The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
The History behind the DCI Frank Merlin Books I write a series about a police detective called Frank Merlin working in World War Two London. The sixth in the series, Death Of An Officer, is being published later this month. I am often asked where I get my story ideas...
My recent book Who Will Rescue Us? represents over ten years of historical research on a group of primarily Jewish children who fled Nazi Germany and Austria. The goals of my study were multiple: I wanted to grasp- to the extent possible- what it felt like to be a...
R.J. Mitchell: Father of the Spitfire Reginald Mitchell died at the age of 42. In his short working life, he had achieved astonishing engineering success with Schneider Trophy victories and the design of more than 20 aeroplanes, and he had put together a team which...
1945: The Reckoning: War, Empire and the Struggle for a New World, by Phil Craig How does one make any sense of the end of the Second World War in Asia in 1945, a war that ended just as quickly and unexpectedly as it had begun? Thirty-nine agonizing months separated...
Operation Nightfall, by Karl Wegener The year is 1948. Mankind is still reeling from the effects of WWII. Politics causes mass division. Tyranny threatens to take over. Tensions are high, deception is rife, yet hope persists. Following the events that occurred between...
Spymasters Book Prize 2025 We are pleased and proud to announce the shortlist for the first Spymasters Book Prize. Our judges have thoroughly enjoyed reading and debating the entries. We would recommend you all to read the shortlist - and longlist - and choose your...
Opening The Gates of Hell - Review For many of us Operation Barbarossa reaches its point of maximum impact with the relentless siege of Leningrad and the battle of Stalingrad. These two cornerstones in our awareness remind us of the extent of the German advance in...
John, congratulations on the new book, In For The Kill. Sergeant Harris returns after Target Arnhem. What has happened between the two books? Thank you, Ollie. In For The Kill the third book in the Manner of Men series, begins just over a week after the conclusion of...
Since the end of the Second World War the Third Reich and the characters of its leaders have been dissected, dismembered, analysed, scrutinised, evaluated, judged and generally examined producing a plethora of books, some academic and scholarly, some populist, some...
This book is a marvellous read, emotional and yet educative, clearly the result of extensive research, and you have a particular interest in British and German history. But one wonders, what sparked the idea for such work? Thank you, that’s very kind of you to say!...
