Giles Milton @GilesMilton1 Twitter profile | Pikagi

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Giles Milton

@GilesMilton1

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Writer and historian. THE STALIN AFFAIR to be published May 2024. Writer/narrator of Ministry of Secrets podcast. London Library trustee. FRHistS.

London

https://t.co/ufKaObSlG9

Joined December 2010

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@GilesMilton1

Giles Milton

2 months

My new book, THE STALIN AFFAIR, will be published on 9 May (UK) and 3 September (USA). Stalin. Churchill. Roosevelt. The remarkable story of the Anglo-American team who worked in the Kremlin throughout WW2. @johnmurrays @HenryHolt @rcwlitagency @casarottoramsay

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@GilesMilton1

Giles Milton

7 months

To think... it began life as a sapling during the reign of King George I. Chopped down by a moron in the reign of King Charles III. #SycamoreGap

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1 month

This morning I rediscovered (in the back of a cupboard) our family collection of newspapers. It was started by my great-grandfather during the Boer War. There are hundreds, but I thought I'd share some of the more interesting ones. 1/13

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5 months

Yesterday I was a granted a rare tour of the treasures in the strongroom-vaults of the National Archives @UkNatArchives Here's what I saw... 1/7

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Giles Milton

3 years

Just stumbled across this 1948 tribute to the women of SOE in the @TheLondonLib

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Giles Milton

2 months

An 1882 guide to English found on the shelves of the French gîte where I’m staying. Helpful phrases include: “The duke’s park is large” “I hate these rogues” “Wealth shall not save men from death”

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Giles Milton

3 years

Street sign in Burgundy.

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27 days

Since everyone's talking about #Shogun , a quick thread about the fictional John Blackthorne - who was based on a real character. He was called William Adams, hence the title of my book, Samurai William... 1/12

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3 years

The greatest ever April Fools Day hoax... In 1957, BBC Panorama broadcast their famous three-minute report on the annual spaghetti harvest in Italy. With a voice-over by Richard Dimbleby, it fooled millions.

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2 years

Just re-stumbled across the wonderful line delivered by SOE operative, Nancy Wake, after landing (by parachute) into a tree. French resistance leader: "I hope that all the trees in France bear such beautiful fruit this year" Nancy Wake: "Don't give me that French shit."

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Giles Milton

1 year

The curious things you stumble across while researching a book. This is Andras Toma, the last WW2 prisoner-of-war to be released by Russia... in the year 2000! He was discovered by chance in a remote psychiatric hospital.

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2 years

From a friend in Moscow - well worth reading, I think, for the opinion on the streets. [translated] "There are few reasons to find solace in such dreadful times as these, but I think I have found at least one: Russians are not fooled. "I arrived last Tuesday in Moscow... 1/7

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Giles Milton

3 years

Fake History – a short thread. One of the perennially best-selling books about D-Day is called D-Day Through German Eyes, by Holger Eckhertz. It contains graphic accounts from Germans in the frontline of battle. 1/10

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3 years

Love this account of a 1942 bath time meeting with Churchill, from one of his aides. "Under his skimpy vest, penis and a pair of crinkled, creamy buttocks protruded." And, to help his reader imagine the scene, he supplied a picture.

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2 years

What shorts! What a tattoo! Admiral Sir Henry Harwood, knight commander and hero of the Battle of the River Plate.

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Giles Milton

3 years

#ForgottenPeople Eliane Plewman - 'Agent Dean' - was parachuted into France in Aug 1943. A skilled and courageous guerrilla, she destroyed 30 locomotives in one spectacular sabotage operation. Interrogated & executed at Dachau, she deserves wider recognition as a WW2 heroine.

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Giles Milton

4 years

BREAKING NEWS: In Boris Johnson’s constituency, Lord Buckethead has urged his supporters put Monster Raving Loony loyalties aside and vote tactically, because “some things are more important than electing an intergalactic space lord to parliament”.

