When I started to write, I realised that you need a bit of both: the overall context as well as the individual's… — Antony Beevor Copy Share Image
It takes me three or four years to research and write each book and the individual stories stay with you for a… — Antony Beevor Copy Share Image
In my library/study/barn, there is a Ping-Pong table on which I can pile working books and spread maps. — Antony Beevor Copy Share Image
I used to write in a room overlooking the valley from where I could see too much, whether checking the sheep and… — Antony Beevor Copy Share Image
I just write the sort of book that I would enjoy reading myself, a book that is both scholarly and recreates the… — Antony Beevor Copy Share Image
I read round the subject, I make a skeleton outline, and then I start work in the relevant archives. During the marshaling… — Antony Beevor Copy Share Image
When I was younger I used to get my best writing done at night, but now it has to be during the… — Antony Beevor Copy Share Image
I was planning to stay in the Army all my life, but I ended up being posted to a training camp in… — Antony Beevor Copy Share Image
It was only after five years in the army, when I was having to do a very boring job in a very… — Antony Beevor Copy Share Image
The memory of the Second World War hangs over Europe, an inescapable and irresistible point of reference. Historical parallels are usually misleading and dangerous. — Antony Beevor Copy Share
I believe passionately in preemptive pessimism, especially before a book comes out. I expect the worst both from reviewers and sales, and then, with… — Antony Beevor Copy Share
It is important to understand the continuing, confused fascination with the Second World War. For most of us, the great unspoken question is how… — Antony Beevor Copy Share
I was in Estonia when a professor asked me if I was aware that making any criticism of the Red Army during the war… — Antony Beevor Copy Share
The blurring of fact and fiction has great commercial potential, which is bound to be corrupting in historical terms. — Antony Beevor Copy Share
A blend of fact and fiction has been used in various forms since the dawn of creative writing, starting with sagas and epic poems. — Antony Beevor Copy Share
When my first novel was published, I went in great excitement round bookshops in central London to see if they had stocked it. — Antony Beevor Copy Share
I feel slightly uneasy at the way historians are consulted as if history is going to repeat itself. It never does. — Antony Beevor Copy Share
I'm often reassured in a bizarre - perhaps perverse - way when I find in the archive stuff that contradicts what my assumptions have… — Antony Beevor Copy Share
The duty of a historian is simply to understand and then convey that understanding, no more than that. — Antony Beevor Copy Share
Every country has its own perspective on the Second World War. This is not surprising when experiences and memories are so different. — Antony Beevor Copy Share
There are one or two very good women military historians who use imagination, great study and research; they can put themselves in the boots… — Antony Beevor Copy Share
I think one of the great disasters (in military history) is the way that the Second World War has become the defining reference point… — Antony Beevor Copy Share
