festival
speakers
2025

Al Murray
host

james holland

host

BRIAN ALEXANDER

DAVE ALLEN

MICHAEL BEDDOES

ANTONY BEEVOR

WAITMAN BEORN

STUART BERTIE

MARY BRAZIER

JORY BRENTJENS

JOHN BUCKLEY

AEDAN BUTLER

NATHAN CANESTARO

SUSAN CARRUTHERS

NIALL CHERRY

ALEX CHURCHILL

JOHN CLOUGH

JOE COLES

JOHN CONCAGH

GORDON CORERA

PHIL CRAIG

SAUL DAVID

TAMI DAVIS BIDDLE

CALUM DOUGLAS

DAN ELLIN

JONATHAN FENNELL

MATTHEW FORD

CHRIS GATENBY

ROBERT GALLIMORE

NORMA GRAHAM

SOPHIE GREEN

JANE GULLIFORD LOWES

CHARLIE HIGSON

GEORGE HOAD

KIT KOWOL

NICK LE HURAY

ROBERT LYMAN

JAMES MAY

ALEX MAWS

JOEY McCARTHY

JOHN MCMANUS

ROGER MOORHOUSE

NICHOLAS MORAN

HENRY MONTGOMERY

CLARE MULLEY

LOUISE PARBERRY

MIKE PETERS

RUSSELL PHILLIPS

STEPHEN PRINCE

KIRAN SAHOTA

James M Scott

Dominic Sandbrook

PHILIPPE SANDS

TIM SHIPMAN

HENRY SPILBERG

SONIA PURNELL

LUKE TURNER

VICTORIA TAYLOR

JOHN TREGONING

MERRYN WALTERS

BEN WILLBOND

TIM WILLBOND

WE HAVE WAYS FEST 2025 | 12 – 14 SEPT 2025  

The UK’s No. 1 Second World War Festival

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Al Murray

Al Murray is the co-host of We Have Ways Of Making You Talk. Al, with his alter-ego The Pub Landlord, is one of the most recognisable and successful comics in the UK. He is a regular on many popular British television programmes. Al is also a keen historian and aficionado of the Second World War.

JAMES HOLLAND

James Holland is the co-host of the podcast We Have Ways Of Making You Talk. He is the best selling Second World War historian in the UK. He has published more than 20 books about the conflict and is the BBC’s regular expert on all Second World War matters. As well as hosting We Have Ways Fest, James runs Chalke History Festival – the largest history festival in Europe.

BRIAN ALEXANDER

Brian Alexander was educated in Canada, Harrow School, and Grenoble University, and then held a National Service commission in the Irish Guards. Now retired, he has worked for Bowater Paper Corporation, Rank Organisation and Previews International. He was Managing Director of Mustique Company for 25 years. and is a member of Mercers Company, MCC and Queens Club.

DAVE ALLEN

Dave Allen is a decorated soldier, military and civilian parachutist and senior NCO with over 22 years’ service in the Parachute Regiment. Since joining the Army at 19, he has participated in a multitude of exercises and operational tours which have taken him to all corners of the globe.

Having conducted extensive training and exercises as part of the British Army’s rapid reaction spearhead, 16 Air Assault Brigade, and with a wealth of operational experience domestically and overseas, in Northern Ireland, the Levant region as well as the wider Middle East, he spent two years of his career as an instructor at the Infantry Training Centre in Catterick, responsible for training, guiding, and developing training for the next generation of paratroopers. He is currently serving as a Platoon Sgt within the Parachute Regiment.

MICHAEL BEDDOES

Michael Beddoes is a producer and writer, who among other things is currently working on the WW2 YouTube channel WW2 Headquarters (presented by James Holland & Al Murray). During his career he has worked across film, scripted TV documentaries, and commercials. This year, Michael is co-writing a non-fiction film book and is lecturing at Birmingham City University.

Antony beevor

A former regular officer in the British Army, Sir Antony Beevor commanded a tank troop in Germany during the Cold War. His books include Stalingrad, Berlin, D-Day, The Battle for Spain and the Second World War. His work, which has received major prizes, has appeared in thirty-seven languages and sold more than nine million copies. His latest book is Russia – Revolution and Civil War 1917-1921. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Historical Society, and a former chair of the Society of Authors, he has received honorary doctorates and fellowships from five universities. In 2014, he received the Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Literature, and in 2016 the Historical Association’s Norton Medlicott Medal for services to history. He was knighted in 2017.

