The Battle for Spain

Beevor is without doubt one of the world's best historians. His works on Stalingrad and Berlin have won him international kudos. This is the first of his books to make it on to Audible, despite several requests. The Spanish war comes to life and the inconceivable savagery, incompetence, neglect, slaughter, hatred and indifference which pervaded this tragic period are vividly painted. Sadly, although it is meticulously researched and brilliantly detailed, it fails as an audiobook. There are just too many names, the sequence of events is too convoluted to remember and eventually the listener loses the plot. Great narration.

Excellent and detailed book about the Spanish Civil War. Great narrator. Beevor goes into detail about the Civil War inside the Civil War, and Stalin's use and abuse of the Republican cause. A great book, very thorough, with historical, geographical, political and military angles well covered; yet it manages to stay at the level of human interaction and to be moving and reflective

A very good listen - very accessible to the layman. Seems to cover just about everything with just suffecient depth.

Brilliantly explained history of the war which destroyed a country, highlighting the different parties and exploring their motives. Keeps you interested all the way through, keeping up the pace of the storytelling to make it a very interesting read. This is a staggering read.

Beevor is a fantastic researcher, and he can write brilliantly. This book covers a dark period in European history and covers it very well, with lots of detail. However, if Spanish is not a language you know, it requires quite a bit of concentration to get to grips with. This is one of those times that I would want to read a book in the traditional way, just because it needs maps to understand fully.

Enjoyable, and balanced. Well up to Beevor's usual standard. An almost forgotten part of recent European history.