AL MURRAY is the co-host of We Have Ways Of Making You Talk. With his alter-ego, The Pub Landlord, Al 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 is the co-host of the podcast We Have Ways Of Making You Talk. As 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 SWW matters. As well as hosting We Have Ways Fest, James runs Chalke History Festival – the largest history festival in Europe.
This year’s We Have Ways Fest has an incredible line-up of speakers. For the latest news and announcements about more speakers, get WHWF6 Festival Updates delivered straight to your inbox!
Edward Abel Smith is a writer, documentary filmmaker and podcaster. He is the author of several books, including Ian Fleming’s Inspiration, The British Oskar Schindler: The Life and Work of Nicholas Winton, and Angels of Prague.
He was a producer of Murder at the Post Office, a documentary for Sky based on his 2023 article for the Daily Express, and co-created Lucy Letby: Was There Ever A Crime, a podcast with more than one million downloads. His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The Telegraph, The Mail on Sunday, The Times, The Guardian and The Washington Times. He has also been a guest on BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service, as well as numerous history podcasts.
Edward lives near the South Coast of England with his wife, two daughters and their dog, Vesper.
Chris Adam is a secondary school teacher in Edinburgh and has been building scale models for as long as he can remember. Introduced to modelling by his dad, he grew up on a steady diet of Battle of Britain, A Bridge Too Far and Where Eagles Dare.
With a particular interest in the Second World War, Chris has found that scale modelling offers a hands-on way of engaging with the stories he reads and hears, turning moments from the past into something tangible on the workbench.
Chris is delighted (and slightly astonished) to be speaking at We Have Ways Fest 2026
Andy Aitcheson is the co-host of the News Of The War Podcast, in which he and Merryn Walters look at newspaper headlines behind the front lines during the Second World War.
Andy can normally be found leading the Walking With The Jocks battlefield tour around North West Europe, following in the footsteps of Peter White, the author of With The Jocks, and the 52nd Lowland Division. As well as that he is also the co-host of The Lowlander Podcast, has appeared on We Have Ways Of Making You Talk podcast, the WW2TV YouTube channel and shared stories of the 52nd Lowland Division at any opportunity, but especially many times at WHW Festival.
David Allen is a Senior Non- Commissioned Officer with over 23 years of experience within the Parachute Regiment. He joined the British Army at 19 and was assigned to the First Parachute Battalion in 2004. In the following 2 decades, he has participated in everything from brigade level exercises to being part of the UKs high readiness spearhead, training recruits at the Parachute Regiment Depot – ITC Catterick, police support operations in Northern Ireland and combat operations across the Middle East. A qualified military and civilian parachutist, he currently works at the Airborne Delivery Wing at RAF Brize Norton.
David is a returning WHWF speaker, sometime article contributor to the podcast, and technical advisor on Goalhanger’s developing audio projects and seemingly the only member of its airborne fraternity that doesn’t talk about bridges in September.
Waitman Wade Beorn, PhD, FRHistS is an Associate Professor in History at Northumbria University in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. He is the author of three books, Between the Wires: The Janowska Camp and the Holocaust in Lviv (2024), The Holocaust in Eastern Europe: At the Epicenter of the Final Solution (2018), and Marching Into Darkness: The Wehrmacht and the Holocaust in Belarus (2014). As a public-facing scholar, Waitman has written for the Washington Post, Time, The New Republic, and The Forward. He appears as a Holocaust expert in documentaries and TV, most recently the World War II with Tom Hanks series. He is also the host of The Holocaust History Podcast. Waitman is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and a combat veteran.t especially many times at WHW Festival.
Lucy Betteridge-Dyson is a military & animal historian, author and PhD candidate at the Defence Studies Department, King’s College London. She has a strong personal connection to the Burma Campaign through her grandfather, Captain Edwin Alan Robert Syms, who served with 44 (Royal Marine) Commando during the Third Arakan Campaign, the subject of her first book, Jungle Commandos: The Battle for Arakan, Burma 1945. A Burma Star Memorial Fund scholar, her current research combines methodologies from military history and animal studies to explore the role of horses and mules in shaping operations and the institutional development of the British Army and imperial forces between 1918 and 1945.
