Slitherine

I'll start with "The Teutonic Knights" by William Urban (2003).

It's off period but a fantastic book;

Metal Coffins by Herbert A Werner He was a German sub commander throughout ww2 highly recommended

Enjoy

Gates Of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae by Steven Pressfield.

This is a fantastic book. Although a novel the author known for his historical research and accuracy. Will bring the whole period alive and great inspiration for a digital general.

link

Hi Pete

Read this recently and loved it a great book.
Factual
Road of Bones by Feargal Keane
Account of Kohima with a fantastic narrative drive.

If you want a theme
I would also pick up George MacDonald-Fraser's "Quartered Safe Out Here".
His own experience as a teenage soldier in Burma. A really good biographical account but brush up on your broad Cumbrian dialect.


Fiction
I have been enjoying Harry Sidebottom's series set in the Eastern Roman Empire and dealing with the conflict with Shapur I's Sassinid Empire (very FoG). They start with "Warrior of Rome". Don't be put of by the title a great book and if you enjoy it
I also picked up Adrian Goldsworthy's two books set in the Peninsula War and enjoyed them
True Soldier Gentlemen
&
Beat the Drums Slowly
Enjoyed them both the second more so.

Triarius wrote:Fiction
I have been enjoying Harry Sidebottom's series set in the Eastern Roman Empire and dealing with the conflict with Shapur I's Sassinid Empire (very FoG). They start with "Warrior of Rome". Don't be put of by the title a great book and if you enjoy it.

I can recommend this as a good read too - I read all the series over my summer holiday.

For a free ebook try "For the Temple: A Tale of the Fall of Jerusalem" by G. A. Henty. It was one of my favourites as a lad and got me into ancients

For WW2 I have just read Otto Carius' "Tigers in the Mud". A man doing his job with honour and dedication.

Claymore

This year I have read "Dividing the Spoils" by Robin Waterfield, a good general account of Alexander's Successors. I also read both volumes of "Wars of Alexanders Successors" by Bennett & Roberts. This goes into more depth with one volume devoted to the campaigns.

Both of Pressfield's novels on Alexander are worth a read. "The Virtues of War" is my favorite novel on Alexander. "The Afgan Campaign" has uncanny relevance to the present Afgan conflict.

Currently reading "The End of Sparta" by Victor Hansen, his first novel.

Mac

If you are interested in the ACW. Shelby Foote wrote a 3 volume narrative that is very good. I am on the volume.

It took him 20 years to write it and he did exaustive research.

It is a good read, but each volume is between 800 to 1000 pages in length.

Hoplite1963 posted this in the scenario forum. Another fascinating book, by the looks of it . . .

"While on Holliday in Crete earlier this year I finally managed to get round to reading the relatively recently published (2008) Arthur and the Fall of Roman Britain: A Narrative History for Fifth Century Britain by Edwin Pace. (certainly one for hinting to the other half about appearing in the Christmas stocking) Pace has completely reworked the chronology (and much else) of British History in the 5th Century AD drawing on A fresh analysis of the earliest sources for the period such as Bede, Gildas and Nennius.

Not only does he have the battle taking place in 450 AD but has it being fought against the Picts & Irish rather than the Saxons, and that’s not the half of it, the book makes a closely argued case for Arthur and Vortigern (the latter usually cast as the billon of the piece who invited the Saxons in) as being one and the same person. And to top it off he thinks that the Saxons were at Mons Badonicus but in Arthurs army . . . "

For historical fiction then I think Bernard Cornwell's Saxon stories are really very good. The series comprises so far of the following novels -The Last Kingdom, The Pale Horseman, The Lords of the North, Sword Song, The Burning Land and Death of Kings.

stockwellpete wrote:For historical fiction then I think Bernard Cornwell's Saxon stories are really very good. The series comprises so far of the following novels -The Last Kingdom, The Pale Horseman, The Lords of the North, Sword Song, The Burning Land and Death of Kings.

I read the first couple of these and I thoroughly enjoyed them.

Just in at our library . . .

Sean McGlynn "Blood Cries Afar: the Forgotten Invasion of England 1216" (2011)

mceochaidh wrote:This year I have read "Dividing the Spoils" by Robin Waterfield, a good general account of Alexander's Successors. I also read both volumes of "Wars of Alexanders Successors" by Bennett & Roberts. This goes into more depth with one volume devoted to the campaigns.

