Comedian, author and historian Al Murray is coming to Chester next month with his new book about an infamous Second World War battle.
Murray will talk about Arnhem: Black Tuesday at Chester Racecourse on Monday, September 9.
The event is being presented by independent retailers Linghams Booksellers and Booka Bookshop.
While 'The Pub Landlord' is one of the most recognisable and acclaimed comic creations of the past 20 years, Al Murray is also the author of many successful books including Watching War Films With My Dad, The Last 100 Years (Give or Take) And All That, and Command: How the Allies Learned to Win the Second World War – a sharply entertaining analysis of the conflict’s key allied military leaders.
Murray, who comes from a military family and studied modern history at Oxford, also co-hosts the popular Second World War podcast We Have Ways of Making You Talk with fellow best-selling military author James Holland.
Arnhem: Black Tuesday is his first history book about a single campaign.
The Battle of Arnhem is one of the best-known stories in British military history: a daring but thwarted attempt to secure a vital bridgehead across the Rhine in order to end the war before Christmas.
It is always written about, with the benefit of unerring 20:20 hindsight, as being doomed to fail. But the men who fought there, men of military legend, didn’t know that that was to be their fate.
By focusing on the events of one day as they happened through the eyes of the British participants, and without bringing any knowledge of what would happen tomorrow to bear, Murray offers a very different perspective to a familiar narrative. Some things went right, and a great many more went wrong, but recounting them in this way allows the reader to understand for the first time how certain decisions were taken in the moment and how opportunities were squandered.
Tuesday, September 19, 1944 was that terrible day which became known as Black Tuesday. From the beginning, while plans were being made to seize the initiative and optimism reigned, to the following midnight when Arnhem was burning and the Allied fortunes looked very different, a mere 24 hours changed the course of the war.
Al Murray has always been obsessed with Arnhem, and in Arnhem: Black Tuesday he brings all his knowledge, interpretation and enthusiasm to bear to tell the story of one of history’s great heroic failures differently for the first time.
The Al Murray – Arnhem: Black Tuesday event is organised by independent retailers Linghams Booksellers in Heswall and Booka Bookshop which has branches in Oswestry and Bridgnorth.
Sue Porter of Linghams Booksellers said: “We’re absolutely delighted to be working alongside Booka Bookshop to host Al Murray as he talks about his new book Arnhem: Black Tuesday.
“This September is the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Arnhem, so it’s the perfect time to revisit the history we think we know and be offered a fresh perspective from a compelling and very entertaining communicator.”
Carrie Morris of Booka Bookshop added: “Many people will know Al Murray through his brilliant creation the Pub Landlord, but he’s also a talented and incisive historian – and, just as importantly, a great storyteller.
“I’m very excited that we’re able to present this event at Chester Racecourse. It’s going to be fascinating and invigorating evening.”
Tickets costing £35 including a signed hardback copy or £45 for two with one signed hardback, can be booked via linghams.co.uk
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