Julian Thompson

Butcher’s Bill

All Hell Let Loose: The World at War 1939–1945

By

HarperPress 748pp £30 order from our bookshop

An average of 27,000 people died each day between September 1939 and August 1945 as a result of the war. We still live with the consequences to this day. Max Hastings has combined his considerable experience of war reporting with years of research on the Second World War to write a compelling account of this terrible event, largely told through the eyes of a multitude of men and women who were touched by it. The book is well paced throughout, and a compelling read: no mean feat given the vast canvas it covers. He writes with compassion, but without sentimentality; with understanding, but without hesitating to explode myths where necessary. He castigates incompetence, but acknowledges that mistakes are often made in war. He knows that even the finest intelligence organisation will rarely tell you everything you would like to know.

Sign Up to our newsletter

Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • 'The lack of evidence ... of any definitive brain pathology in cases of schizophrenia and the absence of any reliab… ,
    • 'Since Dylan’s commercial and ideological heyday, the intrusion of sociology, semiology and post-structuralist thou… ,
    • 'One of the reasons for its longevity is that it has virtually nothing to say about science and technology at all,… ,
    • 'The characters in many of these stories are trapped in the obsessive present tense of their own thoughts; in the m… ,
    • 'Libraries, for much of their existence, have embodied in microcosm many of the characteristics of the totalitarian… ,
    • 'Moss and Cynthia buy several properties through which to launder their ill-gotten gains, take lots of drugs, have… ,
    • 'Never mind the imperial cult. This is the cult of Boris. What happened to Rome?' From the LR archive:… ,
    Follow Us