Kate Brett studied English, German and Museology at university, which very nearly made her unemployable, but has found a happy home at the Naval Historical Branch, where she persuades the current Royal Navy to produce operational reporting and studies the Second World War from all sides of the conflict, drawing on little-known foreign documents
Aedan Butler is the Senior Researcher at the Naval Historical Branch. At We Have Ways Fest 5, he explored the role of the Royal Navy in Operation ‘PLUNDER’ and the critical role of landing craft in the operation. This year, he is following the venerable Swordfish (and perhaps an Albacore or two) to the sands of North Africa and the Middle East. From anti-submarine patrols in the dead of night to bombing columns of Panzers and more, it is yet another incredible tale of derring-do from the Fleet Air Arm.
Katherine Carter is a curator and historian who has managed the house and collections at Chartwell, Winston Churchill’s country home, for 12 years. A commentator and adviser on the life and legacy of Sir Winston Churchill, she lectures internationally and appears frequently in print and broadcast media. She is a Fellow of both the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Arts, and is a Churchill Fellow of Westminster College, the site of Winston Churchill’s ‘Iron Curtain’ speech in Fulton, Missouri.
Her first book, Churchill’s Citadel: Chartwell and the Gatherings Before the Storm, published by Yale University Press, has received rave reviews and critical acclaim. Literary Review magazine called it “a stimulating and enjoyable work that shows us interwar politics from an unfamiliar angle”, while The Critic Magazine remarked that it had been written “with such relish that one can smell the cigar smoke exude from every page”.
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 is a volunteer helper at Airborne Assault Duxford and Treasurer of the Central Lancs branch of the PRA. He has now authored or co-authored 21 books and is one of the team of battlefield guides at Leger Holidays. Finally and by no means least, a serial contributor to the You Tube channel WW2TV.
John Clough migrated to Alaska over fifty years ago. As a boy he was imbued with a fascination for WW II history by his father (a radio operator in B-17’s and B-29’s). Since retiring from his first career as a trial lawyer, John has explored his passions for history, musical theatre, aviation and world travel. John has lectured on a wide variety of history topics, produced numerous large stage musicals and written and performed in original productions in Alaska. He is also a licensed float plane pilot with over 1500 hours of Alaska flight time. John and his wife Marian have four lovely daughters as well as four delightful grandchildren, all of whom are subjected to impromptu lectures on the continuing importance of WW II.
Gordon Corera co-hosts The Rest is Classified podcast with former CIA analyst David McCloskey, which uncovers stories about spies, secrets, and national security. He spent twenty years as the BBC’s Security Correspondent reporting on intelligence, security and conflict from across the US, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, covering pivotal events from 9/11 to the invasion of Ukraine. Gordon’s books include MI6: Life and Death in the British Secret Service, Russians Among Us, and The Secret Pigeon Service. His most recent book is The Spy in the Archive: How one man tried to kill the KGB.
Stephen is a historian and author hailing from the south of England. Growing up in the surroundings of the British Forces in Germany and then inside the World Heritage Site of Stonehenge somewhat inevitably led Stephen to become fascinated by history. It’s now a career that he enjoys to the fullest, working with National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions and travelling around the world to places as far flung as Antarctica, the Arctic, the Indian Ocean and the Far East.
Known as an expert on Operation Neptune, his book Sword Beach (Penguin, 2024) was the first to explore this often forgotten part of the D-Day landings and challenged some of the oft-repeated myths about the fighting there. With an eye for maritime heritage as well, he was the heritage adviser during the restoration of LCT 7074, the large landing craft tank now on display on Portsmouth, and wrote a book about the smaller – but no less significant – MGB 81, a 1942 motor gun boat that still sails today. At present he’s writing about the 1944 Battle of Walcheren, and when he’s got a little bit of free time he’s usually found cycling around battlefields or in second-hand bookshops.
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 President of the international scholarly society, the Second World War Research Group.
He is the prize-winning author and editor of four books on the history of the Second World War, the most recent of which, Collapse: A Global History of the Second World War, 1931-1941, publishes with Penguin (Viking) in the summer of 2026. Collapse is the first volume of a new landmark trilogy on the conflict that shaped the twentieth century.
Jenny Grant is a Postgraduate Researcher at Queen Mary University of London. Having studied Modern History at Oxford, she undertook an MA at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies. Her current research focuses on alliance-building and the challenges of honouring the Anglo-Polish Alliance both in wartime Britain and in the post-war world.
The granddaughter of Poles deported to Siberia, Jennifer is keen to build bridges between the Polish and British understanding of the war. As well as appearing at history festivals and writing for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, she has recently edited the first English translation of the memoirs of General Maczek: ‘The Price of Victory: The Memoir of the Commander of the 1st Polish Armoured Division’.
