A Mail on Sunday book of the year.

In 1940, Europe was on the brink of collapse. Country after country had fallen to the Nazis, and Britain was known as ‘Last Hope Island’, where Europeans from the captive nations gathered to continue the war effort.

In this epic, character-driven narrative, acclaimed historian and New York Times–bestselling author Lynne Olson takes us back to those perilous days when the British and their European guests joined forces to combat the mightiest military force in history.

From the Polish and French code breakers who helped crack Enigma, to the Czech pilots who protected London during German bombings, Olson tells the stories of the courageous men and women who came together to defeat Hitler and save Europe.

The riveting story of a true-life female Indiana Jones: an archaeologist who survived the Nazis and then saved Egypt's ancient temples. In the 1960s, the world's attention was focused on a nail-biting race against time: fifty countries had contributed nearly a billion dollars to save a dozen ancient Egyptian temples from drowning in the floodwaters of the gigantic new Aswan High Dam. It was a project of unimaginable size and complexity that required the fragile sandstone temples to be dismantled, stone by stone, and rebuilt on higher ground. But the massive press coverage of this unprecedented rescue effort completely overlooked the gutsy French archaeologist who made it all happen. Without the intervention of Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, the temples would now be at the bottom of a gigantic reservoir. Desroches-Noblecourt refused to be cowed by anyone or anything. As a brave member of the French Resistance in World War II, she had survived imprisonment by the Nazis. Now, in her fight to save the temples, she had to face down two of the most daunting leaders of the postwar world: Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser and French president Charles de Gaulle. After a century and a half of Western plunder of Egypt's ancient monuments, Desroches-Noblecourt helped preserve a crucial part of its cultural heritage, and, just as importantly, made sure it remained in its homeland.

A MAIL ON SUNDAY AND WASHINGTON POST BOOK OF THE YEAR. The little-known true story of the woman who headed the largest spy network in Vichy France during World War II. In 1941, a thirty-one-year-old Frenchwoman, a young mother born to privilege and known for her beauty and glamour, became the leader of Alliance, a vast Resistance organisation - the only woman to hold such a role. Brave, independent, and a lifelong rebel against her country's conservative, patriarchal society, Marie-Madeleine Fourcade was temperamentally made for the job. No other French spy network lasted as long or supplied as much crucial intelligence as Alliance - and as a result, the Gestapo pursued its members relentlessly, capturing, torturing, and executing hundreds of its three thousand agents, including Fourcade's own lover and many of her key spies. Fourcade herself lived on the run and was captured twice by the Nazis. Both times she managed to escape. Though so many of her agents died defending their country, Fourcade survived the occupation to become active in post-war French politics. Now, in a dramatic account of the war that split France in two and forced its people to live side by side with their hated German occupiers, Lynne Olson tells the fascinating story of a woman who stood up for her nation, her fellow citizens, and herself.

The acclaimed author of "Troublesome Young Men "reveals the behind-the-scenes story of how the United States forged its wartime alliance with Britain, told from the perspective of three key American players in London: Edward R. Murrow, the handsome, chain-smoking head of CBS News in Europe; Averell Harriman, the hard-driving millionaire who ran FDR's Lend-Lease program in London; and John Gilbert Winant, the shy, idealistic U.S. ambassador to Britain. Each man formed close ties with Winston Churchill--so much so that all became romantically involved with members of the prime minister's family. Drawing from a variety of primary sources, Lynne Olson skillfully depicts the dramatic personal journeys of these men who, determined to save Britain from Hitler, helped convince a cautious Franklin Roosevelt and reluctant American public to back the British at a critical time. Deeply human, brilliantly researched, and beautifully written, "Citizens of London" is a new triumph from an author swiftly becoming one of the finest in her field.

Teachers deserve to get the feedback and support that are necessary to make learning as powerful as possible-for both their students and themselves. Based on research from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the experiences of nearly 3,000 teachers across the United States, Vicki Phillips and Lynn Olson reveal multiple ways to identify effective teaching and provide teachers with actionable, reliable information they can trust to continuously improve their performance. Teachers and administrators will learn how and why it's critical to (1) measure effective teaching, (2) ensure high-quality data, and (3) invest in improvement. Armed with practical ideas for getting started at both the school and district levels, Phillips and Olson remind us that the best way to evaluate teaching performance is to use a balanced approach that includes multiple measures.

