Mike

Happy New Year - have a brilliant 2009!

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.

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 25

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

Happy Christmas

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!

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 24

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

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 23

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

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 22

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

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 21

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

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 20

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

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 19

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

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 18

Number 8 next... Men-at-Arms 228 American Woodland Indians By Michael G Johnson Illustrated by Richard Hook

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 17

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

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 16

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

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 15

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

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 14

The 11th highest selling Osprey book is... Campaign 5 Ardennes 1944: Hitler's last gamble in the West by James R Arnold

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 13

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

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 12

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

Ford release footage of their new beach assault vehicle - available to buy today!

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...

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 11

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

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 10

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

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 9

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

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 8

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

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 7

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

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 6

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

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 5

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

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 4

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

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 3

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

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 2

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

The Osprey Advent Calendar - December 1

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.

The Men-at-Arms Celebration Special Edition Auction

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.

The January - June 2009 catalogue is now available to download

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.

The Men-at-Arms Celebration is in the post!

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.

Website problems

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.

Remembrance Day

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.

Q & A: Alejandro de Quesada

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.

Happy Halloween - and a spooky competition

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.

An early Christmas present for all Osprey members!

All members can get an extra 10% discount - read about it here!

Q & A: Lynn Brittney

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...

Osprey are at Frankfurt this week

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!).

The Ten Greatest Weapons?

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.

The Osprey Christmas Card Competition 2009

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.

Good movie, Bad movie, counterfeit money and concentration camps

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.

Angus Konstam debunks International Talk Like a Pirate Day

The best Men-at-Arms EVER!

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...

The History Carnival

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

Submit blogs for the History Carnival

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.

The Military History Carnival

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...

Seeing the Elephant: Peter Dennis illustrates War Elephants

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....

Military History Carnival - Your last chance to submit an entry

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...

Future releases - back by popular demand

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!

Q & A: Ross Laidlaw

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...

The Osprey Blog competition winner

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...

A Weekend of Heroes

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.

Osprey bloggers make love, not war

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...

Is the F-22 a waste of money?

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...

The Military History Carnival is coming!

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...

Membership sign-up problems

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...

Peter Dennis Paints the Dark Ages

The Osprey Blog Birthday Competition

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...

Happy Birthday to the Osprey Blog!

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...

The Debris of War

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...

Book Review: The Odin Mission by James Holland

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...

Don't Panic!

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...

The Dambusters - a remake

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...

The Home Office responds to the Osprey Blog

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....

Q & A: Peter Dennis

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