CANR
WORK TITLE: Scotland Yard
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Phoenix
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
LAST VOLUME: CA 390
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born May 17, 1974, in London, England.
EDUCATION:Attended college.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Journalist, writer. Former police reporter and journalist in CA; historical book writer.
AVOCATIONS:Playing piano.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Born in 1974 in London, Simon Read has written many nonfiction books on notable figures from history and historical crimes. He studied journalism and the history of mass media in college. Across the Atlantic, he worked as a reporter in the San Francisco Bay area of California and later moved to Arizona. [open new]Read’s inspiration for investigating wartime intrigue, in titles like The Killing Skies: RAF Bomber Command at War, stems partly from his grandfather’s service in the Royal Air Force during World War II. A pilot with the bomber command, his grandfather flew forty-eight missions over Germany.[suspend new]
In 2009 Read published War of Words: A True Tale of Newsprint and Murder, the story of the violent founding of the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper in the 1880s. Not in the least bit interested in unbiased reporting, Charles de Young and his brother Michael started the newspaper with the aim literally to bury their enemies. One such enemy was the lascivious preacher Isaac Kalloch, who had set his sights on being mayor. When Kalloch would not back down from his ambitions, Charles de Young shot him. Kalloch survived, won the election, and his son exacted revenge by fatally shooting de Young five months later. The younger Kalloch was found not guilty. Read researched newspaper articles, diaries, and letters to reconstruct the events. “Read has an eye for identifying interesting facts and linking them into a narrative,” according to Library Journal contributor Amanda Kuhnel.
In 2012 Read published Human Game: The True Story of the Great Escape Murders and the Hunt for the Gestapo Gunmen. Read presents the true story used for the movie The Great Escape, a film about the murder of fifty prisoners of war (POWs). In 1944 hundreds of men were involved in plans to escape from the supposedly inescapable Stalag Luft III. While the prisoner planners expected 250 to escape, only fifty did. Embarrassed by the escape, Hitler sent the Gestapo, Schutzstaffel (SS), and Kriminalpolizei (Kripo) to track down the escapees and kill them. The bodies were secretly cremated.
The British Royal Air Force (RAF) Special Investigation Bureau led by Francis P. McKenna embarked on a three-year, postwar manhunt for the murderers who defied the Geneva Convention and international law. Twenty-one suspects were found and tried. “Read provides an admirable record of the meticulous police work involved in accumulating proof sufficient for prosecution and conviction,” noted a writer in Kirkus Reviews who added that the book was a “fastpaced, clearly written account” of justice in a wartime case.
Read’s 2015 Winston Churchill Reporting: Adventures of a Young War Correspondent portrays the future British Prime Minister as a twenty-year-old cavalry lieutenant covering four of Britain’s colonial wars in five years in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Rejecting his ability to wait out the wars in comfort due to his family’s wealth, Churchill instead traveled the world, risking danger to write sensational accounts of war and to earn an income as he spent his money on alcohol and gambling.
Churchill began in Cuba in 1895, covering its war of independence from Spain, then went to India for the Pashtun battle with Afghanistan, and then moved on to Sudan for the Muslim uprising at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898. Churchill paused to run for election in Oldham, where he lost. Then he was off to South Africa during the second Boer war of 1899-1902. Here he was captured and imprisoned by Boer rebels. After his escape and return to London, he became a celebrity, which helped him win his first seat in Parliament.
“According to Read, the horror and slaughter that he witnessed darkened his formerly jingoist, romantic view of conflict,” explained a reviewer in Kirkus Reviews, who added that Winston Churchill Reporting is “a richly detailed look at Churchill’s early ambitions and triumphs.” Edward Cuddihy declared in the Buffalo News: “This is a gripping story, easy to read in the style of a mystery thriller. It should not be confused with serious history.” Writing in the Portland Book Review, Howard Leighton commented: “Rather than a general overview of [Churchill’s] experiences, it is a detailed recounting of the events using his own writings. … The writing brings to life what he experienced and his behavior.”
