Last Friday, my latest book, He Who Would Valiant Be, was published and, as a reward to my readers and followers, I am giving away a novelette comprising bonus chapters to round off the series. My latest book completes the Death to Touch series inspired by the activities during WW2 of the Royal Navy’s mine clearance and port clearance teams, and the operations of Ian Fleming’s intelligence commandos, 30 Assault Unit. The three books describe how Royal Navy men and Admiralty

A good friend of mine, with whom I served in submarines, has recently returned from a break in Estonia. Whilst in the capital Tallinn (formerly called Reval), he was struck by how warmly the Estonian people still remember the Royal Navy’s WW1 Baltic Submarine Flotilla and yet barely anybody in this country will have even heard of it. The flotilla comprised six E-class and five C-class submarines. It was despatched to the Baltic and attached to the Russian Baltic Fleet to pr

My WW2 book series, Death to Touch, series is complete and the final book, He Who Would Valiant Be, is being launched on Friday 16th October. Over the weekend, a novelette of nine chapters, Valiant Men, rounds off the series with some bonus material. The series follows the lives and courageous exploits of two protagonists, Stephen Cunningham and ‘Monty’ Montcalm, and begins with, They Have No Graves as Yet. Stephen is a nervous science teacher from a working-class backgroun

On 7 October 1909, Commander Mansfield Cumming became the head of Britain’s new Secret Service. Although the origins of a secret service could be traced back to Queen Elizabeth the First’s Secretary of State, Sir Francis Walsingham, the modern organisation wasn’t formed until July 1909. Cumming was born on 1 April 1859 and joined the Royal Navy in 1871. In 1889, he changed his surname to Smith-Cumming following his marriage to a wealthy heiress. Unfortunately, his career i

Next week, on Friday 16th October, the final book of my WW2 trilogy on the Royal Navy’s mine disposal teams and its intelligence commandos will be released as an e-book and paperback. The e-book is available to pre-order now from Amazon. To receive a free ‘taster’, comprising the first three chapters of the new book, contact me by email or subscribe to this website. Similarly, if you haven’t read the first book of the series and would like a free sample, then contact me vi

Today in 1914, a number of London buses arrived at Antwerp carrying men of the Royal Marines to its defence. The Germans laid siege to Antwerp in late September 1914, following the invasion of Belgium the month before. The Belgian forts, of the National Redoubt surrounding the city, were not designed to withstand the new 16.5" howitzers of the German army and began to fall after a few days. The six divisions of the BEF were already committed elsewhere in Flanders so, in ear

Nine years ago today, I became a published author when my first novel, The Custom of the Trade, was published by Endeavour Media (now Joffe Books). The book combines the story early submarine operations in WW1 and the battle of the Suffragettes to gain the vote. It went on, briefly, to be a global best-seller on Amazon and to date has over 800 reviews, averaging 4.4 stars. I have since had four other novels in my WW1, For Those in Peril, series published and I have branche

Today, there will be a ceremony in Gibraltar to unveil a blue plaque in memory of the little-known Gibraltar UWWP. So vital was Gibraltar during WW2 as a naval fortress to control entry into and out of the Mediterranean, the Italians saw it as a prime target against which to launch underwater sabotage attacks on Allied warships and merchantmen moored there. The attacks were mounted by an élite team of frogmen called the Decima Flottiglia MAS. The frogmen repeatedly launche

In September 1914, Britain deployed its first armoured cars to Northern France and Belgium, but they weren’t army vehicles. They were driven by members of the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) under the command of Commander Charles Samson! Initially, they were unarmoured touring cars owned by the pilots as Samson thought they would be useful both to pick up aircrew who had been forced to land in hostile territory and to reconnoitre new spots for RNAS emergency landing fields.