WAITMAN BEORN

Waitman Wade Beorn, PhD, FRHistS is an historian of the Holocaust and Nazi Germany at Northumbria University.  He is the author of Marching into Darkness: The Wehrmacht and the Holocaust in Belarus and The Holocaust in Eastern Europe: At the Epicenter of the Final Solution. His most recent book is Between the Wires: The Janowska Camp and the Holocaust in Lviv. Waitman hosts the Holocaust History Podcast and is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point.

STUART BERTIE

Stuart Bertie is the official photographer of We Have Ways Fest. He is also a qualified architect, practising in East Devon. He was a lecturer in Architecture at the University of Portsmouth for a number of years, exploring urban design, landscape, building, culture, art, and philosophy. Pairing this experience with his keen interest in all things Second World War, he has recently been studying the wide reaching influence that Architects had on this world defining event, and how their legacy can be seen in the landscape today.

Mary Brazier

Mary Brazier is a Mental Health Social Worker and a Director of Social Work in the NHS. She has always had a passion for military history and recently completed a Masters in Second World War Studies. Her thesis explored the contribution of Psychology and Psychiatry to the formation of doctrine in RAF Bomber Command. Mary continues to present her work at academic conferences and festivals, and is keen to broaden wider understanding of mental health both within and after the Second World War.

JORY BRENTJENS

Jory Brentjens is a World War II historian and the curator of the Airborne Museum Hartenstein. He has created multiple exhibitions about the Battle of Arnhem and is the author of Fled to Fight: the Jewish Refugees of 1st Airborne Division. 

JOHN BUCKLEY

John Buckley is Professor of Military History at the University of Wolverhampton, where he convenes the MA Second World War programme. His work focuses on the British Army in the Second World War (particularly Northwest Europe 1944-5), and air power. He is the author of a number of books including British Armour in the Normandy Campaign 1944 (2004), Monty’s Men: The British Army and the Liberation of Europe (2013), The Royal Air Force: The First One Hundred Years 2018 – with Paul Beaver) and Armchair General: Can You Defeat the Nazis? (2021).

AEDAN BUTLER

Exploring the role of the Royal Navy in Operation ‘PLUNDER, the Allied crossing of the Rhine in the final months of the war, Aedan Butler is the Senior Researcher at the Naval Historical Branch, engaging with 500 years of naval history on a daily basis. Beyond a passion for maritime history, Aedan spends his time accumulating an ever-growing number of khaki jackets.

NATHAN CANESTARO

Nathan Canestaro is a professional intelligence officer whose research into his grandfather’s service in World War 2 led to a decade-long effort to uncover the story of the USS Cowpens and her crew. Currently on assignment to the National Intelligence Council, Nathan has twenty-five years’ experience writing about military operations for policymakers in the US government. He has graduate degrees from the University of Tennessee, Georgetown, and Yale, and lives outside of Washington DC with his family.

SUSAN CARRUTHERS

Susan L. Carruthers is a professor of History at the University of Warwick, where she’s worked since 2017. Before arriving at Warwick, she taught at Rutgers University in New Jersey at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and has held visiting fellowships at Harvard, Princeton, the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC, and the University of Cologne. An expert on the history of twentieth-century conflict, she’s the author of six books, including, most recently, Dear John: Love and Loyalty in Wartime America (Cambridge University Press, 2022) and Making Do: Britons and the Refashioning of the Postwar World (Cambridge University Press, 2025). Her work has been featured in the Sunday Times, New York Times, Washington Post and ‘The Conversation’. In her spare time, Susan volunteers for English Heritage as a gardener at Kenilworth Castle and Elizabethan Garden.

NIALL CHERRY

Niall Cherry was born in London in 1959 and recalls becoming interested in military history as a schoolboy from watching such classic war films as ‘The Battle of Britain’ and ‘A Bridge Too Far’. He later found out that one of his grandfathers fought in the Great War, serving as a chemical corporal at Loos in 1915 and ended up as a Captain. His father served in the REME in the 1950’s and Niall continued in the family tradition by serving in the RAMC. During his time he qualified as a Combat Medical Technician Class 1 and an instructor in First Aid and Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Warfare and ended as a Senior NCO.

Deeply interested in the major conflicts of the 20th Century he has visited numerous battlefields including the Western Front, Arnhem, Gallipoli, Normandy, the Bulge, the Falkland Islands and North Africa. He is a longstanding member of the Western Front Association, the Military Heraldry Society and 23/144 Parachute Field Ambulance Old Comrades Association. He also has the honour of being the only non Arnhem veteran to be Secretary of the Arnhem 1944 Veterans’ Club and was Secretary of the Arnhem 1944 Fellowship for over 10 years. He has now authored or co-authored 19 books and is one of the team of battlefield guides at Leger Holidays.

