{"id":310842,"date":"2025-10-17T13:46:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T13:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/310842\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T13:46:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T13:46:14","slug":"jonathan-dimbleby-picks-his-favourite-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/310842\/","title":{"rendered":"Jonathan Dimbleby picks his favourite books"},"content":{"rendered":"

The historian and broadcaster chooses his favourite books. He is talking about his book, <\/a>\u201cEndgame 1944: How Stalin Won the War<\/a>\u201d, at the Stratford Literary Festival, 30 October-2 November.<\/p>\n

Stalingrad<\/p>\n

Vasily Grossman, 1952, translated by Robert Chandler, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Grossman is the 20th century\u2019s Tolstoy, a genius whose \u201cStalingrad\u201d is no less powerful than his later masterpiece, \u201cLife and Fate\u201d, but on a more intimate scale: a heroic struggle portrayed from the perspective of a wonderfully layered cast of characters.<\/p>\n

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Red Sparrow<\/p>\n

Jason Matthews, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first in a trilogy of spy novels that are rooted in the murderous underworld of Putin<\/a>\u2019s Foreign Intelligence Service. \u201cRed Sparrow\u201d is a \u201csexspionage\u201d intelligence officer who is turned by her hatred of the system. In an intricate web of international intrigue and breath-suspending drama, the emotions are intense and the violence is gruesome. Written by a former CIA<\/a> operative, it feels terrifyingly authentic.<\/p>\n

The Mayor of Casterbridge<\/p>\n

Thomas Hardy, 1886<\/strong><\/p>\n

Set in an apparently tranquil market town, this is one of Hardy\u2019s bleakest Wessex novels. The protagonist is a proud pillar of the community who is brought low by his past and his own deep flaws, doomed by remorseless fate.<\/p>\n

A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day \u2013 and the best features from TheWeek.com<\/p>\n

Master and Commander<\/p>\n

Patrick O\u2019Brien, 1969<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first of a series of 20 novels set in the Napoleonic Wars, which are rich in nautical detail. Their brilliance lies in O\u2019Brien\u2019s portrayal of the deep if unlikely friendship between two of fiction\u2019s most endearing characters \u2013 a buccaneering naval officer and his saturnine ship\u2019s surgeon, who is a spy.<\/p>\n

History of the Second World War<\/p>\n

Winston Churchill, 1948-54<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is history on the grand scale. Of course you don\u2019t get scholarly detachment; Churchill\u2019s sweeping authorial vision is inevitably Anglocentric and often self-serving. Nevertheless, it is surprisingly candid and an awesome and invaluable achievement.<\/p>\n

Titles in print are available from The Week Bookshop<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The historian and broadcaster chooses his favourite books. He is talking about his book, \u201cEndgame 1944: How Stalin…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":310843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1022,171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-310842","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115389817939294015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}