We are at it again - working hard on creating a brand new series, and we are looking for your feedback to help us create the best possible product for all of you! We did this a few months ago with our Air Vanguard series, and your feedback was brilliant, and had a huge impact on what the series has become.
Our new series of books builds on the concept behind the Duel series, applying it to clashes between small groups of soldiers throughout history.
February 9, 2012 12:00 AM
Over the last couple of months we have been asking you to write in and tell us where we have large holes in our coverage for particular series. In the first month we covered the Campaign series and you gave us loads of brilliant suggestions. This was followed by a month of suggestions for the Elite series. This month we are asking you to turn your attention to another of our most popular series - New Vanguard.
February 2, 2012 12:00 AM
Many of you will have seen, and probably taken part in our recent effort to find out what glaring gaps there were in our coverage of history in the Campaign series. And, as promised we have selected five of the more popular suggestions, gathered them together and put them up for a public vote in our book vote (which you can find on the right hand side of our homepage).
The possible titles selected (in no particular order) are:
February 1, 2012 12:00 AM
Despite having only just announced the imminent arrival of the Air Vanguard series, we have been working on the concept for a number of years, and actually commissioned a number of the books many months ago (I know, we are sneaky and secretive aren't we?).
Now it is still obviously way too early to have much material in for the series, most of the authors are still busy researching and writing the books and the artists are still working on their side of the bargain. But, one of our artists has actually been able to finish off some of his art sooner than we had expected
January 19, 2012 12:00 AM
Many of you were first alerted to the possibility of a new aviation series about six months ago, when we posted up an appeal for help with the series. We already had a pretty good idea of what the books would contain and how the series would pan out, but we decided to open the forum up to our customers to check that we were heading in the right direction. And you responded in your thousands, confirming a lot of our ideas, but more importantly planting the seeds of new ideas and new concepts that came as a bit of a surprise.
January 17, 2012 12:00 AM
A couple of days ago we announced the launch of a new series, Air Vanguard.
Now, we have a sneak preview of what subjects we are going to cover in the first few months of the series - including 5 titles that were commissioned only days ago.
I think there is a really nice balance to the list - a combination of the big, famous subjects that are needed to introduce a series to bookshops and general readers, mixed with a more focused range of subjects that will appeal to the more experienced aviation enthusiast!
January 13, 2012 12:00 AM
Osprey are very excited to announce the upcoming launch of a new aviation series - Air Vanguard!
Air Vanguard represents an exciting new venture in aviation publishing for Osprey, moving away from the more narrative based Aircraft of the Aces and Combat Aircraft titles and embarking on a series of more technically minded books.
January 11, 2012 12:00 AM
January 2, 2012 12:00 AM
Just a quick note to wish all of you a very Happy New Year. Thanks for all of your support over the last year - and here is to you!
January 1, 2012 12:00 AM
Everyone here at Osprey would like to wish all of our authors, our illustrators, indexers, map creators, printers, partners and most importantly our customers a very very Happy Christmas, filled with much festive cheer, good food and company, and hopefully a chance to escape the hubbub for a few minutes to flick through those brand-spanking new Osprey books you unwrapped this morning.
December 25, 2011 12:00 AM
It is the night before Christmas and all through the house, nothing was stirring not even a mouse. But the Osprey blog continues, as does our advent calendar! And behind door number 24 we have a piece of artwork from Adam Hook, from the book Fortress 105 Forts of the American Frontier 1776-1891: California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska.
December 24, 2011 12:00 AM
It is the 23rd December - and in the midst of the rush towards Christmas we are surrounded by the traditional images of Christmas - wintery scenes, snow etc. So this is one for all of our fans further south who get to celebrate Christmas during the summer. I did it for years - and highly recommend it... Christmas day lying out in the sun is really quite a treat, although trying to pack away a full Christmas dinner in 30 degree heat requires serious willpower!
December 23, 2011 12:00 AM
Braving the roads to try and get to your relatives house before Christmas? You need one of these, the easy way around traffic jams!
December 22, 2011 12:00 AM
This book only happened because for years customers had religiously requested it through our book suggestion system, nagged us about it at events, wrote to us begging us to cover it. It took a while to convince ourselves that the subject would actually sell enough copies to justify printing the book (and the early results are encouraging) - but we did, and Men-at-Arms 474 The Chaco War 1932-35: South America's greatest modern conflict came into existance.
December 21, 2011 12:00 AM
I think that over the last couple of years the standards of aviation artwork have shot through the roof. Our traditional artists have upped their game tremendously - as have those artists that work digitally. The artwork above is one of the digital artists who has made a huge impact with his Osprey work to date. Taken from the September title Duel 39 La-5/7 vs Fw 190: Eastern Front 1942-45, this is Gareth Hector at his best!
December 20, 2011 12:00 AM
The art for the December 19 edition of our advent calendar is from Campaign 228: St Mihiel 1918: The American Expeditionary Forces' trial by fire, which came out in October 2011, featuring artwork from Howard Gerrard.
December 19, 2011 12:00 AM
December 18, 2011 12:00 AM
Steve Noon is the talented man behind the art today - his art always blows my mind somewhat - it seems to verge on the photo-realistic sometimes - just look at the lovely folds of the blanket over the injured mans legs. Stunning! This rather sombre image is from Warrior 160 Desert Rat 1940-43: British and Commonwealth troops in North Africa, which came out in November.
December 17, 2011 12:00 AM
Okay, so this is a bit of a cheat, because the art today is not the work of one man, it is actually the work of a father and son team - the Embletons! Taken from Men-at-Arms 472 Armies of the Irish Rebellion 1798, which came out in September this year, this is the work of Osprey legend Gerry Embleton and his equally talented son Sam.
December 16, 2011 12:00 AM
The December 15 edition of our advent calendar highlights the work of another new Osprey artist - and the newest Osprey series. Weapon 14 The M16 out this month (and also a contender for our shortest title of all time) was illustrated by Johnny Shumate - who only started working with Osprey in 2010.
December 15, 2011 12:00 AM
Two weeks into December, and another fantastic piece of aviation cover art. This is a particularly special cover for us here at Osprey, as it marked the 100th title in the Aircraft of the Aces series when it published in October. Aircraft of the Aces 100 Ki-44 'Tojo' Aces of World War 2 was illustrated by Ronnie Olsthoorn - and was actually Ronnie's debut appearance as an Osprey artist (keep an eye out for more of his work in early 2012).
December 14, 2011 12:00 AM
December 13 sees Lawrence of Arabia appear on our advent calendar (now that is something that I never thought I would say!) - a great illustration by Giuseppe Rava, from Command 19 Lawrence of Arabia, an August publication.
December 13, 2011 12:00 AM
You have probably spent the whole weekend in a haze of furious Christmas shopping, wrestling through hectic crowds despite telling yourself that this year you were going to be super-organized and do all your shopping online and in advance. Or is that just me? Either way, it is a bit of a relief to be back at work today! This Monday, our advent calendar artwork comes from Richard Chasemore, and featured in our September book New Vanguard 179 Special Operations Patrol Vehicles: Afghanistan and Iraq, a book which completes a neat little trilogy by Leigh Neville - including Elite 163 Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan and ELI 170 Special Operations Forces in Iraq.
December 12, 2011 12:00 AM
The eleventh entry of our advent calendar, and a piece of artwork that is a bit of an oddity. Taken from Campaign 236 Operation Pointblank 1944: Defeating the Luftwaffe, which published in July, this is a rare example of an Osprey book written, and illustrated by the same person. Not content with just writing this Campaign title, Steve Zaloga, one of our most prolific authors, decided to illustrate the book too!
December 11, 2011 12:00 AM
We are already 10 days into December and so far the only Christmas shopping I have done is picking up 3 boxes of mince pies and all the ingredients needed for an awesome pot of mulled wine. I should get a move on really!
December 10, 2011 12:00 AM
The next piece of art in our list comes from David Rickman, a figure plate that featured in a November title, Men-at-Arms 475 The Spanish Army in North America 1700-1793.
December 9, 2011 12:00 AM
Our discount page is back, just in time for all of that Christmas shopping you need to do.
December 9, 2011 12:00 AM
December 8, and we have another aviation themed piece of art, by Jim Laurier and taken from Raid 26 Tora! Tora! Tora! - Pearl Harbor 1941, which published in November this year.
December 8, 2011 12:00 AM
This morning, to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, we have launched a new Osprey app called Battlelines: Pearl Harbor.
The first in a series of apps covering some of the most important battles in world history, Battlelines: Pearl Harbor ties in to the recent publication of our Osprey book Raid 26 Tora! Tora! Tora! - Pearl Harbor 1941 - which published last month.
December 7, 2011 12:00 AM
7 days have flown past already in December, and you are probably already getting tired of the constant round of Christmas music assaulting your ears. But here is the perfect remedy - after all, who doesn't like a bit of First World War dogfighting action?
The piece of art is from the front cover of Aircraft of the Aces 97: Naval Aces of World War I Part 1 and is by a true aviation art legend, Mark Postlethwaite.
December 6, 2011 12:00 AM
The December 6 artwork sees the first entry for the Command series, with this brilliant piece of art from Osprey legend Graham Turner. It features in an October book, Command 21 George Washington.
December 6, 2011 12:00 AM
Paul Wright provides the artwork for the December 5 edition of the Osprey advent calendar, with a piece of art which caused a huge stir when it arrived in the office thanks to the fantastic subject matter. Battleship? Check! Crazy rocket-powered UFO? Check! What more could you ask for? This battlescene art actually graces the cover of New Vanguard 182 Italian Battleships of World War II, which came out in August this year.
December 5, 2011 12:00 AM
December 4 sees some artwork from Campaign 237 The Fourth Crusade 1202-04: The betrayal of Byzantium, which came out in August this year. The battlescene is by Christa Hook - and certainly ticks boxes in terms of being one of the most atmospheric - action packed battlescenes of the year.
December 4, 2011 12:00 AM
December 3, 2011 12:00 AM
The second artist to feature in this calendar is none other than Raffaele Ruggeri, whose glorious artwork above graced the pages of Men-at-Arms 471 Armies of the Adowa Campaign 1856: The Italian Disaster in Ethiopia, which came out in September of this year.
December 2, 2011 12:00 AM
The first illustrator to feature in our 2011 advent calendar is Mariusz Kozik. His art graced the cover of Raid 24 The Last Boarding Party - The USMC and the SS Mayaguez 1975, which came out in September this year.
December 1, 2011 12:00 AM
A few weeks ago I announced our intention to run a series of blogs asking you all to come up with suggestions that would fill the biggest gaps in a particular series.
And we are starting with one of our most popular series -
Campaign
December 1, 2011 12:00 AM
That is right - back by popular demand it is nearly time for the Osprey Advent Calendar. Of course military history is not the ideal source subject for finding the joy of Christmas (Football matches in no-mans land aside) so over the last couple of years we have celebrated some of our best ever artwork, the rare oddities in our 2000 odd books, and a series of posts where the people at Osprey chose their favourite all-time Osprey books.
November 30, 2011 12:00 AM
A month ago we sent out a plea to help us come up with a top five pre-gunpowder weapons to cover in the Weapon series. The response was brilliant - some really insightful suggestions, plus a couple of ideas that initially seemed like utter madness, but, as we thought about them more and more, seemed to make perfect sense for the series. And now we would like you to help us with spotting the glaring subject omissions from some of our other series.
November 15, 2011 12:00 AM
Many of you have been experiencing some issues with our site over the last couple of days - especially when trying to use the search function, and in particular the search features within the Members area. The search error has had a knock-on effect on our site...and has been slowing down the general navigation around the site.
November 9, 2011 12:00 AM
A few of our more eagle-eyed readers noticed a new book suddenly appear on our website a few weeks ago - dropping on to the upcoming titles page for November.
Well, we are all pretty excited about it, because we have finally been able to reveal that we are publishing the companion book to a major Channel 4 documentary series which starts this weekend.
October 13, 2011 12:00 AM
It has been a while coming - and loads of you have practically begged us to do this, but at long last you can get some of your favourite pieces of Osprey artwork printed on canvas!
We have teamed up with art production company Vivarti to offer our customers the chance to purchase some of your favourite scenes from some of our most popular artists, including Angus McBride, Peter Dennis, and Graham Turner. You can choose from over 100 images from our series books already - and we are looking to add more images all the time.
October 12, 2011 12:00 AM
It feels a little like we are changing the guard here at Osprey Publishing - although technically the guard is not changing - we are just shaking things up a bit!
Over the last couple of years there have been some massive changes in the Osprey offices - we bought Shire, Angry Robot and Old House, and before we knew it we were each all juggling about 3 different jobs, and desperately trying to think about Japanese Aircraft Carriers, before taking some time out to work on a book about the Women's Institute, before leaping into a rip-roaring tale of space marines and tentacled alien beasties. Which was all great fun...but it was a little difficult to maintain focus.
October 11, 2011 12:00 AM
The last few weeks of September is always a little bit manic for the Sales and Marketing team here - because we are madly working on putting together our latest catalogue for the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Actually, it is not normally the catalogue which takes a long time - it is the massive stocklist that goes along with it - it takes a while to arrange a few thousand books into order - particularly when you are trying to arrange them into a quite simplistic historical order...
October 3, 2011 12:00 AM
A few months ago, as we were in the midst of planning a new series of aviation titles, we put up a survey asking you, our readers to tell us what we should do with our Air Vanguard series - from the level of detail each book should include right down to what to include in the books. We asked for suggestions on the types of aircraft we should cover (and got enough great ideas to keep the series going for years) and what type of artwork and illustrations we should include.
September 2, 2011 12:00 AM
The wait is over - Men-at-Arms figure art is now available as part of our membership system!