[resume new]Read returns to strategy and heroism during World War II with The Iron Sea: How the Allies Hunted and Destroyed Hitler’s Warships. Four German battleships—the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Bismarck, and Tirpitz—represented enormous threats to Britain during World War II. Their top speed of 31 knots made them faster than any British ships. The first two sank HMS Glorious, an aircraft carrier, killing some 1,500 sailors and allowing the German to seize 115,000 tons of shipping. The later sinking of HMS Hood, killing another 1,400 servicemen, spurred the indignant Winston Churchill’s determination to end the battleships’ reign. One by one, British forces dramatically succeeded. A Kirkus Reviews writer appreciated Read’s elaboration of “the big-picture importance of the Battle of the Atlantic in helping sustain Britain’s heavily rationed population and its war machine.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer deemed The Iron Sea “action-packed and vividly written,” as Read “recreates the demise of each German warship in gripping, often poignant, prose.” The reviewer concluded that readers “will be spellbound.”
Read traces the evolution of the world’s leading law-enforcement agency in Scotland Yard: A History of the London Police Force’s Most Infamous Murder Cases. The narrative dates back to 1753 and the founding of Henry Fielding’s Bow Street Runners, a private company of constables. With gruesome murders often dominating newspaper headlines, the 1811 Radcliffe Highway killings of two families marked a turning point in public opinion. In 1829 the city empowered the new London Metropolitan Police—known as Scotland Yard, from its street address—to pursue perpetrators of crimes. Major cases, including the murder of a lord and corruption within the force, spurred developments in technique and investment, with the Yard adding a plainclothes detective branch in 1842 and opening its Criminal Investigation Department in 1878. Scotland Yard later accomplished noteworthy advances in forensic pathology, fingerprinting, and criminal tracking and is recognized by Read as the originator of modern police work.
A Publishers Weekly reviewer affirmed that Read “shrewdly synthesizes a wealth of material in this insightful survey,” which is marked by “rigorous research and smooth storytelling.” A Kirkus Reviews writer praised Scotland Yard as an “entertaining, atmospheric” and “surprisingly lively narrative.” The reviewer concluded that “true-crime enthusiasts will relish these many murders most foul.”[close new]
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Economist, November 21, 2015, “Mr High-Roller; Winston Churchill’s Other Lives,” review of Winston Churchill Reporting: Adventures of a Young War Correspondent, p. 77.
Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2012, review of Human Game: The True Story of the Great Escape Murders and the Hunt for the Gestapo Gunmen; July 15, 2015, review of Winston Churchill Reporting; November 15, 2020, review of The Iron Sea: How the Allies Hunted and Destroyed Hitler’s Warships; July 1, 2024, review of Scotland Yard: A History of the London Police Force’s Most Infamous Murder Cases.
Library Journal, June 15, 2009, Amanda Kuhnel, review of War of Words: A True Tale of Newsprint and Murder, p. 83.
MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, winter, 2016, review of Winston Churchill Reporting, p. 96.
Military History, January, 2016, review of Winston Churchill Reporting, p. 74.
Publishers Weekly, August 31, 2020, review of The Iron Sea, p. 49; July 8, 2024, review of Scotland Yard, p. 164.
Washington Times, January 10, 2016, review of Winston Churchill Reporting.
Weekly Standard, February 22, 2016, Andrew Roberts, review of Winston Churchill Reporting.
ONLINE
Buffalo News, http://www.buffalonews.com/ (January 10, 2016), Edward Cuddihy, review of Winston Churchill Reporting.
CapX, http://capx.co/ (November 27, 2015), Bruce Anderson, review of Winston Churchill Reporting.
Mystery and Suspense, https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/ (May 26, 2024), author Q&A.
Open Letters Monthly, http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/ (April 28, 2016), Steve Donoghue, review of Winston Churchill Reporting.
Portland Book Review, http://portlandbookreview.com/ (December 23, 2015), Howard Leighton, review of Winston Churchill Reporting.
Simon Read website, https://simonreadwriting.com (September 8, 2024).
Let's Talk Writing . . .
My parents slipped Stephen King’s Misery into my hands when I was thirteen. Shortly thereafter, they gave me a copy of Ian Fleming’s Moonraker. Both books were worlds removed from the Choose Your Own Adventures and other literary escapades that had, until that time, kept me turning pages.
I quickly devoured all the King and Fleming I could get my hands on. Even at that age, I was enthralled by King’s storytelling and fascinated with Fleming’s sleek writing style.
I soon decided I wanted to be an author and write thrillers. Life, of course, doesn’t abide by plans. I ended up becoming a newspaper reporter and discovered a passion for telling true stories—a passion I eventually channeled into writing nonfiction books.
From Wild West San Francisco’s Barbary Coast to the smoke-filled speakeasies of Prohibition-era New York City, the darkened streets of wartime London, and beyond, I enjoy mining stories from the past.
