Simon Brading

June 2025

Hi, Reader!

It's time for another newsletter!

As always, if you no longer wish to receive it there is a button at the bottom of the email to unsubscribe. I'll be sorry to see you go, but completely understand!

Writing Update

"The Invasion of Britain" is finished and going through the final checks and adjustments before being released on 4^th August on Amazon in ebook and hopefully paperback soon thereafter.

The title of the book is fairly self-explanatory and I’m not going to give away very much by saying that the Prussians finally decide to launch their attack on Britain! To learn any more than that you’ll have to read the book!

I will say, though, that I have had a lot of fun writing this book. The action has written itself, almost, and there are enough dogfights and sweeping aerial battles to satisfy the aviation enthusiast in me (and others, I believe) but there has also been plenty of room for me to explore characters and have quite a few less than serious moments.

I hope that you’ll enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

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The books that influence my writing

There are many books that have played a part in making my writing what it is – Shogun by James Clavell, the Narnia series by C.S Lewis, the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde, to name but a few - but these are where I began my reading journey and are the ones that have brought me to where I am as an author.

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Discworld by Terry Pratchett. The biggest influence on my writing, it is from these books (and British comedy television such as Monty Python and Blackadder) that my humour most comes from.

Wilbur Smith, especially the early Courtney series. This is the second biggest influence, being the first adult books I read, back when I was 10 or 11. This is where my love of epic action and adventure comes from.

1984. The original dystopian novel and the one that most heavily influenced my attempts at the genre and my love of bending reality.

The Hornblower series, by C. S. Forester. Anything nautical in my books comes from these (and to a lesser extent Swallows and Amazons). These introduced me to the Napoleonic War (and to some of my other favourite series) and to the concept of a series that spans a war, which provided the basis from my Misfit Squadron series.

From my desk other work...

Not the view from my writing space this month, but rather a view from one of my most recent jobs as an actor, which I still do every so often. This time I went out in a boat off the coast of Barcelona to shoot scenes for a short film about spies!

Did you know...?

Many authors use people they have known as the basis for character in their books, to honour them or, more often, to satirise them and have them live in infamy for eternity. I have famous people, such as the royal family, in many of my books, and they are obviously themselves, or alternate universe versions of themselves, but there is only one person in all of my books who is firmly based on someone I have known.

Do you know who that is?