Over the last couple of weeks, the final bits of art have been scanned, the last captions typed up and a few last bugs fixed as we prepared for the most asked for (and anticipated) addition to our membership system - the Men-at-Arms artwork. Men-at-Arms has been running for 40 odd years, has racked up 470 titles and remains the flagship series in our stable - but this is probably the most ambitious step in its history - digitizing almost all of the artwork plates has taken the best part of two years!
September 1, 2011 12:00 AM
I have some good news. And some bad news.
The good news is pretty awesome.
As many of you will have seen, over the last few weeks we have been talking (in hushed tones) about the possibility of launching a brand new aviation series. Well in actual fact, we have been toying with the idea of creating a technical aviation series line in a similar vein to our New Vanguard books for 3 or 4 years, but we decided to make the fact public a few weeks ago to see what you all thought about the series.
June 30, 2011 12:00 AM
Over the last couple of years we have been asked numerous times to develop an aviation series which follows the rough format of our New Vanguard series - focusing on technological information rather than the more narrative books that we currently do. Aircraft of the Aces, Combat Aircraft, Duel and Aviation Elite Units are all great series, and will continue to be a central part of our aviation plans - but we can see the points being made - they are primarily about the combat, the pilots, the dogfights - and any design, development and technological information is discussed quite briefly.
May 25, 2011 12:00 AM
Next month we are publishing A History of the World in 100 Weapons, a superbly chunky book which tells the stories of the hundred definitive weapons whose effects have been the most revolutionary, changing the way war is waged and the very world we live in. As part of the lead up to the publication of the book I decided to use Twitter to reveal the 100 weapons that feature in the book.
April 9, 2011 12:00 AM
The book vote is one of the most popular features on our site. In fact, whenever I forget to upload the new book vote at the start of a new month I am immediately inundated with emails asking me where it has gone and when it is going to be up again. Every month I sit down with one of our editors (usually Phil) and go through the 1000s of book suggestions that you send in on a monthly basis.
April 2, 2011 12:00 AM
The British Army might be cutting back, but this means oppurtunity for private individuals!.
March 25, 2011 12:00 AM
Earlier this week, i walked into the office to be confronted by a bit of a disaster. There was a stinking error in one of the blurbs for our Comman books. In the blurb for Command 11 Hannibal to be exact. We had dozens of emails pouring in from fans, customers - and contributors telling us about the error - and a heated discussion quickly appeared on TMP discussing it.?
February 24, 2011 12:00 AM
When I heard the news story about the two Libyan fighter pilots who had defected to Malta, the first thing that I thought was...'hmm I wonder what type of aircraft they were flying'. I think it has to be because I spend 5 days a week surrounded by books on military hardware that I am so obsessed with what military tech is deployed around the world - and spend most military-based news stories spotting recognisable weaponry.
February 22, 2011 12:00 AM
Late last week we held a book launch to celebrate the publication of the Para Fitness Guide - which in the US and Canada is known as Go the Distance. The event was really well attended, with loads of ex (and current) Paras, a smattering of top brass, some representatives from the two charities that the book is supporting, the model Peta Todd, a camera crew from BFBS and some reporters from national papers.
January 18, 2011 12:00 AM
Merry Christmas from everyone at Osprey!
December 25, 2010 12:00 AM
Michael Ramalho is the Marketing Manager for the Osprey Group, managing those two tearaways Joe and Abe and overseeing the marketing plans for Osprey and Shire...
Hmm, writing about myself in the third person seems a little self-indulgent, so suffice to say that I will have been working for Osprey for 5 years in January, and I have loved pretty much every moment of it. I have moved around a bit in the office (I started off as Diane's assistant) but was 'tapped up' by Richard and the rest is history.
December 24, 2010 12:00 AM
Rebecca Smart is the Managing Director of the Osprey Group (which is made up by Osprey Publishing, Shire Publications and Angry Robot). In other words, she is the big boss, the captain of the good ship Osprey, the big cheese!
December 23, 2010 12:00 AM
Angus Konstam hails from the Orkney Islands and is the author of over 60 books, many of which are published by Osprey. This acclaimed and widely published author has written several books on piracy, including The History of Pirates and Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate. A former naval officer and museum professional, he worked as the Curator of Weapons at the Tower of London
December 22, 2010 12:00 AM
Kate Moore is the Publisher for Osprey Publishing, which means she is in charge of all of the books that we produce, heads up the editorial department and oversees the commissioning of all of our series titles. In addition to this she manages the commissioning of our major non-series books and takes on the challenge of commissioning all of our biggest non-series titles, like the upcoming Para Fitness Guide
December 21, 2010 12:00 AM
Aurelie Noirbent is the Senior Production and Design Controller for Osprey Publishing, and is responsible for a number of our regular series titles, including Command, Field of Glory, Modelling, Modelling Masterclass, Essential Histories, as well as many of our non-series large format books. Aurelie is responsible for making sure that these books not only look great from a visual point of view
December 20, 2010 12:00 AM
Ed Moore is the Web Manager for Osprey Publishing. Ed is responsible for maintaining Osprey's website and making sure it runs smoothly so all of you can buy your books in a speedy manner. In addition to this, Ed is converting Osprey's back catalogue of printed books into ebook formats (PDF and ePub) and is in the process of digitizing all of Osprey's artwork, with the intent of featuring all of it in the Osprey membership area of the website.
December 19, 2010 12:00 AM
Phil Smith is one of the Commissioning Editors here at Osprey, and is responsible for a number of our series, including Raid, New Vanguard, the military Duels (in other words any of the Duels that are not about aircraft), Field of Glory and our upcoming Force on Force.
December 18, 2010 12:00 AM
John Tintera is our Sales and Marketing Director over in the US. John has been doing a great job flying the flag for Osprey at dozens of events every year - so the chances are that if you have visited an Osprey stand at a show in the US you will have bumped into John. He has taken all the best bits from Sarah's job, and all the best jobs from Richard and combined it into one role.
December 17, 2010 12:00 AM
We all get gifts that we would rather not receive at Christmas. That awful scarf. The DVD that you are never ever going to watch. Socks from gran that are more likely to dazzle you than keep your feet warm (seriously, orange and blue?). For a military history fan the pitfalls are even deeper. You can only receive a copy of Saving Private Ryan and Beevor's Stalingrad before your resistance starts to fade.
December 16, 2010 12:00 AM
Peter Dennis is one of Osprey's most popular illustrators, and for that matter also one of our most prolific - Peter has an unswerving ability to consistently put out quality artwork at an astonishing rate. This year alone Peter has provided illustrations for 13 books. Last year he did a staggering 18 (although that number is slightly inflated by his cover art on the Field of Glory books), and in 2011 he is going to be involved in at least 17 titles, a hugely impressive achievement!
December 16, 2010 12:00 AM
Rufus Thurston is the Sales Manager for Osprey Publishing, and is primarily responsible for making sure that as many of our lovely books as possible make it into bookshops around the UK. So your local Waterstones, that cool little independent book shop round the corner, the small shop at the back of a museum, even your supermarket will have been approached by Rufus.
December 15, 2010 12:00 AM
Richard Sullivan is the Marketing Director for the Osprey Group. Any of you who read this blog on a regular basis will know Richard from his blogs on this site. As my boss, he has the unenviable task of keeping me in line, which he does rather successfully.
December 14, 2010 12:00 AM
Steve Noon is one of Osprey's pool of regular illustrators, and has made himself a firm favourite since the publication of his first book with Osprey, NVG 47 Viking Longship, which published way back in February 2002. Steve was born in Kent, UK and attended college in Cornwall.
December 13, 2010 12:00 AM
Emily Holmes is the Project Editor for our non-series books. This means that she is responsible for the project management of all of our large format titles (which for the lack of a better, catchier name we refer to as Generals / General Aviation).
December 12, 2010 12:00 AM
Abraham Davies is the Marketing Assistant for our sister publisher Shire - but whenever Joe and I are a little overworked (or lying on a golden beach somewhere) Abe kindly steps into the breach and helps out with Osprey bits and pieces. Every month he makes sure the Osprey website is as up-to-date as possible
December 11, 2010 12:00 AM
William Shepherd joined Osprey in 1998 and was the Osprey Publishing MD until the end of 2008 when he theoretically retired. Except that William didn't really retire, he just crossed that dangerous, barb wire infested no-man's-land and went from being a publisher to being an author, publishing his first Osprey book, a Campaign title on Salamis earlier this year.
December 10, 2010 12:00 AM
Diane Hobbs is the Publishing and Office administrator at Osprey which in her own words "means I manage to poke my nose into just about everything. About a third of my role is in contracts administration, getting the right contracts in place and ensuring the contributors are paid. And the other two thirds of my role is managing the office, everything from office management through to people management.
December 9, 2010 12:00 AM
Joseph McCullough is the Marketing Coordinator for Osprey, and is now also one of our authors. Joe is primarily responsible for creating the Osprey catalogues, managing our reviews, curating the Osprey blog, looking after our website, creating leaflets and posters for our customers, writing book blurbs and checking book covers for errors. As an Osprey author, Joe is the proud father of Zombies: A Hunters Guide, which he wrote in his spare time last year.
December 8, 2010 12:00 AM
Joanna Sharland is the Rights Director at Osprey Publishing (and for that matter Shire and Angry Robot). As Rights Director Joanna is responsible for handling copyright issues, the selling of translation rights for our books and the licensing of our content for other purposes, everything from part works to T-Shirts. If you have ever been to the London Bookfair, Frankfurt Bookfair, or even BEA, Joanna is the one sprinting from one meeting to another dealing with publishers from every corner of the globe, from Poland to Indonesia.
December 7, 2010 12:00 AM
Ben Salveson is the Osprey Production and Design Controller, which basically means that Ben puts together our books, designs the internal layouts, makes sure all the photos and text are in the right place, before shifting the books across to the printers,
December 6, 2010 12:00 AM
Charlotte Ford is one of the Desk Editors at Osprey, and works closely with our freelance editors and commissioning editors to help produce a number of our most popular series titles. Charly works on the Campaign, Warrior and Command series, as well as working alongside long term aviation editor Tony Holmes to create our three main aviation series books, Aircraft of the Aces, Combat Aircraft and Aviation Elite Units.
December 5, 2010 12:00 AM
Julian Keeble is the Design Manager at Osprey Publishing - and I have spent many, many hours at his side working on book covers, text templates, adverts, leaflets, catalogues and a whole raft of other weird design jobs, from postcards to t-shirts. Julian is tasked with managing all of the other designers in the office (including Ben) and has a large input in the design (or redesign) of series covers, and puts together a lot of our General History covers too.
December 4, 2010 12:00 AM
James Futter is the Management Accountant for the Osprey Group which means that he is tasked with producing the month end management accounts, assists the Finance Director with budgets and forecasts required during the year, produce sales analysis on titles, series performance and trends. He also manages and reviews all of the work done by the Assistant Management accountant.
December 3, 2010 12:00 AM
Mark Lardas holds a degree in Naval Architecture and Marine engineering, but spent his early career at the Johnson Space Center doing Space Shuttle structural analysis, and space navigation. An amateur historian and long-time ship modeller, Mark is currently working in League City, Texas. He has written extensively about modelling as well as naval, maritime and military history. Mark is the author of a number of Osprey books, including New Vanguard 161 Ships of the American Revolutionary Navy and Raid 12 Roughshod Through Dixie - Griersons Raid 1863.
December 2, 2010 12:00 AM
Sarah Broadway is the Osprey and Shire Sales Director, and is ultimately responsible for getting our books into the various places that sell them, be it book shops, museums, supermarkets or even online retailers like Amazon and The Book Depository.
December 1, 2010 12:00 AM
Every year we have run an advent style calendar series of blogs throughout December. This year is no different! In the past we have themed these advent calendar blogs around different themes and ideas. Last year I ran through the 'Oddities' that crop up from time to time in Osprey. The year before it was the 25 best selling titles of all time that graced the Osprey advent calendar. Before that it was 25 awesome pieces of artwork.
November 30, 2010 12:00 AM
It is November. So the nights are drawing in, the weather is getting colder, and Christmas is rapidly approaching. Unless you live in the Southern hemisphere. When the weather is probably warming up, the days are getting longer and Christmas is rapidly approaching.
Either way, what better way to get through the chaos of Christmas shopping than arming yourself with some of our latest reprints, so that in the event of an emergency you can always nip into the furniture section of the department store, settle down on one of the display sofas and have a nice break with a good book!
November 10, 2010 12:00 AM
When I first joined Osprey (way, way back in the mists of time now) I wrote a blog about how I had a bit of a love affair for all sorts of old buildings. So the Fortress series has always had a bit of a special place in my heart. For years, when piles of new books arrive in the office, I still reach for Fortress first.
November 5, 2010 12:00 AM
So now that I have finally come to the end of my series of posts revealing what is coming up in 2011, you can now check out our latest catalogue, which is available to download now!
November 2, 2010 12:00 AM
Last but certainly not least in my series of blogs revealing what to expect in 2011 is here, with probably one of my favourite series, Duel. And what a year 2011 stands to be - there are the usual 'traditional' Duel titles, but in keeping with some of the experimentation we have thrown in to the series, there are a couple of slightly off-the-wall titles in the mix.
October 26, 2010 12:00 AM
The Raid site has been updated, and the new, fully up to date site is now live at www.ospreyraid.com. You can go there for a peek inside the books and the most up to date information on the books that we have published in the series.
Of course I am sure most of you have picked up at least one of our Raid titles, but just in case you haven't, why not have a look at the site and see if we can tempt you!
October 25, 2010 12:00 AM
It has been a scandalously long time since I wrote one of my 'Hidden Gems' blogs - but it is not because there haven't been plenty of hidden gems since last Christmas. In fact, just off hand I could cite a number of great books you might not have come across. How about Duel 25 Fw 200 Condor vs Atlantic Convoy? Not your usual Duel, this book pitches a battle between ships and aircraft!
