Antony Beevor: you ask the questions

(Such as: if you were in the Army now, would you willingly serve in Iraq? And after a hard day's reading about human slaughter, how do you unwind?)

The award-winning military historian Antony Beevor, 56, failed his A-levels at Winchester College. He joined the Army, becoming a regular officer with the 11th Hussars. Five years later, he left to become a writer and has since published four novels and six works of non-fiction, including The Spanish Civil War and Paris after the Liberation, co-written with his wife, Artemis Cooper. He hit the bestseller lists in 1998 with Stalingrad, which has been translated into 25 languages and has sold more than a million copies. His most recent book, Berlin: The Downfall 1945, was also a No 1 bestseller. Beevor lives with his wife and two children in London.

Saddam is known to be a big fan of Stalin. Is there any chance that he can turn the battle for Baghdad into his Stalingrad?
Sam Hopwood, Southampton

Saddam is indeed obsessed with Stalin. He certainly has fantasies about turning the battle for Baghdad into a Stalingrad on the Tigris. But history never repeats itself, and there's certainly no parallel here. The Iraqi army is not the Red Army. It is certainly not in a position to counterattack and encircle its enemy, as the Red Army managed to do at Stalingrad. So that is pure fantasy. But I'm not saying there will be an easy victory in Baghdad. Saddam is totally ruthless, just like Stalin, in being prepared to sacrifice as many civilians as needed to win the battle. I simply cannot tell how long it will take. War is the most unpredictable of all human activities.

I, too, messed up my A-levels. What's your excuse? And can you give me some tips on how to become a respected intellectual despite my early failings?
Giles Parker, St Albans

Yes, it's true. There was no excuse, except that I was in a stage of puerile revolt against my school at the time. It was basically undirected bloody-mindedness. The strange thing is that careers are totally unpredictable. Nowadays, it's probably a lot more difficult without A-levels, so I would not recommend it. I've just been incredibly lucky.

After a hard day's reading about human slaughter, how do you unwind?
Sally Edwards, by e-mail

Well, not every day is spent reading about human slaughter. But I unwind by reading about other things and by gardening. Of course, it was harrowing to read many of the reports, especially about Stalingrad. It's amazing how, for years after researching the book, I couldn't look at a plate of food without thinking what it would have meant to not just one but a dozen people in Stalingrad. Funnily enough, it hit me again last night – and it wasn't even a particularly large plate. While I was researching, I found the horror of what I was reading would hit me 24 hours or 36 hours later, usually at night. Certainly, towards the end of writing Berlin, I was very close to a nervous breakdown, although that was also due to the pressure of finishing the book.

When and why did you write your first novel? And where is it now?
Paula Smith, Glasgow

The manuscript is firmly at the bottom of a packing case, and even my wife has never been allowed to look at it. I was about 22 years old when I wrote it and, like all first novels, it was totally autobiographical – about a young officer in the Army. God, am I relieved it was never published. But, funnily enough, I may dig it out because I'm going to go back to fiction. I've got four books to do first. But when I've finished them, in about 2014, I'm going to write a novel.

Is British history not bloody enough for you?
Roger Marsh, Colchester

Well, I think I can say without being over-defensive that writing Stalingrad was not my idea at all. My publisher suggested it. I even tried to get out of it. I'd suggested a completely different book, about social change in Britain over the past 15 years. But I won't be writing a book about Britain in the near future. It's an awful thing to say, but I actually find British history rather parochial.

What motivated you to join the Army? Did you see any action?
Fred Parkinson, by e-mail

I thought I'd joined the Army because of patriotism, to extend the frontiers of the free world and all the rest of it. But I think everybody's motives are always far more confused than they think. It wasn't until I'd been in the Army for about five years and had begun to write my first novel that I realised the real reason was the physical inferiority complex I'd had as a boy. When I was small, I had a condition called Perthes disease, which makes the hipbone go soft. It meant I was on crutches between the ages of four and seven and I was bullied at school. I went around with my leg in a sling behind my back. And no, I didn't see any action in the Army. Almost, but not quite.

Which one person who was involved in the fall of Berlin would you most like to have met?
Benjamin Callender, Liverpool

Without a doubt, Hitler. I don't think we are ever going to know what Hitler was really like. Was he mad? Was he evil? One psychiatrist said to me that Stalin could be defined as being a paranoid schizophrenic but Hitler only as having a severe personality disorder. That sets one thinking, "Jesus Christ, what is a personality disorder if it is going to lead to the massacre of millions and millions of people?" I wouldn't have any specific questions for him. I think I would just like to sit there and watch him.

Do you have any plans to write another book with your wife?
Sarah Entwhistle, by e-mail

Well, she's doing a biography of Patrick Leigh Fermor and I'll be doing a little bit on that. Writing together is a huge pleasure. Most people say, "Isn't it an instant route to divorce?" But it's not. It's great. You're never short of anything to talk about the whole time you're writing together. While we were writing Paris after the Liberation the only crisis came right at the end. I had to write the final chapter and when I showed it to Artemis, she said it wasn't right. But she couldn't put her finger on why. Of course, I threw my teddy in the corner. It was our American editor, Jackie Onassis, who worked out what was wrong. It was a month before she died and she was still working. She was fascinated with the book because she'd been in Paris during that period. She was always dismissed as a society airhead, which was unfair because she had a very good eye as an editor.

If you were in the Army now, would you willingly serve in Iraq?
Harriet Osbourne, London

I would have served with very mixed feelings. I think this war is ill considered, for a whole number of reasons. For one, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict should have been resolved first, because otherwise, not surprisingly, Arab opinion will believe this war is pure hypocrisy on the part of the West. But once you have confronted a dictator, you have to carry it through, otherwise it will encourage other dictators. The French claim that we could have disarmed Saddam through diplomatic means is sheer sophistry. No dictator will ever disarm voluntarily.

'Berlin: The Downfall 1945' is published in paperback by Penguin tomorrow, priced £12.99