The Greatest Day in History: 11 November 1918

Armistice 1918, the last day of the war to end all wars. The fighting stopped at eleven a.m., but the casualties still amounted to eleven thousand, more than the whole of D Day. Men were sent over the top at ten thirty and mown down seconds later. Some made it to eleven, only to die as the clock struck the hour. Others were gassed as they lay wounded in hospital or blown to bits by random shells as they queued for the cookhouse or sat on the latrine. On both sides, men died needlessly while their comrades wearily laid down their arms, too exhausted to celebrate.

This is the story of the dramatic events they lived through, from the hurried abdication of the Kaiser on 9 November to the signing of the armistice two days later, a great flurry of activity from Washington to Berlin and across the western front as the Great War finally came to a close. Movingly told in a fast-paced documentary style (Cornelius Ryan the role model), it is the story of the ordinary soldiers in the trenches, their political and military leaders behind the lines, and the civilians at home, the men and women across half the globe who danced in the streets to celebrate one of the most fascinating and extraordinary days in the history of the world.

Book Author

Nicholas Best grew up in Kenya, of Anglo-Irish origin, and was educated there, in England, and at Trinity College, Dublin. He served a spell in Britain’s Grenadier Guards, during which he was airlifted to Belize to prevent its invasion by Guatemalan tanks - an experience that gave him his first short story (in Penthouse) and a satirical novel Where were you at Waterloo? Thereafter he worked in London as a financial journalist before becoming a full time writer. He is the author of Happy Valley: the Story of the English in Kenya, Tennis and the Masai (a comic novel later seri...
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Book Reviews

• MRD Foot, Literary Review
  "Scintillating… a miscellany of tragedy mixed with delight"
• Guards Magazine
  "A truly magnificent book… highly recommended"
• Publishing News
  "An excellent history… a fully rounded picture and a fitting publication for the 90th anniversary"
• Good Book Guide
  "This is a fascinating book"
• Piers Brendon, The Oldie
  "Compelling… vivid"
• The Officer
  "Gripping"
• Tom Sharpe
  "An extremely interesting, lively and vivid account of the end of the First World War. Better than anything else I have read"
• Western Morning News
  "Remarkable… will be very hard to match"
• BBC Who do you think you are?
  "Highly readable… Best paints a compelling picture"
• Family History Monthly
  "This splendid volume enables the reader to watch events unfold from both sides"
• Scottish Legion News
  "Nicholas Best has come up trumps"
• Booklist
  "Exceedingly well crafted... all expanding World War One collections need this book"
• MRD Foot, Literary Review
  "Nicholas Best brings back to life the second week of November 1918, and the end of the Great War, in a scintillating set of extracts from the memoirs of those who were there at the time..."
• Glasgow Herald
  "well written and entertaining... undoubtedly an enthralling read"
• Yorkshire Post
  "Splendid new book... first-rate work of popular history... This is a complex story, with many strands, but Best weaves them together into a vivid, pacy narrative... likely to be a flood of books... Nicholas Best's will take some beating"
• Daily Mail
  "As the first of many books to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Armistice Day 1918, this volume sets an example that will be hard to beat."