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entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup. Hello and welcome to the latest episode of Battleground 44 with me Saul David and Patrick Bishop.

Well today, to celebrate the publication of Patrick's excellent new book, Paris 44,

we're going to talk about a single day,

and that day, of course, is the actual day of liberation, or as Patrick has it in the book,

the day the war should have ended. And I'm just going to read out the opening paragraph to the

relevant chapter, because it pretty much sets the scene up nicely. On Friday, the 25th of August 1944, Paris lived out the greatest day of its modern history.

All its multiple personalities fused in an immortal spectacle that rekindled

humanity's love affair with the city.

The streets throbbed with relief, joy and love, all emotions sharpened by the danger still hanging in the air.

When the Germans marched into Paris in June 1940, it felt as though Europe had fallen into darkness.

Now the land was bright again, and the path to total victory seemed that much shorter and clearer.

The war had swept away all that was predictable, normal and comforting. A Paris

filled with grey uniforms and swayed in swastika flags was not, could never be Paris. At last,

the city of light, the city of love, still fully recognisable, was restored to the world's imagination

in all its cliched, but hugely reassuring familiarity. I mean, just reading that, Patrick,

kind of underlines how beautifully put together this book is. If I could have picked a single paragraph,

it probably would have been that one, but there were many more like it, and yet it completely

...