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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.
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 -- Andrew Martin * Observer * 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 -- Dominic Sandbrook, host of The Rest Is History * Sunday Times * 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 -- Roy Foster * TLS Books of the Year * 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 -- Tony Rennell * Daily Mail * 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 -- Nicholas Farrell * Sunday Telegraph * 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 * Spectator * Excellent . . . a fresh, unexpected take on the liberation of Paris -- Julian Jackson, author of France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain Bishop writes with admirable brevity and insight * Sunday Times * An extraordinary moment of history brought to vivid, pulsing life. Rich with suspense and layered with intrigue -- Sinclair McKay, author of Berlin A fascinating narrative about a little known period of Parisian history with a cast of characters worthy of a Blazac or Victor Hugo novel. Yet, this isn’t fiction – it’s a meticulously researched account full of surprising anecdotes and fascinating people that unveils much about modern-day Paris -- Edward Chisholm, author of A Waiter in Paris [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. -- Max Hastings
