Unbreakable : the countess, the Nazis and the world's most dangerous horse race

Discover a story that defies belief: National Velvet meets Downton Abbey with a splash of Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa's The Leopard. * WINNER OF THE 2020 TELEGRAPH SPORTS BOOK AWARDS BIOGRAPHY OF THE YEAR ** LONGLISTED FOR THE WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR *Czechoslovakia, October 1937.

Vast crowds have gathered to watch the Grand Pardubice steeplechase, Europe's most blood-curdling sporting test of manhood.

With war looming, the race has a brutal political significance.

The Nazis have sent the SS's all-conquering paramilitary horsemen to crush - yet again - the 'subhuman Slavs'.

But Lata Brandisova, a silver-haired countess on a little golden mare, has other ideas... 'Heart-stopping reading' Clover Stroud, Daily Telegraph