I've even been fortunate enough to have four of my books optioned for television/movies. After writing a few books with a military history theme, I'm diving back into historic true crime. In September, Pegasus Books in the U.S. and Welbeck Publishing in the U.K. will release Scotland Yard, a blood-soaked history of the infamous murder cases that established the Yard's reputation.
Want to chat? You can reach me at simon(at)simonreadwriting.com.
May 26, 2024
Q&A
Simon Read
Simon Read is the author of nine non-fiction books published on both sides of the Atlantic.
When he’s not writing, he enjoys reading (naturally), messing about on the piano, listening to classic British rock, and searching for good English pubs (he lives in Arizona, where such drinking establishments can sometimes be hard to find).
Interview by Elise Cooper
Q: Which came first the movie, “The Great Escape,” or your idea to write the book?
Simon: The movie came first. I am from the UK originally. There, it is a tradition that they show “The Great Escape” movie every Christmas Day. My grandfather flew with the Royal Air Force during the Second War. From a very early age I used to sit with him and watch. It is still one of my favorite movies of all time. I was always traumatized by the ending where the escapees were gathered in a field and machine gunned down. I wondered what happened to the Nazi who gunned all the escapees down. This was the genesis for the idea of the book. It is also a great adventure story.
Q: How does the story of “The Great Escape” relate to Memorial Day?
Simon: Memorial Day is a time to reflect and ponder the sacrifices made by those in uniform. The Great Escape was an exercise in allied ingenuity, bravery, and rebellion. It was a massive propaganda victory. I think they are very much heroes for what they did. Not every victory is on the battlefield. This is an example of cunning and bravery.
Q: Can you elaborate on the quote by Nazi Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels in May 1944?
Simon: You are referring to when he said, “We owe it to our people, which is defending itself with so much honesty and courage, that it is not allowed to become human game to be hunted down by the enemy.” This is where the title for the book came from. This in response to the allied bombing campaign. He thought it was perfectly legitimate to attack downed allied airmen and to take revenge. There is something cold and barbaric about this quote.
Q: How does the criticism of British bombing campaigns during WWII relate to modern criticisms of warfare?
Simon: People can look at the British bombing campaign during WWII where they used targeted bombing of cities. People need to look at the context of the times. It might not be very appealing, but Britain was fighting for its very survival against its merciless enemy. They did what they needed to do to survive. In warfare both sides are dealing in morally grey areas, which is just how war is. My grandfather flew in RAF bomber command, 48 operations over Germany. It used to fire him up when he would hear people criticizing the British bombing campaigns against German cities. His attitude, ‘these people do not know what they are talking about,’ considering London was being bombed and devastated. The context cannot be ignored.
Q: Why did you include pictures at the beginning of the book and an appendix at the end?
Simon: These men could not just be numbers, because otherwise it does not hit home. This is why I put in the pictures. It is one thing reading a name on a page, but putting a face to the name really drives it home. Auschwitz has a twitter feed of those who perished in the gas chambers. It is more than a name and a number. People can see the emotions of the faces, the terror and fear. It really underscores the tragedy. The appendix tells when and how the fifty died.
Q: How accurate is the movie “The Great Escape” in depicting the events at Stalag Luft III?
Simon: Regarding Stalag Luft III it is true as depicted in the movie that the Germans tried to make it escape-proof by trying to make tunneling impossible, had trap doors, set the barracks on concrete stilts, and had subterranean microphones buried deep underground. The top layer of soil was a different color than the soil underneath making it hard to hide the dug-up soil. Yet, the escapees found a way. The fake documents are also true. Where the movie deviates there were American characters, but the American and British POWs were actually separated. Also, true, the Germans took all the “problem airmen,” the ones who escaped from multiple camps and stuck them in one camp together. This all backfired on the Germans in spectacular fashion.
Q: Did Hitler really order the execution of all the escapees?
Simon: It was a huge embarrassment for the Germans. Hitler flew into an absolute rage when he found out. It was a very brutal response and violated every rule of warfare. The German Luftwaffe who ran the camp treated the inmates well because they were not Gestapo. There is a scene in the movie “The Great Escape” where the camp commandant told the British high-ranking official in the camp that fifty escapees were shot. This really reflects what happened in real-life, that they were upset.
Q: How were the escapees executed?
