Pen and Sword Books, also stylised as Pen & Sword, is a
Britishpublisher which specialises in printing and distributing books in both hardback and softback on
military history,
militaria and other niche subjects, primarily focused on the
United Kingdom. Pen and Sword has over 6,000 titles available in print, and also available as
ebook download.[1] Releasing 500 new titles each year on a variety of subjects,[1] it is part of the Barnsley Chronicle newspaper group.
History
The first books produced by the company were in response to public demand, following a series of articles first published weekly in the Barnsley Chronicle. Dark Peak Aircraft Wrecks told the story of crash sites in the
Dark Peak area of the Peak District National Park, and a further weekly feature on the history of two
Kitchener battalions, known as the
Barnsley Pals, aroused a public interest. Over the years these books have been
reprinted a number of times.
Following on from the success of the Dark Peak and Barnsley Pals books, a number of
local history paperbacks were produced, along with a series of
battlefieldguide books. Battleground Europe proved successful, and as more titles were produced, the company made the decision to launch a
book publishing arm of the group.
When the
Leo Cooper imprint became available, the Barnsley Chronicle purchased it;[1] and the Pen and Sword publishing house was established in
1990.[3] Leo Cooper (1934–2013), the late husband of novelist
Jilly Cooper, had established a reputation for publishing
military history titles. Leo Cooper later retired.[3]
'Classics' – books covering
military operations and stories from many different periods throughout history;
'Cold War 1945–1991' – a series of 19 books (as of December 2020[update]) documenting individual battles around the world during the period from 1945 to 1991, known as the
Cold War;[5]
'FlightCraft' – 18 books (as of December 2020[update]) focussing on significant
military aircraft from the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States of America, and Russia; primarily during the early part of the Cold War;[6]
'History of Terror' – a series of 15 books (as of December 2020[update]) documenting significant episodes of terror from the last two millennium; titles include: Emperors of Rome: The Monsters, detailing the 'bad' Roman emperors from AD 14 to 548[a]; Irgun, about fanatical
Zionists who wish to convert
Palestine and
Transjordan into an independent Jewish state from 1931 to 1948 [b]; Northern Ireland: The Troubles, an intimate documentation of paramilitary operations on the island of
Ireland, and the quest to quash them, in a period known as '
The Troubles' from 1968 to 1998[c]; and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, about the
al Qaeda insurgencies in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and the
Yemen, along with splinter
jihadist groups in West Africa and Europe, from 2007[d];[7]
'Holt's Guidebooks' – overview general information books with maps,
memorials, battleground descriptions and tourist-focused summaries covering varied
military campaigns from
World War I and
World War II;
'Napoleonic Library' – a series of 27 books (as of December 2020[update]) dedicated to the people, equipment and battles from the
Napoleonic Wars;[8]
'Pals' – narratives documenting the lives of friends,
comrades, and pals, who joined together in the same
Battalions to serve King and Country during the
Great War
'ShipCraft' – a series of 30 books (as of December 2020[update]) documenting military battleships, cruisers, destroyers, frigates, sloops, and aircraft carriers; along with the great passenger liners such as
the Titanic and her sisters;[9]
'TankCraft' – 28 books (as of December 2020[update]) documenting in significant detail the tracked warfare vehicles commonly known as
tanks; from Britain, Germany, and America;[10]
'Warships of the Royal Navy' – stories behind famous
Royal Navy (RN)
ships from the
Napoleonic Wars to contemporary military conflicts;
'Images of War' – a major series of 243 books (as of December 2020[update]) of rare photographs from
wartime archives of every possible global military subject, from animals and aircraft to the
Waffen SS and Winston Churchill; including concentration and
death camps, individual battles, squadrons, battalions and divisions, the people, and the equipment they flew, sailed and operated, on the ground, in the air, and at sea; in all theatres of war since World War One; all with detailed captions and references;[11]
Shot in the Tower: the story of the spies executed in the Tower of London during the First World War.[12]