Overlord

D-Day and the Battle for Normandy 1944

By: Max Hastings

Narrated by: Barnaby Edwards

Length: 16 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

With an introduction read by Max Hastings. The famous D-Day landings of 6 June, 1944, marked the beginning of Operation Overlord, the battle for the liberation of Europe.

Republished as part of the Pan Military Classics series, Max Hastings’ acclaimed account overturns many traditional legends in this memorable study. Drawing together the eyewitness accounts of survivors from both sides, plus a wealth of previously untapped sources and documents, Overlord provides a brilliant, controversial perspective on the devastating battle for Normandy. Max Hastings, author of over 20 books, was born in 1945. He was a scholar at Charterhouse and University College, Oxford, before working as foreign correspondent for newspapers and BBC television, reporting from over 50 countries. He was editor of the Daily Telegraph for almost a decade, and then for six years edited the Evening Standard. He has won many awards for his journalism, particularly for his dispatches from the South Atlantic in 1982. He was knighted in 2002.

©1984 Max Hastings (P)2014 Audible Studios

Solid work by Hastings

Another wonderful fact driven book by Mr Hastings, but the narration at times hurt the overall story. The over reach to sound American was offensive to the story and the men it was suppose to represent. My advice if you feel the need to have an American voice then reach out and get an American to do it!

Crude caricatures of American voices

No one writes more riveting military history than Max Hastings. His prose manages to be both authoritative and entertaining, and I'm so addicted to it that I've bought literally everything available of his, sometimes in book form, sometimes in audiobook, often both.

But this particular audiobook has been nearly ruined for me by the narrator's tendency, in the middle of ordinary third-person text, to switch into a crude caricature of what he apparently believes is an American accent whenever he comes to a quote by an American. (Oddly enough, German voices are not caricatured -- quite the opposite, in fact. Wehrmacht officers come off sounding not terribly different from educated Brits.)

I did a mental double-take the first time the book quoted Gen. Omar Bradley. Suddenly the narrator abandoned his cultured Briish tones and lapsed into a jarring exaggeration of the sort of Southern drawl usually associated with cartoonish Mississippi sheriffs on TV. (Bradley, incidentally, was a Midwesterner, a native of Missouri; he sounded nothing like this.) The narrator takes similar liberties with the other Americans quoted -- and this being D-Day, there are a lot of them.

Why do some otherwise intelligent audiobook narrators insist on treating a quotation in the text as the opportunity to show off a funny accent? The result, in this case, is downright grating.

Well done in-depth analysis.

Different then most everything I’ve read up to this point. Really helps depth of understanding.

Great book and performance.

I think the reading performance was fine. I saw some complaints about his American accents. While certainly more from the Graham Chapman school and not the Hugh Laurie one, his accents served the purpose well. His British accent was pretty good too.

Good read about the Normandy campaign

Would you listen to Overlord again? Why?

yes. Excellent narrator and a pretty good history.

Any additional comments?

The usual complaint with Audible's history books. No supporting pdf file with the maps and images.

Good detailed history, but annoying accents

Did Barnaby Edwards do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Barnaby Edwards did differentiate all the characters, but I found his exaggerated American accents very annoying and found that distracting.

What a book!!

If there is one book you should read on WWII, this one might be IT - especially for non-academians. Max Hastings applies his rare talent of distilling complex military operations to the heart of the matter to one of the most complex military operations in our country's history: the coordination with the U.K and the rest of the Allies for a massive attack on Hitler's Occupied France. The logistics and politics of this endeavor were staggering, yet Mr. Hastings conveys the mammoth undertaking in 400ish pages. There are fiction novels at 600-800 pages which don't convey as much.

The book is not for everyone - it's non fiction, and an historical account of how the U.S. organized itself, got massive troops over to the UK, trained them in the British countryside, and then, ultimately, stormed the beaches of France in the infamous D-Day assault on June 6, 1944. The implications of the Allies defeating the Axis are long and dark. The story of how such stark alternative timelines were avoided is one of commitment, creativity, cooperation and, ultimately, passion. The heroes of the war range from the high-level generals to the in-the trenches brave soldiers who put their lives on the line for democracy. I wept at times when I read this book. For anyone who is interested in history, military history, and/or WWII, this is one of the best books on D-Day around (for laymen LOL).

A Vivid Image of War

An excellent job relaying a vivid picture of war from the perspective of so many different people who experienced it first hand. Disappointing narration. The attempt of mimicking American accents was poorly done. I think it would be better to simply read the words and let the audience translate into a respective accents.

Only for knowledgable listener

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I am a big fan of Max Hastings and consider myself very knowledgeable regarding the events of World War II. In retrospect, I must confess that I was not as prepared going into this book as I should have been -- if properly forewarned. Mr Hastings assumes that listener/reader is familiar with the Normandy Campaign. In a very detailed history, he tangentially refers to the development of the campaign only in order to ground his descriptions and analysis of leaders, decisions, and vignettes.

Did Overlord inspire you to do anything?

Get a fundamental understanding of the Normandy Campaign before revisiting this book.

Any additional comments?

Enjoyable for the listener/reader who is already familiar with the campaign and seeks details.

Narration

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Yes

Would you recommend Overlord to your friends? Why or why not?

Not Sure

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Very Much

Could you see Overlord being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No

Any additional comments?

With no prejudice; not a fan of Old English for reading. Difficult (for me) to apply emotion to the characters in story.