27/06/2008 by admin.

Friday 20 June.  Back early from holiday in the South of France to film the next sequence in the Timewatch documentary I’m presenting about an Elizabethan wreck.  I’m at the Tower of London to film the arrival of the cannon we salvaged off Alderney a week earlier, but there’s just one problem.  Mensun (the marine archeologist) has alerted the media and two channels (BBC and ITV local news) have sent film crews to cover the great event.  Not only that, the public have been invited to watch so the whole thing is a bit of a scrum. 

The original director Dan is self-shooting for this sequence, his pregnant wife having been given the all-clear, so it’s just as well the Tower’s press office give us  priority over the other crews.  Dan tells me to be as hands-on as possible as the cannon are being manoeuvred from a truck onto a wooden trolley, and then wheeled inside the tower where a custom made water-tank is waiting to receive them.  I take him at his word, and almost get my toe run over by the trolley (the young son of Russell, one of the English divers, is less fortunate and an ambulance is called; but it turns out to be just bad bruising, thank God).  It’s not easy trying to speak to camera as you’re helping to push one and a half tons of cannon into the Tower, surrounded by press and public, but I manage it to Dan’s satisfaction.  The bad news is that the lifting gear hired from HSS is not up to the job and by the end of the shoot the cannons still aren’t in the tank.  I do a final PTC explaining the problem, and can’t help alluding to the typically British Heath-Robinson contraption that we’re using to move the cannon.

Filming over, I suggest to the Belgian divers, who’ve escorted the guns over from Alderney, that they join me later for a drink.  Big mistake.  We arrange to meet in Soho at 10pm, and I finally track them down in the Admiral Duncan pub.   ‘Didn’t you realize this is a gay bar?’ I ask them.  ‘No,’ came the answer.  ‘But we thought it was a bit odd there are no women.’  We move on to a straight pub, and five hours later they’re  still going strong, fuelled by far too many pints of Stella.  I tell them it’s called ‘wifebeater’ in England on account of its strength; Dirk replies, ‘That’s all right, the only person who gets beaten in my house is me!’  I finally make my excuses and leave them to it; they can’t get back on to their boat until 6 so they have no option but to keep going.  I’m in bed by 3.30, but still suffer from a shocking hangover in the morning.  Next time I’ll keep my mouth shut.     

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22/06/2008 by admin.

Saturday 14 June.  Hardly time to draw breath, and say hello to the girls, before Lou and I leave for the Althorp Literary Festival, a small but select affair with just twenty authors speaking over two days.  The other authors include novelists Helen Dunmore, Allan Mallinson, Justine Picardie and Tracy Chevalier; autobiographers General Sir Mike Jackson and Jonathan Powell (Tony Blair’s Chief of Staff); historian Alison Weir; poets Ben Okri and Andrew Motion; child writer Anthony Horowitz; broadcaster John Humphreys; and comedian Julian Clary.   I’ve had to turn down two previous invitations, thanks to clashes with my ‘outlaw’ weekend, so a great relief that I could make this one.  We arrive at 3pm to be met by Charles Spencer who goes straight up to my wife, whom he’s never met, and says ‘You must be Lou’.  She’s utterly charmed. 

We’re shown to a gorgeous room with a four poster bed - aptly named the Indian Silk Room - in the main house, and quickly get down to business by attending Patrick Bishop’s talk on his first historical novel, ‘A Good War’ (we have the same fiction editor, the excellent Nick Sayers, so I’m keen to see how well it does).  I ask a few questions, as does Gen Jackson, but the best is from Lou: ‘Can you read out page 96?’ (Patrick had earlier said his sex scene was on that page).  On from there to Julian Clary’s event.  V entertaining, particularly when a member of the audience asked him how he’d dared come back to the Northampton area after his previous derogatory comments on TV about the town.  He denied making them, but the interrogator was not convinced.

In the evening we dine al fresco at the pavilion, with a fabulous view of deer grazing in the park.  I sit next to Charles Spencer and Julian Clary who is surprisingly self-effacing and touchingly shy.  He’s brought his dog and a partner he describes, pointedly, as his ‘current boyfriend’.  After we retire to the library for drinks and coffee in front of a blazing fire, and I end the evening playing snooker with Richard Foreman, literary publicist supremo, against Ben Okri, Andrew Motion and Jonathan Powell.  We win, and Richard insists our opponents pay their £5 bet.  Next morning he tells Ben Okri he’s used the money to buy five lottery tickets.  Ben replies, jokingly, that he should ‘grow up’!

