Author of Sunday Times top ten bestsellers The Kamikaze Hunters and The Pathfinders, and now Churchill's Pirates. Former Sunday Times staff news reporter.
England
Joined February 2009
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It's publication day!A massive thank you to @James1940, Dan Snow, @sauldavid66, @guywalters, @kejamieson_ and @navalhistorian for their reviews and support, and to @penguinrandom.Most of all to the men and women who were Churchill's Pirates and who helped me tell a cracking story
Will Iredale retweeted
The 12th Academy Awards in 1940; a Who’s Who of the cream of Hollywood. It doesn’t get any better than this.
Will Iredale retweeted
Following Sir Winston Churchill’s death, his widow Clementine received many letters.
One particularly poignant,
“That he died is unimportant, for we must all pass away. That he lived is momentous to the destiny of all. He is not gone. He lives wherever men are free.”
Will Iredale retweeted
Christopher Nevinson painted this dynamic image of Fleet Street when it was the centre of the British news industry in the 1920s. Viewed from an upper-storey window at the corner of Shoe Lane, it looks east towards Ludgate Hill and St Paul's Cathedral.
Will Iredale retweeted
Truly remarkable 1 hour @BBCPanorama documentary last night.
What stood out very plainly was the sheer evil of this regime. The pure, unadulterated cruelty of the massacre in January after an order by the Supreme leader.
It records how it unexpected it was. We’ve seen the depths of what this regime is capable of, but never like this. One person says that what transpired in those two days “will be talked about for 200 years”.
It also captures the lies the regime spewed after. The very next day the Supreme leader declaring that Israeli and American insurgents “killed peaceful protesters - sometimes in deeply inhuman ways” - showed gaslighting on another level.
This is what was needed to be seen and what the world was prevented from being shown by the 3 month regime-imposed internet blackout.
People know now. Watch for yourself on catch up and understand what our fellow human beings in Iran have been up against for the last 47 years. bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0…
Important doc film on Iran protests in January that led to massacres (my pinned tweet says 43,000 but many of the 350,000 injured now confirmed dead). @BBCOne at 8pm. I’ve been critical of British journalists reporting from inside Iran but this one focusses on those who got out. Must watch TV tonight bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3qj…
Will Iredale retweeted
I’m sure this is just a rumour, but it keeps circulating. So far, I have been contacted by three journalists asking for an opinion. They say government advisors are suggesting that the Army should be reduced to a single division with four brigades. If this happens, I see five consequences:
1️⃣It would be the deepest cut since 2010
2️⃣At a time when all our NATO allies are investing in defence, it would send the wrong message both to them and to potential adversaries
3️⃣We would severely weaken our ability to sustain an expeditionary deployment as part of a coalition
4️⃣Any reduced investment in land capabilities that might follow such a move would lead to UK land primes disinvesting - I can see 3,000-5,000 job losses
5️⃣ It would precipitate a crisis of confidence among serving soldiers with talent leaving to pursue other career options
——
In short, it would destroy the Army. For all these reasons, I think this is just a rumour and nothing more.
Will Iredale retweeted
During a silent patrol, the crew of a Royal Navy Amphion-class submarine investigates an unfamiliar sound echoing through the hull.
In the 125-year history of the Royal Navy Submarine Service nearly 6000 submariners and over 150 submarines never returned. Lest we forget.
Will Iredale retweeted
“England: we're going to have to opt out of that one.”
This has aged magnificently.
It speaks to astounding talent that they could make 17th-century geopolitics hilarious to a 21st-century audience.
Will Iredale retweeted
When UK ministers talk about how they are spending £298bn over four years on their defence investment plan it sounds impressive.
But this is just the annual budget - including for recurring costs like canteen food, boots and light bulbs - lumped together from 2026-30.
We have analysed the numbers in the small print of the investment plan (DIP).
It shows that military chiefs are banking on tens of billions of additional pounds from 2030 and beyond.
Or else their own numbers do not add up.
Check out our rather rough and ready maths - and thank you to @FTusa284 for sharing your views! ⬇️
news.sky.com/video/is-there-…
Will Iredale retweeted
agreed. But you don't have to go back that far to see truly astonishing numbers. This is the 1989 RAF orbat - just a few decades ago when I was a young (slim!) chap.
Look at some of the numbers:
435 Tornados
100+ Jags
170+ Harrier
FORTY Canberra!