This week, on 10 September 1939, the SS Magdapur, a cargo ship off the coast of Suffolk suddenly sank. It was initially thought that she had been sunk by a torpedo. Her back was broken and had she struck a contact mine, she would have gone down by the bows. However, other ships were soon reported as sinking under similar circumstancesalong Britain’s coast and in its estuaries. Within weeks, the shipping on which Britain so heavily depended was at a standstill. Tens of th

On 2 September 1898, Sir Herbert Kitchener’s forces won an overwhelming victory over the Mahdist army at the Battle of Omdurman on 2 September 1898. Omdurman is now a suburb of Khartoum in Sudan. Here, Churchill took part in the battle whilst serving with the 21st Lancers. However, it is not widely recognised that the Royal Navy was also present. In the opening chapter of my WW1 spy novel, Now the Darkness Gathers, I describe some of the events that took place. Kitchener’

I am delighted to announce that my latest novel, He Who Would Valiant Be, has been accepted for publication. Subject to a couple of edits, the e-book is scheduled for publication on 16 October 2026. More details will follow, but for now, here’s a taster of what to expect: ‘Aristocratic former barrister, Lt Cdr ‘Monty’ Montcalm RNVR, is in Italy with 30 Commando, Ian Fleming’s intelligence brainchild, hunting for equipment, documents and even people concerning secret underwa

In August 1915, the British E-class submarine, HMS E13, attempted to navigate the perilously narrow and shallow Kattegat between Denmark and Sweden to penetrate into the Baltic. She was to reinforce the Royal Navy's Baltic submarine flotilla, sent there to assist the Russians in the prevention of German iron ore imports from Sweden. Sadly, due to an error in her compass, E13 ran aground on the island of Saltholm, within Danish territorial waters. The Danish Navy offered the s

I am delighted to announce that my latest novel has been accepted for publication. Subject to a couple of edits and the design of the cover art, the e-book is scheduled for publication on 16 October 2026. More details will follow, but for now, here’s a taster of what to expect: ‘Aristocratic former barrister, Lt Cdr ‘Monty’ Montcalm RNVR, is in Italy with 30 Commando, Ian Fleming’s intelligence brainchild, hunting for equipment, documents and even people concerning secret u

Sadly, today is the anniversary of the death on 9 August 1957 of a great Australian war hero. Lieutenant Commander John Stuart Mould GC GM RANVR served with the Royal Navy during WW2 as a Rendering Mines Safe Officer, ie he was tasked with mine and bomb disposal. Ironically, considering the many hazards he faced in this most dangerous of wartime activities, he died young at the age of 47, but in an Australian hospital of peritonitis. Mould was one of the inspirations for my

Many people will recognise that today marks the 112th anniversary of the start of WW1, but few will know that on this day, the British Communications Ship Alert cut the German telegraph cables running under the English Channel, in accordance with the Admiralty’s War Plan. As a result, Germany could only communicate with her embassies in the Americas and Africa via High Frequency (HF) wireless traffic, mail or by telegram over British controlled cables. This was to have a si

On 4 March 1941, Lieutenant Harold Newgass, Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR), was awarded the George Cross for an extraordinary piece of courage on the night of 28 November 1940 in Liverpool. That night, the Luftwaffe bombed the city and dropped a pair of magnetic mines on the gasworks at Garston in the south-west of Liverpool. Newgass was a Rendering Mines Safe (RMS) Officer and his act of almost suicidal bravery is just one of the many that inspired me to write a trilo

Yesterday, I was very privileged to have a guided tour around the exhibits in the Avro Heritage Centre in Manchester. It was a splendid day during which I learned much and it is a visit I can recommend to all aviation enthusiasts. I was keen to visit after researching the Avro 504 for my WW1 naval aviation thriller, The Wings of the Wind. In November 1914, the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) launched the world’s first strategic bombing raid. The German Zeppelins had been ca

For most people the name of Admiral John Jellicoe is associated only with his command of the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in 1916. Churchill described him as the only man on either side who could have lost the war in an afternoon. The battle was indecisive and Jellicoe has been accused of over caution in that the British Public were longing for another ‘Trafalgar’, ie the annihilation of the German High Seas Fleet. In fact, Jellicoe deployed the Grand Fleet correct

With Iran’s oil exports constantly in the news these days, my readers might be interested to learn that the development of the Iranian oil industry came about thanks to the Royal Navy’s switch from steam to oil in the early 1900s. Indeed, the Admiralty persuaded the Treasury to save the embryonic Iranian oil industry by purchasing a stake in it. The Royal Navy had decided to begin the change from steam to oil as it offered its battlecruisers an increased speed. Moreover, oi