Jonathan Fenby is a former editor of the Observer, and his book Crucible is a page-turning story of the pivotal changes which were forged in the space of thirteen months of 1947–48. 

Taking place two years after the end of the second world war, this dynamic narrative spans the planet with overlapping epic episodes featuring such historic figures as Truman and Marshall, Stalin and Molotov, Attlee and Bevin, De Gaulle and Adenauer, Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek, Nehru and Jinnah, Ben Gurion, and the Arab leaders. 

Between them, they forged the path to our modern world.