The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
Historical Heroes: Alan Turing “It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Winston Churchill’s speech on Russia, 1939 It was the first action in the war at sea. A few hours after the declaration of war between Germany, Britain and France, the German...
I keep overhearing people debating between themselves the comparison of Robert Oppenheimer and Alan Turing, his British near contemporary - Turing was six years younger - who was the originator of modern computing. I feel as if this is also a debate that I ought to...
Well, I don’t know about you, but I thought Jack Miller and Sophia von Naundorf had made it through to peacetime at the end of Agent in Peril. Not a bit of it – they still have their most exciting and dangerous mission before them, and what could be their most...
Royal yachts - like the word yacht in English - haven’t been with us forever. They both began during the English Civil War, and it was only when Charles II took to the sea himself - and loved it - that the whole business of royal yachts began. The first one was...
"The atomic clock ticked faster and faster. We may anticipate a state of affairs in which two great powers will each be in a position to put an end to the civilisation and life of the other, though not without risking its own. We may be likened to two scorpions in a...
David Boyle, the author behind numerous well-received historical and historical fiction books, including Alan Turing: Unlocking the Enigma and Operation Primrose, brings us a thoughtful and detailed account of the father of the atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer, and his...
You cannot seek to bribe nor twist - Thank God - the British journalist. But seeing what the man will do Unbribed, there’s no occasion to. That was Hilaire Belloc’s take on the British press and – although she has not quoted it – that appears to sum up the...
The immediate hook is the film of the Robert Harris novel, Munich: The Edge of War – and its obvious agenda to rescue Chamberlain for history. You will remember, especially if you have seen the film - which has been available on Netflix from last weekend - that...
I’m not sure who it was that first used this particular formula for good historical fiction – and especially espionage fiction. The idea is that you choose a peculiarly mysterious or ambiguous moment in recent history and then you weave your plot around it. William...
David Boyle’s Roman Briton is the finale to the series of novellas about the famous British chieftain, Caractacus. Following the bloody defeat of his army, the novel sees him taken away from his homeland as a prisoner. His life and those of his people lie in grave...