Sunday 15th June.  Lovely breakfast with the other authors.  I say to Julian Clary: ‘I hope you don’t think this is a vulgar question, but how much did you get paid for your novel?’  He replies: ‘It is a vulgar question but I’ll answer it anyway.  Sixty thousand.’  He adds that he got £90,000 for his autobiography (which sold very well).  I’m amazed, and tell him he should change his agent!

After breakfast Lou and I go for a quick walk round the Diana lake with Ben and Suzi Feay.  The author photo in front of the house is next, and then I drive over to the Northampton Waterstone’s (about 9 miles away) with Richard to sign some stock.  I get back in time to meet Helen Dunmore in the green room and we chat about a mutual friend, the novelist Rachel Cusk.  Then it’s time for my 12.30 event in the state banquet room.  My talk on the 1st Afghan War in the 19th Century goes well, though the audience could have been bigger, and after lunch I catch half of Alison Weir’s excellent joint event with Tracy Borman before we have to head for home.  A cracking weekend, and by far the best literary festival experience I’ve had.  I hope I’m back next year, to talk about my first novel, but I’ve been warned that an invite two years running is unlikely.  We’ll see.

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21/06/2008 by admin.

Sunday 8 June.  My first day’s filming on the Elizabethan wreck doc, but first I’m reviewing the papers on Radio 4’s morning programme Broadcasting House.  The taxi arrives at 7.45 and takes me into the occasional BBC studio in Bath where the papers and cup of tea awaits.  My fellow reviewers are Brian Cox and Nancy Dell’Ollio (Sven’s paramour), and I regret not being in London to meet them - particularly Nancy.  I know the presenter, James Lansdale, and before we go on air we agree that I’ll do the military stories (including a cracking tale of how British soldiers in Afghanistan have uncovered Martini-Henry rifles lost in the defeat at Maiwand in 1880 during the second Anglo-Afghan War!).  I cope with a tricky opening question about Zimbabwe, but am cut off in mid-flow at the end of the show as they’re ending on a pre-recorded item.

Back home for a quick cup of tea, then off to catch a train to Southampton for the flight to Alderney in a tiny 12-seater.  The island, just one mile by four, is bathed in sunshine and very beautiful.  But no chance to enjoy the view because no sooner have I landed than I’m whisked off to the docks to film the first item: A tour of the wreck site with the local lifeboat crew to emphasize the treacherous nature of the sea off Alderney.  Dan, the director, couldn’t make the shoot because his pregnant wife is under observation, so the two co-owners of the production company, Malcolm and Ian Denyer, are filling in for him.  Not ideal, but Ian is hugely experienced, very entertaining and immediately puts me at my ease.  After a final piece to camera with a stunning sunset as the backdrop, we wrap at 8.  After a surprisingly good Indian - during which Colin the cameraman tells a hilarious story about a celebrity chef he worked with - we head for bed.  The crew and production - Malcolm, Ian, Julie (AP), Colin, Andy (sound), Tae (BBC Multimedia producer) and Amanda (ibid, AP) - are staying in a local B&B.  I’m in a surprisingly upmarket hotel on the beach.  One of the few times I, as ‘talent’, have been given preferential treatment!

Monday 9 June.  Up at 7 to film at the local museum where various artifacts from the wreck are on show, including a cannon.  I discuss the wreck on camera with Mensun Bound, the marine archeologist who is in charge of the dive to retrieve more guns and muskets.  He tells me that if the guns underwater are the same size and calibre as the one in the museum then it will prove his theory that this Elizabethan ship was one of the first to house the same uniform, coordinated broadside gun system that enabled British ships to rule the waves for the next 250 years.   In the afternoon we film a couple of ptcs in a German bunker system (of all places!) and wrap at 7.

Tuesday 10 June.  Up at 6 for an early transfer by outboard rib to the Belgian dive ship, MV Fourcault, skippered by a Dutch nightclub owner called Pim.  We’re welcomed on board by Pim’s glamorous girlfriend, Angel (she used to run one of his nightclubs), and shown to our spartan quaters in the bowels of the ship.  Fortunately the rest of the ship is extremely well-appointed with flat screen TVs and a huge open-plan saloon.

Breakfast is cut short for the first dive.  Because of the strength of the currents there are only two short windows a day for diving, and they can’t miss this one.  We film them going down and await their return with bated breath.  The come back empty handed, but with the excellent news that they’ve identified six cannon.  The plan is to bring at least two to the surface.

The afternoon dive brings us our first ‘find’: an Elizabethan breastplate, covered in concretion but identifiable none the less.  V exciting.  It’s put in a tank of water to prevent it drying out.

