TITANIC: 9 HOURS TO HELL: The Survivors' Story

• 'Enthralling' THE DAILY MAIL - review of the hardback published in 2010.• 'Quite the best and most level-headed telling of the whole story I have ever read' THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY.• The human story of the disaster, rather than a history of the ship itself.• B-format paperback of hugely successful hardback.• The most detailed narrative ever of the sinking of the Titanic on the night of 14-15 April 1912. Most books deal with the collision at 23:40 on the 14 April to the rescue of the survivors 04:01-08:30 on the 15 April in a few chapters, W.B. Bartlett devotes the entire book to the unfolding drama of these nine hours.• The 'voices' of the survivors are used throughout and for the first time equal space is given over to the experience of the third class passengers.• There are many controversies surrounding the sinking of the Titanic, most well known, W.B. Bartlett is the first to concentrate on the treatment of the third class passengers.

It was twenty minutes to midnight on Sunday 14 April, when Jack Thayer felt the Titanic lurch to port, a motion followed by the slightest of shocks. Seven-year old Eva Hart barely noticed anything was wrong. For Stoker Fred Barrett, shovelling coal down below, it was somewhat different; the side of the ship where he was working caved in.

For the next nine hours, Jack, Eva and Fred faced death and survived. They lived, along with just over 700 others picked up by 08.30 the next morning. Over 1500 people did not. This is the story told through the eyes of Jack, Eva, Fred and over a hundred others of those who survived and either wrote their experiences down or appeared before the major inquiries held subsequently.

Drawing extensively on their collective evidence, this book weaves the narrative of the events that occurred in those nine fateful hours. This is their story, and those of a fateful night, when the largest ship ever built sank without completing one successful voyage.