The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
In the spring of 1291, the largest army that Islam had ever assembled during 200 years of crusader warfare was advancing on the city of Acre. Swelled by a vast number of volunteers and fired by the spirit of jihad it had come to finally drive the Franks back into the...
In choosing the setting of Roman Egypt and the lands to its south as the setting for River of Gold I found that, unlike my previous books, a quite startling amount of research was required for the author to be able to put together a story set in the Roman province of...
What first attracted you to writing a biography of Edward the Confessor? There were lots of reasons why I was interested in Edward! Perhaps primarily, his life spanned some of the most dramatic events and political upheavals in early medieval British history, from...
‘The average young man of today aged something under thirty, whether he be a social butterfly or a junior clerk, is a stupid, conceited creature,’ thundered the Daily Mirror in its editorial. ‘Few men are much good until they are thirty.’ Guidance from the Greatest...
In the early evening of 4 July 1928, a fabulously wealthy businessman named Alfred Loewenstein boarded his private plane at Croydon Airport. It was a routine flight that would take him across the English and French coastlines before landing at Brussels, where...
In late September 1918, two young British officers, for three years POWs in Bulgaria and twice before failed escapees, walked out of their prison camp deep behind enemy lines. Having heard rumours that the Macedonian front had collapsed, on this occasion they simply...
I became interested in the formidable character of Alan Brooke when researching for other books, and in the Kew National Archives stumbled upon references which at first sight were totally contradictory. On the one hand there is the ornithological fanatic with close...
The term “Entente Cordiale” is often used – loosely but accurately – to define the friendship that saw Britain and France stand side-by-side in two world wars. However, in my view, its precise value is both over-estimated and under-estimated. Accusations of...
Detailed yet pacy, insightful and informative, Richard Greene (no relation) has written a thoroughly enjoyable one-volume biography of Graham Greene. The novelist has attracted plenty of labels over the years: Catholic, communist, womaniser, depressive, genius. What...
In the 1950s and 60s, Word War Two was a recent memory for most families who had nearly all been involved in the struggle one way or another. At that time, escape stories and the daring exploits of servicemen who had been captured regularly appeared on shop...
