The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
What first attracted you to the period or periods you work in? From a young age I have avidly devoured narratives and illustrated books on military history of all periods. I have been fascinated by the Second World War and it clearly has left its mark on the United...
Books Click on any of the books covers below to either buy or get more information on Amazon Articles Click on the links below to read the full article [dpdfg_filtergrid custom_query="advanced" use_taxonomy_terms="on" multiple_taxonomies="name_of_author"...
Books of 2021 from Aspects of HistoryTimothy Ashby Author of Elizabethan Secret AgentAt the top of my favourites list of recent historical books is Leanda de Lisle´s Henrietta Maria. Although non-fiction, the book reads like a historical novel, with fascinating...
Back in the bad old days of the – last – Cold War, NATO held an annual exercise when national leaders and senior military officers war gamed how they would handle a crisis. Called WINTEX, these exercises were constructed within the then tight protocols that governed...
The Queen & the Crown In 1937, librettist Christopher Hassall published a poem entitled ‘The Princesses’. His subjects were the two daughters of Britain’s new king, George VI, Elizabeth - the future Elizabeth II - and Margaret Rose. The poem celebrated the royal...
In his debut thriller, The Perfect Corpse, Giles Milton combines his mastery of strong narratives and his attention to historical detail to produce a page-turner as gripping as the best of Robert Harris. When a frozen corpse is found in Greenland ice — assumed to be...
Glimpses of Britain in the summer '62. The actor Kenneth Williams “disgusted” in Hyde Park by the sight of men receiving “kissings & caressings” from their female companions; a sharp polio outbreak in Dundee; health minister Enoch Powell wanting hospitals to allow...
Summer Reads from Aspects of HistoryTimothy Ashby Author of Elizabethan Secret Agent: The Untold Story of William Ashby (1536-1593)At the top of my favourites list of recent historical books is Leanda de Lisle´s The White King. Although non-fiction, the book reads...
On a Saturday in 2012, journalist Simon Kuper had the highly sought-after opportunity to interview the last surviving traitor of the Cold War, George Blake, in his dacha (home) outside Moscow. As it turned out, Kuper is believed to have been the last Western...
Capital of Spies For anyone who lived in West Berlin during the sixties, seventies or eighties, the very mention of the great city’s name on a news bulletin brought a frisson of excitement with memories of Russian checkpoints, the Wall and constant flow of spy stories...
