When I was a child I had something called Perthes' Disease which meant I was on crutches, so I was bullied at school and all that sort of stuff.

If you smash a city when you're trying to capture it, you actually end up providing the perfect terrain for the defenders while blocking the access for your own armoured vehicles.

The vital thing for me is to integrate the history from above with the history from below because only in that way can you show the true consequences of the decisions of Hitler or Stalin or whomever on the ordinary civilians caught up in the battle.

The British bombing of Caen beginning on D-Day in particular was stupid, counter-productive and above all very close to a war crime.

It takes me three or four years to research and write each book and the individual stories stay with you for a long time afterwards.

I just love the days when you come out of the archives with half a dozen excellent descriptions or poignant accounts of personal experiences.

When I was a child I had something called Perthes' Disease which meant I was on crutches, so I was bullied at school and all that sort of stuff.