John, congratulations on the publication of your new novel Target Arnhem. It’s a great World War II story, combining battlefield action with a nail biting espionage plot. Could you tell us a bit about the different storylines? Thank you Alan. This is the second book...
WW2
Reinhard Heydrich: The Man With The Iron Heart
Amidst stiff competition from his fellow tyrants Reinhard Heydrich has a strong claim to be the 20th century’s most evil monster: even an awed Adolf Hitler called him ‘the man with the Iron heart’. For when this tall blonde epitome of the Nazi Aryan ideal was...
Coming of Age at 18: Alice Loxton Interview
Coming of Age at 18: Alice Loxton Interview Alice, I wondered what were you doing when you were when you were 18? I probably had a pretty conventional 18 year old life, I think, in that I was just completing my A-levels and was looking to university. I was very...
Diana Mara Henry on I Am André
Diana, many congratulations on your new book, the story of ‘André’ Joseph Scheinmann. How did you find out about this extraordinary man? His son and I were classmates at Harvard, though we never met at university there. When Michel discovered, in our 25th reunion...
A Suspicion of Spies, by Tim Spicer
Wilfred ‘Biffy’ Dunderdale often features as a daring bit-part player in World War II espionage books, but now this extraordinary character takes centre stage in Tim Spicer’s insightful biography. Dunderdale was an iron fist in a velvet glove. He combined charm with...
I Am André
I Am André Cher Camarade ... mon capitaine ... mon lieutenant ... Monsieur Le Neveu ... 31AQ ... MI6 #99421 ... #4368 at Natzweiler and #101739 at Dachau ... Martin ... Turquoise ... interprète ... Herr Dolmetscher ... 0419064, French Liaison Officer ... Agent from C...
Turkey: Birth of a Nation
At its greatest extant under the rule of Suleyman the Magnificent in the 1500s, the Ottoman Empire ran from the walls of Vienna (to which it laid siege in 1529 all the way across eastern Europe and the Middle East to Baghdad and Basra. From Algiers the tughra of the...
Jonestown: Paradise Undone
Jonestown: Paradise Undone “The first body I saw was off to the side, alone. Five more steps and I saw another and another and another; hundreds of bodies. The Newsweek reporter was walking around saying, “I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it.” Another guy said,...
France in the Second World War: An Enduring Myth
I’ve written extensively on the Second World War in Europe. My eleven books may be works of fiction but the plots are all based around real events that unfolded during the war. That history and the locations I use are all carefully researched. I scrupulously avoid...
Between the Clouds and the River, by Dave Mason
Between the Clouds and the River is Dave Mason’s latest historical fiction, with a dual timeline narrative set between 1942 and 1965. Spanning continents and decades, this book is a sweeping and moving tale of life, love, loss and everything in between. In 1942,...