Patrick Mercer, by his own confession, has an obsession with military history.  Having read Modern History at Oxford, he served in the Army for 25 years, mostly in Northern Ireland, Uganda and Bosnia, before leaving to become the defence correspondent for BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme and then an MP.  But, in 2014 he returned to his first love – military history.  

Widely travelled over many of the British Army’s most dramatic battlefields, he is credited with being the first Briton to return to the Crimean battlefields in 1993.  Since then, he has shared his experience and enthusiasm with many people in any number of extraordinary places!

Mercer specialises in the Seven Years’ and Napoleonic Wars, colonial warfare, the Crimean Campaign, the Indian Mutiny, Irish rebellions and the Italian Campaign of 1943 – 45.  He has written extensively on the Crimea and the Italy, had a trilogy of historical novels published as well as a litany of magazine articles.  

With lively views on current affairs, he also writes a regular column for the Yorkshire Post.