Wednesday 11 June.  A light swell so I take a couple of seasick tablets which seem to do the trick.  The task today is to raise a musket which the three British divers spotted last year.  The story line for the programme is that I, as a military historian, am particularly interested in the military cargo that this ship was carrying, including the muskets.  The first dive is inconclusive.  The boys think they’ve identified the musket but can’t be sure.  They plan to bring it up in the afternoon dive and don’t disappoint.  Again it’s obvious what it’s a musket, despite the concretion, and after I’m filmed discussing the find with Mensun, we add the musket to the breastplate in the tank.  A good day, but the real prize is getting up at least one of the ship’s guns, each weighing more than a ton!

Thursday 12 June.  In the morning the Belgian divers prepare the first gun for the lift by securing straps to it.  Word has spread and by the afternoon dive the local press and dignataries are on the boat to witness the great event.  They aren’t disappointed.  After an incredibly tense twenty minutes, the ship’s crane hauls the gun above the water and on to the deck where Mensun and I are waiting to receive it.  As well as the inevitable concretion it’s covered in smaller artifacts, including a grenade, part of a helmet and what looks like a musket barrel.  Mensun is understandably delighted and declares it to be the same size and calibre as the one in the museum.  We toast the success with beers, and the divers and some of the crew repair onshore to the aptly named Divers Arms to continue the celebrations into the early hours.  I should have been warned.

Friday 13th June.  Despite the inauspicious date, another successful day with the raising of the second cannon, though it’s a close run thing and, having filmed it safely on deck, we swiftly depart for the airport and our 4pm flight back to Southampton, leaving behind the sticks (camera legs), a camera battery and Ian’s jacket and phone!  I arrive home at 8pm.  A great week’s filming, and all recorded by the BBC Multimedia team who are uploading their daily posts on the Timewatch website.

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05/06/2008 by admin.

3 June.  Up to Hull to return the marked exam scripts (all 48 of them) for my Generals and Generalship course and to second mark two other modules.  I tot up the total marks (exam and essays) and discover two of my students have failed (with an aggregate score of under 40) and will have to retake the exam.  Damn!  My year as Visiting Professor at Hull isn’t quite over.  Now I’ll have to set and mark the exam re-sits in late August, which is cutting it fine as my contract ends on the 31st. 

4 June.  Back to London to meet Dan, the director of my latest Timewatch on the Elizabethan Wreck.  We’re supposed to be discussing the script, but he tells me that the plan’s changed and I won’t be seeing it in advance.  There’s method in this madness.  John Farren, the Editor, wants him to film me investigating the story of the wreck in real time, which means minimal prep and plenty of genuine reaction.  I’m up for it, not least because it will save on background reading.  We start filming off Alderney on Sunday.   Apparently the life boat crew have offered to take us out in their boat at high tide to get an idea of the strength of the current where the ship went down.  But we have to be ready to depart the island by 5pm at the latest, which is going to be tricky as I’m doing an interview in Bristol that morning for Radio 4’s Broadcasting House.  It’s going to mean a train/car straight after the i/v to Southampton and a flight (possibly a charter) to Alderney.  Should be interesting.     

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20/05/2008 by admin.

19 May.   Invited to lunch at Partridge Fine Art, New Bond St, by Pss Michael of Kent.  She hosts the occasion with practised assurance, leading a gaggle of the great and the good (and me) round a quite stunning collection of furniture, paintings and objets d’art (with price tags from £200 to six figures).    Then lunch in the private dining room.  I chat with Philip Harari (former director of De Beers Mining) about South Africa in general, and the Zulu War in particular.  My other neighbour turns out to be the former daughter-in-law of a Highland officer I interviewed for my first book.  Small world. 

20 May.  Off to Liverpool St to meet Malcolm and Dan, the exec producer and director respectively, of my latest TV programme ‘Elizabeth’s Secret Armada’ for BBC2’s Timewatch.    It’s a hugely ambitious programme about the wreck of an Elizabethan warship that sank in 1592, four years after the defeat of the Spanish Armada.  Apparently the ship was en route to Brittainy with instructions and supplies for Sir John Norris, Elizabeth I’s famed general, who was fighting the French/Spanish Catholics.   The plan is to tell the story of the ship and film the weapons and artifacts recovered from it by marine archeologists.  We discuss storylines, dates, pieces to camera, living on board the dive ship, helicopter filming, firing the recast weapons from the ship etc.  Far and away the most interesting - and difficult - TV project I’ve been involved in.  Can’t wait to get started.  Filming begins in three weeks. 