32 Tankers
160+ Hawks!!
ALT table showing the full RAF aircraft numbers
Will Iredale retweeted
A proud moment: 20 newly qualified aircraft handlers pass into their branch on completion of training at the Royal Naval School of Flight Deck Operations here at Culdrose. Now they join the fleet. Well done all #BZ Thanks too to CO @HMS_Raleigh as our guest of honour @RoyalNavy
Will Iredale retweeted
Michael Gambon: The Authorised Biography is published today by @centurybooksuk. 'Tremendous' (Spectator). 'Definitive' (Guardian). Bookshops this way 👉 penguin.co.uk/books/473937/m…
Will Iredale retweeted
Wow - just listening to Jonathan Haskel, chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility on Radio 4
He says UK GDP spent on welfare is rising to 11% of GDP from 10.5% of GDP following the budget. "That's a big increase."
Yet Chancellor John Healey can't even say how he's going to inch up defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030 even as his government says the military needs to be ready for war by then.
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The single best joke in any Carry On film.
“I tried it once and didn’t like it.”
Will Iredale retweeted
As the British Government sensibly encourages the public to stockpile emergency supplies, lets take a trip back to 1989 to learn about what the MOD thought the Soviet military threat to the UK was and how this country would be attacked by land, sea and air in WW3.
Giles Brandreth's Rosebud interview with Hayley and Juliet Mills is a thing of utter joy. If you've not listened to it, do...it makes life seem just that little bit more colouful. @GylesB1
Will Iredale retweeted
It is now 37 years ago that the last episode of #Blackadder Goes Forth was screened. This TV gold concluded 3 hrs of unmatched of comedy to many of us. But there was a deeper message throughout encapsulated in this moving final scene.
Vid: BlackadderQtes
Will Iredale retweeted
Exclusive: General Lord Sanders has intervened on John Healey’s maiden budget, telling @telegraph it’s “incredible” that the Chancellor - who resigned as Defence Secretary over a lack of money for defence - would not use next week’s Budget to explain how the UK will get to 3% by 2030.
Lord Sanders told me that you can’t expect industry to prepare the nation for war when it has no idea how the gov intends to get to its NATO target of 3.5% by 2035 when it can’t even set out the initial steps of getting there.
Lord Sanders was speaking at the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on rearmament, which is running an inquiry into the state of the military and whether it needs to rearm (short answer: Yes.)
He stressed the Army has some of the best people in the world serving, but they don’t have the money or capabilities to back this moral component up. So while the UK could fight day 1 of a war, without adequate stockpiles etc being able to hold the fight on day 30/day 90 is not a sure thing.
Mike Martin, @ThreshedThought
who chairs the APPG told telegraph: “We heard today in our inquiry that the UK is effectively unable to deter our enemies on land and we are taking grave risks as a nation.
“For the Government not to set out a credible path to 3 per cent of GDP next week in the budget beggars belief.”
V interesting conversation where Lord Sanders also told those gathered in Houses of Parliament that he was deeply concerned about lawfare, the Troubles Bill in its current shape and how soldiers HAVE to feel that the country “has their back”. How can they be expected to fight for king and country if they fear they will be hung out to dry by the very institution they dedicate their lives to?
telegraph.co.uk/politics/202…
Will Iredale retweeted
🚨Wes Streeting only talked about how the UK needs to prepare for food shortages and cyber attacks, because I asked him when the government was going to start its national conversation on defence during a question and answer session at the opening of a gun hall.
If the defence secretary hadn’t given such a meaningful reply (thank you @wesstreeting), then no government minister would have spoken out publicly about this topic on the day that the Cabinet Office finally published its new advice on being ready for emergencies.
This long-awaited “Be Ready” moment was meant to be a really important signal - launching a three year campaign to shift the whole of our society to a footing that is more resilient to any kind of shock.
Instead, no government minister had been scheduled to speak publicly today specifically to launch this vital piece of work.
It was just going to be a website update and a written statement to Parliament.
This does not send the signal that getting the UK ready for any potential disaster - up to and including war - is a top priority for our new prime minister…
skynews-defence.noosphere.ap…
Will Iredale retweeted
Collecting this morning at Turnham Green tube station for
Chiswick Poppy Appeal
@ChiswickW4 @TheChiswickCal
@PoppyLegion
