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. It was published in the United States in October 2003 and has since been published in Italy as well. Film rights have also been sold to Miramax Films (The English Patient, Cold Mountain etc). 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 by HarperCollins, and was published in the United States by Miramax Books in February 2006. His second novel, A Pair of Silver Wings, was published in March 2006. In August 2007, he published Heroes: The Greatest Generation and the Second World War.  In March 2008, he published a major new work on the Italian Campaign, Italy’s Sorrow: A Year of War, 1944-1945, which has since been published in the United States and which has also been translated into four other languages.

In May 2008, Bantam Press published The Odin Mission, the first in a series of wartime novels to feature Jack Tanner.  The television rights have been bought by Tiger Aspect.  The second Tanner novel, Darkest Hour, will be published this coming June.

Future projects include a new history of the Battle of Britain, which will be the first account to tell the events of the summer of 1940 from both sides, and the third Jack Tanner novel, set on Crete in May 1941.

In May 2005, he wrote and presented a film about the end of the war in Europe, Victory in Europe for UKTV History, reviewed as the day’s choice by fourteen newspapers and magazines, and which was watched by over a million viewers. He has also taken part in several other historical documentaries.  He has also written for a number of magazines and newspapers, including the Sunday Times, The Times, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman, BBC History Magazine, Mail on Sunday and Sunday Express, and reviews books regularly for the Sunday Telegraph.

James Holland was born in Salisbury, Wiltshire in 1970, and educated King’s School, Bruton, in Somerset, and at St Chad’s College, University of Durham, where he read history. He graduated in 1992. Subsequently, he worked in the PR and Marketing Department of Random House UK Ltd Publishers. In 1996 he left and went to work in the PR department of Reed Publishers and then a year later the PR department of Penguin Books UK Ltd, where he remained for five years. He is a member of the British Commission for Military History and the Guild of Battlefield Guides, and lives in a village near Salisbury with his wife, son and daughter.

If you would like to contact James regarding anything outlined in the website then please feel free to email info@secondworldwarforum.com