Doves of War: Four Women of Spain - Tapa dura

On Comrades: 'Paul Preston knows more about the Spanish Civil War than any other Englishman; more, even, than those who fought it. Anyone interested in Spain will want this book.' ALLAN MASSIE, Daily Telegraph

On Franco: ‘It is difficult to see this marvellous, brilliantly written and surely authoritative biography ever being matched. It is a book any historian would have been proud to have written.’ IAN KERSHAW, THES

On A Concise History of the Spanish Civil War: ‘Paul Preston has an exceptional gift of lucid exposition, clarifying but not over-simplifying political situations often bafflingly complicated.’ V. G. KIERNAN

Love, war, duty, faith, betrayal and belief – a brilliant new portrait of the twentieth century’s central conflict from the unprecedented viewpoint of the experience of four exceptional women, by the greatest historian of modern Spain.

The last war fought for ideals, the Spanish Civil War tore Spain apart. Much has been written about its effects on the people and country but little about the women involved. But behind the well-documented experiences of Martha Gellhorn and La Pasionaria lie the forgotten stories of the women whose lives proved crucial to the struggle – and to understanding it. In Doves of War, prize-winning historian Paul Preston focusses on the stories of four women whose very different beliefs and experiences help crystallise a fascinating, new vision of the Spanish Civil War.

In the book, as in the war, communist is pitted against fascist. In the red corner we have Margarita Nelken, the revolutionary feminist, writer and politician, desperately trying to prevent her son Santiago from joining the army; and Nan Green, the Communist nurse, who sent her children off to boarding school and went out to fight against fascism with her International Brigader husband George (tragically killed in battle on the last day of the war). In the blue corner there is Mercedes Sanz Bachiller whose entry into politics rapidly followed her miscarriage on hearing of the death of her husband in battle, but whose intense rivalry with Pilar Primo de Rivera led to her major successes being virtually written out of history; and Priscilla Scott-Ellis (Pip) a wealthy English socialite who came out to Spain determined to marry the homosexual Spanish prince she loved so unrequitedly, but her determination to help the fascist war effort led her exchanging a glittering social round of parties with Nazi and Spanish aristocracy to nursing in basic frontline hospitals.

Each story, packed with startling, often poignant details and vivid extracts from diaries, letters and contemporary documents, casts a different light on the war and on the experiences of women in Spain. Inimitable and groundbreaking, Doves of War iwill change the way the Spanish Civil War is seen – forever