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Michael Dobbs, Baron Dobbs

    November 14, 1948

    Michael Dobbs possesses a unique perspective, having been immersed in the Cold War's geopolitical landscape from childhood. His early life in Russia and subsequent career as a foreign correspondent exposed him to pivotal historical moments, from the Prague Spring to the Tiananmen Square protests and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. This intimate, firsthand experience fuels his narrative explorations of the era's complex dynamics and eventual conclusion. Dobbs’s work delves into the intricate machinations and ideological struggles that defined the Cold War, offering readers a deeply informed perspective.

    Michael Dobbs, Baron Dobbs
    The Lord's Day
    Churchill's Hour
    The Unwanted
    King Richard
    King Richard: Nixon and Watergate--An American Tragedy
    One Minute To Midnight
    • 2021

      "In January 1973, Richard Nixon had just been inaugurated after winning re-election in a historic landslide. But by April 1973, his presidency had fallen apart as the Watergate scandal metastasized into what White House counsel John Dean called "a full-blown cancer." King Richard is the intimate, utterly absorbing narrative of the tension-packed hundred days when the Watergate burglars and their handlers in the administration turned on one another, revealing their direct connection ties to the White House. Drawing on thousands of hours of newly-released taped recordings, Michael Dobbs takes us into the very heart of the conspiracy, recreating these dramatic events in unprecedentedly vivid detail. He captures the growing paranoia of the principal players and their desperate attempts to deflect blame as the noose tightened around them and the daily pressures became increasingly unbearable. At the center of this spellbinding drama is Nixon himself, a man whose strengths, particularly his determination to win at all costs, were also his fatal flaws. Structured like a classical tragedy with a uniquely American twist, this is an epic and deeply human story of ambition, power, and betrayal"--

      King Richard: Nixon and Watergate: An American Tragedy
    • 2021

      Focusing on the pivotal moments of the Watergate scandal, this account provides an insider's perspective from the White House during the crisis that led to a president's downfall. The narrative captures the tension and urgency of the events, detailing the conspiracy's unfolding and its impact on American politics. With sharp insights and riveting storytelling, it reveals the high stakes and the dramatic consequences of this historical episode.

      King Richard: Nixon and Watergate--An American Tragedy
    • 2021

      King Richard

      • 416 pages
      • 15 hours of reading
      4.3(12)Add rating

      From an acclaimed British author, a sharply focused, riveting account -- told from inside the White House -- of the crucial days, hours, and moments when the Watergate conspiracy consumed, and ultimately toppled, a president. In January 1973, Richard Nixon was inaugurated after winning re-election in a historic landslide. But by April his presidency had fallen apart as the Watergate scandal metastasised into what White House counsel John Dean called 'a full-blown cancer'. King Richardis the intimate, utterly absorbing narrative of the tension-packed hundred days when the Watergate burglars and their handlers in the administration turned on one another, revealing their direct connection to the White House. Drawing on thousands of hours of newly released taped recordings, Michael Dobbs takes us into the very heart of the conspiracy, recreating these dramatic events in unprecedentedly vivid detail. He captures the growing paranoia of the principal players, and their desperate attempts to deflect blame, as the noose tightened around them and the daily pressures became increasingly unbearable. At the centre of this spellbinding drama is Nixon himself, a man whose strengths -- particularly his determination to win at all costs -- were also his fatal flaws. Structured like a classical tragedy with a uniquely American twist, this is an epic and deeply human story of ambition, power, and betrayal.

      King Richard
    • 2020

      Published in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, a riveting story of Jewish families seeking to escape Nazi Germany. In 1938, on the eve of World War II, the American journalist Dorothy Thompson wrote that "a piece of paper with a stamp on it" was "the difference between life and death." The Unwanted is the intimate account of a small village on the edge of the Black Forest whose Jewish families desperately pursued American visas to flee the Nazis. Battling formidable bureaucratic obstacles, some make it to the United States while others are unable to obtain the necessary documents. Some are murdered in Auschwitz, their applications for American visas still "pending." Drawing on previously unpublished letters, diaries, interviews, and visa records, Michael Dobbs provides an illuminating account of America's response to the refugee crisis of the 1930s and 1940s. He describes the deportation of German Jews to France in October 1940, along with their continuing quest for American visas. And he re-creates the heated debates among U.S. officials over whether or not to admit refugees amid growing concerns about "fifth columnists," at a time when the American public was deeply isolationist, xenophobic, and antisemitic. A Holocaust story that is both German and American, The Unwanted vividly captures the experiences of a small community struggling to survive amid tumultuous world events.

