I have long been interested in history and, as a former naval officer, specifically in military and naval history.  As a result, I have read several history books, but most of the books I have read on naval history seemed to dwell on the Napoleonic Wars or WW2, with little on WW1 except with respect to the Battle of Jutland.  That, of course, was a battle between battleships and cruisers.  As a former submariner, I couldn't have that!  On the approach of the centenary of WW1, I started to think about bringing to life some of the many other contributions the Royal Navy made to the war.  Who knows, for example, that the RN was instrumental in setting up what is now known as MI6 and GCHQ?  How many people are aware that sailors fought in the trenches on the Western Front, or that the supremacy of the skies above were won by the Royal Naval Air Service?  Lo, an idea was born. As one of four brothers myself, I came up with the concept of four brothers (the Millers) each contributing to the war effort in different arms of the service. 

Having had four books in my WW1 series, For Those in Peril, I then came across the story of John Bridge GC GM & Bar, a most courageous mine disposal officer during WW2 and again, I thought there was a story to tell and I was inspired to begin writing tales from WW2, too.  In my research on the RN in both world wars, I have come across many true and fascinating tales of daring and heroism.  When the real history is so thrilling, it seemed pointless to reinvent a fictional version and, accordingly, all my books are based on or inspired by actual events.  Naturally, I have skewed matters a little by melding together the characters of several people or playing with the time of events to suit my plot.  After all, I am writing historical fiction and not a text book.  However, I try to be as faithful to the facts as I can and hope that my readers will be inspired by a tale to read the real history afterwards.  My mentor in this has been Bernard Cornwell with his tales of Richard Sharpe.