The 2024 Duff Cooper Prize for the best non-fiction published in the UK was awarded to Julian Jackson for France on Trial: The Case of Marshal Pétain.
This excellent 2023 book covers an event that is hardly mentioned in books on WW 2. It is a strange omission. It could be because it is a stain on European honour.
Marshal Pétain was a WW 1 hero. At the old age of 84, he returned to head the French government when the French were defeated by Hitler.
At the age of 84, he cut a deal with Hitler and set up the Vichy government. At age 89, he was charged for treason. Hitler had been defeated. He was sentenced to death.
This book covers the ground well. Jackson, an expert on French history, has a good command of the French sources. These are listed in the bibliography. Strangely, his English sources are not listed, albeit in the endnotes.
