Advance Britannia

“[An] elegant and unsparing history of London’s role in World War II, [including] the perspectives of the victims of British colonialism as well as its perpetrators. . . . Allport is a fluid writer, a conjurer with the rare ability to sustain a gripping narrative without resorting to Vaseline-lensed sentimentality. He overturns one piece of conventional wisdom after another.” —Kevin Peraino, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

“Challenging and stimulating . . . [Allport] provides excellent detail on some less well-known corners of the British war effort . . . The strength of this account [is] his use of personal testimony, from diaries or letters, and the voice of the ordinary Briton . . . this device springs his narrative to life . . . Allport strikes an effective balance between home front and fighting fronts. His breezy, accessible style moves seamlessly through the states of the conflict and its long aftermath. He engages with the important debates with intelligence and perception.” —Richard Overy, Times Literary Supplement

“With so much ground to cover, there is a danger of a book such as this becoming unduly superficial, but that is a trap into which Allport does not fall. This is not least because he looks at people and their motivations as well as at events . . . Allport is good at correcting misunderstandings [and] offers valuable interpretations . . . As this book confirms, very little in the way the British interpret and remember the nation’s part in the Second World War turns out to be quite as it seemed.” —Simon Heffer, The New Criterion

“Weighty but never dull. . . . There is no silly sensationalism in this book, merely sound storytelling and measured judgments. . . . What matters is that Allport seems right about most things, which is more than many of us manage. The author’s peroration is admirably provocative.” —Max Hastings, Sunday Times (London)

“Alan Allport has followed up Britain at Bay with another tour de force. Advance Britannia ranges widely from the battlefield to the home front, from the cabinet war rooms to factory floors. It is as complete and compelling a picture of Britain in the Second World War as one could hope to read.” —Phillips Payson O’Brien, author of The Strategists

“Allport succeeds in making stories that many of us thought we were familiar with feel fresh, urgent and timely. He has the true storyteller’s gift. This is a must read for anyone who is interested in what really happened in World War II.” —Anne Sebba, author of The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz

“There isn’t a better history of the Second World War than this remarkably fresh account. It is a history liberated from the pious sentimentalities of both left and right, a story not of a nation but an empire at war, partly with itself. In prose which zings along it authoritatively dispatches one myth after another, comes to thoughtful and clear judgements on people and events, and surprises the reader on every page. It is an extraordinary achievement, a book which deserves to be read by all who pretend to know British history.” —David Edgerton, author of The Rise and Fall of the British Nation

“Allport’s great achievement is to capture this extraordinary global upheaval without losing sight of the poignant human dramas that were intertwined with it.” —Richard Vinen, author of The Long ’68

“Allport has done it again—a highly readable, analytically provocative and original interpretation of Britain’s experience of war. For many years to come, Advance Britannia will be an authoritative account and explanation of these pivotal years of the war.” —Julie V. Gottlieb, author of Guilty Women