MAX HASTINGS is the author of over thirty books, most about conflict, and between 1986 and 2002 served as editor-in-chief of the Daily Telegraph, then editor of the Evening Standard. He has won many prizes both for journalism and his books, of which the most recent are Chastise, Operation Pedestal and Abyss, bestsellers translated around the world. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Fellow of King ' s College, London and was knighted in 2002. He has two grown-up children, Charlotte and Harry, and lives with his wife Penny in West Berkshire, where they garden enthusiastically.