Facebook Twitter Pinterest
FREE Delivery in the UK.
Only 3 left in stock (more on the way).
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.
Dispatch to:
France - Mainland
To see addresses, please
Or
Please enter a valid UK postcode.
Or
FREE Delivery on orders over £10.
Used: Very Good | Details
Sold by the book house
Fulfilled by Amazon
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comment: This item will be picked, packed and shipped by Amazon and is eligible for free delivery within the UK

Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) is a service Amazon offers sellers that lets them store their products in Amazon's warehouses, and Amazon directly does the picking, packing, shipping and customer service on these items. Something Amazon hopes you'll especially enjoy: FBA items are eligible for and for Amazon Prime just as if they were Amazon items.

If you're a seller, you can increase your sales significantly by using Fulfilment by Amazon. We invite you to learn more about this programme .

Have one to sell?
Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See this image

Doves of War: Four Women of the Spanish Civil War Paperback – 9 Apr 2010

by
Paul Preston (Author)
› Visit Amazon's Paul Preston Page
search results for this author
Paul Preston (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars 10 customer reviews
See all formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Amazon Price
New from Used from
Kindle Edition
"Please retry"
£3.99
— —
Hardcover
"Please retry"
—
— £0.56
Paperback
"Please retry"
£11.99
£5.11 £0.01
Want it delivered by Wednesday, 23 Nov.? Order within 13 hrs 33 mins and choose Priority Delivery at checkout. Details
Note: This item is eligible for click and collect. Details
Pick up your parcel at a time and place that suits you.
  • Choose from over 13,000 locations across the UK
  • Prime members get unlimited deliveries at no additional cost
How to order to an Amazon Pickup Location?
  1. Find your preferred location and add it to your address book
  2. Dispatch to this address when you check out
Learn more
Top Deals in Books
See the latest top deals in Books. Shop now
£11.99 FREE Delivery in the UK. Only 3 left in stock (more on the way). Dispatched from and sold by Amazon. Gift-wrap available.
click to open popover

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)

Frequently Bought Together

  • Doves of War: Four Women of the Spanish Civil War
  • +
  • The Spanish Holocaust
  • +
  • The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution and Revenge
Total price: £34.96
One of these items is dispatched sooner than the other. Show details
Buy the selected items together

Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone

To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.
Top Deals in Books
See the latest top deals in Books. Shop now

Product details

  • Paperback: 480 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins; New Ed edition (9 April 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0006386946
  • ISBN-13: 978-0006386940
  • Product Dimensions: 13 x 2.5 x 19.7 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 316,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customers Viewing This Page May Be Interested In These Sponsored Links

  (What is this?)

Product Description

Review

‘A magnificent achievement. Preston combines the skills of the professional historian with a profound understanding of women. Eminently readable, this is narrative history at its best.’ Literary Review

‘Newcomers to the Spanish conflict could hardly find a better place to start.’ Sunday Times

From the Back Cover

The last war fought for ideals, the Spanish Civil War tore Spain apart. Much has been written about its effects on the people and country but little about the women involved. But behind the well-documented experiences of Martha Gellhorn and La Pasionaria lie the forgotten stories of the women whose lives proved crucial to the struggle – and to understanding it. In' Doves of War', prize-winning historian Paul Preston focuses on the stories of four women whose very different beliefs and experiences help crystallise a fascinating, new vision of the Spanish Civil War.

In the book, as in the war, communist is pitted against fascist. In the red corner we have Margarita Nelken, the revolutionary feminist, writer and politician, desperately trying to prevent her son Santiago from joining the army; and Nan Green, the Communist nurse, who sent her children off to boarding school and went out to fight against fascism with her International Brigader husband George (tragically killed in battle on the last day of the war). In the blue corner there is Mercedes Sanz Bachiller whose entry into politics rapidly followed her miscarriage on hearing of the death of her husband in battle, but whose intense rivalry with Pilar Primo de Rivera led to her major successes being virtually written out of history; and Priscilla Scott-Ellis (Pip) a wealthy English socialite who came out to Spain determined to marry the homosexual Spanish prince she loved so unrequitedly, but her determination to help the fascist war effort led her exchanging a glittering social round of parties with Nazi and Spanish aristocracy to nursing in basic frontline hospitals.

