World War Two

British Sport during the Second World War

British Sport during the Second World War

How war disrupted Britain's sporting calendar, claimed the lives of leading athletes, and changed the careers of sportsmen who served between 1939 and 1945.

Blood Sacrifice

Blood Sacrifice

A review of Douglas Jackson's Blood Sacrifice, the second novel in the Warsaw Quartet, set during the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto.

Cliveden and the Seeds of Appeasement

Cliveden and the Seeds of Appeasement

How a grand Thames-side country house helped shape Britain’s policy of appeasement in the 1930s — and how those events echo through my fiction.

Collaboration in the Second World War

Collaboration in the Second World War

How occupied nations balanced survival, ideology, and betrayal--and how post-war reckoning reshaped Europe's memory of collaboration.

Neville Chamberlain Did the Wrong Thing

Neville Chamberlain Did the Wrong Thing

Revisiting the appeasement debate, the Munich Agreement, and why I believe Britain and France should have stood up to Hitler in 1938.

The Liberation of the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp

The Liberation of the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp

Marking 80 years since British forces uncovered the horrors of Bergen-Belsen, this post explores the liberation, aftermath, and lasting impact.

Occupied Islands and Liberation 1940–2025

Occupied Islands and Liberation 1940–2025

Reflecting on 80 years since the liberation of Jersey from German occupation during WWII — resistance, hardship, and remembrance.

The Cinema and Propaganda in the Second World War

The Cinema and Propaganda in the Second World War

How Britain, the USA, and Nazi Germany used popular cinema to shape opinion and morale before and during WWII, with case studies from 1942–1943.

Crime in the London Blitz

Crime in the London Blitz

A historical overview of criminal activity in wartime London, from looters to traitors.

Ten Favourite Authors of Second World War Fiction

Ten Favourite Authors of Second World War Fiction

A personal reading list of ten favourite novelists writing before, during, and after the Second World War.

Vengeance and the Second World War

Vengeance and the Second World War

Reflections on revenge, displacement, ethnic violence, and the long aftermath of the Second World War in Europe.

The Battle of the Bulge

The Battle of the Bulge

A gripping account of the surprise German offensive in the Ardennes during December 1944, one of WWII’s most brutal campaigns.

Two Families at War

Two Families at War

The story behind my Blitz crime novel, from German Jewish refugees to a North London crime family, and the research that shaped the book.