Andrew Stuart
Andy Stuart started writing during lockdown to find a way to record the strange tales his granddad told about his experiences in WW1 and North Russia. This was after a working life in the Army, International Financial Markets, and Technology Development. Three fictional books emerged taking a cohort of men from 1914 to returning from Russia in 1920. The factual research led to factual talks focused on less well-known WW1 theatres and events, and from July 2026 a new Podcast series, “Unusual Tales from The Great War”, to explore the people and places we rarely hear about.
Cathy Faulkner
Cathy Faulkner has a BA in English Literature and an MA in Writing for Young People. She has taught in schools, colleges and universities in England and abroad, and currently teaches at the University of Bristol. Besides writing historical fiction for 8- to 12-year-olds, she loves gardening, musical theatre and making stained glass windows.
Digging for Victory
Set in Devon in 1941, Digging for Victory tells the story of 12-year-old Bonnie Roberts who is desperate to play a valuable part in the war effort. For her, tending the family vegetable patch just doesn’t cut it; she wants to be a hero like her RAF pilot brother, Ralph.
But when the mysterious Mr Fisher is billeted at her farmhouse, and Ralph is reported missing in action, she starts to question what heroism actually involves. As Bonnie attempts to find out who Mr Fisher really is, she embarks on a life-changing and emotional voyage of discovery.
Digging for Victory was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal, the Branford Boase Award and the UKLA Award. It also featured in The Sunday Times Best Books for Children 2023.
The Treasure Seekers
The Treasure Seekers is set in Yorkshire in November 1918. Stanley is convinced that the precious stained-glass window from the church, that Martha’s grandfather hid during the war, will save his village. But Martha refuses to help him search, wanting to keep her beloved grandfather’s secrets safe.
When Stanley’s mother gets ill, Martha visits the village and realises she must act to help. She begins her own treasure hunt, even as her father is also struggling with the aftermath of the Great War. As the people who are most important to them suffer, Martha and Stanley are desperate to find their lost treasure and restore the village’s fortunes before it’s too late.
Charlotte Carty
Charlotte grew up in Surrey and studied Law at Christ’s College, Cambridge, before qualifying as a solicitor and working in the City and internationally. After a career break to raise her family, she returned to the UK and moved into education.
Her grandfather, Lt Col “Bruno” Brown, commanded the Assam Regiment at the battles of Jessami and Kohima. Deeply connected to his legacy, Charlotte has visited the Naga Hills many times and is a trustee of the Kohima Educational Trust, which was founded by veterans of the Battle of Kohima to honour the Naga people.
Charlotte gives talks around the world on the Assam Regiment and the wider Burma Campaign. In her spare time, she enjoys tennis, gardening and, thankfully, walking!
39 Hours – The March That Saved India
In 1944, as the Japanese advanced towards India, 1st Battalion, Assam Regiment was ordered to defend Jessami and Kharasom. Outnumbered and isolated, Lt Col “Bruno” Brown and his men fought for five days and nights, delaying the Japanese advance towards Kohima.
Ordered to withdraw, the battalion marched 124 kilometres through the mountains and jungle in just 39 hours, reaching Kohima only hours before it was encircled.
Eighty years later, Charlotte retraced their route, setting off from Jessami at the exact hour the battalion had departed in 1944.
39 Hours is part history, part personal pilgrimage, bringing to life the extraordinary courage and endurance of the men whose march became part of the story of Kohima.
David Willey
David Willey was Curator of the Tank Museum for 24 years and has seen many developments at the Museum over that time along with the creation of its very popular online content.
He has written and published a number of books in the field of armour, has talked on the subject at NATO and been involved in films such as Fury and many documentaries.
Before tanks he was a Curator of Fine Art.
You will find him giving talks in Speakers Corner or with the military vehicles.
Find out more about Colin’s comics and historical interest at:
Dr Jennifer Howe
Dr Jennifer Howe holds a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London and is a part-time lecturer at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom and Imperial College London.
She has worked as a researcher for UK Parliament, American and British think tanks, and in open-source intelligence. She researches war in all its forms, military strategy, and people’s experiences of conflict.
Believing that past wars and the people who lived through them should not be forgotten, Dr Jen began sharing stories of war on social media.
You can find her on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube under @jenstudieswar, where she studies the history of war over the ages, with a particular focus on the 20th century.
Dr Jennifer Howe
Dr Jennifer Howe holds a PhD in War Studies from King’s College London and is a part-time lecturer at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom and Imperial College London.
She has worked as a researcher for UK Parliament, American and British think tanks, and in open-source intelligence. She researches war in all its forms, military strategy, and people’s experiences of conflict.
Believing that past wars and the people who lived through them should not be forgotten, Dr Jen began sharing stories of war on social media.