Alex Churchill

Alex Churchill is a military historian from London. The co-founder of the Great War Group and the lockdown podcast History Hack, she now writes on both wars for substack. Her particular interests are the war in the Pacific and anything French-related.

JOHN CLOUGH

John Clough was an American trial lawyer (or “barrister” as more civilized people might say) for thirty-five years.  He migrated from the eastern United States to Alaska over fifty years ago and has resided in the state capitol of Juneau since 1981. Imbued with a passion for history by his father (a B-17 radio operator and waist gunner) John has been an unrepentant amateur student of the Second World War since his primary school years. After retiring from the bar in 2015, John devoted his time to travelling Alaska and the world with his wife Marian, all the while consuming as much military and aviation history as the space on his library shelves allows. He is also a licensed float plane pilot with over 1500 hours of Alaska flight time in his logbook. John and Marian are the proud parents of four lovely daughters who as children were required to show their Renaissance education by memorizing the names of the four Japanese carriers sunk at the Battle of Midway. They returned the favor by giving birth to four fantastic grandchildren, the eldest of whom, Jackson, is a WW2 savant who could spell “Nebelwerfer” at age 10.

JOE COLES

Over the past two decades, Joe Coles has written more about military aviation than there are rivets in a B-29 Superfortress. As the mastermind behind Hush-Kit, the acclaimed blog and book series that fuses razor-sharp wit with deep technical knowledge, Joe has become a singular voice in aviation history. He’s chronicled the weirdest, wildest, and most thrilling corners of air combat, interviewed hundreds of fighter pilots, and launched headlong into obsessive explorations of the engineering marvels — and terrifying power — of warplanes.

john concagh

John Concagh is a historian from London whose work focuses on the relationship between Britain’s African and Caribbean colonies and the challenges of the Second World War.

GORDON CORERA

Gordon Corera is the co-host of The Rest is Classified, a podcast that delves into the world of spies and secrets. With over 25 years of experience covering national security issues, including two decades as the BBC News Security Correspondent, Gordon is widely respected for his in-depth reporting on cyber security, intelligence, terrorism, and proliferation. He has interviewed spy chiefs from around the world and presented notable radio and podcast series such as Shock and War: Iraq 20 Years On. As an accomplished author, his works include Russians Among Us: Sleeper Cells, Ghost Stories, and the Hunt for Putin’s Spies, Intercept: The Secret History of Computers and Spies, MI6: Life and Death in the British Secret Service, Secret Pigeon Service, and Shopping for Bombs: The Rise and Fall of the AQ Khan Network. With his deep expertise and compelling storytelling, Gordon brings unparalleled insight into the shadowy world of intelligence and security.

PHIL CRAIG

Phil Craig is a bestselling author and multiple-award-winning film-maker. A former RAF cadet pilot, he studied history at Cambridge University, was a BBC graduate trainee and built his career working for iconic British TV series World in Action and Panorama. Later he held senior positions at the prestigious Brook Lapping production company, at the Discovery Channel and at ABC Television in Australia where he ran the entire factual output including its high-profile ANZAC centenary project.

Throughout his TV and writing career, Phil has spent many years researching and reinterpreting the story of Britain and its Empire during the Second World War, including his definitive and bestselling account of 1940 – ‘Finest Hour’, a book cited by James Holland as a major influence on his own work.

Phil also hosts The Scandal Mongers Podcast.

Saul David

Saul David is a historian and broadcaster whose many critically acclaimed books include: Operation Thunderbolt, an Amazon History Book of the Year which was turned into the movie Entebbe; SBS: Silent Warriors, shortlisted for the Mountbatten Award and a Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller; and Devil Dogs, a Times and Daily Telegraph HistoryBook of the Year. He co-hosts the Battleground podcast with Patrick Bishop.

TAMI DAVIS BIDDLE

Tami Davis Biddle is Professor Emerita, US Army War College (USAWC). She retired in August 2021 as Elihu Root Chair of Military Studies, the College’s senior chair, and remains a Distinguished Fellow of the College. She taught at the USAWC for twenty years, serving as Chair of the USAWC Faculty Council from 2014 to 2016, and director of the USAWC’s “War, Policy, and National Security” curriculum from 2018-2021. She holds a Ph.D. in history from Yale, and has held fellowships from Harvard University, the Social Science Research Council, and the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. Her research focus has been warfare in the 20th century, in particular the history of air warfare, civil-military relations, grand strategy, the law of war, and US national security. Her books include Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare: The Evolution of British and American Ideas about Strategic Bombing, 1914-1945, which was a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2002. She served on the Board of Trustees of the Society for Military History, 2009-2017, and serves on the Editorial Board of the Texas National Security Review. She is a recipient of the US Army’s Superior Civilian Service Award, and many other awards from the Army for writing, teaching, and service.

