The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
Adam Sisman, can you first tell us about the genesis of the book, The Secret Life of John le Carré? This shorter work serves as a coda to your full-length biography (although it can be read without being familiar with that work). When did you initially have the idea...
Robert Kershaw, many congratulations on The Hill. Why was Crete so important for the Germans to capture? In hindsight one could argue Crete was not so important to capture as it subsequently tied up two fortress infantry divisions and Luftwaffe and shipping assets for...
Evan Mawdsley, by mid-44 in what state was the Imperial Japanese Navy? In May 1944, the commanders of the American Pacific Fleet thought that it was unlikely that the IJN would sortie from the Philippines to defend the Marianas Islands. This was due to their estimate...
When one looks at the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland under Oliver Cromwell in August 1658, would it have been fanciful to imagine a Republic for the foreseeable future, yet within two years the Stuarts were back on the throne? By August 1658, the...
What was your inspiration for Savage Continent, your book about Europe in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War? Did it grow out of your work on the devastating bombing of Hamburg? That was the seed out of which it grew. Having seen how devastated Hamburg...
Paul Wreyford, many congratulations on the book. Why did you choose these particular figures – Henry VIII, Napoleon, Shakespeare and Cleopatra to name but a few? I just went for some of the most famous people in history and from a wide range of eras. Everyone will...
Nick Hewitt, many congratulations on Normandy: The Sailor’s Story. Why did you want to write it? Thank you! I’ve been studying the naval history of D-Day and the wider Normandy campaign for most of my career, ever since I started working aboard HMS Belfast as a baby...
In your new book Every Spy a Traitor you move away from a World War II/Post War setting and focus purely on a ‘Cold War’ with the Soviet Union in the 1930s. What was it that attracted you to the period? I liked the idea of a series that covered a longer time span,...
Angus Konstam, many congratulations on the new book. Before the prologue we see wonderful maps that evoke the romantic locations of the period: the Caribbean, West Africa, the eastern seaboard of the American colonies, the Florida keys and of course the Bahamas. What...
Graham Turner, many congratulations on a quite stunning collection of paintings for the book. What is it about the Wars of the Roses that make such an attractive subject for your art? Thank you. As a child my imagination was captured by seeing armour in places like...