Trent Hone is the Marine Corps University Foundation Chair of Strategic Studies at Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia, USA. He is the author of Learning War: The Evolution of Fighting Doctrine in the U.S. Navy, 1898–1945, which explores how the U.S. Navy developed learning mechanisms before World War II that accelerated victory during that conflict. His article, “U.S. Navy Surface Battle Doctrine and Victory in the Pacific” was awarded the U.S. Naval War College’s Edward S. Miller Prize and the Naval History and Heritage Command’s Ernest M. Eller Prize. His essay, “Guadalcanal Proved Experimentation Works” earned second place in the 2017 Chief of Naval Operations Naval History Essay Contest.
Mr. Hone’s latest book, Mastering the Art of Command: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz and Victory in the Pacific War, is a detailed examination of Admiral Nimitz’s leadership during World War II and describes how Nimitz’s approach helped win crucial victories against the forces of Imperial Japan, seize the initiative, and execute an offensive campaign that created the conditions for victory in the Pacific. Mr. Hone is currently finalizing his next book, a study of Admiral Ernest J. King’s approach to strategy and leadership.
Katja Hoyer is a German-British historian. She is a Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She is the author of the international bestsellers Beyond the Wall: East Germany 1949-1990 and Blood and Iron: The Rise and Fall of the German Empire. Her latest book is Weimar: Life on the Edge of Catastrophe.
Katja is a columnist for Berliner Zeitung and a regular contributor to British and American news outlets such as the BBC, Bloomberg, The Telegraph and The Guardian. She co-hosts the German history podcast Reichs & Republics and publishes a biweekly Substack newsletter called ZEITGEIST.
Will Iredale joined The Sunday Times in 1999, working first on the foreign news desk and subsequently the home news desk, where as a staff reporter he specialised in general news and undercover investigations. He is currently a media consultant and lives in Kent with his family. His first two books — The Kamikaze Hunters and The Pathfinders — were both Sunday Times top ten bestsellers. His latest book, Churchill’s Pirates, tells the extraordinary and true story of the Royal Naval Patrol Service — the 70,000-strong force of fishermen, amateur volunteers and land-lubbers who manned over 6,000 small boats in every theatre of the Second World War, to help the Allies to victory.
Madeleine Johnson is that kid who, when everyone else went out to play, hung around to hear her parents and friends talk about “the war”. From tales of rationing at home in the U.S. to her father’s time as a medical officer in the Navy on the first U.S. ship into Manila Harbor and Tokyo Bay, to her British god parents, a Q.A. and medical officer “chasing Rommel in the desert”, these stories made a deep impression. When 120 glass slides of the 1934 Nuremberg Nazi party rally turned up among Madeleine’s family’s collection of vacation and travel slides, it all came together; Madeleine’s lifetime interest in the war, degrees in art history and the history of photography from Wellesley College and the University of California, Berkeley and three decades of writing for publications including The Financial Times and The Journal of Art. Madeleine’s uncle Norman, whose story she told at WHWF 2025’s Family Stories Night found the slides in the wreckage of the Wetzlar Germany Nazi party headquarters in March 1945 and sent them home as a souvenir. Presented in the forthcoming book At Hitler’s Picnic. Discovering the 1934 Nuremberg, these slides are a unique insight into Nazi propaganda in action that have lessons for us today.
Bas Kreuger (1962) is an aviation historian and heritage specialist with an interest in WW2 Pacific air war. The Dutch East Indies Air Force and Naval Air Service in both the East Indies and Australia and the fighting in and over New Guinea is where he is focussed at the moment. He has done field research in Indonesia (Java, Tarakan, Papua), Australia (Broome) and Timor.
John McCabe, recently retired as Rector of Byfleet in Surrey after 18 years of ministry, has a wealth of insight shaped by a Bonhoeffer-inspired rule of life and a related PhD completed in 2015. His deep engagement with Bonhoeffer’s theology and legacy has enabled much reflection, learning, and spiritual enrichment. The book’s launch has brought about a number of speaking and broadcasting opportunities; on Jan 7th with BBC Radio Surrey, and in April at West Horsley Place’s History Day. Rev John has led clergy study days on Dietrich Bonhoeffer for Portsmouth Diocese and St David’s Diocese Wales, and recently a reflective Bonhoeffer day for St Columba’s House in Woking.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer(1906–1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian, and anti-Nazi dissident. Known for his profound writings on Christian discipleship, ethics, and the role of the Church in society, he was a key figure in the Confessing Church movement that opposed Hitler’s regime. His most famous works include Discipleship, Life Together, and Letters and Papers from Prison. Bonhoeffer was executed in 1945 for his involvement in a plot to overthrow Hitler, leaving behind a legacy of courageous faith and theological depth that continues to inspire Christians around the world.
