Description
Book SynopsisWinner of the Duff Cooper Prize for History, the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography, the American Library in Paris Award, the Franco-British Society Literary Prize and the Grand Prix de la Biographie Politique du Touquet
A SUNDAY TIMES, THE TIMES, DAILY TELEGRAPH, NEW STATESMAN, SPECTATOR, FINANCIAL TIMES, TLS BOOK OF THE YEAR
''Masterly ... awesome reading ... an outstanding biography'' Max Hastings, Sunday Times
In six weeks in the early summer of 1940, France was over-run by German troops and quickly surrendered. The French government of Marshal Pétain sued for peace and signed an armistice. One little-known junior French general, refusing to accept defeat, made his way to England. On 18 June he spoke to his compatriots over the BBC, urging them to rally to him in London. ''Whatever happens, the flame of French resistance must not be extinguished and will not be extinguished.'' At that moment, Charles de Gaulle entere
Trade Review
Julian Jackson's biography is a worthy monument to this extraordinary figure. He has a good eye for the telling quotation and a magnificent capacity to place de Gaulle, one of the most fascinating subjects in twentieth-century politics, in his historical and political setting. The result is a wonderful history of modern France disguised as the biography of a statesman. -- Mark Mazower * New York Review of Books *
Scholarship of the highest class ... a truly great book, for after this all other biographies can be cast aside. -- Simon Heffer * Sunday Telegraph *
Only a great biography could do justice to such a man. This one does it, magnificently. -- Noel Malcolm * Daily Telegraph *
More than just another, bigger, biography ... he has the skill and style to maintain a dramatic narrative over nearly 800 pages of text -- Robert Tombs * Spectator *
A suitably monumental achievement. -- Lewis Jones * The Times *
