You studied modern history at university. Did that spark your interest in military history?
Much to my chagrin, military history was not seen as ‘proper history’. But I was able to do a module on the three years running up to the war. It included access to Foreign Office telegrams and Cabinet memos. A note from Chamberlain saying, ‘It looks like I’ll have to declare war, doesn’t it?’ and the Foreign Secretary saying, ‘That’s probably the right thing to do.’