This talk will take place at 1pm, instead of the usual 12pm.

In the bleak first half of the Second World War, Britain stood alone against the Axis forces. Isolated and outmanoeuvred, it seemed as though the country could fall at any moment. Only an extraordinary effort of courage - by ordinary men and women - held the line.

Join Professor Alan Allport as he explores this defining experience of modern British History. Allport will reveal how reality differs from myth. From the policy of appeasement to the hot dusts of the Western Desert, he interrogates every aspect of the conflict - and exposes its echoes in our own age.

Challenging orthodoxy and casting fresh light on famous events from Dunkirk to the Blitz, Allport shows how this clash between civilisations continues to resonate in our world today.

'Britain at Bay' is the first part of a major new two volume history.

Alan Allport is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at Syracuse University. He is the author of two previous volumes of history, ‘Browned Off and Bloody-Minded: The British Soldier Goes to War 1939–1945’, and ‘Demobbed: Coming Home After the Second World War’, which won the 2010 Longman-History Today Book of the Year Award. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Britain at Bay: The Epic Story of the Second World War 1938-1941