Phil Craig Archives - Aspects of History

Battle of the Arctic: The Maritime Epic of World War Two, by Hugh Sebag-Montefiore

A sweeping, vividly told history of the Arctic convoys, combining harrowing first-hand testimony and sharp political analysis to reveal the brutal cost and strategic importance of supplying Stalin’s USSR.

Phil Craig

In Battle of the Arctic, a magisterial and exhaustive chronicle, Hugh Sebag-Montefiore lays out the perils faced by Allied merchant and naval forces ferrying supplies to Stalin’s Soviet Union with a very well-judged mixture of original testimony – much of it...

Wolfpack: Inside Hitler’s U-Boat War, by Roger Moorhouse

Wolfpack examines the Battle of the Atlantic from the perspective of German U-boat crews and places their experiences within the wider strategic and technological context of the war.

Phil Craig

It is hard not to feel for a petrified young man cowering in the dark, his underwater home groaning, cracking and springing leaks, as high explosives detonate yards away and there is just eighteen millimetres of steel holding back oblivion. Yes, even if he is a...

War, Empire and the Struggle for a New World

Bestselling author and award-winning film-maker Phil Craig explains why he felt compelled to tackle the historical forces at play in his new globe-crossing examination of the final year of World War Two.

Phil Craig

Not every distinguished historian announces his arrival by the roar of a V8 engine, but Robin Prior is no ordinary historian and - for me at least - this was to be no ordinary lunch. I was planning a new book, the final volume in my Finest Hour trilogy about Britain...

Episode 214

I’m done with po-faced politicians

Why can’t we go back to 1983?

Phil Craig

By 10pm on the night of 9th June 1983 BBC Television centre was humming. In Studio Two, amid a beige version of the set from Alien, David Dimbleby and Robin Day were about to start the election results show, though everybody already knew Thatcher was going to walk it....

The King’s touch

Princess Diana’s powers are underappreciated.

Phil Craig

The King’s touch “Of course you’ve read Marc Bloch on this?” I was tempted to say “Yes” but it was never a good idea to bullshit Christopher Hitchens, who’d read everything. We were well into a languid, discursive Dupont Circle lunch. The kind that left me muddled and...

Phil Craig

Phil Craig is a best selling author and multiple-award-winning film-maker, producer and TV network executive.A former RAF cadet pilot, Phil studied history at Cambridge University, was a BBC graduate trainee and built his career working for iconic British current affairs series World in Action and Panorama, where he became senior producer. Later he became joint head of programmes at the prestigious Brook Lapping production company, where he made a range of contemporary and historical films for the BBC, Channel Four, PBS in America, Discovery, Nat Geo and numerous other international clients. He went on to run departments at the Discovery Channel and at ABC Television in Australia, where he supervised the entire factual output of the national broadcaster including its high profile ANZAC centenary project in 2015.

Phil Craig

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" multiple_cpt="post,short_stories" use_taxonomy_terms="on"...

Phil Craig

The bestselling historian discusses his history, influences and his latest book.

Phil Craig

What first attracted you to the period or periods you work in? I was a 60s child and brought up on Airfix models, the Air Training Corps and Victor comics, so the Second World War obsessed me, especially the Battle of Britain. When I was about 40 the BBC asked me to...