The historian and broadcaster chooses his favourite books. He is talking about his book, “Endgame 1944: How Stalin Won the War”, at the Stratford Literary Festival, 30 October-2 November.
Stalingrad
Grossman is the 20th century’s Tolstoy, a genius whose “Stalingrad” is no less powerful than his later masterpiece, “Life and Fate”, but on a more intimate scale: a heroic struggle portrayed from the perspective of a wonderfully layered cast of characters.
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Red Sparrow
Jason Matthews, 2013
The first in a trilogy of spy novels that are rooted in the murderous underworld of Putin’s Foreign Intelligence Service. “Red Sparrow” is a “sexspionage” intelligence officer who is turned by her hatred of the system. In an intricate web of international intrigue and breath-suspending drama, the emotions are intense and the violence is gruesome. Written by a former CIA operative, it feels terrifyingly authentic.
The Mayor of Casterbridge
Thomas Hardy, 1886
Set in an apparently tranquil market town, this is one of Hardy’s bleakest Wessex novels. The protagonist is a proud pillar of the community who is brought low by his past and his own deep flaws, doomed by remorseless fate.
Master and Commander
Patrick O’Brien, 1969
The first of a series of 20 novels set in the Napoleonic Wars, which are rich in nautical detail. Their brilliance lies in O’Brien’s portrayal of the deep if unlikely friendship between two of fiction’s most endearing characters – a buccaneering naval officer and his saturnine ship’s surgeon, who is a spy.
History of the Second World War
Winston Churchill, 1948-54
This is history on the grand scale. Of course you don’t get scholarly detachment; Churchill’s sweeping authorial vision is inevitably Anglocentric and often self-serving. Nevertheless, it is surprisingly candid and an awesome and invaluable achievement.
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