Good-humoured, unpretentious and a bit eccentric, it's more like having a well-read friend than a subscription to a literary review. Colditz Castle was used as a Nazi prison for Allied POWs, but not just your run-of-the-mill soldiers.

Colditz Castle (or Schloss Colditz in German) is a Renaissance castle in the town of Colditz near Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz in the state of Saxony in Germany. Perhaps the most daring escape was carried out by a French cavalry officer who vaulted over the barbed wire using the cupped hands of a fellow Frenchman as a springboard.

Macintyre so seamlessly fuses so many different accounts that their compilation creates something more profound than a simple escape yarn. Against these were the natural features that made Colditz Castle a semi-logical choice, and the guards, particularly Lt.

There were bars on every window, precipices on almost every side, several layers of sentries, floodlights and barbed wire, and a moat around the outside. Flt Lt Josef Bryks, Czech pilot, participant of the Great Escape, before which tried to escape three times. K.) and the bestselling author of Agent Sonya, The Spy and the Traitor, A Spy Among Friends, Double Cross, Operation Mincemeat, Agent Zigzag, and Rogue Heroes, among other books. In Macintyre’s telling, Colditz’s most famous names—like the indomitable Pat Reid—share glory with lesser known but equally remarkable characters like Indian doctor Birendranath Mazumdar whose ill treatment, hunger strike, and eventual escape read like fiction; Florimond Duke, America’s oldest paratrooper and least successful secret agent; and Christopher Clayton Hutton, the brilliant inventor employed by British intelligence to manufacture covert escape aids for POWs.As the government’s national archive for England, Wales and the United Kingdom, The National Archives hold over 1,000 years of the nation’s records for everyone to discover and use.

S. troops entered the town of Colditz and, after a two-day fight, captured the castle on April 16, 1945. It was interesting to see how the atmosphere and administration of Colditz transformed throughout the war, especially toward the end when it became apparent that Germany was losing. One British lieutenant, Michael Sinclair, felt this so strongly that he attempted seven breakouts, more than any other individual. The other is The Escape Artist by Jonathan Freedland, an award-winning journalist and bestselling novelist whose book shows off his talents as both an information-gatherer and a storyteller. Set aside a few hours for this book, since once you start reading, you will not stop until the last page.This slim yet insightful and entertaining volume documents the many instances where wine drinkers did not get what they paid for, sometimes with deadly consequences. Ben Macintyre is the multimillion-copy bestselling author of books including Colditz, Agent Sonya, SAS: Rogue Heroes, The Spy and the Traitor, Agent Zigzag, Operation Mincemeat and A Spy Among Friends.

Even the Dutch were more numerous than the British contingent of 50 (this included Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans). A remarkable cast of characters from many countries, hitherto hidden from history, will be brought to life in this tale of the indomitable human spirit.In 2012, Channel 4 commissioned a team of engineers and carpenters to build another full-sized replica of the glider at Colditz Castle, and launch it (unmanned) from the same roof as had been planned for the original. The first is Colditz by Ben Macintyre, an author who virtually reinvented the genre of wartime adventure non-fiction.