October 23, 2010 12:00 AM
We are very, very excited to announce that the first ever Osprey audio book is now available on Audible.com and Audible.co.uk!
The first book chosen to receive the 'audio treatment' is none other than one of our Command books, CMD 3 George S Patton.
October 19, 2010 12:00 AM
This blog entry lists the books we're pleased to announce are now back in stock! Click on the links below to view and select which books you'd like to add to your Osprey collection.
October 17, 2010 12:00 AM
If you bought the recently reprinted ACE 65 Beaufighter Aces from our website over the last month or so, you will have probably have noticed by now that there is a printing error in the book which has meant that the colour plate section has been omitted from the middle of the book.
October 6, 2010 12:00 AM
I have been a little bit naughty over the last couple of months. When I first started announcing what books we were doing in 2011 I was immediately bombarded with emails from readers who desperately wanted to know what books we were doing in the Campaign series in 2011. But to increase the tension I thought I should tease you all a bit by delaying the Campaign reveal, and it ended up dropping to the bottom of my inbox, until Joe came across to my desk, cracking his knuckles and threatening me with harm if I didn't write the blog.
September 22, 2010 12:00 AM
A few months ago, I wrote a blog talking about the future of the Command series - and giving some titillating glimpses at what was due to come out in 2011.
September 16, 2010 12:00 AM
This month we are running a short 50% off discount on about 100 select titles in our End of Summer Sale - but if you are hoping to pick up a bargain, you had better hurry - a few of the titles on our sale page have already started to run out of stock in the UK and are running perilously low in the US.
September 14, 2010 12:00 AM
I am on a bit of a roll now that I have just finished my blog about what books to expect in 2011 from our three main aviation series - so here we go with two more of our series - Fortress, Modelling and Essential Histories.
September 11, 2010 12:00 AM
Only a couple of weeks after our selection of August reprints hit the shelves, we are back with another great set of books for you to get your teeth into. Enjoy everyone!
September 9, 2010 12:00 AM
Over the last month or so we have been revealing some of the brilliant bits and pieces that we are working on at the moment and are hoping to publish in 2011.
September 8, 2010 12:00 AM
Ok, ok I know it is already September - I am sorry! But here is the list of our August reprints, fresh in from the printers and (after a few delays) sitting pretty in our warehouses and ready to order.
My highlights for the month? Well there are a few of the absolute classics being reprinted this month. Need you look much further than Elite 23 Samurai? Or Men-at-Arms 57 Zulu War?
September 3, 2010 12:00 AM
We have been a little remiss over the last couple of months - and have not mentioned the fact that we have been slowly, but surely adding new titles to our selection of available ebooks. We now have over 40 ebooks available (and are hoping to more than double that figure by the end of the year).
August 17, 2010 12:00 AM
As anyone who reads the blog may have realized - over the last couple of weeks blog custodian Joe has been conspicuous by his absence. That is because he is off swanning around the world (or at least he has returned to the motherland and is trekking around the US and visiting his family etc). He rather foolishly flipped me a 'Mike can you look after the blog for me' as he walked out of the office
August 16, 2010 12:00 AM
Amidst great excitement, the Weapon books arrived in our office today, and we can finally get our hands on them and see our hard work come to life. It is always a great occasion when new books arrive in the office, and when the new books are a first look at a new series it always seems much much more exciting.
August 11, 2010 12:00 AM
As the anticipation builds towards the launch of our new series I finally got the chance to sit down and scroll through some of the books (sadly only on a computer screen - the first two books are on a boat at the moment). I felt a little out of touch scrolling through the pages. The last time I had a proper look at the insides of these pages was a few months ago. when the scripts were all still in a very rough state, partially corrected, without all of the correct images, and still awaiting our signature artwork.
August 5, 2010 12:00 AM
A quick note to all of our customers in the US - the books that I listed in the Books Back in Stock Blog last month are now actually displaying as being in stock.
We had a few problems with stock feeds etc etc - loads of boring websitey stuff, but the long and the short of it is that the books are now available to buy!
August 4, 2010 12:00 AM
That's right, it is the time of the month that I sit down and try to come up with something interesting to say about the books that we have brought back into stock this month. But all I can really say is that this is our biggest batch of reprints ever - 130 titles coming into our warehouses all at the same time. It is virtually impossible to just pick out one of two titles to mention, you are all just going to have to trawl through this massive list.
July 30, 2010 12:00 AM
Some of the more eagle-eyed of our regular readers will have noticed that a new series has appeared on our website over the last few weeks - and that the first set of books in our new Weapon series are now available to pre-order.
July 23, 2010 12:00 AM
A month ago I put up a blog about the Men-at-Arms series, and how I thought that after a bit of a lull, that we had been able to give it a new lease of life and that it was now going from strength to strength. At the end of the blog I promised that I was going to give you a sneak preview of what is planned in the Men-at-Arms series for 2011 (having already revealed all of the 2010 titles).
July 12, 2010 12:00 AM
Here we are - four weeks down the line, dozens of blog posts under my belt (phew!) and we have arrived at the final of the world's most prestigious competition. The Osprey Publishing Military History World Cup final has arrived. It has been a great competition so far - with a few upsets, some terrible refereeing decisions, and as much as I would love it to go on for another month - Joe has told me to wind things up!
So here we go!
July 10, 2010 12:00 AM
Some really cool news has just broken - the ink is drying on an agreement between us and a company called Creative Content to turn some of our books into audiobooks.
If you are into the more 'businessy' side of things you could read the entire press release about the deal here. But, suffice to say we are all really excited about the possibilities that this deal opens up. We can see it now, Osprey fans settling down to a good book whilst on that long drive across the country. Or to keep them occupied on that long flight. Or even popping an Osprey book on to their ipod so that they can indulge their military history habit, whilst going for a run or working out in the gym!
July 9, 2010 12:00 AM
Who is going to earn the global military bragging rights? Which two teams are going to line up in this years Military World Cup finals? It is time to find out who is going to go head to head in the final, as we pitch the four semi-finalists against each other.
July 8, 2010 12:00 AM
Forging on with our military World Cup analysis, it is now time for us to look at the second half of the quarter finals, and a couple of intriguing fixtures, as east meets west!
July 6, 2010 12:00 AM
Already a few surprises have been thrown up by this competition, and as we launch into the quarter finals, who is to say what is going to happen!
So let us leap straight into the first quarter final showdown!
July 5, 2010 12:00 AM
Ok, ok - I know that this blog is muuuch later than I originally promised. I could blame it on how busy everyone is at the moment - what with our new Weapon series launching in a couple of months, but in reality I was in a bit of a sulk. Not only did my office sweep hopes die with the elimination of England, but then the Spanish went off and beat my beloved Portugal.
July 1, 2010 12:00 AM
Our offices may both be both a bit grumpy this morning following sub par performances by the USA and England in the World Cup, but at least both nations have made it through the group stages in my Military World Cup! As we stare blankly into our coffee cups, waiting for the guys in our US office to wake up and go to work so that they can do the same, I thought that I ought to soldier on (with bad puns in tow) and get cracking on Day 3 of the second round.
June 29, 2010 12:00 AM
So next up is day two of our second round tournament - and a couple of more surprising clashes. Hold on tight and here we go
Match 1 (Winner Group D vs Runner-up Group C)
June 26, 2010 12:00 AM
Our Military World Cup really gets down to business now as we rumble into the knock-out stages. If you haven't been following this series of blogs (shame on you!) , or want a little bit of a refresher - here is a list for all of the group matches:
June 25, 2010 12:00 AM
Ouch - linking in all of the titles in this month's list of reprinted books has left me a haggard shadow of my former self. A hulking 80+ titles in one big batch - I hope you all appreciate all this work that I go to! Seriously though, I am always thrilled when I can reveal that a whole bunch of books have landed in our warehouse, particularly when one of the books has been out of print for a long time.
June 21, 2010 12:00 AM
And finally, to our final group in this military World Cup showdown. After this we are going to take a short break (to let the real WC catch up with us) before launching into the knockout stages of the cup. Hopefully I haven't exposed my truly terrible pre-18th century knowledge too much over the last week or so - thanks for the feedback from everyone so far - and I have to bow in admiration towards your superior knowledge in virtually all things military history!
But enough of that, let's get down to business...
Chile
Honduras
Spain
Switzerland
June 19, 2010 12:00 AM
The penultimate group in this years football World Cup is being labelled the 'Group of Death' because of the considerable footballing ability of the Brazilians, Portuguese and Ivorians. But how would this group perform in our military incarnation of the World Cup?
Brazil
Ivory Coast
North Korea
Portugal
June 18, 2010 12:00 AM
To group F and one step close to finding out which countries will qualify for the second round of our Military World Cup
Italy
Paraguay
New Zealand
Slovakia
June 17, 2010 12:00 AM
Our next stop on our whistle stop tour of this military World Cup take us to Group E, and an intriguing set of match-ups!
Cameroon
Denmark
Japan
Netherlands
June 16, 2010 12:00 AM
Halfway through the groups, we now stumble up against Group D.
Australia
Germany
Ghana
Serbia
Australia
The Australians are supremely proud of the achievements of their troops, particularly during the First and Second World Wars. But what is often forgotten is the presence of Australian forces in other major conflicts, in the Sudan, the Boer War and the Boxer Rebellion.
June 15, 2010 12:00 AM
And next to Group C of the World Cup - a group that I am particularly interested in, because I happened to draw England in the office sweepstake, which means there is a hell of a lot of money in it for me if England go all the way to the final of the competition. Well a tenner anyway...
June 14, 2010 12:00 AM
Onwards and upwards, next up in our dramatic military World Cup is Group B
Argentina
Greece
South Korea
Nigeria
June 13, 2010 12:00 AM
Every time the World Cup rolls around the internet is swamped with strange lists (worst hairstyles / kits / misses etc) and predictions of who is going to win the whole thing.
So I thought, if you can't beat them - why not join in, with an Osprey twist? So this is my World Cup - military style. I am going to look at the military credentials of each country participating in this years tournament and try to weigh up which country would deserve the martial trophy!
June 12, 2010 12:00 AM
Osprey have joined forces with Armistice Games to release a brand new game for your iphone - The Aerodrome - Lafayette Escadrille, which is available now!
The Aerodrome - Lafayette Escadrille is an innovative 3D air combat game based on the wartime exploits of the Layfayette Escadille, a French squadron of American volunteers famous for their exploits in the skies above a war-torn France.
June 10, 2010 12:00 AM
A couple of years ago Kate put up a blog in honour of the 450th Men-at-Arms that we had published - a book on American Loyalist Troops, and a sort of a sequel / remake of Men-at-Arms number 1. At the time, we were somewhat worried about the Men-at-Arms series. It had been supplanted in terms of sales by the Campaign series, and then by New Vanguard. Most of our Elites were also quite easily outselling our iconic series.
June 8, 2010 12:00 AM
A few weeks ago I posted up a blog about how exciting it was to have two of our bloggers writing books for Osprey this year. Well I have a bit of a confession to make on that score. Possibly because I have spent the last month or so immersed in our 2011 catalogues and publicity plans I didn't really notice that we are already nearly halfway through 2010. And that another of our lovely bloggers actually has a book being published by Osprey - this month!
June 3, 2010 12:00 AM
So Command is now available in book stores around the world, and it seems strange to already be talking about the future of a series when only the first two books have been launched, but we are so confident in this series that we feel able to talk about the future now - and there has been quite a lot of concern about what we are going to end up covering in the series as a whole.
June 1, 2010 12:00 AM
Before I launch in to the announcement of this months new reprints, just a quick word of thanks to blogmaster Joe for stepping in and doing the Books Back in Stock blog last month. I am sure some of you were probably a little bit disappointed by the brevity of the last list of reprinted books.
Well there is no need to worry, this month we have swung back up to full capacity with a whopping 61 titles on the list...
May 28, 2010 12:00 AM
Have you been living under a rock for the last three years? No? Then I don’t need to go into the finer details of the phenomenon that is Call of Duty. Probably the only thing that I need to explain now is that the series has recently split into two, almost distinct franchises – both of which are published by Activision, but are actually developed by different companies. The Modern Warfare series, produced by Infinity Ward has gleaned most of the big publicity, but a second strand to the series continues to be a great success, and has remained firmly rooted in historical conflicts.
May 27, 2010 12:00 AM
I settled down to watch the first couple of episodes of Strike Back a couple of weeks ago with a bit of a sense of trepidation. I have read a couple of Chris Ryan's books, and they were…well ok I guess. As very basic page turners they do their job, but from to time I can’t help but toss the book aside in frustration. I had a sinking suspicion right from the outset, that Strike Back was going to leave me with the very same feeling. And I have to say that the first two hour-long episodes confirmed my initial fears. With the chance to create something truly epic and Sky’s big budget behind the production team, somehow we were served up with a poor 24 imitation.
May 21, 2010 12:00 AM
Kate, one of my fellow bloggers, is just far too modest. I have been going on at her about writing a blog about how she has gone from being a simple Osprey editor (and of course blogger) to being an internationally published author.
But she keeps on dodging the issue. So I think it is time for me to step in and announce it all for her!
May 18, 2010 12:00 AM
If you are interested in meeting Pete Winner, the author of our new book Soldier I: The Story of an SAS Hero, you have one more chance.
In the Chichester branch of Waterstones on Sunday 30th May at 6.30pm Pete will be delivering a lecture about his experiences in the run up to and execution of the Iranian Embassy siege, before holding a brief question and answer session and a book signing.
