Phil Craig

What first attracted you to the period or periods you work in?I was a 60s child and brought up on Airfix models, the Air Training Corps and Victor comics, so the Second World War obsessed me, especially the Battle of Britain. When I was about 40 the BBC asked me to make its big 60th anniversary series of 1940 and that inspired me to write my first book.Can you tell us a little more about how you research? Has the process changed over the years?There’s no substitute for fresh sources and first hand testimony. In the past that meant a lot of face to face meetings and hours in libraries and archives.  I still do some of this but the internet – an especially social media – has made things a lot easier and faster.  Many of the best stories and people in my latest book came from interactions on Twitter/X and the help of enthusiastic strangers.The common phrase is that history is written by the victors. Do you think this is true?Yes and its something we should all bear in mind when assessing contradictory accounts.Are there any historians who helped shaped your career? Similarly, can you recommend three history books which budding historians should read?My Batley Grammar School history teacher, Stuart Archer.My Cambridge history supervisor David Cannadine.My friend James Holland.If you could meet any figure from history, who would it be and why? Also, if you could witness any event throughout history, what would it be?Churchill, of course!   And to have been present at Trafalgar – though not THAT close – would have been incredible.If you could add any period or subject to the history curriculum, what would it be?Much more on ancient Greece and Persia.If you could give a piece of advice to your younger self, either as a student or when you first started out as a writer, what would it be?Do give up the day job.  I loved my TV career and it earned me the money to be able to write full time now, but I suspect that I could have stopped it a decade ago and written four more great books!Can you tell us a little bit more about the project you are currently working on?A colourful, exiting and warts and all account of Britain and its empire in 1945, that reveals new – or very little known – stories of what I call ‘imperial muscle memory’ whilst also honouring the generation that achieved that vital victory.  I’m very pleased that historians on opposite sides of what we crudely call ‘the culture war’ over imperial history have found encouraging things to say about the book so far.