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Giles Milton

1 month

And one of my favourites. "Rocks Bounce Like Rubber" I've sporadically added to the collection over the years - there's everything from Charles and Diana's wedding to the Falklands War. The collection spans 1809-the present day. 13/13

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10 months

In the early morning, on this very day 1942, John Colville woke Churchill at Chequers with the best possible news. Overnight, Nazi Germany had invaded the Soviet Union. Churchill immediately knew that the war - at long last - was winnable.

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Giles Milton

5 months

Nelson's last diary entry before the Battle of Trafalgar. "There is sight of the combined fleet of France and Spain, distant about ten miles" He wrote this in a hastily scrawled codicil to his will. @thehistoryguy 2/7

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Giles Milton

3 years

#ForgottenPeople Mikhail Devyatyaev was a Soviet fighter pilot who survived one of the most outlandish POW escapes of WW2. Captured by the Germans and interred in Sachsenhausen, he was later transferred to the labour camp at Peenemünde, site of the Nazi rocket program. 1/3

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Giles Milton

5 months

A 15/16th century roll listing the private marks scratched onto the bills of swans, to show ownership. @dgjones @sixteenthCgirl 5/7

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Giles Milton

5 months

A plan of Colditz, drawn - and then printed - by inmate and first successful escapee, Airey Neave (later an MP, and killed by the IRA) @guywalters @BenMacintyre1 3/7

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Giles Milton

5 months

And, lastly, the internment papers of P.G Wodehouse. Best known as the creator of Jeeves and Wooster. But also a controversial broadcaster on Nazi radio... Just a few highlights of the millions of documents that are open to anyone with an easily-obtained readers' ticket 7/7

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Giles Milton

1 month

The death of Queen Victoria 4/13

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Giles Milton

8 months

Well there's an endorsement...

@JeremyClarkson

Jeremy Clarkson

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8 months

This is an extraordinary book. It’s left me feeling a bit shell-shocked.

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Giles Milton

3 years

Rymen concludes: 'D-Day Through German Eyes is the biggest hoax I’ve read until now.' Yet it continues to be among the biggest selling books on D-Day. An insult to all who fought and died. The lesson to be learned? Beware of your sources! 10/10

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Giles Milton

3 years

After four months away from Burgundy, I find that we’ve re-wilded our front door.

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Giles Milton

1 year

For all who've enjoyed the last episodes of Empire podcast, a few pics of Smyrna before the catastrophe. 1: The Smyrna Sporting Club, where wealthy Europeans, Levantines, Greeks, Armenians drank pink gin and discussed politics. 1/5 @EmpirePodUK @DalrympleWill @tweeter_anita

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Giles Milton

5 years

75 years on, Harry Billinge returns to Gold Beach where he landed on 6 June 44. #DDay75

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Giles Milton

2 years

...in the eyes of his own population. He wants to make the whole world believe that all Russians are like him, belligerent, reckless and "ballsy". But this is fake. Here, [in Moscow] as in Kiev, nobody wants war." 7/7

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Giles Milton

1 month

Dr Jameson's ride in the Transvaal, lavishly illustrated by an official war artist 2/13

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Giles Milton

27 days

Which only goes to show that truth is stranger than fiction. Which is why I write history books. 12/12 @johnmurrays @rcwlitagency

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Giles Milton

5 months

The Treaty of London, 1839, guaranteeing the security of Belgium's borders. Palmerston's signature is clearly visible. @cguyver 6/7

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Giles Milton

20 days

To mark the anniversary of the Entente Cordiale (120 years), here's one of the most eye-stretching stories of Anglo-French rivalry... Enjoy! 1/10

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Giles Milton

1 year

#HistoryWritersDay22 25 years of writing history. 25 languages. One copy of each. And I’ve managed to fill TWO BILLY IKEA bookcases!!!!

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Giles Milton

1 month

German surrender 9/13

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VE day!!! 10/13

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Giles Milton

1 month

The Relief of Ladysmith 3/13

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Giles Milton

1 year

A sad but poignant gift from my German mother-in-law: relics from the synagogue of Pforzheim, picked up by her father in the aftermath of Kristallnacht. 9 November, 1938.