May 13, 2010 12:00 AM
Every now and then we receive reports about the surprising places that Osprey books seem to turn up in. A few years ago a cool customer got in touch to let us know that she had taken a bunch of Osprey books to work with her. To a research station in Antarctica. And, if you are a fan of the Channel 4 TV show Skins, you might have spotted Freddie reading an Osprey book in one of the final episodes of the season.
May 2, 2010 12:00 AM
A quick glance at this video should be enough to explain why I was so incredibly, mind numbingly excited about the new game from Signal Studios, published by Microsoft and out now on Xbox Live.
April 12, 2010 12:00 AM
A few weeks ago I was in the US on a business trip when I realized, to my delight that the hotel I was staying in had HBO. And that I was going to be able to watch the first episode of the media behemoth that is The Pacific.
The long, long LONG awaited follow up to Band of Brothers, this is a show with a huge amount of pressure on it's shoulders. Band of Brothers was a phenomenon. I don't think that anyone would have been able to imagine the impact that it was going to have. Sure it had all the big names behind it, but it was a massive risk. Thank goodness some TV exec took that risk though, because it remains incredibly popular, and whenever we ask people what their favourite military film is, Band of Brothers always crops up.
March 29, 2010 12:00 AM
We are all about pushing the technological boundaries of publishing here at Osprey. We love seeing our books take on new forms, grow and develop from the humble book right through to a fully digital product. Over the last couple of years we have delved into all sorts of ways of delivering our books, or the information contained within them to our customers.
The latest, and perhaps most exciting development is the recent release of five of our Campaign titles as 'Freemium' apps for Apple's iphone. Thats right, Osprey have invaded the iphone with the help of our partners at Exact Editions.
March 25, 2010 12:00 AM
Our second batch of reprints for this month has arrived, hot on the heels of the last shipment of reprinted titles (you can see the list of books in my last books back in stock blog). Most of these books have actually been reprinted for the second time in little over a year as our short run printing abilities really start to take off, so it is great to see titles like Elite 39 Ancient Assyrians and Warrior 7 Samurai coming back into stock a matter of weeks after they went out of stock! Considering the fact that it used to take 3 - 4 months to get a book reprinted and shipped, a reduction to a little over 5 weeks is not bad.
March 23, 2010 12:00 AM
In last months list of reprinted books I promised that there was another, bigger batch of books lurking just out of sight. And this behemoth of over 50 titles has just lumbered into our warehouses on both sides of the Atlantic (scaring a few of our dedicated customer service team - who are recovering in a quiet room with a nice hot cup of hot chocolate).
March 11, 2010 12:00 AM
It is time for us to reveal the truth behind the rumour circulating around the internet.
Osprey are indeed releasing a book about Zombies this October!
Zombies: A Hunter's Guide is a project that a few of us in the office have been trying to get off the ground for a couple of years - an Osprey style treatment of Zombies, blending elements that are found in our Elite, Warrior and Men-at-Arms series into a Duel sized Osprey book.
March 6, 2010 12:00 AM
Last month's book vote threw up a rather strange result, and caused quite a lot of chatter on our forum, and on a number of forums across the internet. Now, when I was setting up the book vote for the month I had no idea that it was going to cause such a fuss - on paper it was pretty straight forward. It had been a while since we had offered up a selection of Campaign titles to fight it out, so I trawled through nearly 300 suggestions submitted over the previous month, picking out 5 titles.
March 4, 2010 12:00 AM
As ever we are working as hard as possible on bringing as many of our books back into stock as possible so here I am again with a list of books that we have brought back into stock this month. In fact, I am hoping that this is only Part 1 of the list of February titles because we have another batch of books due to arrive in our warehouses any day now - but they seem to have been delayed somewhat, I am not sure if they have run into yet more snow, or been hijacked by pirates, but they should be here soon.
February 23, 2010 12:00 AM
That's right, Command our latest series is almost here. We have mentioned it on the blog a couple of times, but for anyone who might have missed out on the details, the premise behind Command is pretty simple. These are not simple biographies, the Command series looks at how the greatest military leaders of history adopted technology, battlefield tactics and training methods, or simply inspired their troops through their personality and leadership skills. They provide a critical examination of each commander's key victories, and his notable adversaries. Illustrated with detailed maps, tactical uniforms and our signature uniform artwork and battlescenes, each book explains exactly how and why these great leaders were able to carve their names into the annals of military history.
February 6, 2010 12:00 AM
Has the intense PR spotlight and huge success of the Call of Duty Modern Warfare series had a positive impact on the world of military history? Is this the ideal medium to get a younger audience interested in military history, or is it simply a bloodbath of mindless violence and worrying fun? I have played the games - and here is what I think!
February 4, 2010 12:00 AM
To coincide with the arrival of the Osprey January 30% off sale, we have an extra batch of reprints arriving - just in time for you all to take advantage of the possible savings. On top of the 50 odd books that I announced had been reprinted and arrived last week, our production team and printers have been working round the clock to bring in a bonus reprint batch. Of course, there are some of our most popular titles in there - like the immensely popular Elite 9 Normans, but there is a fair smattering of the more obscure titles cropping up in this reprint batch - Men-at-Arms 209 The War in Cambodia (which is also available as an e-book) is a good example of this, as is MAA 384 Armies of the German Peasant Wars. So get sorting through this list - you never know what sort of bargains you might be able to pick up!
January 30, 2010 12:00 AM
At lunchtime this Friday, a moment of history will be made, as the Osprey Publishing 5-a-side football team stride out onto the pitch (or to be more accurate, into the hall) for the first time, making their bow in the inaugural Botley Challenge Cup.
January 28, 2010 12:00 AM
When The Hurt Locker first hit the shores of the UK it seemed to do so rather quietly. I had been really looking forward to it since the folks over at Cinematical first reviewed it. But for some reason it seemed to bypass my local cinema complex. Even in the center of Oxford it seemed to be ignored by the major cinema companies - and only got a very limited run in the independent cinema - The Phoenix. I tried to get in, but both nights that I arrived, they were sold out.
January 21, 2010 12:00 AM
While we were all lazing around at home enjoying the holidays and stuffing our faces with turkey and other festive goodies our printers were working hard, getting the latest batch of reprints boxed up - popping them on various boats, planes, donkey carts and sledges to get them to our warehouses around the world! 56 books are now back in print - and with so many to choose from it is really tough to pick out one or two standout titles that you should keep an eye out for
January 19, 2010 12:00 AM
My latest hidden gem is a slightly odd choice for me. The book covers a part of history that I have very little knowledge of, and up till now I didn't really have any intention of exploring in any great detail. And yet, when the early copies of this book arrived in the office, it was the first one that I reached for, eager to flick through it.
January 14, 2010 12:00 AM
The weird numbering of Men-at-Arms
You would be quite justified to assume that Men-at-Arms 1 The American Provincial Corps was the first ever book to be published by Osprey. But as this years advent calendar has probably shown you, this is often not the case. In fact, MAA 1 was printed nearly three years after the first four Men-at-Arms books published - all the way back in 1971.
December 24, 2009 12:00 AM
The Looooooooongest subtitle that has ever graced an Osprey book
This book is legendary within the Osprey offices. Whenever we are working on a design for a new series cover, it is used as the worst case scenario example in all of our early designs. I know that Joe and I have spent a surprising amount of time trying to work out how to display this book in our stocklist. When we were working on the new website, we even had the developers create a dummy page to show us what this book would look like, to make sure that the insanely long subtitle wouldn't send our carefully crafted web pages into meltdown.
December 23, 2009 12:00 AM
Our Ongoing Animal Obsession
Here at Osprey we seem to have a bit of an obsession with animals. Wherever you look, you are almost certain to stumble across an animal reference in one of our books. It is truly strange. Take for example the majestic Mustang. By the end of 2010 we will have published 9 books on the Mustang. Nine! And not a single one of them contains a photograph of a galloping wild horse.
December 22, 2009 12:00 AM
It Is Bigger Than I Expected!
Whenever you get an Osprey book you can be pretty certain about what you are going to get. Buy a Men-at-Arms and you are guaranteed 48 pages, reams of photos and some great artwork. A Campaign will get you 96 pages, a few pieces of battlescene art, some BEVs (aka birds-eye-views) and a few maps. Our series restrictions are pretty strict, and it is often quite hard for our authors and editors to have to cut bits out of a book to get it to fit the restrictions of our series.
December 20, 2009 12:00 AM
Our reprints schedule continues, unchecked by the upcoming holidays, and a great batch of books have arrived in our warehouses both in the UK and in the USA. You might see a slight delay with the US books being checked in, but by and large, within the next few days all of these books will be available to buy.
December 17, 2009 12:00 AM
Why did Elite 100 publish 7 years after Elite 98? Or the mystery of the missing series numbers!
Over the last few years I have been lucky enough to go to a number of events with Osprey, where we get the chance to meet with the people who buy our books. It is always great fun to meet up with everyone, hear what they think of our books, pick up some ideas of what people would like us to publish books on in the future, and find out what is bugging our readers.
December 15, 2009 12:00 AM
The Osprey Book That Has Been Re-released More Than Any Other
Now, a lot of Osprey books have been reprinted as many as twenty times over their lifetime, but most of the time these are quite simple reprints - not a lot changes in the book when it is reprinted. We tend to fix a few minor problems here and there within the text, but by and large the book is essentially the same. Because little changes, we do not consider these re-prints to be re-releases. They keep their usual ISBN and are not treated as new books.
December 14, 2009 12:00 AM
The Osprey Book Featuring A Famous Actor
Over the years there have been quite a few alledged cameos in our books. Rumours abound about a piece of figure art which looks remarkably like Sean Bean in his role as Bernard Cornwall's Sharpe. I have been told that in one of our books there is a character that looks very much like Clint Eastwood in the background of one of the battlescenes.
December 12, 2009 12:00 AM
The Osprey spinners are one of the stand-out features in a large number of bookshops - that reassuring, hulking presence in the military section that is quite simply packed with Osprey goodness. But, with the sad troubles at Borders in the UK, it looks as if there will soon be upwards of 50 spinners without a home.
December 10, 2009 12:00 AM
The hexalogy, and other long running mini-series
Throughout our time producing our books we have encountered situations where the restraints of our series mean that we simply cannot come anywhere near to covering all the material we would like within 48 or 64 pages. This has meant that from time to time we issue 'sequels' dealing with slightly different aspects of history. These sequels are indicated by numbers after the titles, which remain the same as the original book and are then defined by their subtitle.
December 9, 2009 12:00 AM
The Alternate History Osprey Book
We are quite often asked to look into the possibility of putting together a series which delves into the realms of alternate history. The possibilities for such a series are massive - and could, at a stretch be based in some semblance of historical fact. We have requests from readers who would like to see the US stay out of WW2 or the Russians not surrender in WW1. The thought of a Soviet dominated Europe is another popular subject that customers have begged us to cover.
December 8, 2009 12:00 AM
Angus McBride, illustrator...and author?
There are not many, if any Osprey fans who don't know the name Angus McBride. His fantastic artwork has graced dozens of Osprey books, and at times it seems as if he single-handedly illustrated the Men-at-Arms series. But did you know that Angus, not just content with illustrating, also turned his hand to writing? And in fact went on to author a Men-at-Arms title.
December 7, 2009 12:00 AM
Osprey Enters The Space Race
Space has long been touted as the next battlefield in global warfare. From the Cold-War funded space race through to today's modern spy satellites, a huge amount of cash has been pumped into developing weapons platforms and technology to defend, and dominate space.
December 6, 2009 12:00 AM
The Tactical Trend Setter
In 2004 a book appeared that was to turn the Elite series on it's head. When a book about World War II tactics landed on the agenda for one of our publishing meetings we were not quite sure what to make of it. Would it sell? Did it fit in the Elite series or should it go somewhere else. In the end the concept and the great team that had been lined up to work on the book (a combination of Stephen Bull, Brian Delf and Mike Chappell) convinced us that this was worth commissioning.
December 5, 2009 12:00 AM
The Surprise Successes That Changed The Way We Spoke
Sometimes when we have guests in the office we need to make a bit of an effort to drop out of our office lingo, which tends to be a string of abbreviations, in-depth publishing terms, military speak and a wide array of inside jokes or references. Over the last couple of years a couple of phrases have emerged in the office which are heard on a regular basis - particularly in our bi-monthly publishing meetings.
December 4, 2009 12:00 AM
Back in the late 80s (1987 to be exact), with the Cold War still swirling across the plains of Europe, Osprey commissioned and published another book in the fledgling Elite series. Written by Nigel Thomas and illustrated by Ronald Volstad, Elite 16 was published under the title NATO Armies Today.
December 3, 2009 12:00 AM
Where Do We Park The Helicopters?
Despite having three separate aviation series (four if you count Duel) we have never really been able to find a comfortable home for the helicopter. Helicopters couldn't really slip into the Aircraft of the Aces series - are there any helicopter pilots that achieved Ace status? Aviation Elite Units has never embraced the helicopter and of course helicopter on helicopter Duels are relatively rare. So that just leaves the Combat Aircraft series. Which is where we parked two lone helicopters surrounded by a sea of fixed wing aircraft
December 2, 2009 12:00 AM
Every year here on the Osprey blog we run an Advent calendar style feature on the site. We started off just revealing our favourite pieces of artwork taken from Osprey books. Then, last year we decided to tell you a little bit about the 25 best selling Osprey titles of all time. As part of these bestselling posts we included a strange or surprising fact about each of the books.
December 1, 2009 12:00 AM
Want to know what books we have reprinted this month? Well, you are in the right place, because here you go, a full list of the most recent reprints to land in our warehouse. As ever, quantities are somewhat limited (last month a number of our reprints were completely snapped up by retailers and customers within days of them arriving) so don't miss out!
