Iain Ballantyne
Deep apologies Michael. I should have answered this a year ago, but I have no excuse other than being kept unfeasibly busy by writing 'The Deadly Trade' - a mammoth effort, from which I am now recovering!
On the Bismarck books, the first one grew out of an earlier book. In 2001 my first book was 'Warspite' (about the legendary British battleship) and as with the subsequent 'HMS London' (2002) and 'HMS Rodney' (2008) I met and interviewed dozens of war veterans, as well as writing to many more...
Those three books were created to give the sailors and Royal Marines who may well have never told their stories before a place on the record in history. I also did substantial research in UK naval museums.
When researching 'HMS Rodney' in the museums and talking to veterans I uncovered some interesting material that I realised had never been in print before about the Royal Navy side of the Bismarck Action, especially the final battle. During a discussion with my publisher it was agreed that I could hold most of that Bismarck material back from 'HMS Rodney' to form the core of 'Killing the Bismarck', which was published in 2010.
It was a different kind of book for me too, not a biography of a famous warship and her men down the ages, but a look at new angles in the familiar story of the legendary chase and destruction of Bismarck.
The second book - 'Bismarck: 24 Hours to Doom' (2016) - was a follow on to that one and itself grew out of on-camera interviews I conducted with a tight band of brothers (UK and one Canadian) naval veterans from HMS Rodney, HMS Cossack, HMS Dorsetshire and an Ark Royal air squadron.
It is deliberately a stripped back book, composed primarily of their testimony of what it felt like to fight in that battle, presented as close as possible to the raw state of what they said on camera. It is cinematic and very tight.
It surely represented my last opportunity to write a book based primarily on my own contact face-to-face with WW2 veterans - it was always an honour to meet and talk to them and find out about their lives and times at war (and often in peace)...direct from source...from the men who saw history being created with their own eyes, who knew what it was really like to be plunged into some of the most epic sea battles in history.
Actually I did get some fresh material from WW2 veterans in 'The Deadly Trade' too, which was an unexpected thrill - from new interviews and also from past ones that I found were suddenly relevant to the massive story that book tells.
On the Bismarck books, the first one grew out of an earlier book. In 2001 my first book was 'Warspite' (about the legendary British battleship) and as with the subsequent 'HMS London' (2002) and 'HMS Rodney' (2008) I met and interviewed dozens of war veterans, as well as writing to many more...
Those three books were created to give the sailors and Royal Marines who may well have never told their stories before a place on the record in history. I also did substantial research in UK naval museums.
When researching 'HMS Rodney' in the museums and talking to veterans I uncovered some interesting material that I realised had never been in print before about the Royal Navy side of the Bismarck Action, especially the final battle. During a discussion with my publisher it was agreed that I could hold most of that Bismarck material back from 'HMS Rodney' to form the core of 'Killing the Bismarck', which was published in 2010.
It was a different kind of book for me too, not a biography of a famous warship and her men down the ages, but a look at new angles in the familiar story of the legendary chase and destruction of Bismarck.
The second book - 'Bismarck: 24 Hours to Doom' (2016) - was a follow on to that one and itself grew out of on-camera interviews I conducted with a tight band of brothers (UK and one Canadian) naval veterans from HMS Rodney, HMS Cossack, HMS Dorsetshire and an Ark Royal air squadron.
It is deliberately a stripped back book, composed primarily of their testimony of what it felt like to fight in that battle, presented as close as possible to the raw state of what they said on camera. It is cinematic and very tight.
It surely represented my last opportunity to write a book based primarily on my own contact face-to-face with WW2 veterans - it was always an honour to meet and talk to them and find out about their lives and times at war (and often in peace)...direct from source...from the men who saw history being created with their own eyes, who knew what it was really like to be plunged into some of the most epic sea battles in history.
Actually I did get some fresh material from WW2 veterans in 'The Deadly Trade' too, which was an unexpected thrill - from new interviews and also from past ones that I found were suddenly relevant to the massive story that book tells.
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