The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
John – your book, General Hastings 'Pug' Ismay: Soldier, Statesman, Diplomat was published nearly two years ago. Can you give us an outline of the life of ‘Pug’ Ismay, a man you describe as ‘an unusual subject for a biography’? Who was he, and provide us with some...
In an exploration of some of the most difficult times of his life, Peter Kasl details his trip as an 11-year-old with his family to flee the communist rule of Czechoslovakia. Escaping the Grip of Eastern European Communism allows a first-hand insight into the...
De Gaulle wrote of Churchill, and might well have written of himself, that he was an ‘artist of history.’ Both men were artists in how they wrote their history, but also lived their lives as thought they were constructing a work of art. They understood that every act...
The historical context of Delhi – City of Spies is crucial to my novel because it is the true story of an unsolved murder that took place in New Delhi in 1954 at the height of the Cold War. Although my book is based on a family archive and is, therefore, subjective...
Peter Kasl, your memoir begins through the eyes of your eleven-year-old self. Was it revisiting childhood memories and those perception of the events surrounding your escape from Czechoslovakia that drove the writing of this book? I remember all my experiences in that...
My memoir is a remarkable true story about how my family and I escaped communist rule in Czechoslovakia - one set against today’s conversations around freedom, communism, socialism, and legal vs. illegal immigration. The book is called Escaping the Grip of Eastern...
Books of 2025 from Aspects of HistoryZeb Baker-Smith Editor of Aspects of HistorySeven Rivers by Vanessa Taylor explores how humanity and waterways have shaped one another across millennia, offering vivid historical portraits of the Nile, Danube, Ganges, Thames,...
The History behind The Bratinsky Affair "It is not the wimpled version of history that is interesting but its brutality." - Hilary Mantel The story of Countess Irina Bratinsky, née O’Rourke de Breffny, has its roots in the religious wars of 17th-century Ireland and...
The Five Armies That Made Europe Regrettably, war is inevitable. Many of us who have had the privilege of being born in Western democracies after 1945 have been spared having to confront war directly. This has created a false optimism that future generations may not...
Korea: War Without End, by Richard Dannatt and Robert Lyman This is of seminal importance to our appreciation of the importance of the Korean War. The authors combine strategic military awareness with the necessity of providing historical analysis built on thorough...