John C. McManus is Curators’ Distinguished Professor of U.S. military history at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T). This professorship is bestowed by the University of Missouri Board of Curators on the most outstanding scholars in the University of Missouri system. John is the first ever Missouri S&T faculty member in the humanities to be named Curators’ Distinguished Professor.
As one of America’s leading military historians, and the author of fifteen well received books on the topic, he is in frequent demand as a speaker and expert commentator. In addition to dozens of local and national radio programs, and podcasts, he has appeared on Cnn.com, C-Span, the Military Channel, the Discovery Channel, the National Geographic Channel, Netflix, the Smithsonian Network, the History Channel and PBS, among many others. He recently completed a major three volume history of the U.S. Army in the Pacific/Asia theater during World War II.The first volume in the series, Fire and Fortitude, received the prestigious Gilder Lehrman Prize in Military History.
His current project is a major new biography of General Matthew Ridgway. John is the host of three podcasts, Someone Talked! in tandem with the National D-Day Memorial, World War II Live alongside Kevin Hymel, and We Have Ways of Making You Talk in the USA with Al Murray and James Holland. John also serves as the official historian for the U.S. Army’s 7th Infantry Regiment (Cottonbalers).
Marc Milner is Professor Emeritus at the University of New Brunswick, where he served as Chair of the History Department, and Director of the Gregg Centre for the Study of War and Society. Prior to coming to UNB Marc was an official historian NDHQ in Ottawa, working on RCAF maritime air operations and the RCN in the Second World War. In 2016 he was awarded The Admiral’s Medal for contributions to Canada’s maritime awareness, and was appointed an Honorary Colonel in the RCAF.
Marc is best known for his work on naval history, including North Atlantic Run, The U-Boat Hunters, and Canada’s Navy: The First Century. His Battle of the Atlantic won the C.P. Stacey Prize. He has written the Battle of the Atlantic entry for various compilations and companions to the Second World War. Marc’s recent work is on the Normandy campaign. Stopping the Panzers won the BGen James Collins Book Prize by the US Commission on Military History for 2014-15. His latest book, Second Front: Anglo-American Rivalry and the Hidden Story of the Normandy Campaign, was published in May 2025 by Yale UP.
Clare Mulley is an award-winning author and public historian focused primarily on female experience during the SWW. Her debut, The Woman Who Saved The Children, won the Daily Mail Biographers’ Club Prize and chronicles the life of Eglantyne Jebb, founder of Save the Children.
In The Spy Who Loved, Clare evaluates the achievements of Krystyna Skarbek, aka Christine Granville, Britain’s first female special agent in WWII. This led to Clare receiving Poland’s cultural honour, the Bene Merito. The Women Who Flew For Hitler is a gripping dual biography of Nazi Germany’s only female test pilots, the fanatical Nazi Hanna Reitsch and secret resister Melitta von Stauffenberg. Most recently, Agent Zo explores the life of Elżbieta Zawacka, aka Zo, the only woman to parachute from Britain to Nazi German-occupied Poland, and who resisted both Nazi and Soviet regimes. Agent Zo won the Polish Foreign Ministry History Book prize 2025, was short-listed for the Women’s Prize, and took Military History Magazine’s Silver Award 2025.
Clare also contributes to historical documentaries for the BBC and other broadcasters, has judged several literary prizes, and writes for publications including the Spectator, TLS, Literary Review, Slightly Foxed, and BBC History Magazine.
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As an RAF navigator, John Nichol operated Tornadoes in both the Air Defence and Ground Attack roles. On active duty during Operation Desert Storm in 1991 he was shot down over Iraq, captured, tortured and paraded on TV provoking worldwide condemnation and leaving one of the enduring images of that war. He returned to active duty and was involved in policing the exclusion zone as part of the UN force maintaining the fragile peace in Bosnia. He has served around the world from the Nevada Desert to the Middle East and Norway to the Falkland Islands.
John left the RAF in 1996 and is now an author, broadcaster and speaker. He has made a number of documentaries with WW2 veterans and written twenty books including the Sunday Times bestsellers, Tornado Down, Spitfire, Lancaster and The Unknown Warrior. His latest book, BLITZ: When World War Two Came Home, tells the story of Germany’s aerial assault across Britain during the whole of the Second World War. John supports a number of military charities and is an avid dog-lover and very poor golfer.