      The Unwanted
    • 2012

      Six Months In 1945

      FDR, Stalin, Churchill, and Truman. From World War to Cold War

      • 448 pages
      • 16 hours of reading

      From the author of the best-selling One Minute to Midnight, a riveting account of the pivotal six month period spanning the end of World War II, the dawn of the atomic age, and the beginning of the Cold War. When Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met in Yalta in February 1945, Hitler's armies were on the run, and victory was imminent. The Big Three wanted to draft a blueprint for a lasting peace—but instead they set the stage for a forty-four year division of Europe into Soviet and Western spheres of influence. After fighting side by side for nearly four years, their political alliance was beginning to fracture. Although the most dramatic Cold War confrontations such as the Berlin airlift were still to come, a new struggle for global hegemony had got underway by August 1945 when Truman used the atomic bomb against Hiroshima. Six Months in 1945 brilliantly captures this momentous historical turning point, chronicling the geopolitical twists behind the fall of the Iron Curtain, while illuminating the aims and personalities of larger-than-life political giants. It is a vividly rendered story of individual and national interests in fierce competition at a seminal moment in history.

      Six Months In 1945
    • 2012

      A missile tears a passenger plane from the skies over London. Everyone on board is killed, including thirty-seven children. As terror turns to international chaos, can the government survive...? Who would have killed them? And why? When Harry Jones starts searching for answers, he stumbles into the middle of a plot that stretches from Russia to the Islamic revolution in Egypt, from the shores of the Caspian Sea to an ancient church in rural Wiltshire. Yet every lead he pursues finds its way back to the secret corners of Brussels and a British woman named Patricia Vaine. She and Harry are doomed to fight their battle to the death. Their own lives, and the future of an entire continent, are at stake in what develops into the greatest political power game since the end of the Second World War. For this is a plot not just to take over one country but the whole of Europe. And in this deadly game, the victors will claim total victory - unless Harry Jones can stop them...

      A Sentimental Traitor
    • 2011

      In the Swiss Alps a teenage girl is thrown from a helicopter and her boyfriend is brutally abducted to Trieste, a city filled with undercurrents of past hatreds. Ruari, son of Irish media owner J J Breslin, is in desperate danger, at the mercy of ruthless kidnappers making impossible demands. His terrified mother contacts the only person she knows can help her son: Harry Jones, her former lover, who she walked out on many years ago. Now memories of their passionate affair, the guilt, hurt, anger and humiliation, come flooding back. Time is running out for Ruari and Harry, torn between his loyalties, is quickly drawn into a political game played for high stakes. Far higher than he realizes...

      Old Enemies
    • 2010

      The Reluctant Hero

      • 468 pages
      • 17 hours of reading
      3.6(25)Add rating

      When Harry Jones discovers that former friend Zac Kravitz's life is in danger, a debt of honour sends him on a perilous rescue mission to Ta'argistan, a mountainous and landlocked former Soviet republic bordering Russia, China and Afghanistan. Muscling his way onto a delegation of MPs who happen to be paying the state a visit, Harry finds an unlikely ally in the stubbornly independent Martha, and together they devise a plan to break Zac out of the grim prison Bodima. But when the attempt backfires and he finds himself stuck in prison in Zac's place, little by little Harry realises that all is not as it seemed and that he has been lured into a web of international conspiracy.

      The Reluctant Hero
    • 2008

      The Lord's Day

      • 437 pages
      • 16 hours of reading
      3.9(30)Add rating

      The boundaries of parental love and filial devotion are explored to their breaking point in this unique and breathtaking thriller. Once a year, the Queen, the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the judges, the bishops, leaders spiritual and temporal, assemble in the House of Lords for the State Opening of Parliament. On this day, the Lords' Day, the gathering is still more impressive, for sitting beside his mother is the heir to the throne and up in the galleries are the sons of both the US President and the British Prime Minister. But they are all about to be taken hostage. The siege will lead some to selfless sacrifice, others to lose the respect of those they love most dearly...

      The Lord's Day
    • 2008

      One Minute To Midnight

      • 448 pages
      • 16 hours of reading
      4.4(237)Add rating

      Michael Dodds recreates the 'most dangerous moment in human history' and brings the Cuban Missile Crisis to a new generation

      One Minute To Midnight