Paris '44: The Shame and the Glory

From the Sunday Times-bestselling author, comes a heart-stopping countdown narrative recreating the liberation of Paris in 1944, one of the great and most dramatic hinge moments of WW2 ** THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ** 'An epic thriller . . . droll, moving, with a cinematic eye and not a boring line in it' OBSERVER . 'Fascinating . . . gripping' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH . 'Excellent . . . a fresh, unexpected take on the liberation of Paris' JULIAN JACKSON, author of France on Trial From the Sunday Times-bestselling Patrick Bishop comes a heart-stopping countdown narrative recreating the liberation of Paris in 1944, one of the great and most dramatic hinge moments of WW2. When the Germans marched in and the lamps went out in the City of Light the millions who loved Paris mourned. Liberation, four years later, triggered an explosion of joy and relief. It was the party of the century and everybody who was anybody was there. General Charles de Gaulle seized the moment to create an instant legend that would take its place alongside the great moments in French history. After years of oppression and humiliation Parisians had risen to reclaim their city and drive out the forces of darkness - or so the story went. This fresh new account of the liberation, packed with revelation, tells the story of those heady days of suspense, danger, exhilaration - and vengeance - through the eyes of a range of participants, reflecting all sides of the conflict- Americans, French and Germans; resisters and collaborators. Among them are famous names like Ernest Hemingway, J.D. Salinger and Pablo Picasso, but also some fascinating unknowns including a medic turned Resistance gunwoman, an androgynous Hungarian sculptor and a French bluestocking who quietly set about saving the nation's art treasures from the Nazi looters. Paris '44 looks behind the mythology to tell the real story of the liberation and expose the conflicts and contradictions of France under the occupation - the shame as well as the glory. This gripping war-time narrative will enthral anyone who has a place for Paris in their hearts.

About the Author :
Patrick Bishop is the author of two hugely acclaimed bestsellers about the Royal Air Force during the Second World War, Fighter Boys and Bomber Boys, and books including Wings, a history of the RAF, and Air Force Blue, which celebrated 100 years of the RAF and was a Sunday Times bestseller. He spent twenty-five years as a foreign correspondent covering conflicts around the world.

Review :
An evocative account of the city’s liberation . . . Bishop is such a skilful writer, with a sense of nuance and an eye for memorable anecdotes, that even readers familiar with the story will enjoy his book enormously . . . history, like life, is complicated, and Bishop’s admirable book treats it with the respect and care it deserves Bishop pulls no punches in emphasizing that the story of Paris’s liberation from the Germans by its brave citizens was a myth, invented for political purposes by Gen.Charles de Gaulle . . . This is a thrilling account of a notable episode of the last phase of World War II, told with authority as well as a wealth of unpublished anecdotes. Paris ’44 tells the story of the occupation and the liberation, but it does not read like military history . . . The book resembles some epic thriller, with vividly evoked characters all somewhere on the spectrum between collaboration and resistance, shame and glory . . . Paris ’44 is a wonderful book: droll, moving, with a cinematic eye and not a boring line in it Patrick Bishop follows a tradition of British and American historians interrogating aspects of wartime history that the French themselves prefer to avoid. His beady-eyed Paris '44 takes a panoramic view of crumbling Nazi administration, approaching armies, foreign correspondents, Resistance fighters, opportunist Gaullists and various collaborators, sharply depicting the faultlines of rivalry among the liberators How close Paris came to being laid waste – and many of its citizens being massacred in an almighty bloodbath – is vividly and thrillingly recounted by British war historian and Paris resident Patrick Bishop. We re-live the tension of those terror-filled days Fascinating . . . gripping . . . Bishop tells the story of the liberation by reporting, as if he were there, how a rich cast of characters lived through its key moments Gives a vivid impression of what it might have been like to be there on that wonderful day . . . for those who prefer their history to be romantic, this book is the one. It's all here . . . in full Technicolor, told at a blistering pace Excellent . . . a fresh, unexpected take on the liberation of Paris Bishop writes with admirable brevity and insight An extraordinary moment of history brought to vivid, pulsing life. Rich with suspense and layered with intrigue