James Holland is an internationally acclaimed, best-selling and award-winning historian, writer, and broadcaster. James is a prolific author. He has written ten novels, five of which feature his fictional hero, Jack Tanner, as well as eighteen works of non-fiction and twelve illustrated Ladybird Experts covering the entire Second World War. All his non-fiction books have made the Sunday Times best-seller lists, and has covered a wide range of subjects from the war, from The Battle of Britain, Big Week and Dam Busters covering aspects of the air war, to four volumes covering the entire Italian campaign from the invasion of Sicily to the conclusion in Northern Italy in May 1945. He has also written an acclaimed and best-selling account of D-Day and the Normandy campaign, Normandy ’44, and an award-winning history of an individual tank unit, the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry, which also led to an exhibition of the regiment at the National Army Museum in London, curated by James. Most recently, he co-wrote with Al Murray another best-selling and highly acclaimed book, Victory ’45.
James and Al Murray also collaborate on the hugely successful and internationally renowned podcast, WW2: We Have Ways of Making You Talk, which is fast-approaching 1,000 episodes and is the most listened-to podcast about the Second World War in the world. Al and James also host WW2 Headquarters on YouTube and on their own website, which features the series, WW2: Walking the Ground. In addition, James has worked on over 200 hours of television, including Nazi Megastructures, shown in more than 170 territories, and the Bafta-nominated BBC film, The Battle of Britain.
James is a contributor to Substack, a research fellow at St Andrew’s University and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He is also the Co-Founder and Creative Director of the annual Chalke History Festival in the UK and co-host of the annual We Have Ways Fest. He is also the winner of the Scott-Farnie Medal from the Air League for his BBC series, Cold War, Hot Jets, and the Military History Book Awards Book of the Year for The Savage Storm.