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Giles Milton

1 month

The beginning of WW2 8/13

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Giles Milton

1 month

Goodbye Sir Winston 12/13

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Giles Milton

1 month

A one-sheet, typed Daily Mail, produced during the 1926 General Strike 5/13

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Giles Milton

1 month

The accession of King Edward VIII 7/13

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Giles Milton

8 months

So, here it is! The cover of my latest book. Publication: May 2024 - UK September 2024 - USA @johnmurrays @HenryHolt @rcwlitagency @casarottoramsay

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Giles Milton

11 months

80 years before the Kakhovka dam destruction came an even more outrageous Russian denial. Katyn Massacre, 1943. Stalin claimed it was done by Nazis. As "proof", he had fake letters planted on the corpses. It took years to discover that he, Stalin, ordered the massacre.

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Giles Milton

10 months

"Hold a nutmeg in your hand and you're holding the kernel of the British empire." Wonder if Joanna Lumley used my book, Nathaniel's Nutmeg, when filming ITV's Spice Trail Adventure? Wonder if I'll get any credit? Or payment? @ITV @JoannaLumleyUK @HallieRubenhold

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Giles Milton

5 months

The Metropolitan Police account of the theft of the World Cup in 1966, by Edward Walter Bletchley. It was subsequently recovered. @mrjohnofarrell 4/7

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Giles Milton

6 months

Today marks the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the violent attack on Jewish properties in Nazi Germany. I have fragments of shattered glass from the synagogue of Pforzheim, collected the following morning by my horrified German in-laws - grim relics of a grim time.

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Giles Milton

1 month

And a mini-Daily Telegraph, also produced during the 1926 General Strike 6/13

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Giles Milton

3 years

Inside this folder is Churchill's plan to attack Soviet forces in the spring of 1945, just after the defeat of the Nazis. He was furious when 'Operation Unthinkable' was categorically rejected by his Chiefs of Staff. #CheckmateInBerlin - out this May.

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Giles Milton

1 month

For some reason, a French one... 11/13

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Giles Milton

2 years

"This is especially the case of 100 municipally elected officials.'Citizens: We, as deputies elected by the people, condemn unreservedly the attack of the Russian army against Ukraine.This is an atrocity without precedent, for which there is, and cannot be, any justification.'5/7

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Giles Milton

1 year

#VEDay Remembering Charley Havlat, the last soldier to die in the European theatre in #WW2 . Killed by small arms fire in a German ambush on 7 May. He died 10 mins before the ceasefire announcement that preceded Germany's unconditional surrender. He was 34.

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Giles Milton

10 days

This is VERY EXCITING!!!!

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Giles Milton

3 years

#ForgottenPeople Josephine Garis Cochrane so hated washing-up that she invented the first commercially successful automatic dishwasher, in 1886. She built it in her Illinois garden shed, patented it then set up the Garis-Cochrane Manufacturing Company. 1/2

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Giles Milton

1 year

Well, it’s steadily moving towards becoming a major TV series. All fingers crossed!

@1940Medal

Bill @1940 Medal Campaign

1 year

Now that the #sasrogueheroes hype is dying down a bit, does anyone else think that @GilesMilton1 ’s “Churchill’s Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” would make a cracking TV show?

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Giles Milton

2 years

"Everyday I meet people who have always supported Putin, but not this time. He has crossed a line in the eyes of the world - obviously - but also... 6/7

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Giles Milton

10 months

My new book… THE STALIN AFFAIR The Allies’ Secret Mission to Wartime Russia Publication: UK, 24 May 2024 USA, autumn 2024 ⁦ @johnmurrays ⁩ ⁦ @HenryHolt ⁩ ⁦ @rcwlitagency ⁩

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2 years

"... there has been no great union of patriots. Propaganda has not taken hold this time around. This time - disbelief, fear and anger have given way to determination. Every day, Russians go out to protest, alone or in groups... 3/7

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Giles Milton

27 days

The Shojun liked the idea of trade. He was sick of the Spanish and Portuguese merchants, whose trade came with Christianity . Better still, those merchants hated William Adams. Rivalry = Good Business Opportunity. The Shogun sent King James I a fab present. It still exists. 7/12

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2 months

Three decades after moving to Britain, and in the pomp and splendour of Wandsworth Town Hall, Mrs M becomes British.