November 20, 2009 12:00 AM
Over the weekend, the 30% discount that we were running on the site switched itself off prematurely. I blame some feisty trick or treaters personally - but I know that it caused quite a few of you some problems. To rectify this I have turned the discount back on again, and it will run from today through to Wednesday evening, which will hopefully give anyone who missed out on the offer the chance to buy the books that they are after.
November 2, 2009 12:00 AM
Throughout October we have been running a hugely popular 30% off discount on all of our Men-at-Arms, Warrior and Elite titles - and now you only have 48 hours left to stock up your collections using this discount. This is the most extensive discount that we have ever done on this site, and it is not likely to be repeated for a very long time, so don't miss out now, or you could be in for a long wait...
October 30, 2009 12:00 AM
Here at Osprey we like to do whatever we can to support charities involved with supporting the men and women who have fought for their country. In fact, only last week we held a book launch for In the Heat of Battle, which was held in conjunction with and to support the Not Forgotten Association, a charity which provides entertainment and recreation for disabled ex-service men and women.
October 27, 2009 12:00 AM
Last month I launched the first of a new string of blogs dedicated to revealing some hidden gems in our upcoming releases that you may have missed out on. I started off my Hidden Gems series with a very different book to what we usually do - The Blackout Book. But for my next edition I have gone right back to the series that has made Osprey, our most iconic, varied and numerous series. Men-at-Arms.
October 19, 2009 12:00 AM
Another big shipment of reprinted books have started trickling into our warehouses. In fact, this month we have reprinted so many titles that it is taking longer than usual to check in all of our stock. Annoyingly, this means that there is going to be a slight delay in some of these books coming back into stock - but I thought I ought to post up this blog now, before all of the books are gobbled up! So, if one of the books you are after is still showing as out of stock, do keep on checking back - it is possibly just waiting to get checked in!
October 18, 2009 12:00 AM
I took over the Osprey blogmaster role way back in December 2007, when we were still being hosted on an external blog site, with a loyal group of regular readers, and an equally loyal group of contributors.
A lot of things have changed since then. We migrated the blog over to our new website (moving hundreds of posts at the same time... a massive job!) we added to the ranks of contributors and we saw our readership figures soar. Now, nearly two years and over 500 posts later I have decided it is time for someone new to take the reins - to inject some new life into this great blog.
October 5, 2009 12:00 AM
For the last couple of weeks I have been toying with the idea of setting up a few regular blog threads... and this is one of them, my pick of a hidden gem of a book that some of you might have missed. The idea is to pick out a book, give you a bit of background info on it, a sneak preview into it, and a bit of inside knowledge about how the book came into existance, and any interesting anecdotes that cropped up while we were putting the book together.
September 25, 2009 12:00 AM
You will probably know of videogame publisher Square-Enix because of their multi-million selling super-franchise Final Fantasy - a series which has spawned countless sequels, brought the Japanese-style turn based RPG to the western audience and has included some of the greatest games ever. In fact, current rumours are ciculating that Final Fantasy VII - widely considered one of the greatest videogames of all time - is actually due to be remade frame by frame for the next generation consoles as a tribute to just how good a game it was orginally.
September 14, 2009 12:00 AM
We have teamed up with Square-Enix and Wargaming.net in the run-up to the launch of their new World War 2 PC game Order of War. So, with every copy of Order of War that is pre-ordered from Play.com you will receive a free copy of the paperback version of FUBAR: Soldier Slang of World War II.
September 5, 2009 12:00 AM
Phew! It has been a busy month for our Production and Design team who have turned around not just one, but two sets of reprints this month. Admittedly this second batch of reprints is not as extensive as the last batch - but there are still some great titles in the mix, including a number of titles that have been requested on numerous occasions.
September 2, 2009 12:00 AM
This week sees the official UK launch of Battles of World War II, a landmark book collection that chronicles the major military events of World War II. If you live in the UK, you will probably have noticed the extensive TV campaign currently running to promote the collection of 52 books on the greatest battles of the Second World War.
August 21, 2009 12:00 AM
That's right, Osprey have teamed up with the folks at the National Army Museum to bring you a once in a lifetime opportunity. To celebrate the launch of our Raid title Who Dares Wins - The SAS and the Iranian Embassy Siege 1980 we are putting on a special lecture with the author of the book Gregory Fremont-Barnes and with SAS veteran Pete Winner - who was one of the men who went into the Iranian Embassy in 1980.
August 18, 2009 12:00 AM
Peter Dennis is one of our most prolific (and loved) illustrators and has been illustrating Osprey books since way back in 2003 when he was commissioned to illustrate Fortress 5 Japanese Castles. Since then he has gone on to illustrate hundreds of Osprey books, including all of the cover artwork on the Field of Glory series. His bright vibrant colours and intense concentration on historical detail has made him a firm favourite, and over the last few months Peter has very kindly contributed to this blog from time to time. You can read a question and answer session here. Here Peter describes what it is like to be an Osprey illustrator - and describes his illustration for a campaign title. Last, but not least is a step-by-step description of his illustrations of a dark age fortress.
August 10, 2009 12:00 AM
Today the funeral is being held for Harry Patch, the last surviving British soldier to have fought in the trenches of the Western Front during the First World War. Somehow, his death has made that terrible conflict seem all the more distant. As we watch it is slowly passing into history - the number of people who were there is dwindling rapidly and soon their voices will grow silent.
August 6, 2009 12:00 AM
It is that time of the month again where I reveal to you the massive list of titles that we have reprinted and brought back into stock for you. And just to add a bit of flavour you will be pleased to see a bumper list of reprinted New Vanguard titles - just in time for our 30% off offer on all New Vanguards this month!
So here we go!
August 4, 2009 12:00 AM
For a sense of awe and wonder, the Duxford Air Show is the answer: come and admire the very best display of historic and modern aircraft, both civil and military. An outstanding air show, where beauty, prowess and sheer power battle it out above your head.
July 21, 2009 12:00 AM
I know I am over a month late with this blog - but I have a great excuse. This is our first major batch of reprints to be done as 'short-run' or print on demand quantities. We have finally been able to get the print quality to the point that we are happy with the colour - particularly with regard to our colour artwork.
July 18, 2009 12:00 AM
Over the last six months or so we have been testing out a number of ebooks, and the system that we have been using to distribute them. After some extremely positive feedback from a number of you we have decided to launch a bespoke page for all of our e-books so that you can find them as easily as our normal books.
July 14, 2009 12:00 AM
Who do you think is the greatest military force of all time? Let us know, and provide a strong argument and you could win an Osprey book of your choice! Is it the Romans? The Chinese? Napoleon and his armies?
July 13, 2009 12:00 AM
I have just read this incredible story on the BBC news website - describing how the pilot of a B-47 was forced to jettison the nuclear bomb he was carrying after his aircraft was struck by an F-86.
What I find most fascinating is the fact that the weapon has never been found. Now I have no idea how nuclear weapons work, (I should really read Nuclear Dawn) but I am surprised that there has been no environmental impact resulting from this.
July 6, 2009 12:00 AM
On behalf of everyone here at Osprey I would like to wish all of our American readers a very happy 4th July today. I hope you all have a great day!
And to Joe, our American in exile - and all the Osprey staff in the US - John, Kerry and Shirley - have a great time too!
July 4, 2009 12:00 AM
As I mentioned a while back, we are always looking into ways that we can improve our stock levels so that as few of our books are unavailable as possible. The problems - as you can imagine with over 1.500 books are not always easy to deal with.
But one of our hopes with the construction of our new website was that we would be able to track what you want more effectively - meaning that the more popular requests would be brought back faster and in bigger quantities, which in turn would allow us to do short run printings of the more obscure topics which are still requested on a regular basis.
June 24, 2009 12:00 AM
At the beginning of June I posted up a quick blog about Terry Crowdy, author of Deceiving Hitler and Military Misdemeanours, who was speaking at the International Napoleonic Symposium. in Austria. Set up to commemorate the anniversary of the 1809 campaigns, Terry was due to present a talk about the life of a conscript. The full lecture is due to be published online by the International Napoleonic Symposium (we will link to it as soon as it is available), but until then, Terry has very kindly provided us with a brief synopsis of his talk.
June 19, 2009 12:00 AM
A couple of weeks ago I decided to take a few days off and head north for a bit of a holiday. So I hopped into my car and drove up to Northumberland to visit some friends and family. Having gone to university in the north-east of England I was well prepared....complete with scarves and coats despite the warm weather further south.
I had a great couple of days off...but one of the hazards of loving military history and having a career in military history is that you can never quite let go of it all, and before I knew what I was doing I was proposing a day trip up to Hadrian's Wall "for a bit of a walk and to take some pictures for the blog".
June 16, 2009 12:00 AM
Over the last 40 years we have tried our utmost to cover as many forces, armies, soldiers and conflicts as we possibly can, but whilst I was reading a new Shire book I stumbled across a liberation force which we have never even thought about covering. I was stunned by this fact, especially when I discovered that this liberation movement had developed secretive arms in the United States, Italy, France and the UK. How could such a widespread organization have slipped under our radar?
June 11, 2009 12:00 AM
I was saddened to learn that best-selling fantasy author David Eddings passed away this week, just shy of his 78th birthday. Now I know that a military-history blog might initially seem a strange place to highlight the life and works of a purely fantasy author, but David Eddings played a major role in shaping my love of history, and in particular military history.
June 5, 2009 12:00 AM
As I am sure most of you know, this weekend is the 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings. To mark the occasion, Ian Gardner and Roger Day, the authors of Tonight We Die as Men are heading across to Normandy to take part in the remembrance events. They are being accompanied by Bill Galbraith and Manny Barrios, both of whom are 3/506th PIR Normandy veterans, who both featured in and contributed to the book.
June 4, 2009 12:00 AM
For those of you who are not in the UK - you probably won't know about this early evening television show which has gained a cult status and following over the last year or so. But we are extremely excited to announce that for the first time ever, an Osprey author will be appearing on The One Show!
June 4, 2009 12:00 AM
On Wednesday, Osprey author Terry Crowdy is heading to Vienna to speak at the International Napoleonic Symposium. an event that has been organised for the bicentennial of Napoleon's campaigns against Austria in 1809.
On Thursday he will be presenting a paper on 'a conscript's story' - telling the story of a French soldier as he is conscripted, (barely) trained and sent off on campaign.
June 2, 2009 12:00 AM
Mariusz was born in Lublin, Poland, in 1973. From 1989-1994 he studied fine art at the Artistic Lyceum in Lublin, then from 1995-2000 at the Academy Of Arts in Wroclaw, earning his diploma under professor Jospeh Halas in 2000. Mariusz's work has been exhibited extensively in Poland. While he loves traditional painting methods, he began experimenting with computer assisted artwork in 2006. His enthusiasm for military history began as a boy but blossomed with his career and to this day helps him to create some truly gorgeous and original artwork. Mariusz has provided the cover artwork for the first six books in the new Raid series, all of which can be seen at www.ospreyraid.com
May 29, 2009 12:00 AM
This month we have another great list of books that have been brought back into stock - but the news that I know most of you will have been waiting for is an update on the availability of Battle: The Osprey Postcard Collection. When this came out a few months ago we were hit by unprecedented demand, and within days of the collection being on sale we had sold out all of our stock.
May 18, 2009 12:00 AM
Between the 1st and 7th June all of our gold and silver members can get an additional 10% off all of their purchases (in addition to their usual discounts of 15 and 30% respectively). In the members newsletter that you will receive on the 1st June will be details of how to claim your additional discount.
If you are not yet a member - and want 'in' on this great offer, you can take part if you sign up before the 28th May - then you will also receive the email with details of how to claim your additional discount! Become a gold or silver member after that and we cannot guarantee that you will receive details on how to claim the extra discount.
May 17, 2009 12:00 AM
That's right - we have added more new ebooks to our site, as we continue our efforts to make as many of our titles available in digital and / or printed formats. We have added another 7 titles to our ebook list - I know this is a small dent in the 1,500 books that we have published, put going forward we are hoping to ramp up the rate at which we add these books as digital downloads.
May 14, 2009 12:00 AM
This week we have added 17 books to the discount store page. Stock on all of these titles is limited, so pick them up while you still can!
It is a diverse collection of books, but there is one rarity in there - a Men-at-Arms book with the old 'classic' cover. Men-at-Arms 2 The Arab Legion is a true Osprey classic - and was first published in 1972. This is the very last time that this book will be available with its original cover. Once all of this stock has been sold the book will be reprinted with one of the new style covers that grace most of the rest of the Men-at-Arms books, so if you want to pick up a small slice of history you should pick up a copy!
May 12, 2009 12:00 AM
Hollywood is all about rebooting characters at the minute. Batman got a reboot. Then the reboot got a sequel which became one of the most successful films of all time. Bond has been rebooted - the humour and gadgets are gone and replaced by gritty punchy seat of your pants action. Which went on to spawn another film. Star Trek has been rebooted, even Wolverine has been rebooted in a way.
May 6, 2009 12:00 AM
Some say he once challenged Julius Caesar to an arm-wrestling match, and that he eats military history books with milk and orange juice for his breakfast. All we know is that he is the Osprey Quizmaster, and that this month he has really cranked up the difficulty level on his latest military history quiz.
May 2, 2009 12:00 AM
Today is your last chance to take advantage of our 20% off offer on all Campaign books - so don't miss out on the chance to top up your collection of books! A lot of you have taken the opportunity to snap up a copy of Campaign 207 Solferino - which has already become our best-selling title of the year.
April 30, 2009 12:00 AM
Over the last couple of months we have received massive amounts of feedback about book shops which are proudly flying the Osprey flag. These stores are a valuable resource for Osprey fans in their quest for military history. Some have a MASSIVE array of books, some have multiple spinners of Osprey books. Some will track down that rare second hand copy of a long out of stock title, and other have staff members who seem to have a photographic memory for the full extent of the Osprey stocklist.
