The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
The 'miracle of Dunkirk' is lauded in British history and folklore as a victory of human endeavor, celebrated each year with a profusion of TV documentary veteran accounts and memorial services. German soldiers constantly referred to the wunder or miracle of reaching...
8th December 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, German assassin Martin Browning plans to kill Franklin Delano Roosevelt on Christmas Eve when the American President lights the National Christmas tree on the South Lawn of the White House....
The primary lesson of War is that it has shaped human history since the mark of Cain condemned us to endless cycles of conflict and the gods urged champions onto victory from the vantage point of Mount Olympus. The tangled roots of warfare are so densely packed it’s...
With the ability of British collective memory to turn abject failure into heroic myth, the 1940 campaign, which eventually saw the Royal Navy fulfil one of its traditional roles of removing a beaten army to be used somewhere else, has become the ‘Miracle of Dunkirk’. ...
God Save the King! Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II had a special place in the hearts of every serviceman and woman of this country. This isn’t mere sentimentality, but a fact hard rooted in our constitution. All servicemen and women owe their loyalty not to a...
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...
The British view of Dunkirk is that of an iconic battle, a hugely important morale boost snatched from the jaws of what really was a catastrophic defeat. How is Dünkirchen viewed by the Germans? Dunkirk was viewed by German soldiers as simply a sign-post on the way to...
When I first read about the Rosenstraße protests, the only successful event that lasted for several days and resulted in the protesters’ victory, I just knew I had to write the story of these incredible women. Yes, it was mostly women who gathered in front of the...
The acclaimed historian has written a bestselling and acclaimed account of the Sherwood Rangers, the British tank regiment awarded more honours than any other during the Second World War. Following the unit from the Normandy landings to the invasion of Germany,...
Immediately the tone of The Woman Who Risked Everything is introduced as one that is tense and threatening. The Prologue takes the reader to a point in the future, demonstrating how the novel will escalate. The tension in this small section is built effectively as our...
