The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
Matt, congratulations on your first novel. Why did you want to write this story? Thank you. There were a number of reasons. Firstly, I had long wanted to write a novel. My writing history has included journalism, poetry and short stories but never a novel. It felt...
The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 was a complex operation that required precise information about the movement and disposition of the US Pacific Fleet, based at Hawaii. This information was gathered on the ground by a spy named Takeo...
Recent years have seen a welcome recognition of the many women who worked in top secret roles with the intelligence services, particularly during the Second World War. Helen Fry’s highly impressive new book on Women in Intelligence goes even further, describing how...
A Family Created by War We are now almost eighty years past the end of the Second World War and novels from the era remain extremely popular. The need to capture and tell stories about the greatest conflict the world has ever seen is more pressing than ever. But why?...
Dead Ground is a World War II thriller of the highest order and continues Graham Hurley’s “non-linear” The Spoils of War series, with each book covering a different aspect of World War II. The last book The Blood of Others was set around the Dieppe Raid in 1942. The...
In the years just before the First World War, a boy was growing up in Imperial India. He was obstinate and full of life. Still a toddler, he chatted to the servants in Hindustani. His father nicknamed him Kim, after the spy hero of Rudyard Kipling’s novel, who could...
Birds of Prey, by Philip W. Blood The Bialowieźa forest, in Poland and Belarus, is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. The forest is full of interesting plant life and a wide range of wildlife including wolves, wild boar, deer and European bison. No wonder then, that...
Historical Heroes: Alan Turing “It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Winston Churchill’s speech on Russia, 1939 It was the first action in the war at sea. A few hours after the declaration of war between Germany, Britain and France, the German...
Rising Tide, by Alan Bardos, is the first novel in the Daniel Nichols Spy Thriller Series - the author’s second historical fiction series. Bardos’ first book, The Assassins, was received with great acclaim - this trend was then continued throughout the rest of his...
Robert Kershaw, many congratulations on The Hill. Why was Crete so important for the Germans to capture? In hindsight one could argue Crete was not so important to capture as it subsequently tied up two fortress infantry divisions and Luftwaffe and shipping assets for...
