Dr Stephen Summerfield

Born within cannon-shot of Woolwich Arsenal, the spiritual home of the Royal Artillery and arms manufacture. The adventure in writing upon uniforms, artillery and military history started during my PhD in Chemistry at Loughborough University where over lunchtime my colleague translated a series of Russian postcards on Cossacks and Opolchenie. These became my first two books in the field of military history. Currently the editor of the Smoothbore Ordnance Journal. I have written over 100 books in Military History with another 20-30 monographs in Chemical Education, Chemistry, Autism, and Dyslexia so I have a unique perspective on the technical aspects of warfare. In addition, Warfare and have edited/design of hundreds of books for other authors including Gareth Glover, Charles Grant, Digby Smith, Maj-Gen Drewienkiewicz, and Mick Crumplin (Bloody Fields of Waterloo).

The rigour of my science profession has been applied to my lavishly illustrated books on the tactics, organisation, uniforms, flags and equipment of the Austrian, Hanoverian, Prussian, Russian, Saxon and Spanish Armies of the mid-18th to Napoleonic period. I am an acknowledged expert on Smoothbore Artillery with consultancy for the BBC production on Napoleon, Peter Jackson’s Weta Design, Royal Armouries, Fort Amherst and Shorncliffe Trust numerous scale model companies and editor of the Smoothbore Ordnance Journal that deals with the technical aspects of 18th and 19th warfare. My understanding of the period has been enhanced as a former member an artillery re-enactment group, learning to ride a horse, former National Napoleonic Wargames Champion and Umpire.