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2 years

"The organisation that fights political persecution - OVD-Info - has recorded more than 6,300 arrests since February 24. Each day, representatives from different professions are publicly condemning the state's action in open letters... 4/7

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Giles Milton

1 month

Since everyone is talking about #Shogun at the moment, a little reminder that the TRUE story is simply incredible. William Adams was shipwrecked in Japan in 1600. A few years later, he was a samurai... Do take a peek #SamuraiWilliam

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Giles Milton

9 months

Revised. Edited. Sent. The Stalin Affair. Spring 2024.

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2 years

Ouch! Lavrov to Truss: "Do you recognise Russia's sovereignty over Rostov and Voronezh oblasts?" Truss to Lavrov: "Never" British ambassador, Deborah Bonnert, to Truss: "They are actually Russian regions".

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Giles Milton

2 years

"...I was able to observe and listen to the reactions of people (my family, my friends, taxi drivers, old ladies on buses, social media) comparing them to the official Russian state media. "I think the Kremlin's internal communication strategy is a failure. Unlike in 2014...2/7

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1 year

A Hungarian by birth, he was paid his back-dated salary (55 years!) since he was considered to have been in continuous military service.

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Giles Milton

1 year

#HistoryWritersDay22 it’s arrived! Over the weekend I’ll be posting stories about some of the more colourful characters who’ve appeared in my 12 history books. 1: Col. Frank ‘Howlin Mad’ Howley, US commandant in Berlin: dynamic, ebullient, he saved Berlin from the Soviets

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3 years

Invidious, perhaps, to select just one woman for #InternationalWomensDay , but Irene Sendler gets my vote. She rescued some 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw ghetto. Horrifically tortured by the Gestapo, she revealed precisely nothing.

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Giles Milton

4 months

As the West's interest in Ukraine wanes, it's worth recalling the words of Frank Howley, US commandant of Berlin during the early Cold War: 'Russia will attack us without hesitation when she judges the time and the conditions are right.... ' 1/2

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Giles Milton

3 years

The NKVD did not believe Devyatyaev’s story and he was shunned for years. Not until 1957 did the regime accept that he'd brought back invaluable intelligence about Hitler’s rocket program; they made him a Hero of the Soviet Union. 4/4

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Giles Milton

3 years

Potsdam, July 1945 - Stalin, Churchill and Truman agree to the expulsion of 12 million ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe - the forgotten aftermath of #WW2 . Two million died in the process.

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Giles Milton

3 years

#ForgottenPeople Colonel Ruby Bradley’s wartime service would save hundreds of lives – and almost claim her own. Employed at a clinic in the Philippines in 1941, she was taken prisoner by the Japanese just three weeks after Pearl Harbor. 1/3

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Giles Milton

3 years

If you go down to the woods today…

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Giles Milton

3 years

How to sign off a letter, 1940s style.

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Giles Milton

4 months

When your French neighbour delivers you the hindquarters of a wild boar! This is a small part of it.

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Giles Milton

4 months

For the very first time in 13 books, my US and UK publishers have decided to use (almost) the same cover. UK left US right Preferences???

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27 days

The tomb was disputed, so... in 2017, his remains were exhumed and examined. The DNA strongly suggested they were indeed the remains of William Adams, a man still honoured in Japan. His story is remarkable - someone who adapted and survived in an alien culture. 11/12

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2 years

Hmm, does anyone else find it annoying when you read a history book which is told entirely from secondary sources and tells you nothing new.