April 27, 2009 12:00 AM
Another great selection of titles have been reprinted this month - including a bumper selection of Campaign titles, which works out pretty well seeing as we are running a 20% discount on ALL Campaign titles until the end of this month.
And don't forget that we are currently asking YOU to choose what you want us to reprint - for all the details, read my blog here.
So, without further delay - here are the books that have been reprinted - hopefully you will all be able to find something that you have been looking for!
April 21, 2009 12:00 AM
I promised last week that I would be revealing details of the upcoming Tonight We Die as Men book tour in the USA, and we have the final dates here now - and some rather exciting news about a special guest appearance at a number of the events.
April 20, 2009 12:00 AM
Last Saturday Ian Gardner and Roger Day, the authors of Tonight We Die as Men held a signing for their new book in the White Horse bookshop in Marlborough.
The day was a great success, with people queuing up to have a quick chat with the authors and get their copy of the book signed. In addition to this, a group of re-enactors also appeared on the scene, kitted up in all of their gear.
April 17, 2009 12:00 AM
Take the opportunity to tell us what books you would like us to reprint - choose one of the books from our list, email us about it, and if we receive enough responses for any of the titles we will reprint it - and let you know when the book comes back into stock so that you can buy it at your leisure.
April 14, 2009 12:00 AM
Everyone at Osprey would just like to wish you all a happy Easter, and a very restful and enjoyable break.
Now, back to all this chocolate that needs munching on!
April 12, 2009 12:00 AM
This Saturday (11th April) Ian Gardner and Roger Day, the joint authors of Tonight We Die As Men: The Untold Story of Third Battalion 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment from Toccoa to D-Day will be signing copies of their book at the White Horse bookshop in Marlborough.
April 8, 2009 12:00 AM
This Monday (6th April), the Osprey website will be up and down intermittently between 9am and 11am GMT. Whilst you should still be able to browse the site our shopping facilities will be affected. This is so that we can carry out some essential maintenance and implement a number of changes to the site.
The site will be up and running smoothly again by lunchtime on the 6th April.
Remember, if you are absolutely desperate to buy a book you could always order by phone on:
+44 (0)1206 256002
April 4, 2009 12:00 AM
It is a Friday afternoon. Only a couple of hours before the weekend. The sun is shining. Summer is here. And we know that you are not really working - just killing time before the weekend.
So, the first person to email us here will get a free Osprey book of their choice. Any Osprey book - provided that it is in stock.
April 3, 2009 12:00 AM
We have a new blogger joining the Osprey blog this week - and I am pleased to say that we have finally been able to recruit a second blogger from our New York office! For the last couple of years John has been the sole blogging voice from across the pond - but he is now being joined by Kerry - whose first post will be going up in the next couple of days.
March 26, 2009 12:00 AM
As promised - this is the latest in my series of blogs letting you know what has been reprinted over the last few weeks and what is once again available to buy. As with last month, most of the titles are available across the world - but there are a handful of books that we did not reprint for our US and Canadian customers - or that have already sold out in the US and Canada!
March 23, 2009 12:00 AM
Last week I sent out a plea for help from all of the Osprey fans who read the blog. We couldn't decide on which cover to use for an upcoming Campaign title on Actium. So we asked all of you to decide for us.
March 18, 2009 12:00 AM
Ian Gardner served for five years in Support Company,10th Battalion the Parachute Regiment as a medic, before leaving the Territorial Army in 1993 due to a parachuting injury. Ian has always loved military history but it was several years after leaving 10 Para that his interest in WWII US Paratroopers really began. Inspired after a visit to Normandy in 2000 he decided to focus on the 101st Airborne Division and in particular the 3rd Battalion of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Currently a self-employed graphic designer, Tonight we die as men is his first historical work and is co-written with Roger Day. He is married, has two teenage children and lives near Aldershot in Hampshire.
March 12, 2009 12:00 AM
For this month only, all of the books in our three aviation series are 20% off.
So every book in the Aircraft of the Aces series, the Combat Aircraft series and the Aviation Elite Units series is 20% off!
With over 200 books in these three series, there is sure to be something that will catch your eye... oh, and don't forget, if you are a member, you can add this 20% discount to your usual membership discount.
March 11, 2009 12:00 AM
We tried to resist it for as long as we could - but in the end we just had to give in...and the addiction has already started! That's right, Osprey have plunged themselves headfirst into the world of Twitter.
Our user name is OspreyBooks, why not visit us here for all of the latest, breaking news from the office - more or less as it happens! You can also find out what we are arguing about in the office - this morning it is the age old question of what is more effective - elephants or horses. Joe is behind elephants. I am supporting horses.
March 6, 2009 12:00 AM
We need YOUR help to decide on what book cover we use on the upcoming Campaign title on Actium, which is already available for pre-order.
Choosing the covers for our books is quite often one of the hardest things that we have to do, but this particular title really has us stumped. Half of the office like one of the covers. The other half like the second cover. And we can't decide which one we should use. So we thought we should ask you all what you would prefer to see on the cover.
March 6, 2009 12:00 AM
Roger's full name is Roger John Day. He was born in the small English market town of Marlborough, Wiltshire in 1955. His father managed a farm and his mother was a teacher at the local school. In 1956 he moved six miles east to the village of Ramsbury, where he lived for the following 22 years. Roger started work in 1971 and after a four year apprenticeship qualified as an engineering draughtsman. From a very early age Roger had an interest in World War II and by the mid 1970s had started researching the conflict's impact on the Ramsbury area. He soon discovered that the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment had been based in the village and that an airfield had been built on a hill nearby, which was also used by the Americans. In 1999 he self published his first book entitled Ramsbury at War and eight years later published a second book, about a nearby ammunition storage depot, entitled Savernake at War. He married Sandra in 1978 and has two children. Roger now lives in Hungerford, Berksh
March 5, 2009 12:00 AM
The new Shire Publications site has launched - but we owe a massive apology to any Osprey newsletter subscribers who received the Shire newsletter in error!
March 3, 2009 12:00 AM
Day 28
Every day in February we are offering 50% off a different book on our website. Today's 50% off book is Campaign 163 Leyte Gulf 1944
And that rounds up our February savings - I hope you were all able to find something that you were after in the list, and don't forget that if you want to get the latest information on discounts and offers from Osprey you should sign up to our newsletter, where we announce all of our discounts and site updates.
February 28, 2009 12:00 AM
Day 27
Every day in February we are offering 50% off a different book on our website. Today's 50% off book is Men-at-Arms 247 Romano-Byzantine Armies 4th - 9th Centuries.
February 27, 2009 12:00 AM
US Memberships
I am very pleased to announce that memberships for our US and Canadian customers are now up and running - so you are now able to sign up for all of the benefits that the Osprey Membership provides, with up to 30% off all purchases, and access to thousands of aircraft profiles and maps.
February 19, 2009 12:00 AM
I had a massive response to my last post about what books had been reprinted and were now back in stock.l would like to say a big thank you to all the people who emailed me about the list, and I am sorry it has taken us so long to get this up and running on a regular basis. It will now become a monthly feature, which we will also announce in our newsletters, so you will always be able to keep in touch with what is back in stock, as soon as it is back in stock.
February 13, 2009 12:00 AM
Day 2
Every day in February we are offering 50% off a different book on our website. Today's 50% off book is Campaign 120 Towton 1461
February 2, 2009 12:00 AM
Day 1
Every day in February we are offering 50% off a different book on our website. Today's 50% off book is Men-at-Arms 360 The Thracians 700 BC - AD 46
February 1, 2009 12:00 AM
For the whole month of February, we are going to be offering a fantastic 50% off a different book, every day. These 28 books have been chosen by Joe, and will be discounted by a massive 50% for one day only, and only while stocks last.
January 30, 2009 12:00 AM
I have been meaning to write a quick blog on this subject for a while, but it kept on slipping my mind, until the forum post by Adam C reminded me that I should really let you all know what is happening with this.
Over the last couple of years, I have been lucky enough to go to most of the events that Osprey attend in the UK, and at every single one of these events the same questions crop up. But the single most asked question relates to the strange gaps that crop up in a couple of our series - where series numbers have been allocated, but the book has never materialized.
January 28, 2009 12:00 AM
As I promised here, every month we are going to announce what books have been re-printed and have been brought back into print and are once again available to buy online. The Production team here have been working their socks off to get a very sizeable chuck of our books back in stock - 40 titles this month - and nearly 80 titles due in for next month!
January 19, 2009 12:00 AM
Over the past year or so, we don't seem to be able to keep Osprey books off the television. First we spotted an Osprey book in a music video. Then an Osprey book appeared in cult comedy Peep Show. Just a couple of months ago our books were heavily featured in a More 4 news bulletin (also featuring my fellow blogger Richard).
January 14, 2009 12:00 AM
I always like to be the person to post up the first blog of the year - its always the beginning of an exciting year at Osprey. And this year is going to be no different - I can't wait!
So without further delay...Happy New Year to each and every one of you - from everyone here at Osprey.
January 1, 2009 12:00 AM
On behalf of everyone at Osprey Publishing, I would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas.
And in particular, all of the bloggers would like to say thank you for all of your comments, support and feedback over the year - we hope to see you all back here soon!
Oh, and here is a picture of most of the bloggers looking very smart at our Christmas party!
December 25, 2008 12:00 AM
Our long countdown of the top 25 Osprey books of all time is now at an end - I hope you have found my random facts interesting and entertaining over the last three weeks!
The number 1, bestselling Osprey title of all time is (drum roll please)...
Aircraft of the Aces 29 Bf 109F/G/K Aces of the Western Front
By John Weal
December 25, 2008 12:00 AM
The second highest best-selling title of all time is again an obvious title....
Campaign 1 Normandy 1944: Allied landings and breakout
By Stephen Badsey
December 24, 2008 12:00 AM
Into the top three titles of all time - and this is not at all surprising...
Campaign 15 Waterloo 1815: The birth of modern Europe
By Geoffrey Wootten
December 23, 2008 12:00 AM
The fourth most popular book of all time provides the second appearance in this list for the Vikings...
Elite 3 The Vikings
By Ian Heath
Illustrated by Angus McBride
December 22, 2008 12:00 AM
Into the top 5 bestselling Osprey books of all time, and number 5 in the list is....
Men-at-Arms 46 The Roman Army from Caesar to Trajan
By Michael Simkins
Illustrated by Ron Embleton
December 21, 2008 12:00 AM
The sixth most popular Osprey book of all time is another major Second World War battle, this time on the Eastern Front...
Campaign 16 Kursk 1943: The tide turns in the East
By Mark Healy
December 20, 2008 12:00 AM
The seventh bestselling book published by Osprey over the last 40 years is...
Men-at-Arms 34 The Waffen-SS
By Martin Windrow
Illustrated by Jeffrey Burn
December 19, 2008 12:00 AM
Number 8 next...
Men-at-Arms 228 American Woodland Indians
By Michael G Johnson
Illustrated by Richard Hook
December 18, 2008 12:00 AM
The ninth most popular Osprey book of all time is...
Men-at-Arms 170 American Civil War Armies (1) Confederate Troops
By Philip Katcher
Illustrated by Ronald Volstad
December 17, 2008 12:00 AM
We are now into the top 10....and the 10th most popular Osprey book of the last 40 years is none other than...
Men-at-Arms 154: Arthur and the Anglo-Saxon Wars
By David Nicolle
Illustrated by Angus McBride
December 16, 2008 12:00 AM
The next book on our list of top 25 favourite titles is...
Elite 11 Ardennes 1944 Peiper and Skorzeny
By Jean Paul Pallud
Illustrated by D.Parker and R Volstad
December 15, 2008 12:00 AM
The 11th highest selling Osprey book is...
Campaign 5 Ardennes 1944: Hitler's last gamble in the West
by James R Arnold
December 14, 2008 12:00 AM
Unlucky for some, the 13th title in the list sees the first appearance of the New Vanguard series with...
New Vanguard 1 Kingtiger Heavy Tank 1942-45
By Tom Jentz and Hilary Doyle
Illustrated by Peter Sarson
December 13, 2008 12:00 AM
Number 14 in this countdown of the 25 best loved Osprey books is...
Men-at-Arms 173 The Alamo and the War of Texan Independence 1835-36
By Philip Haythornthwaite
Illustrated by Paul Hannon
December 12, 2008 12:00 AM
It is not often that you get the chance to watch a new beach assault craft being tested by the Royal Marines. It is not often that the Ford car company build beach assault vehicles for the military - and then put them on sale to the public. It is not often that a military vehicle is painted a bright lime green...
December 12, 2008 12:00 AM
Today's entry in the top 25 books sees the first appearance of the Elite series...
Elite 23 The Samurai
By Anthony J Bryant
Illustrated by Angus McBride
December 11, 2008 12:00 AM
It's time for number 16 in our countdown, and we revert to type with a Campaign on one of the most famous battles of history...
Campaign 9 Agincourt 1415: Triumph against the odds
By Matthew Bennett
December 10, 2008 12:00 AM
The next title in the countdown of our most enduring, best-selling books is a bit of a departure from usual, with a non-series book making an appearance...
Out of Nowhere: A history of the military sniper
By Martin Pegler
December 9, 2008 12:00 AM
18th on the list of our 25 best selling titles is...
Men-at-Arms158 Rome's Enemies (2) Gallic and British Celts
By Peter Wilcox
Illustrated by Angus McBride
December 8, 2008 12:00 AM
Into the teens of our countdown of the 25 top books in terms of sales over Osprey's 40 years, with one of the greatest airborne assaults ever launched, and certainly one of the greatest airborne failures of the Second World War...