John Orloff is an acclaimed American screenwriter known for creating and adapting complex stories in widely disparate genres. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his writing on HBO’s “Band of Brothers”, as well as an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his screenplay for “A Mighty Heart”, the Michael Winterbottom film based on the kidnapping and death of reporter Daniel Pearl.
He spent most of a decade researching, creating, writing, and producing MASTERS OF THE AIR, an epic nine part miniseries Executive Produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, chronicling the 100th Bomber Group’s odyssey in the European Theater of World War Two.
Orloff is fourth generation Hollywood (his great-grandparents were radio comedy team Fibber McGee and Molly) and grew up in LA, but he now lives by a river in the Berkshire mountains in Western Massachusetts.
Jonathan Parshall is co-author of the bestselling Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway, and the forthcoming 1942: Crux of War. His work has been published in the U.S. Naval War College Review, U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, Naval History Magazine, WWII magazine, Wartime (the journal of the Australian War Memorial), and others. He is a lecturer and Research Fellow at the National Museum of the Pacific War, a frequent speaker at the National World War II Museum, an adjunct lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College, and a featured historian on numerous World War Two tours. Well-known on YouTube as co-host of The Unauthorized History of the Pacific War, he has appeared on many other YouTube Channels, as well as the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, History Channel, Smithsonian, the BBC, and Netflix. He is also a featured historian on the forthcoming “World War II with Tom Hanks.”
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.by a river in the Berkshire mountains in Western Massachusetts.
Alex Sabga-Brady starred in HBOs Band of Brothers as Cpl. Francis Mellett, has had a varied career in TV, Film, and Theatre and as a professional drummer, now working as a graphic designer and illustrator for TV and Film. He is now based in Suffolk, with his wife and 2 children, and is the producer and creator of the upcoming HBO Band of Brothers Legacy documentary, to be released this autumn.
Antonia Senior is a writer, critic and journalist. She has been the historical fiction reviewer at The Times for the past 14 years. She is a former deputy Business Editor and Leader Writer at the same paper. Her columns and journalism have appeared in, among others, The Guardian, The Spectator, Unherd and others. On becoming freelance, Antonia published three novels, two of which are set during the English Civil Wars. She podcasts as co-host of The History Book Buffs, which reviews history books and interviews authors on a range of topics, including espionage. Antonia’s first work of non-fiction is Stalin’s Apostles: The Cambridge Five and the Making of the Soviet Empire. Out in April 2026 in the UK, and May 2026 in the US, Stalin’s Apostles: The Cambridge Five and the Making of the Soviet Empire, considers the role of the most famous spy ring in history in advancing Stalin’s strategic aims. The book was described in The Times as: ‘A history of the Cambridge spies that is as good as anything I have read…magnificent.’
Terry Stiastny is an author, journalist and broadcaster. Her first history book, Believable Lies, tells the story of Britain’s Political Warfare Executive during the Second World War and its radio propaganda that mixed truth and deliberate deception. Terry reports on British politics for Times Radio and is a frequent commentator on Monocle Radio. She’s the author of two political thrillers; her first, Acts of Omission, won Political Fiction book of the year in 2015.
Before that, she was a BBC journalist for many years, working in Westminster, Brussels, and Berlin and reporting from many other countries. She has an M.Phil in International Relations from St Antony’s College, Oxford.
David Stahel is an associate professor at the University of New South Wales and teaches at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra, Australia. He is the author/editor of many books on Germany’s war against the Soviet Union, seven of which were published by Cambridge University Press. He has appeared in numerous television documentaries including shooting on location in Russia (prior to 2014).
His series of books covering the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 are standard works for the field: Operation Barbarossa and Germany’s Defeat in the East (2009); Kiev 1941 (2012); Operation Typhoon (2013); The Battle for Moscow (2015) and Retreat from Moscow (2019).
His most recent publication is The Cambridge Companion to the Nazi-Soviet War (2026). His forthcoming book is an in-depth examination of Army Group Centre’s collapse in the summer of 1944 (due 2027).
Jessica is an adjunct history professor for Southside Virginia Community College for its Campus Within Walls Program teaching World History to incarcerated people. She is also a museum tech for the Naval History and Heritage Command.
Julie Summers is the best-selling author of fifteen works of non-fiction. Her best-selling book Jambusters inspired the ITV drama series Home Fires, which ran for two seasons in 2015-16 and had a regular television audience of over six million. She was listed in the Sunday Times as one of only four women in the top fifty historians in Britain.