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27 days

The ending is not a happy one. When the Shogun died, his successors took a dramatic decision. Expel all foreigners and close Japan to the world. By which time, Adams had died. He left a wife in Japan, another in England, and four kids - two in Japan, two in England. 10/12

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Giles Milton

3 years

Churchill shipped 1,000 bottles of whisky to the Yalta Conference. 'Good for typhus,' he told his staff, 'and deadly on lice.' #CheckmateInBerlin

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10 months

Today, Berlin, 1945. Newly-arrived British commandant, Brigadier Looney Hinde, inspects his sector of the city. To his horror, he discovers the Russians have looted or smashed everything of use. Responsible for 570,000 Berliners, he has no food, no supplies. #CheckmateInBerlin

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27 days

Born in Kent, Adams sailed to the East Indies with a five-ship Dutch fleet in 1598. But... disaster. The ships were shipwrecked or captured. And Adams' ship ended up in the Pacific. No food. No water. Storms & sickness. But then they sighted Japan. It was April 1600. 2/12

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Giles Milton

7 months

Off to record a TV doc about Berlin… I’ll be spilling out some of the finest nuggets so from #CheckmateInBerlin

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Giles Milton

3 years

#ForgottenPeople Florence Baker had already been orphaned, adopted and abducted when she was sold at an 1859 slave auction in Ottoman Bulgaria. Her buyer – or rescuer - was English explorer Samuel Baker. After bribing the slave-master, he whisked Florence to safety. 1/4

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1 month

@TheBrightonBard I'm now going to conserve them properly in special acid-free envelopes.

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2 years

Inside the East Berlin Stasi HQ. Love the decor! A few pics I took while in Berlin.

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3 years

#ForgottenPeople Lt-Col Edwin Darling was confident he ran the most secure POW camp in Britain. Camp 198 in South Wales was surrounded by high-wire fences and searchlights and guarded by dogs. There was good reason for the security... 1/4

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4 months

A good moment from 2023: finishing writing The Stalin Affair. A good moment to look forward to in 2024: publication of The Stalin Affair. A very Happy New Year to one and all!

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27 days

The head of the trading post, Mr Cocks, spent all his time collecting prize goldfish. The other traders spent their time a-whoring. And wrote letters home describing EXACTLY what they did. A gift for historians. As for trade... nothing. 9/12

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Giles Milton

3 years

Is there any more annoying/rubbish slogan than ‘See it, Say it, Sorted’?

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Giles Milton

27 days

Only 12 men were still alive. Among them, William Adams. He was taken to meet Tokugawa Ieyasu, Shogun, who was intrigued. "He viewed me well, and seemed to be wonderfully favourable." Why? Because Adams had useful shipbuilding skills. 3/12

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Giles Milton

1 year

For more about the incredible city of Smyrna - as discussed with @DalrympleWill and @tweeter_anita , do take a look at PARADISE LOST: SMYRNA 1922.

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27 days

Adams was showered with gifts and honours. He eventually married a Japanese wife (did she know he already had a wife and children in England?) And he rose and rose. Rags to riches. He was raised to samurai status and given a large estate. 4/12

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Giles Milton

3 years

That’s one way of doing a book festival!

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Giles Milton

3 years

Remember the English airline entrepreneur Freddie Laker? In 1948, he was one of the heroic Allied pilots who helped save Berlin from starvation during the Soviet blockade.

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3 years

#OTD1922 A shy, introverted American pastor named Asa Jennings launches one of the greatest rescue missions of the 20th century. Sickened by the US and UK doing nothing to save the starving refugees of Smyrna, he commandeers a fleet and evacuates 350,000 people. #ParadiseLost

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Giles Milton

27 days

The good ship Clove arrived in 1613, bringing English traders. They settled in Hirado, close to Nagasaki. But... They were wastrels and drunkards. And they were horrified to find that William Adams had gone native. It was a recipe for disaster 8/12

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Giles Milton

27 days

But... Adams was homesick. And in 1611, he wrote his famous letter addressed "To my unknown friends and countrymen" Amazingly, this letter reached an English trading post in Java. Those East India Company merchants smelt riches. Two years later, they sent a ship to Japan. 5/12

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@GilesMilton1

Giles Milton

2 years

In other good news (as reported by The Bookseller) my U.K. sales have now topped one million! #blowingmyowntrumpet

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