You can find her on Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube under @jenstudieswar, where she studies the history of war over the ages, with a particular focus on the 20th century.
Colin Kenneth Smith
CK Smith, one of Ken Smith’s ten children, is now retired and living in North Devon. He made a promise to preserve his father’s stories before they were lost—a commitment that turned into a thirty-year project.
Throughout his life, CK has taken on incredible challenges. He completed Arctic survival training, served in the Persian Gulf, took part in desert and mountain rescue missions, and worked as a surf lifeguard in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and for 22 summers on the beaches of North Devon. He also climbed Mount Kenya, Africa’s second-highest peak.
A world-class ocean kayaker, he competed in races around the globe, including the world’s longest race in Australia, three events in Hawaii, and twice won the title of world ocean kayak masters champion.
CK is also a trained electronic engineer, carpenter, joiner, stonemason, builder, and fireman. He credits his father’s genes and upbringing for everything he’s achieved.
Wings But No Angel
This book tells the extraordinary story of Ken Smith, from choirboy on HMS Victory to Royal Marine and founding member of 1st SBS / 1st SAS.
He saw action in the North Atlantic, Arctic, and Mediterranean before joining the SAS, where he took part in some of WWII’s most daring missions.
Wounded in Yugoslavia, he carried the bullet in his arm for life and was alongside Anders Lassen just weeks later when Lassen earned a posthumous Victoria Cross.
Written by one of his ten children, this biography is gripping, insightful, and laced with dark humour.
Wings But No Angel is a self-published 1st edition and is due for re-release, (in October 2025), titled; ‘With the SBS and SAS in WWII’; published by ‘Pen and Sword’.
Find out more about Colin’s comics and historical interest at:
Freedom Matthews
Freedom grew up around storytellers. Men and women of Romany origin, who would tell tales of people and traditions long since lost to time. It was only natural for her to weave tales as well, but she would write them down with paper and ink rather than passing them on through the spoken word.
She lives in rural Hampshire, UK with a hotchpotch of family members, pets and wonky bookshelves. When she’s not curled up with a good book, a ball of wool and a cup of tea, she enjoys visits to stately homes and watching fantasy TV shows.
What to expect from Legends of Evernyl: Scarlett Redemption:
Evernyl’s rightful queen needs more than skills with a bow to guard both her crown and heart. Years in hiding shaped Ruadh (Roo-ah) into a woodland warrior. Now 18, she returns to her castle at the behest of the rebels forces, determined to take back her throne from the inside. She didn’t expect to befriend the enemy prince or find her realm so changed. With magic banished, the land has crumbled leaving much for Ruadh and her blue-blooded rebels to do.
Find out more about Freedom and her books by visiting:
Instagram @freedommwrites
Facebook @freedommwrites
G K Holloway
G K Holloway left university in 1980 with a degree in history and politics. After spending a year in Canada, he relocated to Englands West Country and began working in Secondary Education. Later he worked in Adult Education and then Further Education before finally working in Higher Education.
After reading a biography about Harold Godwinson, he became fascinated by the fall of Anglo Saxon England and spent several years researching events leading up to and beyond the Battle of Hastings. Eventually he decided he had enough material to make an engrossing novel. Using characters from the Bayeux Tapestry, the Norse Sagas, the Domesday Book and
many other sources. He feels that he has brought the period and its characters to life in his own particular way. Following the major protagonists, as well as political, religious and personal themes, the downfall of Anglo-Saxon England is portrayed by a strong cast.
Nowadays he lives in Bristol with his wife and two children. 1066 is his debut novel was originally published as an ebook. It received very positive reviews and this has encouraged him to publish in paperback. After the success of his first book he went on to publish In the Shadows of Castles and is he is currently he is working on the third in the series.
The books are a series set in the middle of the eleventh century at the time of the Norman Invasion. 1066 What Fates Impose, won the Gold Medal in the 2014 Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards – Adult Fiction. In The Shadows of Castles is a Bookbag 2023 Top 10 Self-Published Book and Fire in the Fens is due to be published summer 2025.
Get in touch with the author at:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063020389450
https://www.instagram.com/glynnholloway/
or visit G K Holloway’s website
http://www.gkholloway.co.uk
Jason Salkey (Aka Rifleman Harris)
FROM CRIMEA WITH LOVE
In the summer of 1992, Jason Salkey was cast in a role that would change his life forever. Sharpe’s Rifles, a Napoleonic war drama, was to be shot on the Crimean Peninsula. Little did they know, the producers had unwittingly sent the film unit into the chaos of a rapidly disintegrating Soviet Union. There, Jason, and the crew faced near starvation and danger hovering just over every horizon as they went on to create one of Britain’s most successful and critically acclaimed television programmes.
