Max Hastings studied at Charterhouse and Oxford and became a foreign correspondent, reporting from more than sixty countries and eleven wars for BBC TV and the London Evening Standard. He has won many awards for his journalism. Among his bestselling books 'Bomber Command' won the Somerset Maugham Prize, and both 'Overlord' and 'Battle for the Falklands' won the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Prize. After ten years as editor and then editor-in-chief of the Daily Telegraph, he became editor of the Evening Standard in 1996. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he was knighted in 2002. He now lives in Berkshire.
'Richly rewarding...A minor masterpiece. His portrait of his absurd and loveable father is extraordinarily touching; that of the failure of his relationship with his mother scarcely less so. The book is extremely funny in places, extremely poignant in others and extremely well-written throughout - in fact, I haven't enjoyed anything so much in ages.' Sunday Telegraph 'Elegiac, reflective and very funny.' TLS 'Highly engaging' Independent 'Funny and moving...Few [memoirs] are written with as much skill and sensitivity as this one. Moving without being mawkish, Hastings's book is a trove of marvellous stories' Sunday Times 'This brave and poignant book is the self-portrait of an extremely talented outsider who has spent his life trying to live up to his father's achievements. It is also the emotional journey of a son's heart-rending non-relationship with his mother.' Daily Telegraph 'In this slim, delightful book [Hastings] reveals himself as never before.' Andrew Marr, FT 'A brilliantly entertaining book, full of funny, well-told stories.' Scotsman