1945: The Reckoning 

Early praise for the book 

‘A book that crosses the globe from Britain to Germany and from India to Indonesia, ambitious, deeply thought-provoking and, as with all the very best history, compellingly told. 

There are surprises here, episodes that prompt a sense of wonder, admiration but also shame.  And there is a rich cast list of characters, expertly chosen, and whose lives, hopes, disappointments, moments of fear and joy, shock, horror, relief and wonder so vividly frame this endlessly fascinating and profoundly compelling story.  The past is a complex place but we rely on those directing the compass to steer us through the difficult waters.  Lives are not black or white nor lived in straight lines, as Phil Craig shows us in this highly original and finely judged book.’

James Holland, historian and broadcaster

Phil Craig has produced a vivid and compelling narrative, one that is painted on a vast canvas yet remains focussed on detail. As the war reaches its climax and the British Empire teeters, we are introduced to a colourful cast of protagonists who stride like giants through the pages of this book. Flawlessly researched and vividly written, 1945: The Reckoning is history at its finest.’

Giles Milton, author of The Stalin Affair

‘Phil Craig’s superb book is a timely reminder that the political and military trajectory of history is much more much about the personal agency of single men and women working in unison, than it is about understanding this or that movement, or this or that ideology. In Craig’s account, individuals matter. It’s the only way, for example, to understand how an Indian army officer could want the independence of his country while simultaneously wanting to defend it from the depredations of a totalitarian enemy. Nuance matters, and Craig gives it to us in spades. This is a brilliant evocation of the best of the historian’s art.’

Robert Lyman, historian

‘1945 The Reckoning is a fascinating and very original book driven by a terrific cast of characters’

Saul David, historian

‘A brilliant book. Phil Craig expands the narrative of World War II in this measured and objective masterpiece. A gripping narrative of Britain and the changing imperial world’.

Helen Fry, historian

‘I’m not a historian but 1945 The Reckoning is written with a fluent command of research, and is packed with great characters, observations and affecting human details’

Amanda Craig, novelist

‘As the War in Asia ended, a new order emerged from the chaos of a broken British Empire. This fascinating book tells the story, paying close attention to the men and women on the spot who shaped that huge transition.’

Prof Tirthankar Roy, economist and historian

‘If you have even passing interest in history, this is a must-read; fascinating and hugely informative, this is non-fiction with the narrative pull of fiction at its best, wearing it’s considerable learning with such ease it is genuinely hard to put down.’

Marika Cobbold, novelist

'I really enjoyed this and think it's the best popular history book I have read for a long time.  Phil Craig paints an enormous canvass with great skill, beautifully employing vignettes of real personal experience, and his conclusions are nuanced, accurate and fair. There are details here that are new to me, and stories that should be much more widely known. I hope that people from across the culture war spectrum will read this because all can learn a great deal from it.' 

Prof Alan Lester, historian

‘I love how 1945 The Reckoning gives me perspectives on WW2 I have never accessed before, and the personal stories bring colonial history to life so engagingly. This book is a triumph!’

Jane Caro, writer and broadcaster

'The great contradiction of Britain’s World War Two – resolute in the fight against Nazi fascism and Japanese militarism, yet desperate to maintain and reclaim the Empire in Asia. Phil Craig’s 1945: The Reckoning examines this major incongruity in Britain’s war aims through the lives and experiences of those caught up in the Far East war – soldiers from European and Asian backgrounds, nurses, independence fighters who made dramatic choices and allegiances that still echo down through history. This personalization of events offers insights and depth more straightforward narrative histories miss.'

Paul French, historian  

'Phil Craig’s 1945 The Reckoning is a riveting new account of a forgotten, if not hidden, history in the final months of the second world war. As all the best histories should, it reveals aspects of our national war-time story that have been overlooked for many years. For its new perspective, grounded in deep research, Australian readers will be alternately enthralled and enraged by 1945 The Reckoning at the naked exercise of imperial and commercial power in our region that Phil reveals, in the final months of a war we were told was for liberation and self determination.’

Prof Jenny Hocking, Monash University.

'A tour de force. Phil Craig’s writing is as sharp as ever. He covers the ground with a fantastic felicity, moving the story along with real crispness of purpose. No sooner does a 'yes but' or a 'what about' form in the readers mind but he addresses it, folds it into the narrative, and moves on, always one step ahead.’  

Martin Davidson, historian and former Head of BBC History 

'Britain’s war against Germany and Japan in 1939-45 was an imperial war, involving not only Canadians, Australians, and New Zealanders, but also West Indians, Africans and—above all—Indians. That some tens of thousands of the latter should have chosen to fight with the Japanese against the British concurs with the cartoonish, black-against-white narrative of today’s zealous anti-colonialists. But that millions more Indian volunteers—many of them nationalists—chose to fight in British uniform, both in Asia and in Europe, complicates the moral picture. This is one fascinating aspect of the nuanced story that Phil Craig tells so well.'

Nigel Biggar, Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford

'Narrative history is rarely this gripping or exciting. 1945 The Reckoning reads like a pacy, well-plotted novel!’ 

Robert Fabbri, author of the bestselling Vespasian series.

'This is terrific history writing, erudite yet vivid, a truly fascinating new perspective on one of the most important periods of the 20th century.' 

Laura Thompson, historian

'A gripping account that makes the war in Asia central to the story. Amidst the clash of empires, consider afresh the Indian soldiers who fought for and against the Raj; the nurses and prisoners of war caught in the maelstrom; and the many motives of Britain's imperial authorities in their war against brutal Japanese occupations. The tales we most readily recall about the end of World War Two are just part of a much bigger picture, one that looked very different in Asia.'  

Dr Samir Puri, associate Fellow, Chatham House and author of Westlessness

‘India’s relationship with its Second World War involvement has always been somewhat ambivalent.  India provided the largest all-volunteer force among the Allies (and earned a commensurate number of gallantry awards); but most Indians unequivocally wanted Independence.  Phil Craig’s 1945: The Reckoning, while telling the larger story of the War, manages almost uniquely to balance these competing narratives in Indian memory with real skill – as part of the larger, globe-straddling stories he assembles, of that era-defining War.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.’ 

KS Nair, author of The Forgotten Few: The Indian Air Force in World War Two.

‘This is for readers who prefer their history in its sometimes gloriously - and often savagely - muddled reality.  

In the final instalment of his acclaimed trilogy, Craig returns to personal testimony as the most gripping way of illuminating complex history that might otherwise be lost to dry academia or sink under the weight of factual overload.

This is no exercise in dubious revisionism, more a sifting of the historical foreshore that turns up nuggets of very human experience to connect us with the flood tide of events.  It's highly effective, every page adding to our understanding of the closing stages of the greatest ever conflict while ultimately stirring our most individual human emotions.’

Patrick Jephson, author and former Private Secretary to Diana, Princess of Wales 

Now available for pre order in Australia and the UK at the links below.  

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