In The Invasion Handbook Tom Paulin sets out to recount the origins of the Second World War. The result is a triumph of technique, a simultaneous vision which proceeds by quotation and collage, catalogue and caption, prose as well as verse - a myriad staging of historical realities through the poet's intense and bitter scrutiny of the particulars of time and place.

The volume opens with the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919, which excluded Germany from the community of nations, and with the answering but ill-fated attempt of the Locarno Treaties of 1925 to restore the torn fabric of Europe. It evokes Weimar culture, Hitler's rise to power and the beginnings of the persecution of the Jews, and ends with the Battle of Britain.

About the Author
Tom Paulin was born in Leeds in 1949 but grew up in Belfast, and was educated at the universities of Hull and Oxford. He has published nine collections of poetry as well as a Selected Poems 1972-1990, two major anthologies, two versions of Greek drama, and several critical works, including The Day-Star of Liberty: William Hazlitt's Radical Style and, most recently, Crusoe's Secret: The Aesthetics of Dissent. His most recent collection of poems is Love's Bonfire (2012). Well known for his appearances on the BBC's Newsnight Review, he is also the G. M. Young Lecturer in English Literature at Hertford College, Oxford.


Book Information
ISBN 9780571218585
Author Tom Paulin
Format Paperback
Page Count 208
Imprint Faber & Faber
Publisher Faber & Faber
Weight(grams) 160g
Dimensions(mm) 199mm * 128mm * 15mm