Mike Brown at his author stall.
The War and Peace Revival festival is one of Britain’s biggest and best military history and vintage festivals. This year, it took place from the 25th – 29th of July at Hop Farm in Kent, and the hype didn’t disappoint. There was so much to do – you could visit the arena to witness battle reenactments, as well as armour and vehicle demonstrations, you could check out the Living History section to see what life was like back in the olden days, or you could mull around the trade stalls feasting on any food you could want while choosing your souvenirs. A memorable week was had.
Casemate had a stall situated in the Author’s Pavilion, where many military authors would give talks on what their books were about. One such author was Penny Legg whose book Crime in the Second World War was published by Sabrestorm recently. She gave some fantastic talks on how criminals managed to exploit the wartime conditions. We were also lucky enough to see Mike Brown, the author of many vintage and Home Front books with Sabrestorm, give a talk on the iconic utility symbol CC41.
The singing duet came to see Jeff aboard a miniature tank.
It was very enjoyable to sit back and listen to the many fascinating authors who had given up their time to be there, and special thanks to Penny Legg for organising it all.
On the Friday, we were all in celebratory mood as it was Jeff Haward’s 98th birthday. Jeff, for those who don’t know, is one of the few veterans left to have been at both Dunkirk and D-Day (as well as El Alamein). We all sang happy birthday to him and everybody had a slice of cake. Check out the video here. Jeff was there selling his book Fighting Hitler from Dunkirk to D-Day published by Pen & Sword, and he sold out! He was kind enough to take some time to chat to everyone and sign every single copy. A lot of people asked him how accurate the recent Dunkirk film was and he said ‘it was about as accurate as it’s possible to be.’ An endorsement if ever there was one.
On Saturday, we had an emotional memorial service for one of the authors who was meant to be there, Albert Figg, who sadly passed away on the 3rd of July. His children attended and spoke about how much he loved attending the festival, and how proud he was of his wartime service including landing on Gold Beach. We had a minute’s silence and a bugler played The Last Post. Albert Figg was in the news this week for his unusual funeral request of being carried to his funeral on a Royal Artillery gun carriage. What a way to say goodbye. May he rest peacefully.
The festival was, as always, a tremendous success, and next year can’t come soon enough.
Some brilliantly preserved WW2 motorcycles parked outside the author’s tent.
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