The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
The Dardanelles campaign in World War One was conceived as a ‘demonstration’ to relieve pressure on Russian troops, fighting in the Caucasus. It quickly developed into a means of opening the backdoor to the Central Powers and to supply the Russians through the...
As the light began to fade on 2 January 1777, a group of red-coated figures gathered in discussion on a small hill overlooking the village of Trenton, New Jersey. The urgency of their deliberations was emphasised by the rumbling sound of nearby musketry and cannon...
Berlin emerged after the end of World War II as a geographically and politically ideal base of operations for secret service activities. As the point of intersection between East and West, Berlin exerted an almost magical attraction on intelligence agencies. The city...
The Gallipoli campaign was originally conceived as a naval operation that could be carried out without the use of troops, to clear the costal fortifications barring the Dardanelles Straits. The plan was to gradually reduce the Turkish defences through a systematic...
Starting a new series is always exciting – new characters to develop and place in my fictional Saxon world and new challenges in bringing another period of time to life. It might still be set in Saxon England, but Saxon England endured for over six hundred years. In...
The Roman army waged war in the most brutal of fashions. Its aim was the total subjugation of its enemies. Well, so far, so obvious. What is perhaps less understood is the way it valued fear itself as a weapon. Ably illustrated by the tactical use of projectile...
My novel, The Clockwork Girl, was inspired partly by the real scandal of the vanishing children of Paris. In my book, I worked largely with the urban legends that sprang up around the scandal. But what, in fact, really happened? Rumours and leprous princes In the cold...
The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry was commissioned in May 1794 at the Bear Inn, Devizes, a town that still remains the regiment’s spiritual home. These county soldiers fought with distinction in South Africa and the Great War and at 3 o’clock on the 2nd September 1939, the...
Mining for History Part One History tells us that the Romans left Britain in 410AD but, as the historian Michael Wood put it: “The Romans did not simply abandon Britain and sail back to Italy.” So, what did happen? This was certainly not a sudden blunt trauma injury...
Black Market in Paris Many of us grew up with the image of Private Walker in Dad’s Army. The spiv, a lovable comedy character selling stockings and chocolates illegally, getting into scrapes with authority and helping others while helping himself. He was the black...
