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                  Newsletter & Book Club 
July 2015

The official biographer of Winston Churchill and a leading historian on the Twentieth Century, a scholar and an historian who, through his 88 books, has shown there is such a thing as “true history”.
 
Welcome To Sir Martin's inaugural Newsletter & Book Club
which marks the new design of Sir Martin's
official website and his topics of interest.
 
Sir Martin's Book Club

The Book Club features a monthly Book Club Choice and
a Book Club Offer that commemorate important dates
during this month.
This July 2015 edition honours the start of the
Battle of The Somme, 1 July 1916,
and the anniversary of the
United States War of Independence, 4 July 1776.
We are proud to suggest  Sir Martin's book, The Somme, Heroism and Horror of War in the First World War as our Book Club Choice, and his Routledge Atlas of American History as our Book Club Offer.
Sir Martin's Book Club Choice

The Somme: Heroism and Horror in The First World War   

"....starting at 7 a.m. nearly a quarter of a million shells were fired at the German positions in just over an hour ... So intense and so loud was the barrage that it was heard on Hampstead Heath in north London, almost two hundred miles away."  This is the story of the battle that began that day.
 
"A brilliant evocation of the battle in poetry, letters, maps and personal stories; and it is also a threnody, a song of lamentation." The Times (London)
Buy The Somme
Sir Martin's Relections
 The battle of the Somme fought between July and November 1916, was among the bloodiest conflicts of all time.  The aim was to end the stalemate on the Western Front; the result was carnage. In a total of just over a hundred days of fighting, the death toll reached 310,459.  Half the bodies were never recovered.  At the close of the battle the British and Commonwealth forces had not even reached the line they set themselves for the first day. Yet, despite its horrific destruction, the fighting at the Somme was characterized by incredible individual bravery. 
Sir Martin on The Somme
Lady Esther Gilbert's Reflections
       
In November 2005 Martin and I spent four days on the Somme battlefield, to finalize details before his book The Somme came out.  The low sun on the horizon cast long shadows across the many gravestones that dot the Somme area. 

Two days were spent in a bone-chilling November fog as we carefully picked our way along the narrow paths leading to the cemeteries, bearing in mind that we did not carry heavy packs, tread carefully in fear of our lives, and that we had a solid roof and a dry room to return to each night.  Still it was a haunting experience.
 
Martin has included in the book, maps showing the battlefields, the trenches, the cemeteries and memorials so this book is key to understanding what happened and why.  I hope you find it as enlightening as I do.
Sir Martin's Blog
 J.R.R. Tolkien and the Somme were inextricably linked. I learned this forty-four years ago, shortly after I was elected to my first university appointment, at Merton College, Oxford. I was twenty-six years old.

"What Tolkien Taught Me About the Battle of the Somme"
http://www.martingilbert.com/blog/what-tolkien-taught-me-about-the-battle-of-the-somme-3/
Sir Martin's Book Club Offer 


 
            
The Routledge Atlas of American History
In honour of the 239 years since United States Independence, July 4, we are proud to highlight Sir Martin's Routledge Atlas of American History. 

Included among the 163 maps are all aspects of the War of Independence, including the battles, proposed boundaries, national origins and religious groups and medicine and public health - from those early days of statehood to the present.

An invaluable guide for those who are travelling the highways and byways of America, or for those exploring from their own armchairs.
Buy this Atlas and receive a 20% discount from Routledge - enter code MGA75 at checkout BEFORE JULY 31
Sir Martin's Blatt

The Rt Hon Gordon Brown
officially opens
The Sir Martin Gilbert Library
at Highgate School 

Officially opened by the former Prime Minister,
the Rt Hon Gordon Brown
on Tuesday 6th May 2014, 
in honour of Sir Martin, a former pupil at the school.  
Sir Gordon Brown described Sir Martin: 
 A genuine humanitarian, someone whose writing of history
taught him we could always do better
in the future if we are able to learn
the lessons of history.
The Book Club Quiz
 
What was first used by the British in September 1916
at the battle of the Somme?
Find The Answer
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