The past is never dead, it isn’t even past
The 1915-16 Gallipoli Campaign is one of the most infamous of theatres of the First World War. The loss both in terms of casualties and pride was unparalleled for Allied forces. The campaign attempted to take the Dardanelles Straits by ship, and through them, reach...
David Pilling is a prolific author of historical fiction. With interests ranging from the Byzantine Empire, the post-Roman period in Britain and the British and Irish Civil Wars, he has written numerous tales of blood and chivalry across these eras. Caesar’s Sword:...
Mark Turnbull’s latest novella, The King’s Spy, is a fast-moving thriller set in the turbulent world of the English Civil War. Captain Maxwell Walker is a widowed Royalist cavalry officer and seasoned veteran of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Following the disastrous...
In the winter of 1359 a young English soldier was taken prisoner during the siege of Reims, the holy city where French kings were anointed. The captive Englishman was a page in the household of Prince Lionel, one of the sons of King Edward III, and the siege was a...
When it was announced that Franz Ferdinand, the Heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, would visit Bosnia to attend manoeuvres in June 1914. It fell to General Oskar Potiorek, the military governor to organise the visit. This was a task Oskar Potiorek threw himself into...
Rewriting History There seems to be an increasingly alarming trend nowadays for some people to consider that the story of the Second World War was the story of the Holocaust. They may mention the Holocaust in any word association exercise with the Second World War -...
War and Religion Whilst writing Siege, I was fortunate enough to speak to a number of historians who were experts in the First Crusade. One of their unifying comments on the subject was that the participants were genuinely motivated by faith. They were true believers....
It is perhaps fitting - given his lack of fame and success - that many of you will have never heard of Pat Hobby. Hobby was a character who featured in several F. Scott Fitzgerald short stories towards the end of the author’s life, while he was working in Hollywood....
