Alan Palmer

The Gardeners of Salonika. The Macedonian Campaign 1915-1918.

A long neglected campaign, derided by many politicians in London and Paris, but fought by troops from seven allied nations in harsh Balkan terrain and ended by the earliest victory in 1918.

Not only a valuable contribution to history, but also an enthralling book '. 'Barrie Pitt. Sunday Times

'Mr Palmer is a very competent writer. He has taken an apparently unpromising story and made a book of high interest about it'.A.J.P. Taylor The Observer

Metternich Councillor of Europe

A biography of the statesman whose diplomacy outwitted Napoleon and who, as Austrian Chancellor, dominated Europe until his fall in 1848. Outside politics, he was a bon viveur with a sardonic sense of humour and prone to scandalous love affairs.

'As a work of history, it cannot be faulted', A.J.P. Taylor The Observer

'Well written, well researched, lucid and witty'. Philip Ziegler The Times

Alexander I Tsar of War and Peace

This life of the most intriguing Tsar used new sources to find hidden depths of frustrated ambition, guilt over the circumstances of his accession and a constant search for spiritual guidance in a ruler hailed as Europe's liberator and creator of a Holy Alliance

I do not think the real nature of Tsardom has been so vividly communicated in English ... Mr Palmer is one of those rare historians who can unravel and enliven the motivations of diplomacy' .John Raymond New Statesman

'This biography is in the classic tradition, a pleasure to read and unlikely to be replaced for many years.’ Philip Ziegler The Times

'Mr Alan Palmer, in this excellent and very readable biography based on wide reading and acute scholarship, has brought out with elegance and clarity the dual inheritance of Alexander I'.Robert Blake The Spectator.

Napoleon in Russia

Triumph and disaster in the 1812 campaign based on contemporary letters and memoirs.

'A fine piece of narrative history, a combination of suspense and scholarship which actually makes you wonder will he make it?'. Antonia Fraser Book of the Year, 1997 Sunday Times

'Alan Palmer has done justice to epic events with a lively, vivid narrative, written with the appropriate style and panache.' The Times

Bismarck

Contrasts in character within the public and private lives of Germany 's Iron Chancellor.

Mr Palmer, who has earned a deservably high reputation as a biographer with his studies of Metternich and Tsar Alexander I, here adds worthily to his oeuvre. He develops a new depth for English readers in Bismarck's personal and domestic life'The Economist

'Of the various biographies of Bismarck in English Alan Palmer's is the best I have read. It is also the most sympathetic and understanding of the man, even to a considerable extent, of the politician' A. L. Rowse Sunday Telegraph

The Kaiser: Warlord of the Second Reich.

The life of 'Kaiser Bill' emphasising his struggle to conceal his physical disabilities and his love/hate attitude to England.

'In many ways his best book. He has successfully accomplished the difficult task of compressing the story of William's long and eventful life into a relatively short book without sacrificing clarity or fluency of style. Jasper Ridley The Times Literary Supplement

Victory 1918

How action in major theatres of war and sideshows came together to snatch victory from defeat in the autumn of 1918

'This outstanding history moves the British viewpoint from the middle distance of France and Flanders to encompass the broader strategic vision of neglected campaigns in the Balkans, Palestine and Eastern Europe by many Allied forces. Palmer's style is as good as his judgment is daring. His book is a detailed and dramatic overview of the First World War'Iain Finlayson. The Times

Napoleon and Marie Louise, The Second Empress

An extraordinary marriage that influenced events as late as 1940

'Alan Palmer ... shows a keen eye for detail and a mastery of the telling phrase’Andrew Roberts. The Sunday Telegraph.

Northern Shores. A history of the Baltic Sea and its peoples

'The Baltic played a crucial role in the shaping of modern Europe as Alan Palmer demonstrates in this engaging historical panorama'.Sunday Telegraph

'A story rich in fascinating and formidable characters.‘ The Spectator

'Grippingly described'. The Economist

‘Irresistibly lively'. The Scotsman

The Baltic: A New History of the Region and its People

This is the U.S.A. title of Northern Shores

The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire

A survey of the changing fortunes of the Turks from their failure to take Vienna in 1683 to Kemal's establishment of a republic in 1923

'Compulsively readable history'. John Julius Norwich.

The East End

London's Dockland from the days of Pepys to the transformation at the end of the twentieth century.

This book, with an introduction by London's great chronicler Peter Ackroyd, seeks to capture the spirit of the East End and its people, of those who have left their mark on it and those whose lives were marked by it for ever.

The Twilight of the Habsburgs.

The life and times of Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria 1848-1917 and King of Hungary from 1867. I am the first biographer to have been given access to the diary of his mother Archduchess Sophie, and to have used the printed poetical journal of Empress Elisabeth, the legendary 'Sisi'.

“Strikes just the right balance between the story of Francis Joseph's life and the history of his times” James J. Sheehan. The New York Times

Dictionary of Twentieth-Century History

"Mr Palmer compresses with such skill that he can get an intelligible account of two world wars into less than two pages“

The Economist

Dictionary of British Empire and Commonwealth

A reference companion covering most aspects of life from the loss of the American colonies to the end of apartheid, the including political and social institutions, religion, entertainment and sport