From Crimea with Love is Jason’s memoir documenting the mishaps, blunders, incompetence, and downright corruption that made Sharpe’s Rifles go down in British television and film production folklore for its tales of hardship, disaster and chaos only rivalled by the Ukraine itself. Follow Jason and the cast of Sharpe through intense depravation, hardship, and impending
catastrophe until they become every bit of the jaded, battle-hardened soldiers we saw on screen.
Tapping into his written diaries, photo journal and video log, Jason Salkey brings you an eye-opening, jaw-dropping insider’s account of one of the best-loved shows ever made.
Find Jason on Facebook
Jim Dowdall
Leaving school at 16 and joining Bertram Mills Circus as a tumbler and working for a lion tamer as a ‘beastman’, Jim did a variety of jobs including motorcycle mechanic, car washer, working in Harrods etc before starting work as a film ‘armourer’ with Bapty’s. His first film was ‘The Dirty Dozen’ in 1966.
Jim worked as an armourer on various TV shows like ‘The Avengers’ and ‘The Saint’ and films like ‘Where Eagles Dare’ and ‘Attack on the Iron Coast.’
Leaving the armoury business in 1969 Jim joined the Parachute Regiment (champion recruit) being invalided out after 18 months with impacted vertebrae at the same time writing the small arms section of Brassey’s Infantry Weapons 1973. He went to the US touring in a ‘jousting’ show getting knocked off a horse 5 days a week and twice on Saturday.
Driving a minicab, doing freelance armoury work and extra work to obtain his Equity card to get on the Stunt Register, Jim’s first major film as a stuntman was ‘The Eagle Has Landed’ where he played one of Michael Caine’s paratroopers. From then on, it was a continuous round of films and TV shows.
Star Wars, Superman, Batman, Indiana Jones and many other so called ‘Blockbusters’ including 9 ‘Bond’ films intermixed with TV shows and over 300 commercials (many road safety films for the Government featuring car crashes) have meant a steady stream of work in countries all over the world as well as UK.
Jim drove the tank in the tank chase on ‘Goldeneye’ (007) and various tanks and armoured vehicles on ‘Saving Private Ryan’. (he drove the halftrack bazooka’d by Ryan as well as the Marder self-propelled gun into which were thrown flaming Molotov cocktails). He was tank crew supervisor on ‘Fury’.
Jim also collects military vehicles and has owned a Sherman Achilles tank and a fully amphibious DUKW in which he crossed the Channel for the 50th anniversary of D Day. He bought his Jeep and military Harley Davidson in 1969 and has some German WW2 motorcycles with and without sidecars.
He gives talks either on his experiences in movies or WW2 military firearms and is a member of The Historical Breechloading Smallarms Association as well as a member of BAFTA and AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists). Occasionally lectures at The National Film School.
He wrote a book with Graham Scott about his experiences on movies called ‘Man on Fire’ the life and other accidents of Jim Dowdall Stuntman which will be on sale at his stall and signed to the buyer.
You can find Jim Dowdall’s book on Amazon here
Kevin Brazier
Kevin Brazier has long been intrigued by military medals and their recipients. His
study of the VC led to his definitive work: The Complete Victoria Cross, he has also written books on the George Cross, the Blue Max and the Knight’s Cross. 2025 will see the publication of a four volume work on the US Medal of Honour.
His Books:
The Complete Victoria Cross 2010, The Complete George Cross 2012, The Complete Blue Max 2013, The Complete Knight’s Cross (in three volumes) 2021, VCs of the Zulu and Boerr Wars 2022, Gurkha and Indian VCs 2023, VCs of Victoria’s Little Wars and Scotland’s Victoria Crosses.
Find him on Facebook. Search Kevin Brazier author
Find Kevin on Facebook
Maaika van der Wel
Maaika is a Dutch born, British writer who won’t let dyslexia stop her from writing her stories.
Attrickwater, Lilly is the first book in the
Attrickwater trilogy, A story of lies, spies, Spitfires and suspender belts.
In 1943, siblings Lilly and Thomas Attrickwater do their duties for King and Country, hoping for survival, redemption, love and the end of the war.
Lilly, war widow and WAAF plotter. Shy and insecure, fighting fears and worries, she finds her strength in the Ops room and in the arms of a confusing new love…
Thomas, SIS agent. Haunted by his past, he prepares for a new mission in the hope that this one will redeem him…
James, RAF fighter pilot. Brave, gallant, courteous, arrogant and contradictory. If only his memory would be better…
Find out more about Maaike and her book by visiting:
Instagram @maaikavdwel.author
Facebook: Maaika Van der Wel
Matt Killeen
Described by The Guardian as “a pulse-pounding, pitch-black Nazi espionage thriller,” Matt Killeen’s US Bestselling debut Orphan Monster Spy was the result of a lifetime’s horrified fascination with the Second World War. It was shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards and the Branford Boase Award, as well as winning the 2019 SCBWI Crystal Kite. It forms the basis of his work with schools around the world on the dangers of fascism, as well as the moral complexity of war and resistance. The sequel, Devil Darling Spy, continues Sarah’s journey, and discusses imperialism and racism.
