Military campaigns book series in reading order

Charles Whiting (18 December 1926 to 24 July 2007) was a British writer and military historian credited with some 350 fiction and non-fiction books. Besides the Whiting name, the pseudonyms used include Duncan Harding, Ian Harding, John Kerrigan, Leo Kessler, Klaus Konrad, K.N. Kostov and Duncan Stirling. Subjects include the Second World War, the Battle of the Ardennes, military campaigns, biography and the secret service. The catalogue holds 152 books under the Whiting name, starting with The Frat Wagon (1954), and includes Decision at St. Vith, Patton, Bradley and Skorzeny. Series include T-Force, Assault Troop, Stuka Squadron, Special Boat Squadron and Spymaster.

Leo Kessler wrote war fiction set in World War II, with Germany, Russia, Africa and military campaigns among the catalogued subjects. The 81 books begin in 1974 with SS Panzer Battalion, Claws of Steel and Death's Head. Kessler's series include SS Wotan, Stormtroop Edelweiss, Otto Stahl, Black Cossacks, Submarine and Rommel. From Tyranny to Freedom (2008) is the last listed title, and Eric Taylor is co-credited on 1 book.

Max Hastings

37 books• 1 series

Max Hastings is a British journalist and military historian, born in 1945, who reported abroad for the BBC, served as editor-in-chief of The Daily Telegraph and edited the Evening Standard. Histories of war make up most of the writing: Bomber Command (1979), Victory in Europe (1985), Armageddon (2004) and Sword Beach: D-Day Baptism by Fire (2025). Thirty-three books are catalogued from America 1968 (1969) onward. Hastings also writes a column for Bloomberg Opinion and contributes to The Times and The Sunday Times.

Douglas Reeman wrote naval fiction under his own name and as Alexander Kent. Richard Bolitho heads one series and the Blackwood Family books form a second. The catalogue lists 69 titles published between 1958 and 2011, from A Prayer for the Ship (1958) to In the King's Name (2011). Sea stories, the Royal Navy, the Second World War and the Napoleonic wars run through the subjects. The books are long, at a median 320 pages, and output peaked in the 1970s.

Stephen E. Ambrose

36 books• 4 series

Stephen Edward Ambrose, January 10, 1936 to October 13, 2002, was an American historian whose books concentrate on the Second World War, the American West, and the presidencies of Dwight D. Eisenhower and Richard Nixon. Ambrose taught history from 1960 to 1995, joined the University of New Orleans in 1971 and became Boyd Professor of History there in 1989. Ambrose founded the Eisenhower Center at that university and was a co-founder of the National D-Day Museum, since renamed the National World War II Museum. The catalogue holds 36 books from Halleck (1962) to This Vast Land (2003), with Nixon and Eisenhower recorded as multi-volume series.

Rick Atkinson

11 books• 2 series

Military history is Rick Atkinson's subject, researched at book length and published in trilogies. The Liberation Trilogy covers the Second World War in An Army at Dawn (2002), The Day of Battle (2007) and The Guns at Last Light (2013); the Revolution Trilogy turns to the American War of Independence and reaches The Fate of the Day in 2025. Earlier titles include The Long Gray Line (1989) and Crusade, on the Persian Gulf War. Atkinson's books are long, at a median of 644 pages.

Jim Eldridge, born November 1944, is an English screenwriter for radio, film and television with hundreds of scripts broadcast over a career of more than 30 years. Radio shows created by Eldridge include King Street Junior, The Demon Headmaster, Shut UP and Parsley Sidings, and television creations include Powers, Time of My Life and Uncle Jack. The catalogue holds 117 books from Down Payment On Death (1972) to The Museum Detectives' Christmas Mystery (2026), with Murder at the Vatican due in 2027. Bogeys, Boils And Bellybuttons (1986), Bad Boyes (1987) and Uncle Jack and Operation Green (1990) are early titles, and series include Museum Mysteries, Hotel Mysteries, Cathedral Mysteries, DCI Paul Stark, SAS and Disgusting Dave.

Adrian Goldsworthy

32 books• 6 series

Adrian Goldsworthy is a British historian and novelist, born in 1969, who specialises in the history of ancient Rome. The catalogue holds 32 books from The Roman Army At War (1996) to Athens and Sparta (2026). Titles include The Punic Wars (2000), Caesar's Civil War (2002), Caesar (2006) and Cannae (2007). Series listed for Goldsworthy are Napoleonic Wars, Vindolanda and City Of Victory, and subjects cover the Roman army, the Punic Wars and the Peninsular War of 1807 to 1814.

Matthew Hervey, an officer of the fictional British 6th Light Dragoons, carries Allan Mallinson's fiction from the late Napoleonic Wars into colonial campaigns in India, North America and South Africa. A Close Run Thing (1999) opens the sequence, followed by The Nizam's Daughters (2000), A Regimental Affair (2001), A Call to Arms (2002), The Sabre's Edge (2003) and Company of Spears (2006). Mallinson, born in 1949, is an English author and a retired British Army brigadier, and also writes military history, reaching the First World War. The catalogue holds 19 books through 2020, at a median 448 pages.

Christopher Nicole was a British novelist, born on 7 December 1930 and died on 2 September 2017, who published more than 200 novels and non-fiction books from 1957 onward. Nicole wrote under many pseudonyms, among them Andrew York, Peter Grange, Caroline Gray, Alan Savage and Leslie Arlen, and used Max Marlow for books co-written with his wife Diana Bachmann. The catalogue here lists 213 titles between 1961 and 2017, opening with Shadows in the Jungle. Historical sagas, wartime suspense and espionage dominate, through series such as Jonas Wilde: Eliminator, the Russian Saga and the Anna Fehrbach novels.

Peter FitzSimons

45 books

Peter FitzSimons is an Australian author, journalist and broadcaster, born in 1961, who played rugby union for Australia and chaired the Australian Republic Movement from 2015 to 2022. Biography and Australian military history make up most of his 45 catalogued books, which begin with Basking in Beirut (1991) and reach The Legend of Albert Jacka (2025). Early titles cover rugby, including Nick Farr-Jones, The Rugby War and John Eales, while later work turns to mutiny, the First World War and Australian campaigns. FitzSimons writes long: a median of 517 pages.

Giles Milton

24 books

Narrative history is the specialty of Giles Milton, a British writer and journalist born on 15 January 1966 and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Milton also writes historical fiction and history books for children. Nathaniel's Nutmeg (1999) and Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare are his best known works. His 24 catalogued books reach The Stalin Affair (2024), and he writes and narrates the Ministry of Secrets podcast.

John C. McManus writes military history. Recorded subjects centre on the United States Army and the Second World War, taking in military campaigns, Normandy, military life and the history of the American armed forces. Sixteen books span 1998 to 2023, from The Deadly Brotherhood (1998) to To the End of the Earth (2023). The books are long, at a median of 464 pages across the 13 measured. Titles include The Americans at D-Day (2004), Alamo in the Ardennes (2007), Grunts (2010) and September Hope (2012).

John J. Gobbell writes action and war thrillers, and the Todd Ingram series is catalogued under the Gobbell name. Subject headings include World War, 1939-1945, American and Japanese naval operations, espionage and historical fiction. The 11 catalogued books run from The Brutus Lie (1991) to Across the Black Water (2026). For the John J. Gobbell books in order, The Last Lieutenant (1995), A Code For Tomorrow (1999) and When Duty Whispers Low (2002) follow the first title.