Campaign 24 Arnhem 1944: Operation Market Garden
By Stephen Badsey
December 7, 2008 12:00 AM
Considering how many reenactors appear dressed up in the garb of these particular soldiers at the events we attend in the UK over the summer, it is probably not too surprising that the 20th bestselling book of all time is...
Men-at-Arms 139 German Airborne Troops 1939-45
By Bruce Quarrie
Illustrated by Mike Chappell
December 6, 2008 12:00 AM
The 21st most popular of all of our books, is a Men-at-Arms title...
Men-at-Arms 85 Saxon, Viking and Norman
By Terence Wise
Illustrated by Gerry Embleton
December 5, 2008 12:00 AM
The 22nd bestselling book in the Osprey list is not a surprising one...
Campaign 52 Gettysburg 1863: High Tide of the Confederacy
By Carl Smith
Illustrated by Adam Hook
December 4, 2008 12:00 AM
The next title in this advent calendar style countdown of our 25 top titles throws up a bit of an unexpected curve-ball - which took a number of my colleagues by surprise. Number 23 in the list is none other than...
Aircraft of the Aces 8 Corsair Aces of World War 2
by Mark Styling
With artwork and illustrations by Iain Wyllie, John Weal, Mark Styling and Mike Chappell
December 3, 2008 12:00 AM
Number 24 in our countdown of all time Osprey best sellers is...
Campaign 7 Alexander 334-323 BC: Conquest of the Persian Empire
By John Warry
December 2, 2008 12:00 AM
Slightly late, slightly out of breath - but it is here nonetheless! The Osprey advent calendar has arrived!
This year, rather than trying really hard to find artwork from our books which reflect the spirit of Christmas (which can be a rather big challenge considering our artwork is about war), I am going to use the calendar to answer a regular blog reader's question about the most popular or bestselling Osprey books of all time.
So I am going to do a countdown of the top 25 books in the Osprey list - and include an interesting factoid about each book too.
December 1, 2008 12:00 AM
For the last couple of months we have been talking about the imminent arrival of a fabulous, limited edition version of the Men-at-Arms Celebration.
And it has now arrived. Only 40 copies of this fantastic book have been produced. Each book is bound in goat leather, with 23 carat gold embossing. Signed and numbered by the Men-at-Arms editor Martin Windrow, this is the most exclusive Osprey book ever.
November 24, 2008 12:00 AM
The latest UK and US Osprey catalogues are now available to download on the website. Detailing all of the new releases and the latest Osprey news, why not download it now and find out what is coming in 2009.
You can also download a complete stocklist of everything that is currently in print.
November 19, 2008 12:00 AM
That's right, if you have pre-ordered the Men-at-Arms Celebration from the Osprey site - then your copy of this 388 page, cloth bound, slip-cased extravaganza will be winging its way through the post to you already. On Monday the copies were released from the warehouse and the pre-ordered copies have been sent out over the last couple of days.
November 15, 2008 12:00 AM
We are currently experiencing a technical fault on the website which is causing problems for people who are trying to log in to the site, and in particular with anyone who is trying to place an order on the site.
Members who have subscribed to silver and gold memberships are being particularly affected while ordering - you will be able to enter items into the cart, but in stage 5 of the process the site is being caused to 'hang' and orders are not being fully processed.
November 14, 2008 12:00 AM
At 11am today the Osprey office will observe a two minute silence to mark Remembrance Day. This year, the respect paid to the men and women who have given their lives for their country is made even more poignant by the fact that today is the 90th anniversary of the end of The First World War.
Please join us in honouring the fallen.
November 11, 2008 12:00 AM
Alejandro de Quesada is a Florida-based military history writer, an experienced researcher and collector of militaria, photos and documents and runs an archive as a secondary business.
He has written 12 books and over 50 articles, including Elite 137 The Mexican Revolution 1910–20 and Elite 161 The Us Home Front 1941-45. In 2009 Alejandro is set to publish another two books with Osprey. In January his book Elite 166 The Bay of Pigs is out. Later in the year he will turn his hand to the Warrior series with a book on Roosevelt's Rough Riders. When Alejandro and I went through these questions he also kindly provided me with this photo - of him in the Falklands between two Argentinian mess kitchens.
November 10, 2008 12:00 AM
Just a quick post to wish everyone a very happy Halloween! A perfect opportunity to dress up, and eat some pure sugar - but this year we are giving one lucky customer the chance to win an Osprey book of their choice.
October 31, 2008 12:00 AM
All members can get an extra 10% discount - read about it here!
October 30, 2008 12:00 AM
Lynn Brittney is the author of the Nathan Fox series of books, published by Macmillan. The hero, Nathan Fox, is a boy-actor in the same company as Will Shakespeare. Recruited into Walsingham’s fledgling secret service, he is sent to a School of Defence run by Master Robey. Here he is taught sword fighting, the use of daggers, archery, riding and code breaking...
October 25, 2008 12:00 AM
The January-June 2009 catalogues have been printed. The massive posters have been packed. The Sales and Rights team are on the plane. The Frankfurt Book Fair has arrived, and as usual Osprey are going to be there (with Shire Books as well of course!).
October 14, 2008 12:00 AM
This weekend a friend me sent a link to a couple of really interesting articles on the blog Weaponized Culture. It is an interesting blog, and worth a browse – but what really caught my eye was one of the links that appeared in this article.
October 8, 2008 12:00 AM
I know it is really early to already be talking about Christmas and Christmas cards...but bear with me! Over the last couple of years we have sent out Christmas cards which feature some Osprey artwork on the front. But last year we ran into a problem. We had narrowed the choice of artwork for the card down to three snow-filled scenes. But we just couldn't decide which was the best. So, we threw caution to the winds and asked you to choose which piece of artwork to use. Then we tallied up the votes, drew a name out of a hat and selected one lucky blog reader who won 50 copies of the completed card.
September 30, 2008 12:00 AM
Anyone who has been a regular reader of this blog over the last year or so will know that I am a bit of a movie nut. I will regularly attempt to plough my way through as many films as possible in any given week. And, as ever you come across some great films. And some absolute stinkers. This week I have come up against both.
September 25, 2008 12:00 AM
September 19, 2008 12:00 AM
Whenever the first copies of a book arrive in the office there is always a bit of a buzz. For some of us it is an exciting time, a chance to pick up a book that we probably first heard about two years previously. Sometimes the time between a title being approved for production at what we call a “Publishing Meeting” and the arrival of the book seems to take an age. Sometimes it just seems to fly by...
September 17, 2008 12:00 AM
For aught that I could ever read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth.
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
September 1, 2008 12:00 AM
Following the success of the Military History Carnival last week, the Osprey blog is very proud to be hosting the September edition of the History Carnival.
August 26, 2008 12:00 AM
The Olympic Military History Carnival has arrived at the Osprey Blog. With Beijing 2008 in full swing, this is the ideal chance to look back at the history of the Olympics and the role that war has played in the development of the Games!
Every four years it seems as if the world goes mad. All normal television broadcasts are cancelled. Newspapers and magazines stop delivering news. Whole populations become couch potatoes overnight. And everyone (well everyone in Britain anyway) suddenly become interested in some of the most bizarre sports. Like rowing. Or shooting. Or sailing. Yes, it is time for the Olympics, that sporting World War, where once again it is perfectly acceptable for countries to violently compete over natural resources… well bronze, silver and gold anyway...
August 18, 2008 12:00 AM
In the American Civil War being in combat was sometimes referred to as ‘Seeing the Elephant’. The reason given was that battle, like an Elephant, was hard to describe, but you knew it when you saw it.
I thought I knew an Elephant too. As an illustrator, they’d come up from time to time, I had a favourite reference book or two and I could nick a pose from a photograph when I needed it. When the New Vanguard title ‘War Elephants’ appeared on my radar though, I knew it was time to up my elephantine game....
August 16, 2008 12:00 AM
There is only a couple of weeks left before the Military History Carnival arrives at the Osprey Blog. We have already had a bunch of great submissions, but time is running out! If you would like to submit an article or blog then just drop me a line here to do so...
August 5, 2008 12:00 AM
On the day that we launched the new Osprey site, we were inundated with calls, emails, blog comments, forum posts, faxes and letters all pleading for the 'Forthcoming Titles" section to be included. Well, we are happy to admit that we totally misjudged how many of you used the upcoming titles feature on the site - so firstly we would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who took the time out to let us know that they really missed the section of the website. We really appreciate the feedback... and your patience as we worked towards fixing the problem!
August 1, 2008 12:00 AM
Ross Laidlaw was born in Aberdeen and educated at The King’s School (founded 676 by St Etheldreda and refounded 1540 by Henry VIII) and Cambridge University where he read history. He worked and travelled extensively in Southern Africa, and on his return to Britain taught Geography and Science before becoming an archivist. Ross is a qualified archery instructor and currently lives in East Lothian...
July 29, 2008 12:00 AM
With everything that has been happening on the new website - the bloggers have only just been able to get together and choose a winner for the Osprey Blog Birthday Competition.
And the winner is....drum roll please...
July 24, 2008 12:00 AM
Nearly a month ago Osprey shipped me out to my first overseas event - A Weekend of Heroes 2008, which was held in Glendale California on the 21st and 22nd June. Now, I tend to go to most of the Osprey events in the UK - and have done over the last couple of years. I have already clocked up appearances at Salute and Who do you think you are? Live! and I am booked in to visit Military Odyssey and possibly Euro Mil this summer, so I am not new to doing events, but this was a bit of a departure for Osprey, and I was a bit nervous about the reception we were going to get.
July 22, 2008 12:00 AM
Everyone at the Osprey blog...and for that matter at Osprey Publishing in general, would like to congratulate Ed and Kate on their wedding on Saturday. If they are foolish enough to email any of their wedding pics I will certainly post them up here...
July 19, 2008 12:00 AM
There has been a lot in the news recently about the battle between Boeing and Airbus, both in civilian aviation, and more recently in the battle over who will supply the US Airforce with its next generation of midair refueling tankers...
July 18, 2008 12:00 AM
Following the success of the Military History Carnival that we hosted on the Osprey site last year, we are once again teaming up with the Military History Carnival to bring you a selection of the best military history blogs from across the world...
July 10, 2008 12:00 AM
We have been receiving reports that some customers are unable to sign up for our new membership service. This is down to a technical problem that has developed in the subscription shopping cart. We are working on this problem at the moment and will hopefully have the service up and running again shortly. Book purchases remain unaffected...
July 4, 2008 12:00 AM
June 28, 2008 12:00 AM
To celebrate the fact that the Osprey Blog is now a year old, we are running The Osprey Blog Birthday Competition where one lucky reader can win a book from every month that the Blog has been running...
June 19, 2008 12:00 AM
How time flies, it only seems like yesterday that the Osprey Blog launched. Now, 200 odd posts later it has dawned on me that the blog is now officially a year old - and going strong. In fact, the biggest challenge I have is keeping the bloggers from posting a stream of articles every 20 minutes. We don't want to overwhelm you...and they should be editing that New Vanguard on their desk...
June 16, 2008 12:00 AM
I spotted these photo articles this morning - depicting the effects of the bombing of Laos during the Vietnam war, both on the landscape and on the people living in Laos today. Many of the people in Laos now make a living from the debris left over from the biggest bombing campaign in history. Old bombs and cluster bombs are dismantled and sold for scrap, or to engineering companies for their explosive...
June 13, 2008 12:00 AM
We interviewed James Holland a few weeks ago in a Q & A post, where he mentioned his upcoming historical fiction project - a series of novels set in the Second World War and featuring infantryman Jack Tanner. James very kindly arranged to have a review copy of the first book in the series, The Odin Mission sent to the Osprey blog - and I have just finished reading it...
June 10, 2008 12:00 AM
I am sure most regular readers will have spotted that change is afoot.
In between recruiting beta testers, switching our image hosting over to Flickr and our ongoing promises that very soon the Osprey site will evolve it has probably become quite obvious to most of you that we are on the verge of launching a brand new website...
June 10, 2008 12:00 AM
I love the Dambusters film. And this clip suggests that Peter Jackson is getting closer to filming a remake. Which could be great...like the Lord of the Rings. Or not so great - like King Kong. Fingers crossed he doesn't mess it up because he has a lot to live up to here...
June 2, 2008 12:00 AM
A few days ago I wrote a blog post about how new laws being considered by the government could mean the end of the re-enacting hobby as we know it in the UK. As a matter of courtesy I sent the Home Office a quick email to let them know that I was blogging on the subject, and giving them the opportunity to respond....
May 31, 2008 12:00 AM
Peter Dennis was born in 1950. Inspired by contemporary magazines such as Look and Learn, he studied illustration at Liverpool Art College. Peter has since contributed to hundreds of books, predominantly on historical subjects. He is a keen wargamer and modelmaker and is based in Nottinghamshire, UK...
May 23, 2008 12:00 AM
In recent years the re-enactor or living history hobby has come under fire. Following the 2007 edition of the War and Peace show there was a huge outcry about the number of people who went to these events dressed up as German World War II soldiers. Richard commented on the reaction and the news coverage here.
May 19, 2008 12:00 AM
James Holland is a writer and historian. In April 2003, he published his first work of history, Fortress Malta: An Island Under Siege 1940-43 (Orion), which became a Sunday Times top ten bestseller. In January 2004, his first novel, The Burning Blue, set to a backdrop of the Battle of Britain, was published by William Heinemann. In May 2005, his second work of history, Together We Stand: North Africa 1942-1943 – Turning the Tide in the West, was published. His second novel, A Pair of Silver Wings, was published in March 2006...
May 9, 2008 12:00 AM
I recently mentioned that at the London Book Fair this year three of the blogging team would be wearing a suit of armour. We each took it in turns. Phil took Monday, Richard the Tuesday and I took the Wednesday...
