Nicholas Rankin is the author of Telegram from
Guernica and Dead Man's Chest. He lives in London.
"This is a lively, readable, and informative account that anyone
interested in the world wars or the practice of deception will find
valuable."--NYMAS Review
"A delight-filled account...[A]s much an entertainment as
history."--Wall Street Journal
"A fascinating new book about British intelligence's deception
operations against the Axis powers."--Washington Post SpyTalk
Rankin's page-turner makes the most of the gifted amateurs,
eccentrics, and professional illusionists responsible for the
imaginative schemes of the British military and details the care
and seriousness with which they were implemented."--Foreign
Affairs
"There isn't a dull page -- not even a dull sentence -- in Nicholas
Rankin's fantastic wunderkabinet of wartime revelations. It is all
here -- colonels in drag, midget submarines, corpses with stashed
secrets, a black radio station called Aspidistra and more
inventions than James Bond's Q could ever conceive -- and is
endlessly fascinating in consequence. No better book about the mad
arcana of belligerence has ever been written."--Simon
Winchester
"Good, rollicking fun."--Max Hastings
"Rankin tells an enthralling, not to say astounding, true-life tale
of inflatable tanks and dummy airfields and of pretend radio
stations reporting on imaginary armies."--Michael Kerrigan, The
Scotsman
"Nicholas Rankin's book [is a] hymn to amateur invention and its
stunningly professional deployment...It is a book of marvellous
yarns, which will appeal to a far wider readership than the sombre
consumers of standard military history. Regimental bores may rail,
but it's hard to think of anyone with a taste for human ingenuity
being anything other than enchanted and, if British, sneakily
proud. Knee in the goolies. Out like a light. Works every
time."--Michael Bywater, Daily Telegraph
"A thoroughly entertaining read, helped along by Rankin's engaging
style. But it's the characters that keep you hooked."--Jonathan
Carter, London Lite
"Nicholas Rankin's well-researched and highly enjoyable
book...[There are] many superb stories of the camouflage, black
propaganda, secret intelligence and special forces of the two world
wars, which he does very entertainingly indeed."--Andrew Roberts,
Daily Telegraph
"Rankin is a great guide to these arts...[His] enthusiasm for and
knowledge of his subject has produced a book replete with anecdote,
character sketches and revelations, all embedded in an ability to
sketch the military and civilian background with enough clarity to
support his narrative and repertoire of characters."--John Lloyd,
The Herald
"Mr. Rankin goes poking and probing the lesser-known facts of the
two World Wars. What an entertaining journey he provides."--Len
Deighton
"A most enjoyable read."--Thaddeus Holt, author of The Deceivers:
Allied Military Deception in the Second World War
"This is a story clamouring to be told. During the war we heard
rumours, knew there was something called 'camouflage' going on but
could not have imagined the scope of the inventiveness, the daring
of these people's imaginations. What a galaxy of talents -
designers of all kinds, real magicians, the make-up people, dyers,
painters and inventors. The theatre and the military created whole
armies, ships, navies, aircraft, arsenals of weapons out of shadows
and illusions, out of fantasies and clever paint and trickery. I
could not stop reading this book once I had begun."--Doris
Lessing
"Nicholas Rankin's engrossing book tells the story of the ambitious
and complex deceptions perpetrated by the plucky Brits, which
contributed to the turning of the tide and the winning of the
Second World War...What makes Churchill's Wizards such an uncommon
and arresting read is the detail of these hair-brained schemes. You
couldn't make this stuff up. And yet, that's just what Churchill's
so-called 'Unknown Warriors' did. With this remarkable book Rankin
does them proud."--Miles Fielder, Scotland on Sunday
"If ever a book was meant to have a soundtrack that plays along as
you read it, this is it. And that soundtrack should be the theme to
The Great Escape, because Churchill's Wizards is packed with tales
of derring-do and deception -- tales that in some cases remained
hush-hush for decades...Rankin clearly carried out extensive
research for this book and it's paid off. It's fascinating, witty,
and will provide you with more anecdotes than you can shake a stick
with a papier-mache head at."--Andy Ridgway, Focus Magazine
"Many of the stories...have been told before, but Rankin has
enhanced them with recently released papers and diaries. It is very
good reading and provides an intimate look at the use of deception
and those who made it work. This valuable book gives a new
perspective to the history of the warfare and deception."--Hayden
B. Peake, CIA Historical Intelligence Collection
"Rankin tells his real-life ripping yarns at a fast pace and with a
light touch that never obscures the fundamental seriousness of the
events."--Dennis Showalter, History Book Club
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