About the Author
David Irving
Over fifty years of primary-source historical research. Thirty-plus books and editions built around original documents, private diaries, and firsthand interviews.
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Titles
David Irving is a British historian who has spent over fifty years conducting primary-source research in archives across Europe, North America, and beyond. His work is distinguished by its reliance on original documents — private diaries, unpublished letters, government files, and firsthand interviews with participants — rather than derivative secondary sources.
His first book, The Destruction of Dresden (1963), established his reputation for meticulous archival research and compelling narrative. It was followed by major works on Hitler, Churchill, Rommel, Göring, Goebbels, and Himmler — drawing on document collections, diaries, and interviews gathered over decades.
Irving’s archive includes a large body of original documents, many obtained through interviews with surviving participants in twentieth-century events. His work on the Dresden bombing, the Third Reich leadership, and Churchill’s wartime decisions remains influential, controversial, and closely tied to primary-source research.
The Irving Family
A household of writers, sailors, and illustrators
David Irving’s work did not emerge from nowhere. His parents, Commander John Irving RN and Beryl Irving, both left published work of their own, and Irving Books preserves that family line alongside the main historical catalogue.
Explore the family archiveFather
Commander John Irving RN
A Royal Navy officer and naval writer, John Irving brought a sailor’s eye to British sea power, seamanship, and the naval battles of the First World War. His works include Coronel and the Falklands, The Smoke Screen of Jutland, Navigation of Small Yachts, The King’s Britannia, and the Dick Valliant naval stories.
John Irving booksMother
Beryl Irving
Beryl Irving was a writer and illustrator. Her own children’s books include Daffy Goes to Sea and The Dawnchild, while her illustrations also appear in family and archive works including Good Food by P. C. B. Newington and Royal Navalese.
Beryl Irving booksThe Approach
The Method
Original Documents
Claims are presented with source references wherever available. Private diaries, unpublished letters, government files, signals intercepts, and interrogation transcripts form much of the raw material.
Firsthand Interviews
Decades spent interviewing the surviving participants — Hitler’s generals, private staff, secretaries, adjutants, and their families. Testimony gathered before it was lost to time, from people who were in the room when history happened.
Language Mastery
Irving taught himself German to read source material firsthand — diaries, letters, military orders, and diplomatic correspondence in the original language, without relying on translations or the interpretations of intermediaries.
“— David Irving
Six Decades
Books & Editions
A complete booklist for David Irving titles represented here, with current catalogue links where an edition is available. Paperbacks, eBooks, audiobooks, and collector formats are grouped under the main title.
Von Guernica bis Vietnam
German-language monograph
Das Reich hört mit
German-language edition related to Breach of Security
Die deutsche Ostgrenze
German-language monograph
Der unbekannte Dr. Goebbels
German-language Goebbels diaries study
Critical Acclaim
What Critics Say
“Irving has ransacked the world’s archives; he is, at his best, a superb historical detective.”
“No praise can be too high for his indefatigable scholarly industry.”
“Irving knows more than anyone alive about the German side of the Second World War. His work is indispensable to anyone seeking to understand the war in the round.”
“One of the most original and controversial historians of the modern era.”
— The Times · London
Focal Point Publications
Focal Point Publications (FPP) was established in 1980 to preserve and disseminate Irving’s body of work. Today, Irving Books continues this mission, making these works available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.
The FPP archive at fpp.co.uk contains thousands of documents, letters, diaries, and photographs that are publicly accessible to researchers. The Irving Collection houses a broader primary-source archive of manuscripts, correspondence, and research materials spanning decades.