The World Aflame: The Long War, 1914-1945

'Purists argue that colourising black and white photographs is sacrilege, but the world has always been in colour. Truth be told, monochrome is a contrivance. Human experience is always colourful The Times.

The epic, harrowing and world-changing story – in words and colourized images – of global conflict from the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand to the obliteration of Hiroshima by the dropping of the first atom bomb. The World Aflame will embrace not only the total conflagrations of 1914-18 and 1939-45 and the international tensions, conflicting ideologies and malign economic forces that set them in train, but also the civil wars of the interwar period in Ireland and Spain, wars in Latin America, Britain's imperial travails in such places as Ireland, Somalia and Palestine, and events on the domestic 'fronts' of the belligerent nations.

Like The Colour of Time, The World Aflame is a collaboration between the gifted Brazilian artist Marina Amaral, and the leading British historian Dan Jones. Marina has created 200 stunning images, using contemporary photographs as the basis for her full-colour digital renditions. The accompanying narrative anchors each image in its context, weaving them into a vivid account of four decades of conflict that shaped the world we live in today.

A fusion of amazing pictures and well-chosen and informative words, The World Aflame offers a moving – and often terrifying – perspective on the bloodiest century in human history.