Susan’s passion for history dates back fifty years and led her to study for a Bachelor of Arts degree in history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is currently a member of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association, the Society for Renaissance Studies and the Historical Association. Her work has appeared on several historical websites and in magazines and includes guest appearances on historical podcasts. Her blog, The Freelance History Writer, has continuously published over five hundred historical articles since 2012, with an emphasis on European, Tudor, Medieval, Renaissance, Early Modern and women’s history. She is currently working on her third non-fiction book.

Charlie Trumpess is a military historian, author, and Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, specialising in Britain’s elite Guards regiments during the Second World War. He holds a Master’s degree in Military History by Research from the University of Buckingham and is a member of the Historical Writers’ Association, the Society for Army Historical Research, the Army Records Society, and the 29th Division Association.

His research focuses on the causes, actions, and consequences of armed conflict, with particular expertise in military adaptation, elite unit culture, and the institutional factors that shaped Britain’s wartime fighting forces.

Published Works

A History of the Guards Armoured Formations 1941–1945 (Pen & Sword Military) examines how the five regiments of Foot Guards, the Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish, and Welsh Guards, transitioned from elite infantry to armoured warfare. Drawing on original archival material and veteran testimonies, the book traces the Guards Armoured Division and 6th Guards (Tank) Brigade from formation through to the Northwest Europe campaign, covering operations including D-Day, Operation Goodwood, and Market Garden. The work addresses a significant gap in Second World War historiography by providing a critical analysis of why the official history of the Guards Armoured Division took over a decade to reach publication.

The Birth of British Special Forces: How the Guards Regiments Helped Forge the SAS, Commandos and Paras (Fonthill Media) is now available. This is the first systematic investigation into the disproportionate influence of Guards officers in the creation of Britain’s special forces. Set against the crisis of 1940, the book documents how figures including Bill and David Stirling, Robert Laycock, and Frederick ‘Boy’ Browning translated the Guards’ values of discipline, leadership, and institutional excellence into the founding structures of the Commandos, SAS, Long Range Desert Group, and Parachute Regiment. Where earlier histories treated this connection as incidental, The Birth of British Special Forces demonstrates it was fundamental.

Both titles combine scholarly rigour with accessible narrative, making them essential reading for students of British military history, Second World War operations, and the evolution of special forces.

Why These Books Matter

If you are researching the Guards regiments in the Second World War, the origins of the SAS, the formation of the Commandos, or British airborne operations, these works offer primary-source-grounded analysis unavailable elsewhere. They address questions that mainstream Second World War histories have largely overlooked: how elite infantry culture directly shaped modern special forces doctrine, and how institutional identity survived—and drove—radical military transformation.

Media and Collaboration

Charlie Trumpess is available for interviews, book signings, podcast appearances, radio, television, and webinar contributions. He also manages The War Years (thewaryears.co.uk), a platform dedicated to accessible military history through articles, video content, and community engagement.

To discuss his work, request a review copy, or explore collaboration opportunities, please use the contact details below.

Paul Bernardi studied Anglo-Saxon and Medieval history at the University of Leeds more years ago than he cares to remember. He has been an author of historical fiction since his first novel (a second world war drama) was published in 2017. Since then he has reverted to his favoured period, publishing six more novels (so far) set in 11th century England. Paul Bernardi’s books are published by Sharp Books.

Alice McVeigh has been published by Orion/Hachette in contemporary fiction, by UK’s Unbound in speculative fiction (as Spaulding Taylor) and by Warleigh Hall Press in her current Austenesque series (“McVeigh’s celebrated series” – Publishers Weekly). Her novels have been honoured in the UK Selfies Awards at the 2024 London Book Fair, placed as runner-up in General Fiction for Writer’s Digest and Foreword Indies’ “Book of the Year”, won Kirkus stars and been quarterfinalists in Publishers Weekly‘s BookLife Award.

Alice spent her childhood in Asia in various USA Embassies, her teen years practising cello in McLean, VA, and her entire adulthood in London. She has lived in seven countries and visited 44, mostly touring with top London orchestras. She has long been married to Professor Simon McVeigh, with whom she shares a daughter finishing her PhD at Harvard University, two long-haired dachshunds, an unrequited passion for tennis and a second home in Crete.

 

 

 

 

Paula Lennon was born to Jamaican parents in England. She lived in Jamaica during her teens and developed a great affinity for the island. Although Paula came back to England to study law and was once a London commercial lawyer, she eventually saw sense and returned to live where the weather is more conducive to smiling. On most days Paula can be found in Montego Bay, writing novels in many genres or just admiring the Caribbean Sea.

Her first historical novel is THE CASE OF THE MAD DOCTOR, published by Canelo on 10 July 2025. Written as THE ADVENTURES OF ISAIAH OLLENU, the book placed second in the I Am In Print Novel Awards 2023 sponsored by Canelo.

Since 2017, Philip Yorke has been absorbed in the turbulent times of Seventeenth Century Britain. But for almost two decades, he worked as an award-winning newspaper and broadcast journalist – gathering facts and stitching stories together.

Rebellion, Philip’s first novel, was published in 2019. It was positively received by readers and reviewers alike all over the world. Redemption, the second part of the Hacker Chronicles, followed in 2022. Both books tell the story of the life and times of Francis Hacker, one of Parliament’s most courageous military commanders during the conflict that resulted in three civil wars, a king losing his head, and the rise of Oliver Cromwell.

A further three more novels are planned in the series. The third instalment is scheduled to be published in 2026.

In 2023, Sunshine on my mind, a standalone story of a two-week holiday in the life of a 12-year-old boy, set in Yorkshire during the summer of 1977, was published. It is a part biographical, part fictional, account of life in the seventies.

Today, Philip Yorke lives in the Midlands with his wife, Julie, and two of their five children (the others have fled the nest). When he is not writing, Philip can be found giving talks on a variety of Civil War-related subjects, reading newspapers and books, drinking coffee at a favourite bolt hole, and supporting his favourite charity.