Neillands, Robin 1935–2006

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Neillands, Robin 1935–2006

(Debbie Hunter, Robin Hunter, Neil Lands, Robin Hunter Neillands)

PERSONAL:

Born December 3 1935, in Glasgow, Scotland; died January 30 2006; married; wife's name Patsy (marriage ended); married; second wife's name Judith; children: (first marriage) two. Education: Reading University, B.A., M.A.

CAREER:

Historian, journalist, and author. Pan Books, salesman and export manager; Spur Books, founder. Military service: Formerly in the Royal Marines Commandos, beginning 1953.

MEMBER:

Outdoor Writers Guild (founder), British Guild of Travel Writers (chair, 1991-93), British Commission for Military History.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Canadian Travel Writer of the Year, 1995.

WRITINGS:

Exporting: A Basic Guide to Selling Abroad, Pan Books (London, England), 1969.

The Road to Compostela, Moorland (Ashbourne, England), 1985.

By Sea and Land: The Royal Marines Commandos, a History, 1942-1982 Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, England), 1987, reprinted as By Sea and Land: The Story of the Royal Marines Commandos, Pen & Sword Military Classics (Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England), 2004.

Walking through France: From the Channel to the Camargue, Collins (London, England), 1988.

Cycle Touring through France, Oxford Illustrated (Sparkford, England), 1989.

The Raiders, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, England), 1989.

Wining and Dining in France, Ashford, Buchan & Enright (Southampton, England), 1990.

The Hundred Years' War, Routledge (New York, NY), 1990.

The Desert Rats: 7th Armoured Division, 1940-1945, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, England), 1991.

Walking through Spain: From Santander to the Mediterranean, Macdonald/Queen Anne Press (London, England), 1991.

(With Konrad Bartelski) Learn to Ski in a Weekend, Dorling Kindersley (London, England), 1991.

(With Konrad Bartelski) Learn Downhill Skiing in a Weekend, Knopf (New York, NY), 1992.

The Wars of the Roses, Cassell (London, England), 1992.

Walking through Ireland, Little, Brown (London, England), 1993.

Walking through Scotland: From the Border to Cape Wrath, Little, Brown (London, England), 1993.

(With Roderick De Normann) D-Day, 1944: Voices from Normandy, Motorbooks International (Osceola, WI), 1994.

Wellington and Napoleon: Clash of Arms, 1807-1815, John Murray (London, England), 1994.

Impromptu Weekends in the UK: For When You Just Want to Get Up and Go, illustrated by Jack Pennington, Good Books (Whitely, England), 1994.

The Martini Brut Guide to Romantic Weekends, Good Books (Melksham, England), 1995.

The Conquest of the Reich: D-Day to VE Day—A Soldier's Story, New York University Press (New York, NY), 1995.

The Dervish Wars: Gordon and Kitchener in the Sudan, 1880-1898, Murray (London, England), 1996.

A Fighting Retreat: The British Empire, 1947-1997, Hodder & Stoughton (London, England), 1996.

In the Combat Zone: Special Forces since 1945, New York University Press (New York, NY), 1998.

Enchanted Ireland, Reader's Digest (London, England), 2000.

(With John Murray) The Bomber War: Arthur Harris and the Allied Bomber Offensive 1939-1945, Overlook Press (Woodstock, NY), 2001.

The Bomber War: The Allied Air Offensive against Nazi Germany, Overlook Press (Woodstock, NY), 2001.

Attrition: The Great War on the Western Front, 1916, Robson (London, England), 2001.

The Battle of Normandy, 1944, Cassell (London, England), 2003.

Winston Churchill: Statesman of the Century, Open Road (Cold Spring Harbor, NY), 2003.

Eighth Army: The Triumphant Desert Army that Held the Axis at Bay from North Africa to the Alps, 1939-1945, Overlook Press (New York, NY), 2004, published as Eighth Army: From the Western Desert to the Alps, 1939-1945, John Murray (London, England), 2004.

The Travelling Historian's Guide to France, Robson Press, 2004.

Grant, Cold Spring Press (Cold Spring Harbor, NY), 2005.

The Old Contemptibles: The British Expeditionary Force, 1914, John Murray (London, England), 2005.