Each story, packed with startling, often poignant details and vivid extracts from diaries, letters and contemporary documents, casts a different light on the war and on the experiences of women in Spain. Inimitable and groundbreaking, 'Doves of War' will change the way the Spanish Civil War is seen – forever

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Product Description

Customer Reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars
5 star
4
4 star
3
3 star
1
2 star
2
1 star
0
See all 10 customer reviews
Share your thoughts with other customers
Write a customer review

Top Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsComparing four experiences of the Spanish Civil War
By A Customer on 7 July 2004
Format: Hardcover
Paul Preston is arguably the greatest British authority on the Spanish Civil War. In this work, he portrays the exploits, experiences and sufferings of four very different women who were personally involved on both sides of the war effort.
The personalities, backgrounds and political allegiances of each woman provides a stark contrast. The book covers the lives of Priscilla Scott-Ellis, of British upper-class origins, who served with Franco's forces as a nurse. An antithesis is provided by Nan Green, a lower-middle class British Communist, who enlisted as a nurse, joining her husband in the International Brigade. In addition, an out-spoken feminist, Margarita Nelken compared with the falangist, Mercedes Sanz-Bachiller, provides Spanish viewpoints of the individual experiences and consequential suffering both during and after the war.
Paul Preston's style is free-flowing, easy reading and although not engrossing, this book is certainly interesting. In spite of the differences between the four women, he is also able to draw upon and illustrate the unnerving similarities in their experiences, feelings and responses to the war.
Comment 23 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
4.0 out of 5 starsWomen of the Spanish civil war
By John D. Wallace on 13 July 2011
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
The author of this book, Paul Preston, is a highly regarded writer on matters Spanish and in particular on the Spanish civil war. The book is actually four separate sections, each focusing on women who were outstanding during the war. Preston claims that he wanted to write about how four women, from quite separate backgrounds and for quite different reasons, made outstanding contributions to the war and this aim is fulfilled. However, I did find that in attempting to fill in the detail surrounding each woman's part in the conflict, the essence of how each woman felt from their personal perspective was somewhat subjugated. This was particularly so, I felt, in the life of Mercedes Sanz-Bachiller. where the political machinations were described in great detail to the detriment of where Mercedes fitted in and how she reacted. If you were buying this book because you were expecting to read about the war from a woman's perspective, you might be disappointed, bearing in mind the immense background detail that Preston puts into each account. You would also, I feel, need to know some detail about the conflict before reading this book. However, for sheer research, as with other books by this author, the gain in reading is how much more you learn about the details of the war and the part of women in general and these women in particular. This book, although very well-written, is dense and often hard work but well worth the effort.
Comment 4 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
4.0 out of 5 starsDifferent perspectives on carnage
By Philip Spires on 19 Dec. 2013
Format: Kindle Edition
Writers of fiction are often accused of forcing their characters to jump through ever more fanciful hoops to satisfy a presumed need for engaging plot. The fact that reality often amplifies the unlikely to the near incredible regularly reminds any reader that considered fiction rarely overstates any issue that derives from our usually random human recklessness. Rarely, for instance, when dealing with war, does fiction place women in the front line. And equally uncommon is the recognition that women are also often in the front lines of politics, even when they might continue to be under-represented amongst the professional practitioners of the art.

And so we often need the kind of reality check that a balanced historical account can provide. Paul Preston's Doves Of War is precisely the kind of book that can provide comment on all these themes and thus bring us back to earth with an eye-opening bump.

Doves Of War presents contrasting biographies of four women who were directly involved in the hostilities of the Spanish Civil War. Priscilla Scott-Ellis is born of the English upper crust and supports the Nationalists. Nan Green is also English, but motivated by a commitment to left-wing politics. She lines up with the Republic. Mercedes Sanz-Bachiller, a Spaniard, marries into the political life of Vallolid. Margarita Nelken, Spanish-speaking and Spanish-born, but Jewish and branded a foreigner by her enemies, becomes a significant actor on the political left. And so we follow the lives of four women, two on the left and two on the right, two outsiders and two insiders, two who celebrated victory and two berated in defeat. Their stories thus contrast.

It is much to the author's credit that these lives are presented in a fair and unbiased way.Read more ›
Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
2.0 out of 5 starsHistorian marking time
By Geoff H. on 8 Feb. 2015
Format: Paperback
My sense is that Preston, having exhausted the "big" issues and actors of the Civil War, is now trying to find other outlets for his knowledge. These are not full biographies of the four women - rather a canter through facts about their lives, with little analysis. And at times, Preston appears to lose interest in his subjects. Not condemned, but not recommended.
1 Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
5.0 out of 5 starsEpic fascination
By London Matron on 20 May 2013
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Preston is our lead Spanish war historian. But he takes it a step beyond here.

This is just like a novel. Four unheard of and extraordinary women and so well-researched. I could not put it down. I just wish there were another four.

Buy. Read. Brilliant. No more to say.
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

There's a problem loading this menu at the moment.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.

Look for similar items by category

Feedback