Gordon Thomas Books in Order
37 books are credited to Gordon Thomas, published between 1969 and 2019; 1 of them appeared after Gordon Thomas's death in 2017. The first book is The Day the World Ended: The Mount Pelée Disaster: May 7, 1902 (1969) and the newest is Defying Hitler: The Germans Who Resisted Nazi Rule (2019). Publication order is the reading order below.
- Books
- 37
- Published
- 1969–2019
- Pages on record
- 3,824 in 11 of 37 books
Gordon Thomas (1933-2017) was a British investigative journalist who wrote on secret intelligence and on disasters reconstructed hour by hour. The Day the World Ended, on the 1902 Mount Pelée eruption, opens the catalogue in 1969, followed by accounts of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Morro Castle, Guernica, Hiroshima in Enola Gay (1977) and the 1929 Wall Street crash. Thomas published 53 books in all, 37 of them catalogued here through to Defying Hitler in 2019, among them Gideon's Spies, Secret Wars and The Pope's Jews. Thomas was a cousin of the poet Dylan Thomas.
How many Gordon Thomas books are there?
Gordon Thomas has 37 books, released between 1969 and 2019. 1 of them were published after Gordon Thomas's death in 2017. 5 of them belong to the David Morton series.
Gordon Thomas Books in Publication Order
The table lists all 37 Gordon Thomas books in the order they were published, with the release year, the page count where one is on record, and how many independent book listings confirm each title. Catalogue data as of September 2026.
- 1The Day the World Ended: The Mount Pelée Disaster: May 7, 19021969 · confirmed 1/41969–1/4
- 2The San Francisco Earthquake: A Minute-by-Minute Account of the 1906 Disaster1971 · confirmed 1/41971–1/4
- 3Shipwreck: The Strange Fate of the Morro Castle1972 · confirmed 1/41972–1/4
- 4Voyage of the Damned1974 · confirmed 1/41974–1/4
- 5Issels: The Biography of a Doctor1975 · 352 pages · confirmed 1/419753521/4
- 6The Day Guernica Died1975 · confirmed 1/41975–1/4
- 7Enola Gay: Mission to Hiroshima1977 · confirmed 1/41977–1/4
- 9Bed of Nails: The Story of the Amazing Blondini1981 · 238 pages · confirmed 1/419812381/4
- 10Anatomy of an Epidemic1981 · 366 pages · confirmed 1/419813661/4
- 11Pontiff1983 · confirmed 1/41983–1/4
- 12The Operation1984 · 192 pages · confirmed 1/419841921/4
- 13The Year of Armageddon: The Pope and the Bomb1984 · 426 pages · confirmed 1/419844261/4
- 14Desire and Denial: Celibacy and the Church1986 · confirmed 1/41986–1/4
- 15The Jesus Conspiracy: An Investigative Reporter's Look at an Extraordinary Life & Death1987 · confirmed 1/41987–1/4
- 16The Trial1987 · 400 pages · confirmed 1/419874001/4
- 17Journey into Madness: The True Story of Secret CIA Mind Control & Medical Abuse1987 · confirmed 1/41987–1/4
- 18Enslaved1989 · 289 pages · confirmed 1/419892891/4
- 19Chaos Under Heaven: The Shocking Story of China's Search for Democracy1991 · confirmed 1/41991–1/4
- 201992–1/4
- 211992–1/4
- 221994–1/4
- 231994–1/4
- 241996–1/4
- 25Trespass into Temptation1997 · 391 pages · confirmed 1/419973911/4
- 26Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad1999 · confirmed 1/41999–1/4
- 27Seeds of Fire: China and the Story Behind the Attack on America2001 · 524 pages · confirmed 1/420015241/4
- 28Robert Maxwell, Israel's Superspy2003 · 448 pages · confirmed 1/420034481/4
- 29Human Beings: The Weird and the Wonderful2005 · 198 pages · confirmed 1/420051981/4
- 30Secret Wars: One Hundred Years of British Intelligence Inside MI5 and MI62009 · confirmed 1/42009–1/4
- 31Operation Exodus: From the Nazi Death Camps to the Promised Land: A Perilous Journey That Shaped Israel's Fate2009 · confirmed 1/42009–1/4
- 32Secret Wars / Inside British Intelligence2009 · confirmed 1/42009–1/4
- 33Prisoners in Rabaul: Civilians Surviving Japanese Captivity, 1942-19452012 · confirmed 1/42012–1/4
- 34The Pope's Jews: The Vatican's Secret Plan to Save Jews from the Nazis2012 · confirmed 1/42012–1/4
- 35Magdalene: Jesus and the Woman Who Loved Him2014 · confirmed 1/42014–1/4
- 36Shadow Warriors of World War II: The Daring Women of the OSS and SOE2017 · confirmed 1/42017–1/4
- 37Defying Hitler: The Germans Who Resisted Nazi Rule2019 · confirmed 1/42019–1/4
Gordon Thomas books grouped by series
Each title below is a row in the publication-order table above. None of these groups has a reading-order page of its own on this site.
David Morton in order
5 booksStandalone books
32 books32 Gordon Thomas titles here are not listed as part of any series.
Do you have to read Gordon Thomas books in order?
You only need to read Gordon Thomas books in order within the David Morton series, which holds 5 of the 37 Gordon Thomas books listed here. The numbered table above gives every book in publication order.
Where to start with Gordon Thomas
Start with The Day the World Ended: The Mount Pelée Disaster: May 7, 1902 (1969), the earliest published title.
What is the newest Gordon Thomas book?
Defying Hitler: The Germans Who Resisted Nazi Rule (2019) is the newest Gordon Thomas book released so far.
Is there a new Gordon Thomas book coming?
No next Gordon Thomas book is announced in the catalogue, which is a gap in the listings it merges rather than a sign that the run has ended.
Gordon Thomas at a glance
- Died
- Gordon Thomas died in 2017, according to Wikidata.
- After death
- Books credited to Gordon Thomas are still being published after Gordon Thomas's death in 2017; the newest appeared in 2019.
- Release pace
- Gordon Thomas books have appeared about one a year on average.
- Length
- 3,824 pages across the 11 of 37 books with a recorded length, a median of 366 pages each.
- Busiest decade
- Most Gordon Thomas books, 10 of 37, were published in the 1980s.
What the Gordon Thomas books are about
9 of the 37 Gordon Thomas books carry subject tags in Open Library's catalogue. The subjects below are the ones that recur across them, most frequent first: biography is tagged on 2 of 9. The subjects are cataloguers’ headings, not a plot summary.
- Biography 2 of 9 books
- Foreign relations 2 of 9 books
- History 2 of 9 books