Prisoners of the Castle

An epic story of survival, class wars and daring escapes: inside the fortress walls of Colditz Castle

Macintyre's latest nonfiction thriller transports us inside this notorious Nazi prison. He suggests that prisoner boredom partly explains why there were more attempted escapes from Colditz than any other camp. And this helped inspire the supreme levels of ingenuity and invention accompanying those efforts.

What's refreshing is that he tells the story of castle characters covering many nationalities. Not only that but he details the toxic British class system that overrode everything in the prison.

A mixture of derring-do and a vivid, warts-and-all portrayal of the iconic castle.

I listened to the abridged version on BBC Sounds.