35 years and 5 years

35 Years ago the Falklands War was ramping up. 5 years ago I published my first naval novel 'Sea Skimmer' about the war. It was the start of a series of books about the RN and Fleet Air Arm. This book, like all the rest, was based on fact but very much a novel. What I wanted to do was illuminate an aspect of the war that never got any real coverage - the small ship's Flights and their contribution. However, I also wanted to explore another issue which for some reason has never really been covered by the media - why did the Argentinian Exocets fail so badly? The Board of Enquiry into the loss of Sheffield concluded that the warhead failed to detonate and the one that hit Glamorgan would, in my and many other's opinions, have made a much bigger hole if it had gone off. Then there were two fired at Sheffield and one was never accounted for. Not able to find out why - I used this as the main plot of the book. I also researched the Ilsander's contribution and was amazed to find how brave and ingeneous many of them were and managed to dovetail some of their stories in as well. The book has sold extraordinarly well over the years despite a host of literary agents saying it wouldn't. Hopefully it will continue to do so along with the whole ''Jon Hunt series. 

A picture of my old Lynx attached, now saddly decommisioned.