John Sadler - Military Historian

Douglas John Sadler
BA(Hons), M.Phil., FRHistS FSA (Scotl.)

My main specialism is in military history, I am an accomplished, author, lecturer, battlefield tour guide, heritage professional and historical interpreter.

My co-author Rosie and I have just completed our initial series of three 'Little' books. First is 'Air Aces', second is 'Tommy' and third will be 'Knights and Chivalry'. We're pretty sure there'll be more to follow and we're hoping to start work on an account of the fate of Cromwell's Scottish prisoners after the battle of Dunbar in 1650, England's 'Trail of Tears'. .

One of my current offerings is 'Operation Agreement' a new history of the epic if costly raid on Tobruk in September 1942, a heroic failure with important lessons in the planning and conduct of Special Forces Operations, inspiration for one of the great films of my youth 'Tobruk'. It's published by Osprey, my second for them.

Meanwhile, Rosie and I have unleashed 'Caesar's Greatest Victory - Alesia 52BC' which is published by Casemate, my second outing with them as they published my history of LRDG 'Ghost Patrol' in 2015. Rosie and now have begun the first of a series of 'little books' for them, the first of which is on the subject of air aces. My other co-author Silvie Fisch and I completed our 'Spy of the Century' which has been published by Pen & Sword.

For all those who like Bernard Cornwell style genre fiction, my current offering 'Blood Divide' a novel of Flodden is on the shelves, (Lion Hudson - ISBN 978 1 78264 089 9; e-ISBN 978 1 78264 090 S), loads of gratuitous violence and a fair amount of early Renaissance, sharp end medical gore. I hope you enjoy and remember; I need the money...

My earlier 'Blood Divide' does get a good review from 'War Online': 'So what about the novel? Well, it’s kind of Mills & Boon meets Flashman. The book appears to be almost Shakespearean at first glance. A list of characters and their offerings to the story appears on page one and a hint of a play looms. Now, I’m no fan of Shakespeare; shock horror and to my American cousins reading this nor do I live near London or know the Queen (though I do wear a bowler hat to work). But, I was somehow drawn to this novel and I shall make this clear again; it is fictional. The characters who have a ‘part to play’ in the book are based on genuine historical people who were at or involved some way in the battle. Thomas Howard – Earl of Surrey, George Darcy or King James IV of Scotland (soon to be disembowelled) to name but a few. The story is based on exploits that are, in some cases, though by no means all, fictional. Confusing?

Think EastEnders in the 16th Century with all the grit and drama and violence and bed hopping and you’ll go some way to prepare yourself for this ripping yarn.

It’s well written, thoughtful and Sadler, a veteran of many historical novels, rumbles on with just enough historical background to keep you informed and enthused. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t written by a mere storyteller. Mr Sadler clearly knows his history and uses it to full effect. The descriptive text of uniforms and weaponry are spot on, even the colours and textures are described by an author with wisdom on his subject. Something you don’t always get, even with authors of factual historical books. It rushes headfirst from gory, laddish fight scenes to pre-battle nerves and then abruptly stops into more meandering subjects of verse or politics or genteel pastimes of love and passion. That said I couldn’t put it down and I marvelled at every colourfully written chapter and verse.

You can smell the wet and damp soil, the sweat and the smoke . You can taste the earth and the blood on your lips and feel every fall and stumble. (Do not read this with sharp objects or hardwood furniture around you as you WILL hurt yourself whilst trying to re-enact the fight scenes). Ahem!

This book is one hell of a blistering read so be prepared to have scraped knuckles and bruised ribs as you feel every punch, sword blow and parry. As an experienced military book reviewer I was lucky, I escaped with just a black eye and one smashed light bulb in an over zealous bill hook lunge!'

For next year, however, I'm extending my story telling - I've been doing this for years but now, through Time Bandits I'm formalising the offer, lively stories from Greek Myths to World War Two, tales of mystery and suspense and all with a local interest.

I'm also pleased to announce that Time Bandits will be working with the Net at North Shields and Cedarwood Trust to promote a living history group based primarily at Clifford's Fort. The focus will be on Dark Age thro' Viking. It's open to all, full training and kit provided, and it's not all about sword swinging and axe wielding tho' naturally we'll have plenty of that but we'll have domestic, cookery, medicine and storytelling.

And Time Bandits is recruiting. We're looking for like minded individuals regardless of age, sex, colour etc who have a passion for history and like getting paid to indulge themselves. We cover all periods from Bronze Age to Cold War, across a wide range of locations. We thrive on fresh challenges. Training and kit are provided. If you are interested in historic combat, gunplay, clothing, textiles, medicine, food technology, equestrian, vehicles or craft based skills, then we'd love to meet you.

I do offer a whole range of local and family history courses which I've delivered in libraries, to WI & focus groups, usually an hour to an hour and a half, daytime and evening, rates are £100.00 per session.

We can provide fully costumed re-enactors for corporate hire, weddings and social events, choose your period - Spartans, Romans, Vikings, Knights, Reivers, Roundheads, Redcoats & Tommies, gunfighters, saloon girls and suffragettes!

We're extending our current schools offer to include prehistory. We can now offer workshop sessions of Neolithic and Bronze Ages, together with Iron/Celts. We cover warfare of course but also domestic life, pottery and ceramics, legends and myths, religion and burial practices.