make the world safe for democracy' but the world itself was already fighting a new war, against terrorism. The great evil was now Bolshevism, which had burst onto the scene in 1917 and rapidly seared itself into the world's consciousness. 
 
The Allied powers' attempts to destroy this threatening ideology at its source by intervening in the Russian civil war were both unsuccessful and controversial and the tremors of the Russian upheaval eighteen months earlier were being felt throughout the world, resurfacing in bloody revolutions and even bloodier counter-revolutions in Germany, Hungary and the Baltic States, as well as in the massive strikes, riots and civil unrest that paralyzed the rest of the world. 
 
Military revolts involving thousands of British personnel saw a group of sailors imprisoned for taking over their ship, hauling down the white ensign and hoisting the red flag in its place, while in Ireland Michael Collins and the IRA were conducting a successful terrorist campaign against the British; in Italy Benito Mussolini deserted the socialist camp and drew up the Fascist Manifesto; and in the United States a series of terrorist bombings, later labelled the Great Red Scare, created a wave of hysteria that shook the very foundations of a free and democratic society. 
 
Anthony Read's absorbing and revelatory book chronicles and examines the running battle with Bolshevism, insurgency and fear during the most revolutionary year since 1789.

Anthony Read

Praise for The World On Fire

A dramatic and elegant narrative

A thrilling account of a brief historical moment in which world revolution seemed an attainable dream

Well-written, intriguing and nicely-produced book

A dramatic and elegant narrative

A thrilling account of a brief historical moment in which world revolution seemed an attainable dream

Well-written, intriguing and nicely-produced book

A dramatic and elegant narrative

A thrilling account of a brief historical moment in which world revolution seemed an attainable dream

Well-written, intriguing and nicely-produced book

Books by Anthony Read

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