Provides a vivid picture of the fighting at Alamein from the early desperate days of July to the final costly victory in November, and explores the Eighth Army's learning curve to show how lessons from bitter experience were used to develop improved tactical methods that eventually mastered the veterans of Rommel's Afrika Korps.

Originally published: London : Jonathan Cape, 2004.

War in the Desert --The Swing of the Pendulum -- The Armies at El Alamein -- The Crucial Day -- Ruweisat Ridge -- Tel el Eisa -- Raw Bacon -- Ruin Ridge -- Operation Splendour -- Emasculation -- Interregnum -- The Six Days' Race -- The Crest of a Wave -- 'Born For This Battle' -- Operation Lightfoot -- Battle Without Hope -- 'Round and Round the Mulberry Bush' -- Operation Supercharge -- Ring Out the Bells!.