A major - and global - history of how the Second World War was won, by the author of Britain at Bay

By 1942, Churchill faced a vastly different war than the one he'd inherited from Neville Chamberlain. Britain was no longer alone; the Soviets were now an unlikely ally in the East, and Pearl Harbor had finally pushed America into action. Yet the scale of violence remained unchanged. On average, seven British men, women and children were killed every hour of the Second World War. The country would never be the same again. In Advance Britannia, historian Alan Allport reveals the war as it was lived - from the battlefields to the ration books, in the War Ministry and in the air raid shelters. Mixing social history with dramatic storytelling, this is a definitive account of the war that reshaped the world.

"Alan Allport has followed up Britannia at Bay with another tour de Force. Advance Britannia ranges widely from the battlefield to the home front, from the cabinet war rooms to factory floors. It is as complete and compelling a picture of Britain in the Second World War as one could hope to read." - The Strategists

"Allport succeeds in making stories that many of us thought we were familiar with feel fresh, urgent and timely. He has the true storyteller's gift of using a telling detail to make a story many of us thought we knew feel suspenseful. He reminds us that at the time the outcome was far from certain. This is a must read for anyone who is interested in what really happened in World War 2." - The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz

"This book describes the four years during which the second world war was won and, though this was not always obvious at the time, that the British empire was lost. Allport's great achievement is to capture this extraordinary global upheaval without losing sight of the poignant human dramas that were intertwined with it" - The Long '68

"Allport has done it again - a highly readable, analytically provocative and original interpretation of Britain's experience of war. For many years to come, Advance Britannia will be an authoritative account and explanation of these pivotal years of the war" - Guilty Women

"Allport has distilled a mass of wisdom, and gathered all manner of truths under one roof, with skill and judgement" - Sunday Times