CALUM DOUGLAS

Calum E. Douglas is a professional mechanical engineer, specialising in race engine design, and an aviation historian. His first book, about WW2 aero engine development from 1930 to 1945, “THE SECRET HORSEPOWER RACE” has sold in five figure volumes, in three languages and is now widely regarded as the standard text on the subject. He is regularly invited to lecture all over the world on the topic of WW2 aero engines, from Rolls-Royce to the Royal Aeronautical Society to various motorsport firms such as Ferrari F1 together with the chassis, and engine manufacturing sites of both Mercedes F1 and Renault-Sport (now Alpine). His current research topics focus on the reasons for success and failure in British aeronautical development from 1914 to 1945, with emphasis on global raw materials supply, government research policy and the relationship between major research institutes and industry. Calum is currently on a long term retainer with a large historic aviation company in an engineering capacity, and is a registered (and active) external consultant with the UK Government AAIB (Air Accidents Investigation Branch) for historic aircraft engine failure incidents. He is still glad he spent the first five years of his engineering career as a welder.

Dan Ellin

Dr Dan Ellin is Digital Archivist for the International Bomber Command Centre Digital Archive. A Social and Cultural historian, Dan is a graduate of the University of Lincoln and has a PhD from the University of Warwick. His research examines the lives of the men and women who served with Bomber Command during the Second World War. Dan has worked for the IBCC since 2015. Since then, the IBCC Digital Archive has recorded over 1,200 oral history interviews and digitised over 2,500 individual collections of letters, diaries, logbooks and photographs. Many of these collections tell stories previously unheard by anyone other than their families.

Jonathan Fennell

Jonathan Fennell is Professor of the History of War and Society at King’s College London, Co-Director of the Sir Michael Howard Centre for the History of War and Co-Founder and President of the international scholarly society, the Second World War Research Group. He holds a Doctorate in Modern History from the University of Oxford and is the author and editor of three books on the military and social history of the Second World War. His Fighting the People’s War: The British and Commonwealth Armies and the Second World War (Cambridge University Press, 2019) won the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Duke of Wellington Medal for Military History 2020 and the Society for Army Historical Research Templer Medal for the History of the British Army 2020. Jonathan is currently working on a new trilogy on the Second World War, the first volume of which will be published by Penguin (Viking) in 2026.

MATTHEW FORD

Dr Matthew Ford is an Associate Professor in War Studies at the Swedish Defence University in Stockholm. Matthew’s work has ranged from analyses of military innovation to considering the representation and conduct of war on the digital battlefields of the 21st Century. His latest book is called War in the Smartphone Age. Matthew earned his PhD from the Department of War Studies at King’s College London. He has been a visiting scholar at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey and a West Point fellow. Currently he is an Associate of the Imperial War Museum in London, an Honorary Historical Consultant to the Royal Armouries in Leeds, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a senior non-resident fellow with the Global and National Security Institute at the University of South Florida. Prior to academia, Matthew worked for the consulting divisions of PwC and IBM and was a strategic analyst at the UK Ministry of Defence.

CHRIS GATENBY

Chris Gatenby is a Master Mariner, sailor and RNLI Lifeboat helm, who has spent the best part of 35 years at sea in the Merchant Navy and Royal Navy. He is currently serving as a senior Liverpool Pilot. His interest on the Battle of the Atlantic was piqued when he worked on the Battle of the Atlantic 60th Anniversary Commemoration, when he was lucky enough to meet many of the veterans. With a deep love of history and all things nautical, Chris will explain the Atlantic Convoys through the eyes of a Mariner.

ROBERT GALLIMORE

Robert Gallimore spent 17 years as a distinctly average infantry officer in the distinctly brilliant Welsh Guards. He completed 7 tours of Iraq, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone. Since leaving the army he has become a history teacher where he overburdens sixth formers with excessive knowledge of the Second World War. Outside the classroom he doubles down on a waning cricket career in face of aggregating evidence and is a consistent sucker for Jim’s various physical challenges in boats or on paths. He has also presented a PTV documentary on Pakistan – a country he loves and travels frequently to – entitled “A journey inside the real Pakistan”.

