Osprey Publishing is an illustrated military history publisher, and we see our blog as a place for interested people to come together and talk military history – about anything and everything to do with it.http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/While by no means an expert on the American Civil War, my interest in the period has been piqued recently by a variety of sources, notably Gettysburg, a film I am ashamed to say I hadn't seen until relatively recently (though I at least watched it and Gods and Generals in the right order), and am currently devouring as much as I can on the subject from the first volume of Shelby Foote's 3-volume narrative to Bernard Cornwell's Starbuck Chronicles. One of the pleasures of working in publishing are the occasional advances or preview copies of titles which cross my desk (usually by way of the Marketing staff, who still don't seem to have realised that it would be easier to just give me the freebies to start with, saving themselves from a lot of hassling). So when Cleburne from Rampart Press arrived, I was pretty chuffed, to say the least.http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/Cleburne_Graphic_Novel/The folks at HMGS (Historical Miniature Gaming Society) Midwest have got a fantastic little journal called (what else?) Historical Miniature Gamer. In a series of recent articles Michael Koznarsky shows readers how to build a Border Reiver Tower House, using artwork from Fortress 46 (Castles and Tower Houses of the Scottish Clans 1450-1650).http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/i_think_ill_build_a_model_of_that/There’s a story in the Associated Press today about an enterprising pilot and WWII aviation aficionado who has undertaken a truly monumental task. Mark Noah of Florida is using the proceeds from his historic aviation business to fund efforts to identify the remains of 542 sailors and marines who lost their lives in WWIIs bloody battle of Tawara. http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/honoring_the_dead/I've never really liked the cavalry much. Give me a solid English Redcoat or a dashing Voltigeur any day of the week. The cavalry were, in my mind better at looting helpless baggage trains, sabring fleeing, broken enemy (broken by whom I ask you?) and charging into the enemy guns on exhausted horses when they should be sensibly retiring. And the uniforms were, even by Napoleonic standards quite ridiculous.http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/napoleonic_cavalry/I spent last week in Osprey's UK office and the thought stuck me that there should be some sort scholarship program--perhaps sponsored and paid for by the National Trust--to afford a lucky winner or two the opportunity to spend a week among the Osprey team at HQ.http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/Visiting_oxford/Here at the Osprey UK offices, it is just another Thursday filled with tanks, muskets, and cavalry charges. But somewhere over the ocean I know my family is just rising to a tough day of food, football, and more food. It is Thanksgiving Day, a holiday wonderful for its simplicity. It is also a day that American’s tend to think a lot about their Armed Forces, about the soldiers, sailors, and airmen who are far from home.http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/Gobble_Gobble/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.http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/the_men_at_arms_celebration_auction/The rapidly unfolding events off the horn of Africa has once again brought piracy back into the news. For decades pirates off the coast of Somalia have been wreaking havoc, but over the last twelve months they have increased the frequency and ambition of their attacks, culminating in the hijacking of one of the biggest man made machines, the Sirius Star. http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/somali_pirates_oil_tankers_and_ak47s/Here at Osprey HQ we have just had John, our US Sales and Marketing Director, over for a week. This generally means a chance for us not only to have a catch-up but also an opportunity to brainstorm future titles and plan our publishing programme for the next couple of years. As you know Osprey is 40 years young this year and this August we published our 450th Men-at-Arms title. In honour of these two milestones I thought I would ask you, our readers, to join in our brainstorming session and help us decide what Men-at-Arms titles you would like to see published.http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/the_next_450_men_at_arms_titles/Last Friday Osprey were asked by More 4 news to comment on a piece they were running on why, despite it receding from living memory, was World War II more popular than ever, in books, films, TV and games?http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/why_is_the_second_world_war_still_popular/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.http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/the_january_june_2009_catalogue_is_now_available_t/A priest and a doctor fight to save their city. While researching another project, I came across a couple of interesting notes concerning the burning of Atlanta during the American Civil War, or rather, the parts of the city that didn’t burn. The Union army captured the city of Atlanta in 1864, and General Sherman decided to make a statement of warning to the rest of the confederacy by burning the city down. However two men, a doctor and a priest, conspired to make sure that at least some parts of the city were saved.http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/atlanta_sherman_didnt_burn_it_all/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.http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/the_men_at_arms_celebration_is_in_the_post/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.http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/website_problems/Squadron Leader Tony Iveson, who flew with the ‘Dambusters’ 617 Squadron made an emotional return to the skies last week as part of a campaign drive to raise funds for a national monument in central London to pay respects to Bomber Command. Together with Flight Lieutenant Mike Leckey, he took the controls of PA 474 ‘City of Lincoln’ Lancaster. Incredibly the Squadron Leader flew more than 20 missions over enemy territory with 617 Squadron and had previously fought in the Battle of Britain as a Spitfire pilot for 616 Squadron.http://www.ospreypublishing.com/blog/dambuster_flies_again/