Paris '44

A fascinating narrative about a little known period of Parisian history with a cast of characters worthy of a Balzac 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

Excellent . . . a fresh, unexpected take on the liberation of Paris

Julian Jackson, author of France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain

An extraordinary moment of history brought to vivid, pulsing life. Rich with suspense and layered with intrigue

Sinclair McKay, author of Berlin

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  

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

Bishop writes with admirable brevity and insight

Sunday Times 

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

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

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

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

By far the best written study in English of this controversial topic of France under German rule . . . filled with charming anecdotes and lively sketches of the key figures in the liberation of Paris . . . What Bishop has produced is a nothing less than a love letter to the city of Paris

John Rossi, New Criterion