The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
January 2018 saw the publication of my book, Pandemic 1918, the Story of the Deadliest Influenza in Human History, an account of the Spanish flu pandemic which killed up to 100 million people worldwide in three successive waves between 1918 and 1920. When Pandemic...
Five Books on Ancient Rome. 5. The Roman Revolution, by Ronald Syme. A powerful book, about power - and how Rome shifted from the Republic into the Empire. Syme is excellent on the detail, without ever being dull. His Augustus is as ruthless and ambitious as any...
I was delighted to be asked to interview Professor Tombs, a distinguished historian of France and the bestselling author of The English and Their History, about his new book, This Sovereign Isle: Britain In and Out of Europe, on the historical context of Brexit...
Books Click on any of the books covers below to either buy or get more information on Amazon Articles Click on the links below to read the full article [dpdfg_filtergrid custom_query="advanced" use_taxonomy_terms="on" multiple_taxonomies="name_of_author"...
In AD 865 a Viking Great Army landed in East Anglia, and for the next decade it campaigned throughout England, moving rapidly by river and road. Unlike earlier Viking raids which had been largely hit-and-run affairs, seizing silver and slaves from exposed coastal...
The Spanish Civil War was a clear-cut revolutionary/counterrevolutionary contest between left and right, with the fascist totalitarian powers supporting the right and the Soviet totalitarian power supporting the left. At first it was never intended to be a precursor...
HMS Belfast - the Town-class light cruiser, originally launched in 1938 is open to visitors once more. The vessel saw convoy duty, survived the Battle of North Cape and took part in the destruction of the Scharnhorst during WW2. The Belfast has long been moored on the...
For 19-year-old Gwen Thomas, it was love at first sight when she laid eyes on Bruce Smeaton, a handsome 23-year-old Lancaster pilot from Warrington. The year was 1943. Britain’s strategic bombing campaign over Nazi-occupied Europe was in full force. In the spring and...
Never easy, the assessment of generalship becomes more difficult when you go back in time and the sources are less extensive. All-too-often the discussion becomes that of battles lost and won as in Hannibal must be good because he won at Cannae or Napoleon at...
Last week we headed down to the sunny Wiltshire to attend the Chalke Valley History Festival. Nestled in the heart of the beautiful Wessex countryside a few miles west of Salisbury it is the scene of the largest history celebration in the UK. Back after an enforced...