Both of Pressfield's novels on Alexander are worth a read. "The Virtues of War" is my favorite novel on Alexander. "The Afgan Campaign" has uncanny relevance to the present Afgan conflict.

Currently reading "The End of Sparta" by Victor Hansen, his first novel.

Mac

Hmm.. didn't knew VDH actually started writing ancient historical fantasy novels.. The man is a superb historian.

Now, regarding the books, I have tons which I can recommend, but let's say
Tom Holland "Rubicon" and "Persian Fire",
Donal Kagan "The Peoloponnesian War",
Hans van Wees "Greek Warfare",
Ian Worthington "Phillip II of Macedonia",
Victor Davis Hanson "The Western Way of War", "History of Warfare"
Hans Delbrück "History of Art of War" (vol.1 "Warfare in Antiquity", vol.2 "The Barbarian Invasions", vol.3 "Medieval Warfare" being the first three of them)
Donald W. Engels "Alexander the Great and the logistics of the Macedonian army"
Waldemar Heckel "The Marshals of Alexander's Empire", "The conquests of Alexander the Great"
Philip A. G. Sabin "Lost battles"
John Keegan "The Mask of Command"
John R. Hale "Lords of the Sea"
Adrian Keith Goldsworthy "Cannae", "Roman warfare"
John Gibson Warry "Warfare in the classical world"
Fred Eugene Ray "Land battles in 5th century B.C. Greece"
Peter Connolly "Greece and Rome at war"
Philip Sidnell "Warhorse"
Jeremiah B. McCall "The cavalry of the Roman Republic"
just to throw in a few. I have put together some HUGE google books lists with books I have (on paper or as ebooks) or i am looking for related with ancient and medieval warfare I intend to use in preparing exhaustive (wannabe) bibliography regarding the subject for the AWG project I am working on. I can give you access to these, if you want to look for interesting books to find..

And as historical fantasies, read ALL books written by
Steven Pressfield and
Christian Cameron,
they are simply superb.

Here's a rollicking good read: The Wolf by Richard Guilliatt & Peter Hohnen. How one German raider terrorised Australia and the Southern Oceans in the First World War.

A magnificent and epic voyage of over 12 months which ended in a successful return to Germany.

Another suggestion: "The Wars of the Roses: the Soldiers' Experience" by Anthony Goodman (2005)

I am very lucky that I work in a public library. I have put my hands on three superb new books this week . . .

i) "Fatal Colours" by George Goodwin (2011), which is about the biggest Wars of the Roses battle - at Towton in 1461.

ii)"The Plantagenets 1154-1485" by Derek Wilson (2011), a large format (and very expensive) book that is wonderfully illustrated.

iii) "Winter King: the Dawn of Tudor England" by Thomas Penn (2011), a book about Henry VII, the victor at Bosworth Field in 1485.

Krzysztof Marcinek's "Passchendaele - Kampania we Flandrii 1917"
This is THE most in depth, detailed and professional book on the WW1 western front written outside the english language publications. The level of detail is amazing, each part of the campaign comes with clear, and intuitive situation maps (often day-by day progress is shown). It also comes with a full oder of battle (down to single battalion level fpr the entente) of all the units of both sides that took part in this theatre between june and november. Each part of the campaign is analized, down to the pre-battle plans and military doctrines of both sides.
Simply put, one of the most professional and well-written military books published in the last 10 years here.

Two cracking reads I got for Christmas

Malta - The Great Siege - Ernle Bradford

Roman Conquests - Italy - Ross Cowan

I'm just coming to the end of the 4th & last book in Simon Scarrow's Napoleon & Wellington series of novels. Enjoyed every one.
On the non-fiction front I'm reading Phipps's Armies of the French Republic & the Rise of the Marshals which is good and have started Tom Holland's Rubicon. I'm also slowly reading my way through every issue of Slingshot by the Society of Ancients. They started in the mid 60's and I've have reached 1977 which is roughly when I first got into wargaming.

If I had to pick one work to take on holiday with me - or to a desert island - it would be the John Julius Norwich trilogy on the Byzantines. Superb historical account and also very funny.

The most enjoyable book I've come across in the last couple of years is probably Mithridates The Great by Philip Matyszak.

And on wargaming, I'd have to recommend Harry Pearson's Achtung Schweinehund. Worth the purchase price just for his account of being publicly embarrassed on a train by a loud and over-enthusiastic Games Workshop freak! It's a fantastic insider's account of what makes (some/many?) wargamers tick...