“An astonishing story brilliantly told… It is as moving as it is gripping to read”
Jonathan Dimbleby, author of Endgame: 1944

“A gripping, original and important story of courage and science in wartime”
Roland Philipps, author of A Spy Named Orphan

In the summer of 1941, German troops surrounded the Russian city of Leningrad – now St Petersburg – and began the longest blockade in recorded history. By the most conservative estimates, the siege would claim the lives of three-quarters of a million people. Most died of starvation.

At the centre of the embattled city stood a converted palace that housed the greatest living plant library ever amassed – the world’s first seed bank. After attempts to evacuate the collection failed, and as supplies dwindled, the scientists responsible faced a terrible decision: should they distribute the specimens to the starving population, or preserve them in the hope that they held the key to ending global famine?

Drawing on previously unseen sources, The Forbidden Garden tells the remarkable and moving story of the botanists who remained at the Plant Institute during the darkest days of the siege, risking their lives in the name of science.

“A beautifully-written account of one of the most extraordinary and little-known episodes of the Second World War — a scientific feat and act of collective self-sacrifice the consequences of which continue to be felt today.”
Adam Higginbotham, author of Challenger

‘Vivid and moving’ Max Hastings, Sunday Times

‘Excellent . . . a powerful tribute’ Guardian

In the summer of 1940, faced with national paranoia, Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered the internment of all German, Austrian and Italian citizens living in Britain. Most were refugees who had fled Nazi oppression. They now faced imprisonment by the country in which they had staked their trust.

Among the inmates of Hutchinson Internment Camp, on the Isle of Man, were world-renowned artists, musicians and intellectuals: despite their unjust captivity, they remained resilient, transforming their prison into an artistic and academic community.

Meticulously researched and grippingly recounted, The Island of Extraordinary Captives tells the story of history’s most remarkable group of prisoners – and how they found hope even in the most challenging of circumstances.

‘Riveting . . . an account of cinematic vividness’ New York Times Book Review

‘Eye-opening, insightful and brilliantly written’ Daily Mirror

The police came for Peter Fleischmann in the early hours. It reminded the teenager of the Gestapo’s moonlit roundups he had narrowly avoided at home in Berlin. Now, having endured a perilous journey to reach England – hiding from the rampaging Nazi thugs at his orphanage, boarding a Kindertransport to safety – here the aspiring artist was, on a ship bound for the Isle of Man, suspected of being a Nazi spy. What had gone wrong?

In May 1940, faced with a country gripped by paranoia, Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered the internment of all German and Austrian citizens living in Britain. Most, like Peter, were refugees who had come to the country to escape Nazi oppression. They were now imprisoned by the very country in which they had staked their trust.

Painstakingly researched from dozens of unpublished first-hand accounts and previously classified documents, The Island of Extraordinary Captives tells, for the first time, the story of history’s most astonishing internment camp and of how a group of world-renown artists, musicians and academics came to be seen as ‘enemy aliens’.

The Island of Extraordinary Captives is the story of a battle between fear and compassion at a time of national crisis. It reveals how Britain’s treatment of refugees during the Second World War led to one of the nation’s most shameful missteps, and how hope and creativity can flourish in even the most challenging circumstances.