Born on the Wirral and brought up in Cheshire, Julie spent the first half of her career working in the art world. However, she had always wanted to be a writer. Her first book, Fearless on Everest; The Quest for Sandy Irvine was published in 2000 to critical acclaim, followed by The Colonel of Tamarkan, a biography of Brigadier Sir Philip Toosey, the ‘real’ colonel who built the Bridge on the River Kwai. Since then she has focused on women’s stories from the Second World War and has written Stranger in the House, When the Children Came Home, Fashion on the Ration, and Dressed for War, the biography of Vogue’s wartime editor, Audrey Withers. She is currently working on the women behind the preparations for D-Day. She describes herself as an historian but primarily a storyteller.
Stuart Tootal commanded 3 PARA in Afghanistan, the first UK battle group to deploy to Helmand Province. Billed as a peace support operation, the level of combat 3 PARA participated in was the most intense the British Army had experienced since the Korean War. 3 PARA’s story was captured in his book ‘Danger Close – Leading 3 PARA in Afghanistan’, which became a Sunday Times best seller. Since then, Stuart has published 5 books. His fourth book (SAS Sea King Down) also entered the best seller Sunday Times list. His next book SAS Forgotten Hero, which tells the story of the unit’s legendary co-founder Jock Lewes, will be published by Penguin in 2027.
After a 20-year career, which saw service during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, active service in the first Gulf War, and the invasion of Iraq, Stuart resigned from the Army over the poor treatment of his wounded and lack of equipment. Going on to work in corporate banking security, he set up the Barclays AFTER veterans’ employment programme and founded the Parachute Regiment Afghanistan Trust, which raised £3.9M for wounded Paras. Having worked as a leadership consultant, he is now devoting more time to writing and military history.
Merryn is a writer and historian. Currently, she’s dividing her time between research into the mapmakers of WW2; walking the ground; and the tricky business of turning dry wisdom into words people genuinely might enjoy reading.
Once described as ‘writer, excitable’, Merryn is also an accomplished speaker, a ghostwriter, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and has an MA in Military History. News of the War is the podcast she co-hosts with Andy Aitcheson, exploring how war was reported, read, and ruminated over the breakfast tables of Britain, 1939 to 1945.
Rowland White is the author of six critically acclaimed, bestselling works of military aviation history. on subjects that range from pinpoint Mosquito missions in the Second World War to the first flight of the Space Shuttle.
He is currently working on a new book about the legendary Swordfish raid on Taranto harbour in November 1940, for publication in 2027. He wishes he had time to write more books but works full time at Penguin Random House where he gets to publish brilliant books by other people, including astronauts, explorers, athletes, spies and rock stars.
He lives near Cambridge and probably needs to get his act together with social media.
Molly Wilson is a freelance historian and researcher focused on modern history, with a special emphasis on military medical history. She is currently finishing an MSc in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology at St Anne’s College, Oxford. Her talk at We Have Ways Fest 2026 comes out of the research she is assisting with for Paul Beaver’s upcoming book on Wilhelm Messerschmitt. Her recent lecture engagements include the Battle of Britain Bunker and the Chalke History Festival.
Molly also works for the Warneford 200 project, charting the history of the NHS’s oldest psychiatric hospital. Her previous research work includes work on constitutional history for the Quill Project, and work with community partners within the Oxfordshire Health Humanities Project. When she is not in an archive, Molly is a keen rower and sailor, and worked for the Army Sailing Association for several years.
John Faros Wilson is a Historian with a special interest in the Eastern Mediterranean. Still footsore after trekking the Commonwealth forces retreat route across Crete to Chora Safkion, he is a candidate in the MA in Military History at Buckingham University. His thesis explores the role of Francis Pool, John Pendlebury and Mike Cumberlege (among others), in the development of covert operations in the theatre. He is also editor of On Foot to Constantinople that traces the lives and adventures of that special cast of characters that touched the life of Patrick Leigh Fermor. He can’t remember what piqued his interest in military history, but believes it was the Mosquito pilots, Bren gunners, combat seafarers and Commando war comics that populated his childhood. He holds a BA (History) & LLB from Melbourne University, an LLM from Duke University and a MA (History) from the University of New England.
WE HAVE WAYS FEST 2026
11 – 13 September
The UK’s No. 1 Second World War Festival
Want to take part in We Have Ways Fest 2026?
Military exhibitors and traders can contact us now.
Photo credits: Thanks to Stuart Bertie and Katharine Hill