NORMA GRAHAM

Norma Graham is a retired librarian from Ontario, Canada. She has had a fascination with military history for the past thirty years, and has focused her study on the Second World War since 2020. Her special area of interest is the role of Canadians in every service and almost every theatre of the war. She has had articles published in a number of magazines, including Salient Points, and Flightlines, the magazine of the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. In addition, she has presented Canadian stories on WW2TV, Ham & Jam, and OTD Military History YouTube channels. She is thrilled to have the opportunity to present to her good friends in the WHW community – the best people in the world! 

SOPHIE GREEN

A born and bred Suffolk girl, Sophie Green grew up in the small rural town of Framlingham and has been interested in the Second World War since childhood. She is now Curator at the 95th Bomb Group Museum at Horham and runs her own project to tell the story of the American women that served in England during the Second World War. She is also a British Representative of the 8th Air Force Historical Society. Sophie has participated in living history events across Europe, is a historical consultant for both TV and film, provides talks to groups and social media platforms, and regularly exhibits her personal collection of original uniforms and ephemera to tell the story of the American women that served here.

JANE GULLIFORD LOWES

Jane Gulliford Lowes is a writer, historian and ex-lawyer from County Durham. She was awarded the RAF Museum’s prestigious Academic Award in 2023 for her Masters’ thesis on RAF Bomber Command gardening operations, which is also the subject of her latest book, The Invisible Campaign. She is the producer and co-host of the Bomber Command podcast, Never Mind The Dambusters. Jane’s recent research focuses on the Norwegian Campaign, and she can often be found poking about in bits of old concrete somewhere in Norway. 

CHARLIE HIGSON

Charlie Higson is a comedian, screenwriter, novelist, actor, podcaster and former singer. One of the stars, creators and co-writers of The Fast Show, he’s written for Harry Enfield and Vic Reeves, and wrote the TV series, Jekyll & Hyde. Charlie has also written a number of zombie apocalypse novels, the Young James Bond series, and most recently, the new authorised – and best-selling – James Bond novel, On His Majesty’s Secret Service.

GEORGE HOAD

George Hoad is a 17-year-old member of the independent company and avid fan of history. He started listening to the podcast in 2021. This is his fourth time at the festival as a fan and his second time as a speaker. In his spare time, he is a member of the C.C.F (Combined Cadet Force). As of September 2024, he has begun research and production of his first ever book on Operation Musketeer, the military aspect of the Suez Crisis.

KIT KOWOL

Kit Kowol received his DPhil in Politics from Oxford University in 2014. He subsequently taught and researched at Teesside University, Christ Church (University of Oxford), and King’s College London, where he was an Early Career Development Fellow in Modern British History. He now lives and works in Brisbane, Australia.

NICK LE HURAY

Nick Le Huray lives in the Channel Island of Guernsey and is passionate about the history of the islands. He has a particular interest in the German Occupation of the Channel Islands between 1940 and 1945. He has been collecting material related to the occupation for many years as well as writing a blog, www.Island-Fortress.com. He co-hosts the ‘Islands at War’ podcast, and has a monthly spot on BBC Radio Guernsey and BBC Radio Jersey. He also leads tours around Guernsey and has recently become a Bronze Accredited tour guide. Nick has been working with Visit Guernsey and other history bodies to commemorate the 80th Anniversary of the liberation. His forthcoming book, which will be published in 2025, explores the escapes made by civilians from the islands.

Rob Lyman

Dr Robert Lyman is an elected fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Research Fellow at Pembroke College, University of Oxford. He received an MBE for services to military history in the King’s New Years Honours 2024. Robert was commissioned into the Light Infantry in April 1982 and spent 20 years in the British Army. His PhD on Field Marshal Bill Slim became his first book, Slim, Master of War, in 2004. His account of the Burma campaign, A War of Empires, was published to critical acclaim in November 2021. He co-wrote Victory to Defeat with Lord Dannatt in 2023 and recently collaborated with Lord Dannatt again on a new military history of the Korean War, Korea: War Without End.

JAMES MAY

James May is a journalist, author, television presenter and publican, perhaps best known for shows such as Top Gear and The Grand Tour. An aficionado of Second World War history and war planes in particular, James has appeared on the podcast and at We Have Ways Fest. His latest book, Marvellous Vehicles, was published in 2023.

ALEX MAWS

Alex Maws is the Head of Education and Heritage at the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) and a member of the UK delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). He works in partnership with UNESCO to train educators and policy makers globally on issues relating to the Holocaust and antisemitism. He is the producer and host of the AJR’s ‘Kindertransport’ podcast and the creator of the online UK Holocaust Map.

JOEY McCARTHY

Joey McCarthy is the Senior Producer of We Have Ways of Making You Talk and the Production Manager of We Have Ways Fest. He has worked on the podcast since its inception since 2019 and has produced approximately 800 episodes of pure unadulterated war-waffle. Unlike all of the other speakers and historians at this festival, Joey knows nothing about the Second World War.

