The Amazon History Book of the Year 2013 is a magisterial chronicle of the calamity that befell Europe in 1914 as the continent shifted from the glamour of the Edwardian era to the tragedy of total war.

‘Magnificent … Hastings writes with an enviable grasp of pace and balance, as well as an acute eye for human detail. Even for readers who care nothing for the difference between a battalion and a division, his book is at once moving, provocative and utterly engrossing’ Sunday Times ‘Masterly … Hastings is a brilliant guide to that strange, febrile twilight before Europe plunged into darkness. Writing in pungent prose suffused with irony and underpinned by a strong sense of moral outrage, ‘Catastrophe’ is a frontal assault on what Hastings calls the “poets’ view” … This is history-writing at its best, scholarly and fluent … for anyone wanting to understand how that ghastly, much-misunderstood conflict came about, there could be no better place to start than this fine book’ The Times ‘One could scarcely ask for a better guide to these horrors than Max Hastings … he is a superb writer with a rare gift for evoking the rhythm, mood and raw physical terror of battle … If you are looking for a humane and compelling interpretive chronicle of the formative months of this horrific conflict, you will find none better’ Mail on Sunday ‘Very readable. Character, pace, sense of landscape, battlefield detail – all are superbly done … it's a splendid read’ Observer ‘‘No part of the Great War compares in interest with its opening’, wrote Churchill, and Hastings does full justice to its appalling drama … Catastrophe is rich in unexplored sources from every side of the conflict and every theatre of the war’ David Crane, Spectator ‘Vigorous and readable, making good use of the worm’s eye-view … Engaging, well paced and, despite the grim subject matter, often entertaining’ New Statesman ‘Vivid and compelling … superbly detailed and nuanced … Hastings is a master of the pen portrait and the quirky fact … yet his greatness as a historian – never shown to better effect than in this excellent book – lies in his willingness to challenge entrenched opinion’ Saul David, Evening Standard

Europe Goes to War 1914 - Published to coincide with the highly anticipated centenary memorial celebrations. - Six ‘state occasions’ to mark centenary - Re-enactment of the football match on Christmas Day 1914, which marks the incredibly moving end of Max’s book - Royal re-opening of IWM’s First World War galleries after a £35m refurbishment - Delegation from every state school in the country to visit to Western Front - Mass BBC programming – both factual and drama across BBC TV, radio and online – to commemorate the anniversary ‘an extraordinary phenomenon with seismic consequences’ - ‘All Hell Let Loose’ was the history book of 2011-2, selling 260,000 copies.