The Battle for the Rhine, 1944, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, England), 2005, published as The Battle for the Rhine: The Battle of the Bulge and the Ardennes Campaign, 1944, Overlook Press (Woodstock, NY), 2007.

The Dieppe Raid: The Story of the Disastrous 1942 Expedition, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 2005.

Churchill, Cold Spring Press (Cold Spring Harbor, NY), 2005.

Also published works as Rob Hunter, Neil Lands, and Debbie Hunter.

AS ROBIN HUNTER

The Fourth Angel (novel), 1984, Arbor House (New York, NY), 1986.

True Stories of the SAS: The Special Air Service, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, England), 1985, revised and updated edition, Virgin (London, England), 1995.

Quarry's Contract (novel), William Morrow (New York, NY), 1989.

The London Connection (novel), William Morrow (New York, NY), 1990.

True Stories of the SAS: A History of Canoe Raiding and Underwater Warfare, Virgin (London, England), 1999.

SIDELIGHTS:

Robin Neillands was a well-known travel author, historian, lecturer, and journalist who lived in England. His writings focused on British history, covering such disparate periods as the Hundred Years' War and the decline of the British Empire in the twentieth century. His military service as a Royal Marines commando allowed him special insight and interest in the details of war. To this end he wrote books on the Desert Rats of World War II, the effects of allied bombing in Germany, and the unique circumstances and challenges faced by special force units such as the Green Berets and the British SAS.

As a travel writer Neillands wrote about Ireland, Spain, and France. He primarily made his name as a historian, however. Neillands authored two titles dealing with early British history, The Hundred Years' War and The Wars of the Roses. The Hundred Years' War, aimed at general readers, begins with the union of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine and ends with the onset of the Tudor dynasty. Spectator contributor Eric Christiansen observed that Neillands "has a gift of narrative, if not of accuracy," and went on to write that the book serves as "a colourful guide to where things happened, if not always why, or whether." The Wars of the Roses continues the story with an account of the struggle for the English throne between the Lancaster and York factions. Booklist contributor Roland Green considered The Wars of the Roses a "model of its kind," praising its research, depth, and narrative skill.

Neillands wrote extensively and knowledgeably about World War II. D-Day, 1944: Voices from Normandy, written with Roderick De Normann, gathers accounts from a wide array of individuals involved in the military campaign. A reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement appreciated the way the book integrates these accounts into a smooth narrative, and concluded that, as an intimate view of events, the book "is unlikely to be bettered."

The Conquest of the Reich: D-Day to VE Day—A Soldier's Story traces the history of the last five months of World War II on the European front. Neillands gathered his material from hundreds of letters, interviews, and eyewitness accounts to give a vivid account of the hard last months of the war. The book includes stories of the Battle of the Bulge, the political maneuvering of Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin, plus the liberation of the concentration camps. The Desert Rats: 7th Armoured Division, 1940-1945 presents the story of the fighting unit that won Britain's first land victory in World War II.

Neillands's The Bomber War: The Allied Air Offensive against Nazi Germany examines the effectiveness and consequences of the allies' use of strategic bombing during World War II. Since the end of that war there has been an ongoing controversy about the success and morality of this type of tactic. The author took the position that it was important to strike at the Nazi's ability to conduct war; nevertheless, the strategy resulted in civilian loss of life and immense cultural destruction. Neillands explored the subject further in The Bomber War: Arthur Harris and the Allied Bomber Offensive, 1939-1945. Sir Arthur Harris led the bomb command during the most difficult days of World War II and held to the idea that an important element of the defeat of Germany was strategic bombing. Churchill praised him as a man who would not falter during a difficult job. Since then, he has been steadily vilified in the press and elsewhere. Booklist critic Roland Green appreciated the book as "a cogent counterargument to trendy demonizations of the strategic air war and its participants."

In his 1996 book, A Fighting Retreat: The British Empire, 1947-1997, Neillands details the final decades of the British Empire and the role the United States played in Britain's decolonization efforts. He also discusses Great Britain and its troubles in Northern Ireland. Max Beloff commented in the History Today that A Fighting Retreat "deserves a wide readership … in deference to many of the heroisms active and passive that he records." A former Royal Commando, Neillands uses his In the Combat Zone: Special Forces since 1945 to tell the story of various special units and their role in trouble spots since the end of World War II. "As with other books by Neillands, I found this one interesting, well-written, and easy to read," remarked Infantry magazine contributor Michael F. Dilley.

