Oliver Hilmes studied history, politics and psychology in Paris, Marburg and Potsdam, and holds a doctorate in twentieth-century history. His books include Malevolent Muse- The Life of Alma Mahler, Cosima Wagner- The Lady of Bayreuth and Franz Liszt- Musician, Celebrity, Superstar. Berlin 1936 was a top-ten bestseller on publication in Germany.
Engrossing -- Matt Chilton, **Books of the Year** * Daily Telegraph * Eighty years after the events it depicts, Berlin 1936 is a small masterpiece - you actually feel like you were there... The book was originally in German, but Jefferson Chase's translation is so perfectly judged, you'd never even notice -- Marcus Berkmann * Daily Mail, **Books of the Year** * Entertaining... A vivid collage of vignettes gleaned from diaries, police reports, snippets from newspapers, and so on. It dances from comedy to tragedy, from the ironic to the sinister, to give a picture of a darkening Germany... Hilmes has an eye for incidental detail. -- Robbie Millen * The Times * A German historian charts the Berlin Olympics day by day through a series of memorable vignettes of life under Nazism. Hilmes' deceptively jaunty, even comic tone echoes that of the Games themselves -- Simon Kuper * Financial Times, **Books of the Year** * This book reads like a tourist guide to a city on the eve of destruction -- Gerard DeGroot * The Times, **Books of the Year** *