Author Posts

Cover image of Sergeant Hiram Prouty atop a tank dressed as Santa Claus handing candy out to children.

The Paradox of Christmas at War

“Always winter, but never Christmas”. For many observing Christmas in 1942, this fictional quote was the harrowing truth. This week’s blog is from New York Times bestselling author Peter Harmsen as he reflects on the events of that fateful wartime Christmas and what they tell us about cruelty, kindness, and the human condition in extraordinary times.

The Real Sir William Orpen

All is fair in love and war — society portrait painter Sir William Orpen was entangled in the chaos of both. This week on the Casemate UK Blog, author Patricia O’Reilly explores the inspiration behind her new book, Orpen at War, and the artistic, eccentric, romantic, complicated life of Sir William Orpen.

Law, Morality, and Pure Evil: The Nuremberg Defendants

Is the law always a sufficient mechanism for justice? Can morality ever be objective? How do you begin to construct a legal defense for pure evil? In this blog post, author Andrew Sangster discusses the process of researching and conceptualising his new book, Blind Obedience and Denial, which examines every defendant at the Nuremberg trials,… Read More »Law, Morality, and Pure Evil: The Nuremberg Defendants

The Dos and Don’ts of Digging a Bog Body

(and a warning about tasting the archaeological record!) ‘Bog bodies’ are some of the most familiar finds associated with peatland archaeology. However, they are in fact comparatively rare. In this blog Benjamin Gearey, co-author of An Introduction to Peatland Archaeology and Palaeoenvironments, tells the tale of the discovery of the Tumbeagh Bog Body. This case… Read More »The Dos and Don’ts of Digging a Bog Body

The West’s Role in Defeating Nazi Germany during World War II by Brian E. Walter

Brian E. Walter explores the collective effort in which each of the major Allied nations played a critical role in attaining the ultimate victory against Nazi Germany in World War II, and how without these combined efforts, the Axis powers may have had the focus and strength to defeat the Soviet Army on the ground.

Researching the life of a naval hero: Captain Chris O’Flaherty reflects on the journey of writing his new book.

To mark the publication of Torpedoes, Tea and Medals this month, we asked author, Captain Chris O’Flaherty, about the writing process and his research into the fascinating life of Derek ‘Jake’ Wright DSC** RNVR – a previously little-known wartime naval hero who went from being a 16 year-old tea-trade trainee to one of only 44… Read More »Researching the life of a naval hero: Captain Chris O’Flaherty reflects on the journey of writing his new book.

Torpedoes, Tea and Medals: how Captain Chris O’Flaherty discovered a wartime naval hero

To mark the publication of Torpedoes, Tea and Medals this month, we asked author, Captain Chris O’Flaherty about his passion for boats, where the idea for the book came from, and what initially appealed to him about capturing the story of Derek ‘Jake’ Wright DSC** RNVR. Read on for the first installment of Chris’s journey in discovering this little-known naval hero – a tea-trade trainee whose bravery and skill saw him become one of only 44 officers in the Second World War to receive a DSC with two Bars.