'Three Weeks in July is a meticulously assembled and grippingly told account of the biggest act of murder on English soil since the second world war … [A] superb book' – Andrew Rawnsley, Observer
Description
'A superb book’ – Observer
‘Gripping, vivid and compelling’ – The Critic
‘Humane, absorbing and meticulous’ – New Statesman
‘An extraordinary book’ James O’Brien, TLS
Three Weeks in July is the extraordinary and definitive account of the events of the 7/7 London bombings, publishing on the 20th anniversary of the event.
Three Weeks in July delivers the definitive narrative of the 7 July 2005 London bombings and the chaos, confusion and terror that followed.
A true-crime investigation interwoven with high-stakes politics and history, it reveals untold accounts of the response to 7/7 by the government and the Metropolitan Police, as well as their efforts to prevent a second wave of attacks. Drawing on insights from key figures like Tony Blair, Peter Clarke (head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch at the Metropolitan Police) and Sir Ian Blair (Metropolitan Police commissioner), as well as victims and first responders, the book chronicles the frenzy of the first hours after the attack and the pivotal three weeks of police work, forensics and political machinations whose repercussions are still being felt to this day.
Three Weeks in July is the definitive account of one of the most tumultuous periods in modern British history, and a visceral and propulsive narrative that examines the vulnerabilities of the state and the ethical dilemmas of national security.
Reviews
‘This is a very good book indeed, a gripping, vivid and compelling reconstruction of an extraordinary few weeks that contains an astonishing degree of detail.’ – John Sturgis, The Critic
‘A humane, absorbing, meticulous recreation of the events of that July day and the febrile three weeks that followed’ – New Statesman
‘An extraordinary book …The detail is granular, the research is forensic and the insights from key figures such as Tony Blair and the late Metropolitan Police commissioner Ian Blair are illuminating, and all are deployed in the service of a narrative that never lets up … It is this marriage of depth and detail with breathless, frequently filmic storytelling that ensures Three Weeks in July delivers the excitement promised by the cover without ever neglecting the deadly seriousness of the story being told.’ James O’Brien, TLS