Paris After the Liberation

1944 - 1949

By: Artemis Cooper, Antony Beevor

Narrated by: Sean Barrett

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Paris After the Liberation by Antony Beevor, read by Sean Barrett.

Antony Beevor's Paris After Liberation: 1944-1949 is a remarkable historical account of the chaos and uncertainty that followed the liberation of Paris in August, 1944

Post-liberation Paris: an epoch charged with political and conflicting emotions. Liberation was greeted with joy but marked by recriminations and the trauma of purges. The feverish intellectual arguments of the young took place amidst the mundane reality of hunger and fuel shortages. This is a thrilling, unsurpassed account of the drama and upheaval of one of history's most fascinating eras.

'A dashing, multi-dimensional story. This book covers all aspects of life - diplomacy, strategy, rationing, politics and politicking (from Churchill, Pétain's and de Gaulle's point of view), the international theatricals and the tourist invasion, blitzkrieg and Ritzkrieg - to create a lovely tapestry, threaded with facts and figures'
Olivier Todd, Sunday Times

'Absorbing . . . a rich, many-layered account, selecting from official documents, private archives, memoirs and histories with a wonderful lightness of touch, so that the most complex events become clear' Jenny Uglow, Independent on Sunday

'A beautifully written book about a vast tapestry of military, political and social upheaval. Remarkably well-researched, wise, balanced, very funny at times . . . I was a witness to events in Paris in the first desperate, glorious, mad weeks, and this is just how it was'
Dirk Bogarde

Critic reviews

Outstanding. Enormously enjoyable to read - exciting, lively, funny, and admirably tolerant and objective in its opinions. It is hard to see how it could have been better done (Philip Ziegler)

Held me gripped by every page and I was impatient at any interruption. The details of this book are spellbinding, often frightening and sometimes funny (Alec Guinness)

Skilfully balances historical narrative with social analysis, and tempering the appalling with the absurd (Jan Morris)

This book, like the city it discusses, oscillates satisfyingly between blunt history and roistering gossip (Frank Delaney)

To understand France today you should read this book about France yesterday . . . a wonderfully enjoyable picture. It is compulsive reading (Mark Bonham-Carter)

There is hardly any aspect of French life during that period which the authors do not explore, always with compelling liveliness and omniverous zeal. . . I shall return gratefully to it again and again (Alistair Horne)

A rich and intriguing story which the authors disentangle with great skill (Piers Paul Read)

A perceptive portrait of Paris in its heyday (J. G. Ballard)

A beautifully written book about a vast tapestry of military, political and social upheaval. Remarkably well-researched, wise, balanced, very funny at times . . . I was a witness to events in Paris in the first desperate, glorious, mad weeks, and this is just how it was (Dirk Bogarde)

A dashing, multi-dimensional story. This book covers all aspects of life - diplomacy, strategy, rationing, politics and politicking (from Churchill, Pétain's and de Gaulle's point of view), the international theatricals and the tourist invasion, blitzkrieg and Ritzkrieg - to create a lovely tapestry, threaded with facts and figures (Olivier Todd)