May 4, 2008 12:00 AM
A couple of months ago I got an email from the Production Controller workinng on the fifth series of Peep Show, asking for permission to use Stephen Turnbull's book Samurai: World of the Warrior in one of the episodes.
May 1, 2008 12:00 AM
Gordon L Rottman entered the US Army in 1967, volunteered for Special Forces and completed training as a weapons specialist. He served in the 5th Special Forces Group in Vietnam in 1969–70 and subsequently in airborne infantry, long-range patrol and intelligence assignments until retiring after 26 years. He was a special operations forces scenario writer at the Joint Readiness Training Center for 12 years and is now a freelance writer, living in Texas...
April 27, 2008 12:00 AM
As I mentioned in a previous post, Fighting High Magazine is a great free aviation e-zine. Steve Darlow has just emailed to tell me that the second issue is available to download here.
April 21, 2008 12:00 AM
Next week is the London Book Fair - one of the two biggest events of the year for the Osprey team based in the UK. So, most of the office is currently running around with a strange look in their eyes - probably not blind panic, but there is a certain amount of stress involved in getting ready for the fair. Virtually every department has been working towards this event for months. The marketing department put together the trade catalogues and posters for the event with the help of our production and design team...
April 11, 2008 12:00 AM
News is filtering in from Stockholm that the Osprey Men-at-Arms series is due to be honoured at this years Nobel Prize Ceremony. The shock decision to nominate the Men-at-Arms series for the Nobel Prize for Literature has come as a shock especially as it is the first time that the prize is being awarded to a group of books rather than an individual author....
April 1, 2008 12:00 AM
That might sound like an ambitious statement, but Osprey have teamed up with Slitherine and Wargames Factory to bring you the chance to win some fantastic prizes which are sure to set pulses racing....
March 28, 2008 12:00 AM
I have just been sent details about a fantastic new online aviation magazine, Fighting High. It is completely free to download and is well worth a look. Fully illustrated and with production values rarely seen in a free online magazine
March 27, 2008 12:00 AM
Martin Pegler has a BA Hons in Medieval and Modern History and an MA in Museum Studies, both from University College, London, and was for many years the Senior Curator of Firearms at the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds. He now lives in the Somme, France, where he and his wife run a small bed and breakfast, which is situated on top of the old German front line...
March 21, 2008 12:00 AM
Last Wednesday we held the official launch for SAS Heroes - which was a great opportunity to meet up with Pete and some of his colleagues. With uniform displays showing the evolution of SAS kit, a genuine Pink Panther, and a demonstration of the tactics used to end the Iranian Embassy siege the day went off brilliantly...
March 10, 2008 12:00 AM
One of the best features in our aviation books must be the detailed plane profiles that make up the middle slice of the books. The profiles include aircraft markings and nose art, and are excellent source material for modellers. A great deal of research goes into ensuring that these profiles are as accurate as possible. However, there are usually too many aircraft built to be able to include every plane profile. But, one of our books does actually contain a profile image of every single aircraft ever built - Combat 64: B-2A Sprirt Units in Combat...
February 26, 2008 12:00 AM
Osprey Aviation Editor since 1989, Tony Holmes is a native of Fremantle, Western Australia. Responsible for devising the Aircraft of the Aces, Combat Aircraft and Aviation Elite Units series, Tony has also written more than 25 books for Osprey in the past 17 years...
February 23, 2008 12:00 AM
Let battle commence...
February 10, 2008 12:00 AM
Angus Konstam hails from the Orkney Islands, and is the author of over 50 books, 30 of which are published by Osprey. This acclaimed and widely published author has written several books on piracy, including The History of Pirates. His most recent work is a full-length piratical biography: Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate. A former naval officer and museum professional, he worked as the Curator of Weapons at the Tower of London ...
February 10, 2008 12:00 AM
This week was the 50th anniversary of Lego, the building blocks which kept many of us occupied for hours on end while we were growing up. I know Lego is not the most obvious subject for a post on a military history blog, especially as throughout its history Lego has maintained its distance from 'realistic' military subjects...
January 29, 2008 12:00 AM
Something lighter for the weekend - the story of a bear who served in the Second World War...
January 25, 2008 12:00 AM
Steve White has worked for Marvel UK on such comics as The Real Ghostbusters, Thundercats, Transformers and The Punisher. He has also written Rogue Trooper for 2000 AD. He currently works for Titan Publishing, working firstly as a graphic novels editor on such series as Modesty Blaise and Dan Dare, as well as the first collection of legendary British comic strip, Charley’s War...
January 25, 2008 12:00 AM
One of the plates for the Campaign title on the Athenian’s ill-fated adventure on Syracuse deals with a moonlit Hoplite battle on the Epipolai plateau. I’d last had a go at a moonlit scenario in the Airborne Tactics...
January 19, 2008 12:00 AM
I was recently forwarded this article about the AK-47. Having been brought up in Africa, I have always seen the 'AK' command a great deal of respect as a weapon (it notably features on the Mozambican flag) and so I was surprised to see it being written off as not commanding respect...
January 13, 2008 12:00 AM
Born in 1944, David Nicolle worked in the BBC’s Arabic service for a number of years before gaining an MA from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, and a doctorate from Edinburgh University. He has written numerous books and articles on medieval and Islamic warfare, and has been a prolific author of Osprey titles for many years...
January 11, 2008 12:00 AM
One of the facets of military history that I personally find fascinating are the numerous small conflicts that occur from time to time around the globe. One of these small conflicts barely crept onto newspaper pages recently – that over the disputed Bakassi Peninsula...
January 5, 2008 12:00 AM
Harry Pearson has produced five books, contributed to a dozen more, written a weekly sports column in the Guardian for ten years and helped make the football magazine When Saturday Comes half-decent for nearly two decades. When not painting toy soldiers, building a Wild West town in 1/72 scale...
December 28, 2007 12:00 AM
Steven J. Zaloga received his BA in history from Union College and his MA from Columbia University. He has worked as an analyst in the aerospace industry for over two decades, covering missile systems and the international arms trade, and has served with the Institute for Defense Analyses, a federal think-tank...
December 14, 2007 12:00 AM
Welcome to Osprey’s Military History Carnival! I have had a really tough job choosing a selection of blogs this month – a massive thank you to everyone who has contributed! I am going to try to list the fantastic posts we have received in a vague semblance of historical order, so here we go...
December 11, 2007 12:00 AM
Terry Crowdy has an unconventional background for a historian. Former bassist in a rock group, and a history enthusiast since childhood, he has long been fascinated by different aspects of military history and takes great pleasure in delving into obscure sources to pluck...
November 30, 2007 12:00 AM
Over the last couple of weeks I have been avidly watching The Long Way Down – the TV documentary which follows Obi Wan (aka Ewan McGregor) and Charley Boorman as they ride motorcycles from John O’Groats (the northernmost point of the UK) all the way down through Africa to Cape Town...
November 25, 2007 12:00 AM
Just a quick note to let you all know that Osprey's new November titles are now available to buy online or at any good book store. With 14 new releases, it is a bumper month - and it is tough to pick out any clear favourites...
November 21, 2007 12:00 AM
In our continual quest to discover exactly what is it about military history that stimulates us we decided to widen the net and ask a few others. So we talked to Osprey authors and artists, the great and the good of military history and anyone we could find really. We asked them a set of carefully crafted questions, a mix of the serious, stupid and bizarre and this is what they came back with. First to go: Garth Ennis...
November 16, 2007 12:00 AM
As many of our British readers have probably noticed, this year the Royal British Legion have re-launched their Poppy Appeal with a series of touching adverts featuring ‘Poppy Man’ ...
November 7, 2007 12:00 AM
At last years IPMS Telford event a customer came up to me and asked me if I had Osprey Aircraft books. At the time I was standing next to a spinner packed with our Aviation titles so I pointed at it, telling the gentleman to take his pick. Unfortunately I got the wrong end of the stick – and our customer had to explain (rather slowly and in words of one syllable) that he was referring to the V-22 Osprey...
November 7, 2007 12:00 AM
Next weekend (10th and 11th November) Osprey are attending IPMS Scale Modelworld 2007 at the International Centre in Telford. Primarily an aviation modelling show, I was lucky enough to go along with a stand last year and it was a fantastic success...
November 3, 2007 12:00 AM
In secret trials last week, the Army said it managed to make a tank completely disappear and predicted that an invisible tank would be ready for combat service by 2012.
According to AHN, this new technology uses cameras and projectors to beam images of the surrounding landscape onto the tank in question. The tank itself is coated in silicon to maximise its reflective capabilities.
October 31, 2007 12:00 AM
It was suggested that it might be a nice idea to have a regular-ish slot on the blog where you get to hear about the doings of an Osprey illustrator, focusing the scribbling on a particular piece of illustration. I’m into blogs at the moment and I can’t resist a challenge, so here goes...
October 25, 2007 12:00 AM
Chris at Mixing Memory (and indeed Gavin at Investigations of a Dog gives his thoughts on the matter) has posted about a psychological study which suggests playing First Person Shooter Games (such as Half-Life and Medal of Honor) improves spatial reasoning abilities, which in turn leads to improvements in mathematical abilities...
October 24, 2007 12:00 AM
Tomorrow evening, war is due to break out in Paris. The battered, bruised English face the confident, on form South Africans for the biggest prize in rugby – the Rugby World Cup. To celebrate this epic encounter (and because it is a Friday) we have produced a one-off special edition Osprey Duel cover for the final...
October 19, 2007 12:00 AM
October 18, 2007 12:00 AM
Next week I have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. On Monday we have arranged to have a sit down with Pete Scholey, former SAS soldier, where I get to quiz him about his life in the Regiment...
October 16, 2007 12:00 AM
Following the enthusiastic response to my last post, Top three worst war films, I thought it would be worthwhile continuing the war film theme. A comment from Gene suggested investigating the three war films that you would like to see on the silver screen. So, without further ado, here are my suggestions...
September 28, 2007 12:00 AM
Following Richard's post on the Weekend Nazis TV programme, I was intrigued to see what others thought out there in the blogosphere. During my search, I came across historian James Holland's post on his Second World War Forum...
September 21, 2007 12:00 AM
Welcome to Osprey’s History Carnival. You will always find history-related postings at the Osprey Blog. As the official blog of military history publisher Osprey Publishing, the topics are mostly military-related in some way, but reflect our contributors' wide interests. From “Women of the Military History Fanclub Unite” through to “What’s your Top 3 worst war films?”, there will always be something you can relate to...
September 21, 2007 12:00 AM
Avast you scurvy bilge rats. Well shiver me timbers me hearties, it be a fine morning and I am in the mood for a cup of grog! For it be Talk like a Pirate Day today see...
September 19, 2007 12:00 AM
As mentioned in my profile, I am a bit of a film fan – particularly war films. Whilst Hollywood’s output seems to move in cycles with some genres falling out of favour (Westerns – where did they go?) and others becoming popular (biopics…who needs two films about Trueman Capote in one year?) the war film never seems to go out of fashion...
September 18, 2007 12:00 AM
An extra post from me this month, just to let you know about the wonderful time that we had at Military Odyssey over the bank holiday weekend. After worrying for days about the distinct possibility of rain, the weather was a dream – lovely warm days that were great for all things re-enactorish...
September 7, 2007 12:00 AM
I saw this story about the delivery of a post box to British troops in Afghanistan a few weeks ago and it got me thinking. Initially I thought that such a simple and rather crazy decision by the MOD could never drastically improve troop morale. But, traditionally mail has been one of the best ways to maintain morale...
September 2, 2007 12:00 AM
On Sunday 22nd July I hauled myself out of bed and set off for Blenheim Palace. But, I had no intention of spending the day wandering through majestic halls and gorgeous gardens. I was there to attend the air display at Fly to the Past: Festival of Flight...
August 20, 2007 12:00 AM
Now some of you may have seen this already, but for those of you who haven't, I thought I would share with you my new tank girl discovery – the mammoth beast that is the CRUSHER. The Crusher is an unmanned ground vehicle that operates autonomously in off-road terrain. Or as described by The Olive-Drab blog: it's a six-ton behemoth that moves out, up and over whatever gets in its way...
August 14, 2007 12:00 AM
Thanks to all those who e-mailed me - the answer to the question in my post "Osprey sells beer" was Warrior 16: British Tommy 1914–18, and the winner who e-mailed me first was Gene Liptak. We'll be talking to the landlord in due course... I was also reminded about the Silly Titles competition we ran in December, and seeing as I think the cover of the winning title: Boobenfloppinschtoppen: The History of SS Brassierres, suggested by Jim Carr, is so funny (Aurelie did a great job, I'm sure you'll agree ;-)) I thought I'd post it up for anyone else who missed it when the winner was announced.
August 6, 2007 12:00 AM
I haven’t had much of a chance to skim through the news pages this week because I have been on holiday on the Greek island of Crete. Packed with places to visit, from the Minoan palace of Knossos to Byzantine castles and Venetian fortresses, the island is steeped in history....
July 20, 2007 12:00 AM
Just a quick note to let you know what we've been up to lately. A couple of weeks ago, a few of us went to BEA in New York, which is the largest book fair in America. Publishers exhibit, and booksellers, librarians and teachers go to find out what new books are coming out. A great part of the show for me is that you get to check out the competition, meet everyone in one place, and pick up some great free books, because there are lots of advance copies being given away...
June 27, 2007 12:00 AM
I thought I would get this out of the way in my first post. Come clean so to speak. I go crazy over old buildings. A sunny Sunday afternoon won’t see me sitting outside a pub by a river. Instead, I am probably out snooping round an old house or castle...
June 21, 2007 12:00 AM