Simon: They were shot in the back, they were cremated, and their names were not supposed to be recorded. There was a list. The movie did not reflect what really happened because it had the escapees machine-gunned down. In actuality, the escapees were murdered in groups of two and three by Gestapo assassination teams. They were put in a car, driven out to isolated spots, and told to stretch their legs. This is when the Gestapo would come up behind them and shoot them in the back of the head. Their bodies were taken to a local crematorium and destroyed. Stalag Luft III did get a list of those who were executed, and it was passed on to the British POWs.
Q: Who was Frank McKenna, the RAF officer investigating the fifty murders?
Simon: He had detective skills and sought justice with a strong moral code. He was very determined and driven. He was outraged and disgusted by what had happened. Over the course of a few years, he did get results.
Q: Who were the most notorious Gestapo murderers involved in this incident?
Simon: Erich Zacharias wore a watch of a British airman. He also raped and then shot a woman witness. He is a horrible human being who was a true believer in the Nazi cause and Hitler. Then there was Johannes Post, the chief executioner who took real pleasure in killing some of the escapees. He was a sadist. They were just vicious with no redeeming qualities. It is unfathomable how someone resorts to such barbaric acts.
Q: What do you want readers to take away from your book?
Simon: There were those low-level guys, like Emil Schultz who justified killing in cold blood because they claimed their families were threatened. I pondered and wanted the readers to question, what would they have done in that situation. Schultz confessed to shooting Roger Bushell, the main architect. He had true regret. The RAF investigators did have sympathy but because he did a terrible thing was sent to the gallows. I did not approve, or excuse of what Schultz did.
Q: What is your next book about?
Simon: It is titled Scotland Yard coming out in September. It is a history of the Yard told through many of its most famous cases and cases that helped advance criminal investigation like how fingerprinting developed, criminal profiling, and why police officers wear rubber gloves at crime scenes. It covers the Yard from its creation in 1829 to the Eve of WWII in 1939. I tried to write it as a thriller. There is a great mix of true crime and history.
Read, Simon SCOTLAND YARD Pegasus Crime (NonFiction None) $29.95 9, 3 ISBN: 9781639366392
The story of Scotland Yard told through some of its most famous cases.
Read, author of The Iron Seas, Human Game, and Winston Churchill Reporting, begins this entertaining, atmospheric history in 1811, with London's gruesome Radcliffe Highway Murders, then quickly backtracks to 1753 and the establishment of Henry Fielding's Bow Street Runners, a small, private constabulary force. In 1829, Scotland Yard, London's first established police force with a new power--to investigate crimes--was born amid the heyday of sensational murders, lurid newspaper coverage, and later, some infamous criminals' wax appearances at Madame Tussauds. After their successful investigation into a grave-robbing scheme, the organization gained praise and publicity. The 1840 murder of Lord William Russell drew Queen Victoria's attention, and Scotland Yard took heat for not solving it initially; but then they did--the butler did it. Dickens and Thackeray attended the hanging, "both repulsed at what they saw." In 1842, the Yard added a "plainclothes Detective Branch--the first of its kind," and the group quickly solved the infamous Bermondsey murders. The Yard's reputation was tarnished in 1872 when four chief inspectors were bribed by two con men, resulting in a significant shakeup in the force and the creation of the Criminal Investigation Department in 1878. Just over a decade later, the Yard took on the case of the Thames Torso Murderer, a serial killer case that remained unsolved. In 1890, the New Scotland Yard got a new home, a granite building "notable for its use of electricity." Along with forensic pathology, they began to incorporate fingerprinting in their investigations. In 1910, the Yard successfully pursued a killer across the Atlantic. These crimes and others, Read notes near the end of this surprisingly lively narrative, "defined modern detective work and still resonate today."
True-crime enthusiasts will relish these many murders most foul.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
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"Read, Simon: SCOTLAND YARD." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A799332855/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=708ca482. Accessed 27 Aug. 2024.