The Battle of Normandy, 1944 focuses on the largest seaborne invasion in history, which took place in June, July, and August of 1944. It involved nearly three million troops, who crossed the English Channel from England to land on the beaches of Normandy, France. In particular, the author writes a rebuttal to some historians who have fostered the idea that the battle would have been more successful if the British had taken a more active role. "This myth receives a witty and efficient rebuttal in Robin Neillands's book," according to Nicholas Fearn in the New Statesman. A Contemporary Review contributor attested: "This is a balanced history that does justice to the men involved in Normandy, whatever their uniform."

Neillands writes of an immensely large and international fighting force in Eighth Army: The Triumphant Desert Army that Held the Axis at Bay from North Africa to the Alps, 1939-1945. Published in England as Eighth Army: From the Western Desert to the Alps, 1939-1945, the book chronicles the Eighth Army's victories, such as its victory over the German forces in Africa headed by the famed Erwin Rommel; it also discusses the force's various commanders, which included Bernard Montgomery. A Kirkus Reviews contributor referred to Eighth Army as "a spirited biography of one of the most storied units in British military history." Gilbert Taylor, writing in Booklist, noted: "The Eighth's story and the capacities of its generals emerge clearly in Neillands' competent presentation."

Despite his primary focus on World War II in his later writings, the author continued to write travel books, albeit with a military focus. In The Travelling Historian's Guide to France, for instance, Niellands provides a tour of military sites in France related to the Hundred Years' War, World War I, and World War II. In addition to providing current tour guide information, each chapter on a war site includes a brief history of the site's significance. Library Journal contributor Linda M. Kaufmann called The Travelling Historian's Guide to France "highly readable and entertaining."

The author focuses on the first army that the British sent to France in World War I in his The Old Contemptibles: The British Expeditionary Force, 1914. Essentially destroyed by the German forces, the force eventually rebounded and played a key role in stopping the German advance. A Contemporary Review contributor wrote that the author "has given another valuable contribution to our understanding of the Great War."

The Battle for the Rhine: The Battle of the Bulge and the Ardennes Campaign, 1944, published in England as The Battle for the Rhine, 1944, details the Allied pursuit of the German armies as they retreated back to Germany from Normandy. The author focuses primarily on ground tactics and strategy and the various commanders who played an important role in creating and carrying out the plans, including General Dwight D. Eisenhower and his three primarily subordinate generals: George S. Patton, Omar N. Bradley, and Bernard L. Montgomery. "Essential for subject collections," wrote Edwin B. Burgess in the Library Journal. A Kirkus Reviews contributor called the book "a clear-eyed critique … of the Allied command and its decisions and indecisions in the last half of 1944."

In The Dieppe Raid: The Story of the Disastrous 1942 Expedition Neillands writes of an Allied amphibious strike in which more than two-thirds of an invading force of six-thousand-plus men were killed, wounded, or captured. Neillands relates the story with a focus on the how the operation came about, and he examines the effort to place blame following its disastrous outcome. James V. Koch, writing on the H-German Web site, noted that the author "tells this story of the Dieppe Raid with considerable skill, presenting a view of the operation within the context of the overall war mixed with judiciously chosen individual experiences and anecdotes." Esprit de Corps contributor Darcy Knoll commented: "Neillands' book is very well written,"adding that the author "offers an excellent revisionist account of the raid, which does not hold back from criticizing contemporary notions that this disaster was not in vain."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Asian Affairs, February 1997, Peter Clark, review of The Dervish Wars: Gordon and Kitchener in the Sudan, 1880-1898, p. 83.

Booklist, August, 1993, Roland Green, review of The Wars of the Roses, p. 2034; March 15, 1995, George Cohen, review of The Conquest of the Reich: D-Day to VE Day—A Soldier's Story, p. 1306; July, 2001, Roland Green, review of The Bomber War: The Allied Air Offensive against Nazi Germany, p. 1975; April 15, 2004, Gilbert Taylor, review of Eighth Army: The Triumphant Desert Army that Held the Axis from North Africa to the Alps, 1939-45, p. 1420.