He has had many careers but kept coming back to writing. He has made a living as an advertising copywriter and creative, a music and sports journalist, and all-round wordsmith for hire. He fulfilled a childhood ambition by becoming a writer for the LEGO® company in 2010, and continues to create LEGO licensed books for Ameet Publishing. A Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund, he also teaches creative writing and works for PC Gamer and GamesRadar.
He lives in an all-neurospicy household in Surrey, desperately in need of routine but forever incapable of creating one.
Matt’s debut, “Orphan Monster Spy” was It was shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards, the Branford Boase Award and was the winner of the SCBWI Crystal Kite.
Michael Wills
“I am a retired school principal, I have worked in education all my life, including five years as CEO of an educational publisher. I have published 13 historical fiction novels, of these, seven are for young readers. The latter includes two series, one about Vikings and one about English evacuee children in the Second World War.
All my books have a strong historical thread running through them.”
Find out more about Michael and his books by visiting:
Website www.michaelwills.eu
Instagram : @mwillsofsarum
Facebook: Michael Wills Author
Nick Holmes
Nick Holmes is a British author, podcaster and historian. He is currently writing a multi-volume series on the fall of the Roman Empire. He has also written about the
Crusades, the Byzantine Empire and has two history podcasts.
For more information about Nick, go to www.nickholmesauthor.com
Or www.facebook.com/nickholmesauthor
Peter Mooney
Born in Northern Ireland during ‘The Troubles’ I have grown up surrounded by conflict and when I had a young family, I took the decision to move to England, which has now been my home for longer than where I was born. I have had a deep interest in the Second World War era from early childhood and I have increased my knowledge and understanding of that, across many decades.
That knowledge has been poured into the 21 books that I have written or published to date. Some of those were for Schiffer Publishing, then since 2013, most of my new titles have been written for my own publishing company: Loyalty and Honour Publishing.
I was lucky enough to be able to meet hundreds of German veterans and obtain their insights into all the key battles that they fought in, during that conflict. Their recollections are sewn throughout my book titles and help give a first-person perspective.
My books cover the combat actions, as well as the pre-war formation years of 1933-1939, and they have a military perspective only; they do not cover any political aspects, views, or thoughts. Meeting those veterans not only gave me personal recollections, but also gave me access to source material, which has formed the basis of many of my books. I write those from a human / personal perspective and aim to give the view of individuals finding themselves caught up in the largest conflict our world has witnessed to date.
Findout more by visiting:
https://lahpublishing.com/collections/our-books
https://www.facebook.com/peter.mooney.77398/
Philip Edwin Kay-Bujak
Born in Norfolk 1960. Son of a Polish army officer who fought at Monte Cassino and a mother whose uncle was the first man to die of his wounds in England in 1914. Graduate in History from the University of East Anglia, Member of the Royal Historical Society and former British Army Officer (Nine years in the Royal Anglian Regiment). Former teacher of history, Housemaster and Headmaster. Retired in 2016 to become a full-time author.
Author of ten books to date and regular speaker at various associations and societies. Most recent books include an exciting biography of Lt Col Sherwood Kelly VC – who was known by his troops in World War One as ‘the bravest man in the British Army’. Recent collaboration with the American 29th Division to analyse why the casualties were so high on Omaha Beach on D Day and a new revisionist biography of German panzer General Hermann Balck which will be published in July 2025. Currently writing a biography of German panzer General Eric Hoepner.
You can find Philip on Instagram as
Rupert Wieloch
Rupert Wieloch joined the British Army in 1978 and was commissioned in the same week that the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. During a full and varied career, he was involved in many overseas operations, ending up as the Senior British Military Commander in Libya in 2011. Since leaving the Army, he has been used by all the main news outlets to comment on Defence issues and has written three military history books, with an emphasis on the plight of prisoners of war and the hidden work of Special Forces.
Find out more about Rupert by visiting his website
https://rupertwieloch.com/
Vladyslav Besedovskyy
Vlad Besedovskyy – Director of the Safar Publishing and author of several
books including: Uniforms and history of the Soviet Airborne in Afghanistan
Soviet Weapons of the Afghan War Soviet small arms of the Atomic Age Ukrainian Armed Forces in UN missions.
Find out more by visiting