In today's technology- and information-driven economy, businesses need an educated workforce to survive, and young people need to be educated to be employable. Yet the schools that prepare our future workers and the employers who hire them often remain worlds apart. In this clear, compelling book, longtime education journalist Lynn Olson makes the case that, for both economic and civic reasons, the only solution as America heads into the twenty-first century is for local employers and educators to join forces. The School-to-Work Revolution provides the first full account of how the school-to-work" or school-to-career" movement is reshaping American education. This new model of schooling, which places students in the workplace for part of their learning, is gaining popularity across the country. Olson shows, in practical terms, how and where these efforts have worked, the promise they hold, and the obstacles they face.Aiming to end the current dysfunctional" relationship between business and education, this new approach to schooling uses apprenticeships, internships, and solid career guidance to supplement new and more rigorous academic curricula. Olson recounts the experiences of companies and schools from South Carolina to Texas to Massachusetts to California, demonstrating that school-to-work students become more motivated in their studies and employers feel more confident about future workers.While school-to-career" efforts can help all students meet higher academic standards and prepare for a lifetime of learning, Olson points out that they need to be properly structured. In her case studies she shows how adequate follow-through is essential for businesses, and shows why educators need not feel their traditional purpose or role will be threatened.Both a theoretical blueprint for the goals of the movement and a practical guide on how to implement it, The School-to-Work Revolution will be essential reading for businesspeople, educators, and all those interested in our national debate on education reform.

A Question of Honor is the gripping, little-known story of the refugee Polish pilots who joined the RAF and played an essential role in saving Britain from the Nazis, only to be betrayed by the Allies after the war.
After Poland fell to the Nazis, thousands of Polish pilots, soldiers, and sailors escaped to England. Devoted to liberating their homeland, some would form the RAF's 303 squadron, known as the Kosciuszko Squadron, after the elite unit in which many had flown back home. Their thrilling exploits and fearless flying made them celebrities in Britain, where they were "adopted" by socialites and seduced by countless women, even as they yearned for news from home. During the Battle of Britain, they downed more German aircraft than any other squadron, but in a stunning twist at the war's end, the Allies rewarded their valor by abandoning Poland to Joseph Stalin. This moving, fascinating book uncovers a crucial forgotten chapter in World War II-and Polish-history.

Lynne Olson's last book, 'Citizens of London', told the story of three prominent Americans who supported Britain during the dark early years of World War II when Britain alone in Europe held out against Hitler. 'Those Angry Days' views these years of crisis from the American side, as the country divided into interventionist and isolation factions who fought in Washington, in the press, even in the streets to express their vehement convictions.

A riveting history of the daring politicians who challenged the disastrous policies of the British government on the eve of World War II On May 7, 1940, the House of Commons began perhaps the most crucial debate in British parliamentary history. On its outcome hung the future of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's government and also of Britain--indeed, perhaps, the world. "Troublesome Young Men "is Lynne Olson's fascinating account of how a small group of rebellious Tory MPs defied the Chamberlain government's defeatist policies that aimed to appease Europe's tyrants and eventually forced the prime minister's resignation.
Some historians dismiss the "phony war" that preceded this turning point--from September 1939, when Britain and France declared war on Germany, to May 1940, when Winston Churchill became prime minister--as a time of waiting and inaction, but Olson makes no such mistake, and describes in dramatic detail the public unrest that spread through Britain then, as people realized how poorly prepared the nation was to confront Hitler, how their basic civil liberties were being jeopardized, and also that there "were "intrepid politicians willing to risk political suicide to spearhead the opposition to Chamberlain--Harold Macmillan, Robert Boothby, Leo Amery, Ronald Cartland, and Lord Robert Cranborne among them. The political and personal dramas that played out in Parliament and in the nation as Britain faced the threat of fascism virtually on its own are extraordinary--and, in Olson's hands, downright inspiring.