Scotland Yard: A History of the London Police Force's Most Infamous Murder Cases
Simon Read. Pegasus Crime, $29.95 (368p) ISBN 978-1-63936-639-2
Journalist Read (Human Game) shrewdly synthesizes a wealth of material in this insightful survey of London's Scotland Yard police force from its 1829 founding to the 1930s. Utilizing court transcripts, investigative files, and other sources, Read traces how the force evolved into a world-renowned pioneer in forensic science and criminal investigation. He begins the account with the 1811 Ratcliffe Highway murders, in which two East London families were slaughtered within days of each other; the attack spurred public interest in better policing and resulted in the establishment of the London Metropolitan Police (which took the nickname "Scotland Yard" from the street where its headquarters were located). From there, he documents Londoners' initial worries about police interference in their lives, and then recounts the department's most consequential cases, including the Jack the Ripper murders, which led to major advancements in fingerprinting and ballistics analysis. He doesn't shy away from controversy, memorably highlighting 1877's "Trial of the Detectives," which uncovered corruption in the Yard's upper ranks. Marrying rigorous research and smooth storytelling, this is a must-read for fans of true crime. Photos. Agent: Jonathan Lyons, Curtis Brown. (Sept.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2024 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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Source Citation
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Lyons, Jonathan. "Scotland Yard: A History of the London Police Force's Most Infamous Murder Cases." Publishers Weekly, vol. 271, no. 26, 8 July 2024, p. 164. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A801800246/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=46c6eec1. Accessed 27 Aug. 2024.
The Iron Sea: How the Allies Hunted and Destroyed Hitler's Warships
Simon Read. Hachette, $30 (352p) ISBN 978-0-306-92171-1
Historian Read (Winston Churchill Reporting) delivers an action-packed and vividly written rundown of how Allied forces sank Germany's four most dangerous battleships during WWII. The Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Bismarck, and Tirpitz "posed a mortal threat to Britain's survival," Read writes, endangering the island nation's access to food and raw materials as well as its ability to supply the Allied war effort overseas. After the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sank the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and its destroyer escorts, killing more than 1,500 British sailors and airmen, Read notes, the German ships went on to destroy or seize "more than 115,000 tons of Allied shipping" over a two-month period in 1941. Read also describes the sinking of HMS Hood by the Bismarck ("vertical to the sea like some massive gray tombstone, she loitered for a moment before slipping beneath the waves"), and the public calls for revenge that led to an all-out effort to discover and sink the German warship. A daring attack on the dry-docked Tirpitz by British commandos failed, but RAF bombers eventually destroyed it in 1944. Drawing on firsthand accounts from Allied and German sources, Read recreates the demise of each German warship in gripping, often poignant, prose. WWII buffs and naval history fans will be spellbound. (Nov.)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
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"The Iron Sea: How the Allies Hunted and Destroyed Hitler's Warships." Publishers Weekly, vol. 267, no. 35, 31 Aug. 2020, p. 49. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A635645547/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=7c6503e9. Accessed 27 Aug. 2024.
Read, Simon THE IRON SEA Hachette (NonFiction None) $30.00 11, 3 ISBN: 978-0-306-92171-1
Blow-by-blow account of the Allied battles against four potent German warships that “posed a mortal threat to Britain’s survival, killers ready to sever the nation’s vital arteries to its empire and the United States.”
Early on in his latest well-told military tale, versatile historian Read notes the seemingly endless frustration caused by the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Bismarck, and Tirpitz, with Winston Churchill lamenting, “Besides the constant struggle with the U-boats…surface raiders had already cost us over three-quarters of a million tons of shipping.” Strategically situated in the harbor at Brest, France, the ships gave the Germans a significant advantage, allowing them to "wreak bloody havoc" on the Allied convoys carrying necessary supplies. In addition to their imposing armor and artillery, they were swift and elusive. “With a top speed each of 31 knots,” writes the author, “they were faster than any British ship. First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, well aware of this fact, deemed them ‘targets of supreme consequence.’ ” Indeed, as Read points out in this exciting narrative, the destruction caused by these four ships “would become Churchill’s obsession.” Catching them as they moved toward Norway and the Baltic shipping waters would cost the British dearly—e.g., the May 1941 sinking of the Hood, “the pride of the Royal Navy,” which killed all but three of the 1,418 crew aboard. In addition to the pulse-pounding narrative of the ships in battle, including profiles of the many sailors who lost their lives on both sides, Read demonstrates the big-picture importance of the Battle of the Atlantic in helping sustain Britain's heavily rationed population and its war machine with food, equipment, and raw materials. The success in “securing the Atlantic sea lanes” was crucial to victories in subsequent battles.
A suspenseful, well-wrought account of battling ships at sea and grave wartime conditions.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2020 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation
MLA 9th Edition APA 7th Edition Chicago 17th Edition Harvard
"Read, Simon: THE IRON SEA." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Nov. 2020, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A641314150/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=06d78fc3. Accessed 27 Aug. 2024.