Richard Collier (1924–1996) was an English journalist, military historian and novelist.
Life
Born in
Croydon, Collier joined the
RAF in 1942 and was War Associate Editor of
Lord Mountbatten's magazine Phoenix: An Allied Magazine for All Allied Forces in South East Asia. After the war, he joined the Daily Mail as a feature writer.[1]
For his 1971 biography of
Mussolini, Collier employed three administrative assistants to coordinate the work of 30 research assistants and eight translators. The book's New York Times reviewer found the book uncritical but easy to read and entertaining.[2]
Collier's 1974 The Plague of the Spanish Lady was the first book-length treatment of the
Spanish flu pandemic of 1918–19.[3] For the book Collier advertised around the world, asking for memories and eye-witness accounts. The correspondence which he collected is now held by the
Imperial War Museum.[4]
Works
Novels
Beautiful Friend, 1947
Non-fiction
Ten Thousand Eyes: The Amazing Story of the Spy Network That Cracked Hitler's Atlantic Wall Before D-Day, 1958
The City that Would Not Die: The Bombing of London, May 10–11, 1941, 1959
A House Called Memory, 1960
The Sands of Dunkirk, 1961
The Great Indian Mutiny: A Dramatic Account of the Sepoy Rebellion, 1963
The General Next to God: The story of William Booth and the Salvation Army, 1965
Eagle Day: The Battle of Britain, August 6-September 15, 1940, 1966
The River that God Forgot: The Story of the Amazon Rubber Boom, 1968
Duce!: The Rise and Fall of Benito Mussolini, 1971
The Plague of the Spanish Lady: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919, 1974
The War in the Desert, 1977
Bridge Across the Sky: The Berlin Blockade and Airlift, 1948-1949, 1978