Greg Lewis

  • The Black Chair and the Blackbird (Two deaths in WWI)

    Artillery Wood Two military graves lying only feet apart in a Belgian cemetery commemorate the lives of two iconic literary figures: the greatest Welsh and the greatest Irish poets of the Great War. They died on the same day (102 years ago today) in the same battle, but the paths that led them into British…

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  • “Detailed new history” of anti-fascist heroes

    Major new review of Defying Hitler in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, describing it as a “detailed new history of the people dedicated to stopping a fascist madman” which “sums it all up with an inventive weaving of key players and the steps they took to resist a monster.” Perry Munyon writes: “Drawing from the vast Nazi…

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  • “How did you go to the toilet on the battlefield?”

    If you have a tough question, ask a commando:

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  • “That’s the only time I wanted my mum”: the toughness of commando training(video clip)

    Just back from an amazing adventure with my friend, Ted Owens – a veteran of 41 Royal Marine Commando who landed on Sword Beach early on the morning of June 6, 1944. Together with my children, Evan and Caoimhe, I’ve been following Ted’s wartime footsteps for a new television series. The kids have been learning…

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  • Defying Hitler in USA Today & New York Post book lists

    Finally getting a chance to round up some of the reviews and responses to Defying Hitler. USA Today made it one of their Five Books Not To Miss, noting that Publishers Weekly says the book is “an informative counterpoint to accounts of widespread German complicity with the Holocaust.” And the New York Post marked it as one…

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  • Raid on St Nazaire: 75 years ago today

    On March 28, 1942 more than 600 men left Falmouth in Cornwall in a flotilla of three destroyers and 16 smaller boats. The special fleet included HMS Campbeltown which was packed with explosives and was to be used to ram into the gates of the docks of the French port of St Nazaire. St Nazaire was…

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  • Cross of Lorraine crushes the Swastika

    November 11 1943 is, I understand, a well-remembered day for historians of the Resistance in Nazi-Occupied France. It was on that day that the Maquis paraded through the town of Oyonnax in an event designed as a show of strength, a morale boost for the local population. The town was chosen because there was no…

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  • The Story of the “Real McCoy”

    The Story of the “Real McCoy”

      Writing Tom Sharkey’s biography meant we got to “meet” many of the great characters of old-time boxing. Sharkey wasn’t the only wild character among them. One of our favourites was “Kid” McCoy – real name Norman Selby – who faced Sharkey in January 1899 as a boyish-looking 26-year-old and had fast become one of…

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  • ‘Freiheit’. Tribute: the White Rose

    For those fascinated by this week’s tributes to Sophie Scholl, her brother Hans and Christoph Probst (all executed 76 years ago) this is the spot at which their fate was sealed. Sophie threw anti-Nazi leaflets from the balcony under the clock and into the hall below at Munich university. All these years later it is…

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  • Photographing the film-makers

    A big shout-out to photographer Susy Fernandes who is following the production of our short film This Is Not A Poem. I’ve worked on dozens of productions but have never had someone taking photos during the process. Being behind the camera one feels quite anonymous. Susy’s photos are putting the camera operator Paul Roberts and…

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