Showing results by author "Max Hastings" in All Categories

Preeminent military historian Max Hastings presents Winston Churchill as he has never been seen before. Winston Churchill was the greatest war leader Britain ever had. In 1940, the nation rallied behind him in an extraordinary fashion. But thereafter, argues Max Hastings, there was a deep divide between what Churchill wanted from the British people and their army, and what they were capable of delivering.

In February 2002 Max Hastings retired from his position as a 'Fleet Street' Editor. His is an enormously illustrious career which started in 1985, when he was offered the Editorship of a national institution – the Daily Telegraph – in a surprise move by its owners. This memoir tells the story of what happened to him, and to a great newspaper, over the next decade. It is all here: the rows with prime ministers, the coverage of great events including the end of the Cold War, the fall of Thatcher, the rise of New Labour and Tony Blair, the Gulf War, and the tribulations of the Royal Family.

Hastings has been a life-long student of warfare, a ‘chronicler of conflict’, working first as a foreign correspondent on battlefields, then as a prolific prize-winning historian of the 20th century’s greatest struggles. He has now been studying warfare for over fifty years, published thirty books, and given hundreds of talks and lectures. Here are thirteen of the best. Addressing questions of truth versus myth and revisiting many last-generation narratives, Hastings leads us through the most important conflicts in recent times.

The author is the son of broadcaster and adventurer Macdonald Hastings, and journalist and gardening writer Anne Scott-James. Max’s father roamed the world for newspapers and as a presenter for BBC TV’s legendary 'Tonight' programme, while his mother edited 'Harper’s Bazaar', became a famous columnist and wrote bestselling gardening books. One of Max’s grandfathers was a literary editor, while the other wrote plays and essays.