Acclaimed historian Andrew Roberts reviews WWII History in an hour: The practice of History is ever-evolving, and with the History In An Hour idea, Rupert Colley brings it back up to date for the digital age. In a series of ebooks and apps, Colley takes a big subject - such as the Second World War or the Cold War - and condenses it down to one single hour's worth of reading. Someone with only a patchy idea of how World War Two progressed would end up with a good overview of the main events. Stripped of historical debates and interpretations, the series prides itself on its brevity but still providing its readers with the facts.

Of course, facts piled upon each other can leave a reader bewildered or bored, but Colley writes in an attractively readable style, and manages to convey the huge story that is WWII in a logical and accessible manner. He has also added a couple of appendices, brief biographies of the key players, a timeline, and good illustrations. The History In An Hour website states that the books are aimed at "commuters, students and the curious". The format certainly makes for an ideal ebook, be on Smart Phone, iPad or your Kindle, but it should also exist in print, accessible to all. This is the way of the future of history publishing.

Andrew Roberts is a judge on the Elizabeth Longford Historical Biography Prize, chaired the Conservative Party's Advisory Panel on the Teaching of History in Schools in 2005, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He has also been elected a Fellow of the Napoleonic Institute and an Honorary Member of the International Churchill Society (UK).