Biographies & Memoirs, Africa, Europe, World War II 

Fifty years after his death, General George S. Patton Jr. remains one of the most charismatic, misunderstood and controversial figures who ever set foot on the battlefields of the Second World War. The public image of him has been influenced overwhelmingly by the George C. Scott film 'Patton', in which he is portrayed as a brash 'Old Blood and Guts'. Now, for the first time, Carlo d'Este reveals a very different, contradictory personality. With full access to Patton's private and public papers, and the co-operation of his family, D'Este presents an acute portrait of Patton's career and shows not only the extrovert Patton of public perception but also Patton the intensely private man who could burst into tears, be charming or profane quite unexpectedly, but who trained himself for greatness with a determination matched by no other general in the twentieth century.Carlo D'Este's superb biography unravels the deeper complexities of the individual as well as the maturity of his military mind D'Este's fluent style and meticulous research capture Patton's extraordinary character and commend him to the Valhalla of warriors for which he always believed himself destined.RAYMOND SEITZ, 'Sunday Telegraph'D'Este is a first-rate historian He writes in that fluent, legible style that was the hallmark of the 'New Yorker' before Tina Brown tried to fashionabilise it D'Este will hold your attention for all 800 pages, with his understanding of Patton's tortuous story, the alternating bluster and self-doubt until, in the end, the Furies came for him. ANN CLARK, 'Daily Telegraph'The result of the author's meticulous documentation is to produce a Patton even weirder, even more unsettling than anything offered by the cinema or television This book is a magnificent portrait.JOHN KEEGAN, 'Spectator'