The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
Andrew Lambert, your new book is based on Sir Julian Corbett. He was a fascinating man, with many interests outside of military strategy, but he’s not as well-known as he should be. Why is that? Despite his critical role in capturing and distilling the essence of...
Anthony Tucker-Jones, it seems early on in his life Churchill had big ideas. His paper on invading Russia impressed his school master at Harrow. Did he always have grand strategic plans? To start with no, he struggled to apply himself and was unhappy at Harrow. It was...
With the declaration of war against France in 1756, British military planners turned covetous eyes to a fortress on Cape Breton Island, next to Nova Scotia in the North Atlantic. The fortress at Louisbourg, sometimes called the “Gibraltar of the North,” cast a long...
While researching my latest book Churchill Master and Commander, one of the more bizarre things I discovered was Churchill’s undying enthusiasm for the use of mustard gas. Britain at the start of the Second World War had 500 tons of the stuff, by the end Churchill had...
George II: Not Just a British Monarch is a succinct and witty memorial to a king who hasn’t an official one. Part of the Penguin Monarchs series, the work is at the vanguard of twenty-first scholarship meant to recover the reputation of this largely forgotten monarch;...
The British Way of War is about the interconnected lives of a man and an idea, lives that reached a climax in the catastrophe of the First World War Western Front. Great ideas do not emerge in a vacuum, they are shaped by individuals, and reflect the time in which...
The Dublin Railway Murder On the morning of Friday 14 November 1856 the chief cashier of the Broadstone railway terminus, George Little, failed to report for work. It was out of character for such a conscientious employee to disappear without warning, and his worried...
The love stories of the Tudors have been fodder for historical fiction for centuries. Few do not know the stories of Henry VIII’s wives, Mary I’s marriage to Philip of Spain, and Queen Elizabeth’s array of courtships and succession of favourites. One might be forgiven...
Head to Waterstones, Cambridge on Remembrance Day, from 18:00-19:30 For the first time, Cambridgeshire SAS veteran, and second in command of Bravo Three Zero, Des Powell reveals their story. This year is the 80th anniversary year of the SAS and 30 years since the...
On December 9th 2020, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave a speech to the Federal Parliament: ‘I believe in the power of the Enlightenment.’ She said, ‘If Europe is what it is, it must thank the Enlightenment and the idea thereby derived that there is a...