Bookwatch, August, 2005, review of The Travelling Historian's Guide to France.

British Heritage, July, 2004, Alfred A.Z. Siha, review of Eighth Army, p. 58.

Contemporary Review, April, 1997, review of A Fighting Retreat: The British Empire, 1947-1997, p. 224; June, 2001, George Evans, review of The Bomber War: Arthur Harris and the Allied Bomber Offensive, 1939-1945, p. 374; March, 2003, review of The Battle of Normandy, 1944, p. 191; August, 2004, Robert S. Redmond, "A History of the Eighth Army," p. 117; January, 2005, review of The Old Contemptibles: The British Expeditionary Force, 1914, p. 63.

Esprit de Corps, March 1998, review of In the Combat Zone: Special Forces since 1945, p. 25; October, 2005, Darcy Knoll, review of The Dieppe Raid: The Story of the Disastrous 1942 Expedition, p. 46.

History: Review of New Books, summer, 2004, William E. Watson, review of Eighth Army, p. 155.

History Today, November, 1991, Richard Stoneman, review of The Hundred Years' War, p. 58; June, 1997, Max Beloff, review of A Fighting Retreat, p. 53.

Humanities and Social Sciences Online, January, 2005, James V. Koch, review of The Dieppe Raid, p. 63.

Infantry, May-August, 2000, Michael F. Dilley, review of In the Combat Zone, p. 51.

Journal of Military History, July, 2003, Raymond Callahan, review of The Battle of Normandy, 1944, pp. 978-980; July, 2005, Mike Bechthold, review of Eighth Army, p. 864.

Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2004, review of Eighth Army, p. 213; January 15, 2007, review of The Battle for the Rhine, 1944, p. 65.

Library Journal, October 15, 1997, Susan A. Stussy, review of A Fighting Retreat, p. 75; July, 2001, Ed Goedeken, review of The Bomber War: The Allied Air Offensive against Nazi Germany, p. 108; June 1, 2004, Edward Metz, review of Eighth Army, p. 152; November 15, 2004, Linda M. Kaufmann, review of The Travelling Historian's Guide to France, p. 78; February 1, 2007, Edwin B. Burgess, review of The Battle for the Rhine, p. 85.

London Review of Books, May 26, 1994, John Bayley, review of D-Day, 1944: Voices from Normandy, p. 3.

Medium Aevum, spring, 1992, review of The Hundred Years' War, pp. 181-182.

New Statesman, April 28, 1995, Ross Davies, review of The Conquest of the Reich, p. 44; December 20, 1996, Denis Judd, review of A Fighting Retreat, p. 119; February 26, 2001, Bronwen Maddox, review of The Bomber War, p. 56; February 3, 2003, Nicholas Fearn, review of The Battle of Normandy, 1944, p. 50.

Observer (London, England), March 31, 1991, review of The Desert Rats: 7th Armoured Division, 1940-1945, p. 55.

Publishers Weekly, February 27, 1995, review of The Conquest of the Reich, p. 93.

Reference & Research Book News, May, 1994, review of The Wars of the Roses, p. 6; August, 2006, review of The Dieppe Raid.

Spectator, October 6, 1990, Eric Christiansen, review of The Hundred Years' War, p. 26.

Times Educational Supplement, January 27, 1989, review of Walking through France: From the Channel to the Camargue, p. B22; May 10, 1991, Ralph Griffiths, review of The Hundred Years' War, p. 22.

Times Literary Supplement, May 17, 1991, John Keegan, The Desert Rats, p.11; August 20, 1993, review of D-Day, 1944, p. 28; November 11, 1994, "Wellington and Napoleon: Clash of Arms," p. 28; August 2, 1996, Robert Carver, review of The Dervish Wars, p. 31; April 12, 2001, Mark Connelly, review of The Bomber War, p. 31; June 18, 2004, Adam I.P. Smith, review of Grant, p. 36; September 24, 2004, Craig Gibson, review of The Old Contemptibles, p. 26.

World War II, September, 2007, Dennis Showalter, review of The Battle for the Rhine, p. 69.