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Andy Owen on Land of the Blind

Andy Owen on Land of the Blind

Fellow writer and soldier Adam Staten posed the questions to Andy Owen on his new novel.
Andy Owen

The majority of the book is set in 2007 but there is a post-script detailing your characters’ involvement in the chaotic coalition departure of 2021. Was it this ending of the coalition efforts that gave you the impetus to publish the book now? I wrote most of the...

NATO’s Greatest Achievement

NATO’s Greatest Achievement

NATO's response to the fall of communism has made it the world's most powerful alliance.
Sten Rynning

NATO’s Greatest Achievement Readers may rightly wonder why NATO, so pre-eminent as Europe’s security foundation, is so timid in its response to Russia’s war on Ukraine. To fully grasp this, we need to look back to NATO’s perhaps greatest achievement, namely its...

Land of the Blind

Land of the Blind

Lessons must be learned by the Afghanistan experience.
Andy Owen

Land of the Blind There is a joke in the army that after a conflict we used to have “lessons learned” sessions to ensure we would avoid similar mistakes in the next conflict, but we had to rename “lessons learned” to “lessons identified” as we frequently identified...

Those Must Be The Guards, by Paul de Zulueta and Simon Doughty

Those Must Be The Guards, by Paul de Zulueta and Simon Doughty

The Household Division is given a sincere contemporary review of service over 50 years.
David Webb-Carter

To write the history of one regiment covering the years from 1969 to the current day would be no mean task, but here we have a book covering the seven regiments of the Household Division over this same period. It is indeed a tour de force and compulsive reading for...

Adam Staten

Adam Staten

Adam Staten discusses Afghanistan, Hastings and the Anglo Saxons.

Adam Staten, what first attracted you to the period or periods you work in? My first novel, Steadfast, was inspired by my experiences serving as a doctor on the front line in Afghanistan. I suppose the first germ of the story took hold whilst I was out there, but it...

Adam Staten

Adam Staten

Adam Staten’s debut novel Steadfast: Brothers in Arms was published by Sharpe Books in 2023. The novel draws inspiration from Adam’s experiences serving in the British Army in Afghanistan in 2012. The first book in his trilogy about the adventures of Cadman, an Anglo-Saxon warrior, is due for publication later this year, also with Sharpe Books. Cadman’s story begins in the years before the Norman Conquest and follows his life in the aftermath of 1066.
Adam Staten
Aspects of History Book of the Year: Conflict

Aspects of History Book of the Year: Conflict

Our Book of the Year is Conflict, by General David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts.

As readers and fans of the site will know, Aspects of History runs a Books of the Year feature each December. There is often a history book which stands out for our board and contributors, such as The World by Simon Sebag-Montefiore and The White Ship by Charles...

The World: A Family History, by Simon Sebag Montefiore

The World: A Family History, by Simon Sebag Montefiore

An expansive, enlightening, and entertaining history of some of humanity’s most interesting characters.
Luke Pepera

An expansive, enlightening, and entertaining history of some of humanity’s most interesting characters. The first thing worth mentioning about Simon Sebag-Montefiore’s The World is that it wholly delivers on the promise of its title and its synopsis. If you are by...

Putin’s War

Putin’s War

A new collection of essays raise important questions on the war in Ukraine.
Philip Blood

Putin's War Russian Genocide presents a critical exploration of the initial year of Russia's incursion into Ukraine, commencing in February 2022. This remarkable volume brings together a diverse panel of experts, including former soldiers, academics, and legal...