John c. McManus

John McManus is Curators’ Distinguished Professor of U.S. military history at the Missouri University of Science and Technology and co-host of We Have Ways USA. As one of the nation’s leading military historians, John has published several books and regularly appears on television and radio. His current projects include a major three volume history of the US Army in the Pacific/Asia theatre during the Second World War.

ROGER MOORHOUSE

Roger Moorhouse is a historian and author specialising in Nazi Germany, Poland and World War Two in Europe. He is author of a number of books, including “Killing Hitler” (2006), “Berlin at War” (2010), “The Devils’ Alliance” (2014), “The Forgers” (2023), and the critically acclaimed “First to Fight” (2019), which was awarded the Polish Foreign Ministry History Prize in 2020. His new book: “Wolfpack” provides a German perspective on the submarine conflict in World War Two. Roger’s books have appeared in more than 20 languages and he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Polish Republic in 2020, for services to Polish history. 

NICHOLAS MORAN

Known online by his Youtube name of “The Chieftain”, Nicholas Moran has been a full-time armour vehicle historian for over a decade for Wargaming.net. He is developer of the online game “World of Tanks”, and has been found lurking in tank musea around the world for a quarter-century. He is a US Army armor officer with 28 years in uniform and has not yet been kicked out. With experience in tanks, Bradleys and light cavalry, he applies practical application to the theoretical factors of vehicle design. He has a Degree in Business and Legal Studies from University College Dublin, and a Master’s in Military History (WW2) from American Military University.

HENRY MONTGOMERY

Henry Montgomery is the grandson of Field Marshal Montgomery (Monty). He has worked in agriculture all his life and for the last 33 years as a farm management consultant. He is president of The Spirit of Normandy Trust, Trustee of the Normandy Memorial Trust and Patron of both The Portsmouth D-Day Story Trust and The Friends of the Fusilier Museum Warwick. He travels to Normandy each year with veterans of the Normandy campaign to commemorate the anniversary of the D-Day landings. Now semi-retired, he lives in Gloucestershire and enjoys walking, spending time with his family and playing the occasional (bad) game of golf.

Clare Mulley

Clare Mulley is an award-winning author focused on female experience during the Second World War. Her books include Agent Zo about the only woman to parachute from Britain to occupied-Poland during the Second World War, to play a key role in the largest organised act of defiance against Nazi Germany, The Women Who Flew For Hitler, The Spy Who Loved and The Woman Who Saved The Children. Popular on TV, radio and pods, Clare reviews widely, and has judged several book prizes. She is a recipient of the Polish honour, the Bene Merito, and the Daily Mail Biographers Club Prize. She lives in Essex with the sculptor Ian Wolter, too many books, and a dog who needs more baths. 

LOUISE PARBERRY

Louise Parberry grew up hearing stories about London during the war, such as when her grandfather was out firefighting elsewhere, her grandmother had to put out a fire bomb with the landlady’s precious bear skin rug. She was raised in Arizona, studied mathematics in California and the UK and briefly worked at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Louise has spent the last 27 years working for the same software company. For the last 10 years she has been involved in the area of AI ethics and the future of work. Much of the background research to support this work leads directly back to the Manhattan Project. Louise is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists.

MIKE PETERS

Former Soldier Mike Peters is a Military Historian and Battlefield Guide. Mike has published several books on WW2 Airborne Operations, the US Eighth Air force and the British Army Air Corps. When not leading battlefield tours Mike is at home in Suffolk writing and co-hosting the Mighty Eighth Podcast.

RUSSELL PHILLIPS

Russell Phillips writes military history and RPG books. Born and brought up in a mining village in South Yorkshire, they have lived and worked in South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Cumbria and Staffordshire. Russell has always had a deep interest in history and conflicts all over the world, and enjoys sharing their knowledge with others through clear, factual accounts which shine a light on events of the past. Their articles have been published in Miniature Wargames, Wargames Illustrated, The Wargames Website, and the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers’ Journal. They have been interviewed on WW2TV, BBC Radio Stoke, The WW2 Podcast, and Cold War Conversations. They currently live in Stoke-on-Trent with their wife and two children.

Stephen Prince

Steve Prince is a great friend of the podcast and the Head of the Naval Historical Branch in the Ministry of Defence and Deputy Head of the Naval Staff. He has also served in staff roles at sea and in Afghanistan and has previously been a Sir Robert Menzies Scholar at the Australian War Memorial, a lecturer at the Britannia Royal Naval College and a senior lecturer at the Joint Services Command and Staff College. Steve is also an alumni of the Royal College of Defence Studies.

