Max Hastings

The hopes, frustrations, loves and fears of soldiers – many of them first-timers – are shared by historian Max Hastings in his vivid recounting of the actions of three divisions on and around a single British beach.

Taking in their interminable years of training in England, through to triumphs and tragedies on the beach and beyond, Hastings shares how his decades of study, veterans’ interviews and new archive research led him to write Sword: D-Day – Trial by Battle. With personal portraits and searching analysis, Hastings changes the way we look at and understand D-Day.

Hastings has written over 30 books, and during his time as a correspondent reported on conflicts including the Vietnam War, the 1973 Yom Kippur War and the 1982 Falklands War.