The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
Firstly, can you tell us a little bit about your latest spy novel, Queen & Country, and its protagonist, Charles Thoroughgood? This is now the seventh novel to feature the character. Your relationship with Charles has now lasted longer than most marriages,...
"The atomic clock ticked faster and faster. We may anticipate a state of affairs in which two great powers will each be in a position to put an end to the civilisation and life of the other, though not without risking its own. We may be likened to two scorpions in a...
Michael Smith, what first attracted you to the period you work in? I was in military intelligence before becoming a journalist in the 1980s, so I was acutely aware of how much the reporting of intelligence matters in that period was based on conspiracy theory rather...
The so-called Special Relationship with America is frequently dismissed by both politicians and the media as a myth, even a joke. Yet the basic truth is that Britain and America are bound together more closely than either is to any other ally, with the two countries...
CVHF 2023: Day 3 The V-Bombers - Norman Bonner & Ed Jarron with James Holland Britain And The Nuclear Threat - Julie McDowall The Pacific War 1941-45 - Saul David & Michael Neiberg The Wolf-Girl, The Greeks And The Gods: A Tale Of The Persian Wars - Tom...
Summer Reads from Aspects of HistoryAlan Bardos Author of The Dardanelles ConspiracyQueen High by CJ Carey is the sequel to Widow Land and a counter factual/dystopian novel; in a similar vein to 1984, Fatherland and Brave New World. It is set in a 1950s Britain that...
Many books have been written about the Vietnam War over the years. This, by Ian Gardner, a British reservist paratrooper, focuses on a specific American paratroop unit’s experiences in Vietnam for a 12 month period between November 1967 and October 1968. As such, it’s...
David Boyle, the author behind numerous well-received historical and historical fiction books, including Alan Turing: Unlocking the Enigma and Operation Primrose, brings us a thoughtful and detailed account of the father of the atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, and his...
Coronation is the ultimate pocket-sized companion to what has become an exclusively British preoccupation, (the last European crowning was in 1922). There is no better guide to Elizabeth's 1953 bonanza than royal biographer Hugo Vickers whose up close and personal...
In his latest biography on royalty, Matthew Dennison has written an empathetic, and balanced, life story of our Sovereign, Queen Elizabeth. His book is not just another narrative of her life; rather, an informed analysis of her personality, the pressures and...
