Giles Milton (17:00)

Brilliantly written and completely absorbing, this is Milton’s masterpiece - Anthony Horowitz

Berlin’s fate was sealed at the 1945 Yalta Conference: the city, along with the rest of Germany, was to be carved up between the victorious powers - American, British, French and Soviet. On paper, it seemed a pragmatic solution. In reality, once the four powers were no longer united by their common purpose of defeating Germany, they soon reverted to pre-war hostility towards each other, ensuring that the German capital became a battleground.

The warring leaders who ran Berlin’s four sectors and Germany’s four zones were charismatic, mercurial, larger than life men, determined to win, and Milton brings each to rich and thrilling life. We meet unforgettable individuals like America’s explosive, sharp-tongued colonel, Frank ‘Howlin’ Mad’ Howley, who detested all Russians, and his wily nemesis, General Alexander Kotikov, Stalin’s sinister agent commandant of the Soviet sector.

A timely book, Checkmate in Berlin recounts the first battle of the Cold War as we’ve never before seen it.

Chaired by Peter Kennerley

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