KIRAN SAHOTA

Dr Kiran Sahota is an award winning social historian and speaker, exploring South Asian history from the First World War to the present. Her work focuses on Indian women and the contributions made during the war efforts. Her most recent research, Indian Women and War, was showcased at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and her projects have toured nationally and internationally. She has given lectures on her research at universities across the country. Kiran is the founder of Believe in Me CIC, a non for profit making education and history accessible to all.

JAMES M. SCOTT

A Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times bestseller, James M. Scott is the author of Black Snow, Rampage, Target Tokyo, The War Below, and The Attack on the Liberty, and co-author, with Jack Carr, of Targeted: Beirut. In addition, James, a former Nieman Fellow at Harvard, is a sought-after public speaker, who leads battlefield tours and lectures at institutions around the world. He lives with his wife and two children in Charleston, South Carolina, where he is the Scholar in Residence at The Citadel.

DOMINIC SANDBROOK

Dominic Sandbrook is a historian, broadcaster and columnist, known for his best-selling series of books on life in post-war Britain (Never Had It So Good, White Heat, State of Emergency and Seasons in the Sun, The Great British Dream Factory and Who Dares Wins: Britain, 1979-1982). He has also written two books on recent American history, Eugene McCarthy and Mad as Hell and a six book series called Adventures in Time for younger readers. Dominic has written and presented several series for television, and co-presents the world’s most popular history podcast, The Rest is History, which has tens of thousands of subscribers and more than 100 million downloads. He has presented live history shows to sell-out audiences in New York, Washington, Dublin, Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, as well as venues across Britain, including the West End.
 
He has been a book critic for the Sunday Times for almost twenty years and has written columns for the Times, the Evening Standard, the New Statesman, the Daily Mail and BBC History.  Marking their 25th anniversary in 2007, Waterstones picked him as one of their 25 Authors for the Future. Dominic was nominated as Critic of the Year in the National Press Awards for 2018, and as Comment Journalist of the Year in the British Journalism Awards for 2021. Dominic was born in Shropshire and educated at Malvern College before studying at Balliol College, Oxford, the University of St Andrews and Jesus College, Cambridge. He was formerly a history lecturer at Sheffield and senior fellow at the Rothermere American Institute, University of Oxford. A fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he is also a fervent Wolverhampton Wanderers fan.

PHILIPPE SANDS

Philippe Sands is an author and international lawyer known for ‘East West Street’ and ‘The Ratline’, which explore the roots of international law and post-war justice. He is Professor of Law at University College London and has appeared before courts including the International Court of Justice. Philippe specialises in human rights and crimes against humanity, and is a prominent voice on global justice. He is also a regular contributor to the We Have Ways podcast.

TIM SHIPMAN

Tim Shipman is the Political Editor of The Spectator, having spent a decade as the lead political writer at The Sunday Times. He is the author of four books on the Brexit referendum and its aftermath – All Out War, Fall Out, No Way Out and Out – which are widely regarded as the definitive study of the most turbulent time in British politics since the Second World War. He has won five major awards for his journalism, was runner up for the Owell Prize for political writing and was political consultant on Brexit: The Uncivil War, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Dominic Cummings and This England, starring Kenneth Branagh as Boris Johnson. He is a well-known commentator on television and political podcasts and regular on Have I Got News For You and The News Quiz.

HENRY SPILBERG

Henry Spilberg has a lifelong interest in military history, sparked by museum visits and trips to the battlefields of the Western Front as a child. He is a trustee of the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock and a founder member and trustee of the Great War Group (GWG). He is the educational course lead for GWG and organises the monthly online talks for the Group on a wide range of topics. Henry’s own interests include researching the service of family members (both grandfathers served in the Second World War, one in the RAF, the other in the RN; one great-grandfather was an Italian general); naval warfare; and all aspects of military medicine. He has contributed several articles to the GWG journal, Salient Points. He joined the ranks of the WHW afflicted in 2021 (IC #1996) and is delighted to have this opportunity to speak at the Festival about a topic close to his heart.

SONIA PURNELL

Sonia Purnell is a prize-winning bestselling author, broadcaster and journalist. She has sold over a million books worldwide and her works have been translated into nearly thirty languages. Her last three books have recounted the astonishing lives of formidable and stylish women who triumphed against the odds to shape the world today in ways never previously revealed or understood – First Lady about Clementine Churchill, A Woman of No importance about the one-legged WWII spy Virginia Hall, and Kingmaker about Pamela Harriman. Sonia’s latest book Kingmaker: Pamela Harriman’s Astonishing Life of Seduction, Power & Intrigue came out in September 2024 to huge critical and reader acclaim.

