The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
The V2 - Weapon of Vengeance Shortly before 7pm on Friday 8th September 1944, a huge explosion ripped through Staveley Road in Chiswick, London, killing a 63 year-old woman, a 3 year-old girl and a 28 year-old soldier from the Royal Engineers, who was home on leave. A...
John, congratulations on the publication of your new novel Target Arnhem. It’s a great World War II story, combining battlefield action with a nail biting espionage plot. Could you tell us a bit about the different storylines? Thank you Alan. This is the second book...
Birds of Prey, by Philip W. Blood The Bialowieźa forest, in Poland and Belarus, is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. The forest is full of interesting plant life and a wide range of wildlife including wolves, wild boar, deer and European bison. No wonder then, that...
When one thinks of D-Day, June 6th 1944, the first images that spring to mind are of brave soldiers disembarking landing craft and rushing onto the beaches to face the machine-guns of the defending Germans. Films, such as Saving Private Ryan and The Longest Day have...
Many history books can be somewhat daunting to take on. Too many players, too broad a scope, too many maps or diagrams; these can all add to the reader losing focus, having to constantly flick back and forth between pages to get a full grasp of what the author is...
Angus Konstam, many congrats on the book. What inspired you to write The Convoy? Thanks! It was really enjoyable to write. A few years ago I read a short article about it written by Mal Wright, an Australian naval historian. It really piqued my interest, as I’d been...
Operation Codicil, is the first instalment of The Manner of Men series – which is to be a three-part series based on the Parachute Regiment in the Second World War. The series will follow a group of elite pathfinders from D-Day until war’s end, where they see action...
At 23:15 hours on 5 June 1944, a broadcast was made from the BBC in London. It was the second part of the poem Chanson d’Automne - “Blessent mon coeur, d’une langueur, monotone” (“wound my heart with a monotonous languor”). Upon hearing this, Resistance leaders in...
John McKay, what prompted you to choose the period that you wrote your first book in? I have been interested in the two world wars from an early age. I used to read Battle Comic and collected the Commando graphic books as a child. My interest grew with the more I read...
