2001 — 3 vols., 8vo., First Edition, with 2 frontispieces, 16 plates on 8, numerous maps in the text and endpaper facsimiles and maps; cloth, gilt backs, all near fine copies in dustwrapper. Comprises: BRYANT (A). The Turn of the Tide 1939-1943. A Study based on the Diaries and Autobiographical Notes of Field Marshal The Viscount Alanbrooke. (1957). BRYANT (A). Triumph in the West 1943-1946. Based on the Diaries and Autobiographical Notes of Field Marshal The Viscount Alanbrooke. (1959). Alanbrooke, Field Marshal Lord. War Diaries 1939-1945. Edited by Alex Danchev and Daniel Todman. [2001]. By common consent the greatest CIGS in the history of the British Army, Alanbrooke occupied a unique position at the heart of Britain's efforts in WWII. Scarcely a man to pull punches, he provides a blow-by-blow account of how the war was waged and won, sparing no-one from politicians to generals of virtually every Allied nation. For over two generations, historians and scholars have known the Alanbrooke war diaries only through Bryant's classic two-volume edition. Quite apart from the inevitable selectiveness (and much of that rigorously censored), we have several times heard the comment 'too much Bryant and not enough Alanbrooke'. Now, almost sixty years on, we have a complete rendering (from the British perspective) of the most important private military account of the Second World War. Here is the opportunity to compare the old and the new; it is a fascinating task, revealing (first) why so much could not be published at the time and (secondly) the scale of the strains, frustrations and emotions borne by Britain's leading soldier of WWII. Enser, pp.199, 474 (first two volumes respectively).
