The Full Monty: Montgomery Of Alamein, 1887-1942

In October 1942 one of the most important battles in modern history was fought. For more than three years the Axis armies had seemed invincible. Now, in the Egyptian desert, they had been decisively beaten. The opening phase of the Second World War was over. The architect of this triumph was an almost unknown British general, Bernard Montgomery. Nigel Hamilton's award-winning three-volume official life, "Monty", worked within the constraints of the time and circumstances under which it was written. Now, at last, he is able to present us with "The Full Monty", based on new sources and a new interpretation of Monty's legendary ability to inspire young men on the field of battle. The story (the first of two volumes) is an extraordinarily rich and fascinating one revealing a withdrawn, stubborn, difficult individual who remained both highly characteristic of the Imperial tradition in which he was raised and yet utterly revolutionary in his criticism of that world. With immense skill Hamilton shows how Montgomery's repressed homosexuality was the key to his behaviour - homosexuality that distanced him from the conventional world which surrounded him, yet which made him uniquely value the welfare and lives of the soldiers under his care. Hamilton gives a superb re-creation of the worlds in which Montgomery Tasmania, the Western Front 1914-18, the uneasy Imperial Britain, Egypt, India and Palestine of the 1920s and 1930s, the coming of the Second World War, the disasters of Dunkirk and Dieppe, and finally the bloody Allied victory of El Alamein. In re-examining Montgomery's life, Hamilton believes that we must now see him in terms of his ability to forge a unique relationship with the men under his command - a revolutioanry approach that put paid to the butchery and bungling of the First World War, and laid the foundations of successful battlefield leadership in modern democracy. Hamilton's powerful biography gives us a gripping and unflinching portrait of one of Britain's greatest heroes. This is, in all manner of ways, "The Full Monty".