Afternoon meeting with Neil Crombie of Seneca Productions, makers of Channel 4’s ‘Rum, Sodomy and the Lash’ (about the Georgian Navy).  We discuss a British Army version, ‘Scum of the Earth’, but decide that something more contemporary would be better.  Along the lines of me in Afghanistan with British soldiers, questioning them about life in the army today (rations, equipment, training, pay, married quarters, service conditions, danger etc!) and explaining how it was very different when the British were last in Helmand province in 1880, possibly by demonstrating uniform, equipment etc.  Very Channel 4.

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20/05/2008 by admin.

A bizarre weekend (10-11 May), but great fun.  An early start on Saturday to catch the 6.46 train to Harrogate, via London, to take part in the two day Nidderdale Literary Festival, set up in honour of Roddy Scott, a war cameraman killed six years ago in Chechnya by a Russian soldier.  I’m doing three events, so use the journey to mug up on the first, the history of war correspondents.  Also appearing are Kate Adie, Sandy Gall, David Loyn and Damien Lewis.   I do the history of the early years (Henry Crabb Robinson, WH Russell etc) while the others recall actual experiences from the Suez (Sandy Gall) to the Iraq War.  The event’s a great success, with a good audience and lots of questions.  Kate is on top form, and regales us with tales of recent wars.  She seems to have been around for ever, but is still as energetic and combative as ever.  After she tells me an eye-popping story about the British Army in the 70s.  I’d love to include it in my book, but will need verification!

The black-tie dinner that evening is a surreal affair.  The authors have been spread around the tables, and act as de facto captains for the pre-dinner quiz.  Many of the diners are retired locals, and a little hard of hearing, which causes the quizmaster Marcus Berkmann (the best in the business) no end of grief.   My table is not the most cerebral and we finish joint 7th (out of 10).   But it’s not all doom and gloom.  I have a chat with General Sir Mike Jackson, the former head of the British Army who’s also appearing at the festival, and he agrees to give a lecture to my MA Military History students at Buckingham University next year.  Also signed up (verbally) to give lectures are General Lord Guthrie, Hew Strachan, Michael Burleigh and Sir Lawrence Freedman.  Not a bad cast list.

Two more events the following day - Rudyard Kipling, with Charles Allen, and The Greatest General debate, at which my man the Duke of Marlborough is runner-up to the Iron Duke - before catching a late train to Hull. 

Next day I invigilate two exams and pick up the exam scripts for my ‘Generals and Generalship’ course.  I mark them over the course of the next few days and the results range from 73 (first-class) to 25 (fail)!  Who said marking standards are not what they were??

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01/05/2008 by admin.

The history dinner on Tuesday was a great success.  Good to meet Adam, and Ophelia in good cheer despite being the only one who did not drink (on account of her pregnancy - twins!).  Bettany on particularly good form - thanks, in part, to an earlier drink at the Wolseley - and v generously mooted the idea of us co-presenting TV history.  I got v excited until she told me that she hadn’t actually seen any of my programmes, and could I send her a DVD of something I’d done!  I’m tempted to send the episode of Time Commanders when I told the all-girl netball team that the best way to approach any problem, particularly a military problem, was from the rear.  I somehow kept a straight face.

Wonderful news from my literary agent.  A Spanish publisher wants to translate all three of my Penguin history books: ‘The Indian Mutiny’, ‘Zulu’ and ‘Victoria’s Wars’.  Apparently there’s something of a history boom in Spain at the moment, but who’d have thought they’d want war histories of the British Empire!

Spoke to a production company today about me doing a programme on the British fighting in Afghanistan, then and now.  Their idea, and a v good one at that.  Will discuss in more detail next week. 

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29/04/2008 by admin.

Gave the last lecture of my ‘Generals and Generalship’ course at Hull Uni where I’m visiting prof of Military History.  The class took my hints and voted the Duke of Marlborough as the greatest British general of the last 300 years, with the ‘Iron Duke’ a close second.  Slim trailed in third, with honourable mentions for Monty and Cromwell.  About right.

 After the lecture I had to deal with the small matter of essay plagiarism (a growing problem, particularly from web based sources) and then dash for the train to London for my bi-monthly ‘History’ dinner, an increasingly loose term though tonight the guests are mainly historians: Adam Tooze, Ophelia Field, Kate Williams, Bettany Hughes, me and Michael Prodger, lit ed of the Sunday Tel.  Dominic Sandbrook cried off at the last minute, claiming a sudden death in his wife’s extended Irish family.  An excuse so unlikely it has to be true.

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