Sonia has appeared on countless TV shows, radio programmes and podcasts across the world including Morning Joe on MSNBC, Good Morning Britain on ITV, Today on BBC Radio 4, NPR in the US as well as other countries such as Australia, France and Brazil. She has contributed to many documentaries including, most recently, the Netflix docuseries Churchill at War and History’s Secret Heroes on Radio 4.

LUKE TURNER

Luke Turner is the author of Men At War, a critically-acclaimed account of masculinity and sexuality during the Second World War and how the conflict impacts our culture today. Turner’s first book Out Of The Woods, a memoir of desire, faith and an exploration of human identity within ‘nature’ and London’s Epping Forest, was shortlisted for the Wainwright Prize. He is co-founder of online music and arts magazine The Quietus and has contributed to the Guardian, Observer, Sunday Times, Telegraph, Vice, Dazed, NME and the BBC, among other publications and broadcasters.

VICTORIA TAYLOR

Dr Victoria Taylor is an award-winning aviation historian, broadcaster, and writer who specialises in the history of the Luftwaffe and the Royal Air Force. She has served as an on-screen expert, historical consultant, narrator and assistant producer across historical programming for the BBC, Channels 4 and 5, Sky History, National Geographic, BFBS, the RAF Benevolent Fund, History Hit, the Smithsonian Channel, and beyond. Victoria sits on the Advisory Board for the cross-party Spitfire AA810 restoration project in the House of Lords and is an Assistant Editor for the Royal Aeronautical Society’s ‘Journal of Aeronautical History’. She is an Ambassador for both the National Spitfire Project and the RAF Charitable Trust. Her debut book, ‘Eagle Days: Life and Death for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain’, was recently published by Head of Zeus in May 2025.

John Tregoning

Professor John Tregoning is the author of Live Forever? The Curious Scientist’s Guide to Wellness, Disease and Ageing (Oneworld); in which he explores ageing and what we can do about it. He previously published Infectious: Pathogens and how we fight them (Oneworld) which describes the history and science of infectious disease. John is currently Professor of Vaccine Immunology at Imperial College London, where he has studied the immune responses to vaccination and respiratory infection for more than 25 years. John has written 85 scientific articles and numerous articles on scientific careers including a weekly COVID diary in Nature. He has appeared on the Royal Institution Christmas lectures and BBC Radio 4. Many moons ago, John was a captain in the Territorial Army as OC Machine Guns.

merryn walters

Ever since she discovered there were 13 Nazi paratroopers buried near her home in Norfolk, Merryn Walters has been getting lost on purpose, walking the ground with a map in hand. When she’s not working as a Battlefield Guide, or podcasting with Andy Aitcheson, you’ll find her researching and writing about the maps and mapmakers of WW2 – Merryn is a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, and has an MA in Military History.

Ben Willbond

Ben Willbond is an award-winning actor and screenwriter, perhaps best known for his role as The Captain in BBC1’s Bafta-nominated comedy Ghosts. He has also appeared widely on television and in film, and has co-written two feature films, Bill (2015) and We Are Not Alone (2022). Ben is a keen historian with a particular fascination in everything Second World War.

Tim willbond

Tim Willbond is a retired Group Captain and served in the RAF for 31 years as an Aerospace Battle Manager. His operational command appointments included Master Controller Falkland Islands, OC CRC Neatsishead, Deputy Commander Sector South and Deputy Commander SOC UK. He also commanded RAF Boulmer. He is a subject matter expert on Air Defence Command and Control, the Dowding System and tactical air battle management. He writes articles and gives talks across a broad spectrum of related topics and is currently writing a book on the genesis of ADC2 and air battle management and its application during the Second World War.

STEVE ERSKINE

Steve is the Regimental Researcher at the Green Howards Museum and a battlefield guide. With an MA in British First World War Studies from Birmingham University, Simon’s research credits include titles such as John Powell’s 2018 study of General Sir Edward Bulfin, Hugh Sebag-Montefiori’s 2016 look at fighting on the Somme and Terry Finnegan’s 2015 assessment of the American battlefield experience during the First World War.

GREEN HOWARDS ON SICILY – SATURDAY THE ARSENAL 

Also known as Alexandra, Princess of Wales’s Own Yorkshire Regiment, the Green Howards made their mark on Sicily in 1943. Steve Erskine has worked with the Green Howards Regimental Museum for several years, and now takes us out to Sicily….