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The Penguin Podcast: episode 10 – history special

The End of the War in Eight Surrenders

Victory '45

A gripping, eye-opening and satisfying new account

James Holland (Author) 
James Holland is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning historian, writer, and broadcaster. The author of a number of best-selling histories including most recently Brothers In Arms and Normandy '44, he is also the author of ten works of fiction and a dozen Ladybird Experts. 
 
He is the co-founder of the annual Chalke Valley History Festival which is now in its twelfth year, and he has presented - and written - many television programmes and series for the BBC, Channel 4, National Geographic and the History and Discovery channels. 
 
With Al Murray, he has a successful Second World War podcast, We Have Ways of Making You Talk, which also has its own festival, and is a research fellow at St Andrew's University and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He can be found on Twitter as @James1940 and on Instagram as @jamesholland1940. 
 
Al Murray (Author) 
Al Murray's alter ego, The Pub Landlord, is one of the most recognizable and successful comic creations of the past twenty years, and Murray, who has won numerous awards and accolades, continues to fill arenas and theatres around the world. 
 
He is also the author of many successful books including Watching War Films with My Dad and Command, a sharply entertaining analysis of the key allied military leaders in the Second World War. He is well known for co-hosting the hugely popular Second World War history podcast, We Have Ways of Making You Talk with fellow bestselling military author James Holland. 
 
Arnhem: Black Tuesday is his first history book about a single campaign.

Celebrating the 80th anniversary of VE Day, bestselling historians James Holland and Al Murray tell the unflinching story of the eight surrenders that brought victory to the Allies and ended the Second World War. 
 
‘A gripping, eye-opening and satisfying new account’ The Express 
_________ 
 
From the Italian Alps to northern Germany, to London, New York, Washington and Tokyo, Victory ’45 tells the story of the extraordinary summer when the greatest conflagration the world had ever known finally came to an end after eight surrenders that heralded the Allied victory. 
 
Comprised of eight chapters based around each of those surrenders and the victory celebrations which followed, it will be rich in character and human drama with revealing stories and perspectives behind the end of the war not yet told before. Each chapter will follow the viewpoints of a number of key characters as they traverse these world-changing events – from ordinary servicemen and women and civilians to generals and political leaders. 
 
What took place during the negotiations of those surrenders and the terms that were agreed there would determine the directions the participating countries would take in the years that followed and ultimately the shape of our current world.

Al Murray

This book is a revelation, not in facts delivered, but in the mood evoked.  This is Arnhem unplugged…By confining himself to men in and around Arnhem on that Tuesday, Murray achieves something special.

This well-crafted, original title comes highly recommended and should sit towards the top of the pile of texts discussing the fateful engagement. Hopefully there will be more to come on the topic from Murray.

An original and insightful account... Murray breaks the story into its constituent parts and, demonstrating a deep understanding of events, argues that had the cards fallen differently, the plan might have worked

By examining the Arnhem battle in such forensic detail and delving well beyond the normal parameters on this subject, Al Murray has convincingly exposed a number of aspects that no-one has ever considered before and with highly conclusive results.  This is an utterly brilliant work of history: compelling, entertaining, in parts truly shocking, profound, revelatory, full of wisdom and delivering a mass of totally fresh material.  The twenty-hour timeframe is inspired, and despite focussing on only one day of fighting, this book really is the last word on the Battle of Arnhem.

Superb. By focusing on a single day, Al Murray’s Arnhem reintroduces the element of jeopardy to this famous battle and reminds us that, for the participants, nothing was set in stone. He is a military historian of originality and insight to compare with the best.

Discover the Sunday Times bestseller and incredible true story behind the most catastrophic 24-hours the British military faced in World War II from the bestselling author. 
 
‘Utterly brilliant... this book really is the last word on the Battle of Arnhem’ James Holland 
’Superb... A military historian of originality and insight to compare with the best’ Saul David 
_________ 
 
The Battle of Arnhem is one of the best-known stories in British military history: a daring but doomed attempt to secure a vital bridgehead across the Rhine in order to end the war before Christmas 1944. 
 
It is always written about, with the benefit of unerring 20/20 hindsight, as being destined to fail, but the men who fought there, men of military legend, didn't know that that was to be their fate. 
 
Now, in Arnhem: Black Tuesday, Al Murray focuses on the events of one day as they happened through the eyes of the British participants, without bringing any knowledge of what would happen tomorrow to bear, offering a very different perspective on a familiar narrative. 
 
Some things went right and a great many more went wrong, but recounting them in this way allows the reader to understand for the first time how certain decisions were taken in the moment and how opportunities were squandered. 
 
Al Murray has always been obsessed by this legendary battle, and in Arnhem: Black Tuesday he showcases all of his knowledge, interpretation and enthusiasm to bear to tell the story of one of history’s great heroic failures differently for the first time. 
_________Praise for Arnhem: Black Tuesday: 
 
‘Original and insightful’ Telegraph 
'A revelation.. This is Arnhem unplugged. By confining himself to men in and around Arnhem on that Tuesday, Murray achieves something special' The Times

Al Murray

Praise for Arnhem: Black Tuesday

This book is a revelation, not in facts delivered, but in the mood evoked. This is Arnhem unplugged…By confining himself to men in and around Arnhem on that Tuesday, Murray achieves something special.

This well-crafted, original title comes highly recommended and should sit towards the top of the pile of texts discussing the fateful engagement. Hopefully there will be more to come on the topic from Murray.

An original and insightful account... Murray breaks the story into its constituent parts and, demonstrating a deep understanding of events, argues that had the cards fallen differently, the plan might have worked

This book is a revelation, not in facts delivered, but in the mood evoked. This is Arnhem unplugged…By confining himself to men in and around Arnhem on that Tuesday, Murray achieves something special.

This well-crafted, original title comes highly recommended and should sit towards the top of the pile of texts discussing the fateful engagement. Hopefully there will be more to come on the topic from Murray.

An original and insightful account... Murray breaks the story into its constituent parts and, demonstrating a deep understanding of events, argues that had the cards fallen differently, the plan might have worked

This book is a revelation, not in facts delivered, but in the mood evoked. This is Arnhem unplugged…By confining himself to men in and around Arnhem on that Tuesday, Murray achieves something special.

This well-crafted, original title comes highly recommended and should sit towards the top of the pile of texts discussing the fateful engagement. Hopefully there will be more to come on the topic from Murray.

An original and insightful account... Murray breaks the story into its constituent parts and, demonstrating a deep understanding of events, argues that had the cards fallen differently, the plan might have worked

Books by Al Murray

Articles featuring Al Murray

The Penguin Podcast: episode 10 – history special

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