Graham A. Thomas

Graham A Thomas began writing stories when he was in high school before he switched into making movies in university. His main love of writing and journalism never left him and after relocating to Britain from Canada he began writing articles for specialist magazines. He spent two years as the Chief Reporter for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) in-house magazine Focus where he met fellow scribe Craig Cabell. He has interviewed generals, lords, politicians, soldiers and civilians involved in supporting the front line.

Still with the MOD he went on to producing military radio stories about local soldiers for regional radio and spent time in Iraq.

Over the years he has turned his hand to directing theatre and has directed highly acclaimed productions of Gaslight, Pack of Lies, Rope, and Fawlty Towers, which has been nominated for a National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA) award for best technical achievement. His production of Blackadder Goes Forth won the NODA award for best comedy and his more recent directorial productions, Macbeth and Jekyl & Hyde also won awards.

Throughout all this time he has continued to write and has, to date, written eleven books. He was the co-author of the acclaimed Operation Big Ben - the Anti-V2 Spitfire Missions, 1944-45 (with Craig Cabell), which enjoyed a book launch at Duxford, where Raymond Baxter and Lady Bader were guests of honour. A special dinner at the 602 Squadron Museum in Glasgow resulted in Raymond Baxter presenting a signed copy of the book to the museum director. A short CGI movie was also made of the book, which can be viewed on You Tube. Craig has also provided several introductions to Graham's non-fiction books, which can also be found on Bellack Productions' pages and on Craig's page and in the list of books below.

Graham is a military historian writing about land warfare campaigns, aerial warfare and pirates. His highly acclaimed non-fiction book, Pirate Hunter, about Captain Woode Rogers set the pace for the rest of the pirate series culminating in the Buccaneer King, The Story of Henry Morgan.

Books:

Furies and Fireflies Over Korea, The Story of the Men of the Fleet Air Arm, RAF and Commonwealth who Defended South Korea, 1950-1953 (Grub Street, 2004

Operation Big Ben, The Anti-V2 Spitfire Missions 1944-1945, (With Craig Cabell) (Spellmount, 2004)

Firestorm, Typhoons Over Caen, (Spellmount, 2006)

Terror From The Sky, The Battle Against The Flying Bomb (Pen and Sword, 2008)

Pirate Hunter, The Life of Captain Woodes Rogers, (Pen and Sword, 2008)

Captain Kidd, The Hunt For the Truth, (with Craig Cabell and Alan Richards) (Pen and Sword 2010)

The Dan Brown Enigma, The Biography of the World's Greatest Thriller Writer, (John Blake Publishing, 2011)

Pirate Killers, The Royal Navy and the African Pirates (Pen and Sword, 2011)

Blackbeard, The Hunt For The World's Most Notorious Pirate, (with Craig Cabell and Alan Richards) (Pen and Sword 2012)

The Buccaneer King: The Story of Henry Morgan (Pen and Sword)

Attack on the Scheldt (Pen and Sword)

Theatrical Productions: Directing

The Edge of Darkness (The Drama Workshop, London 1998)

Gaslight (Studio Theatre, Salisbury 2005)

Night Must Fall (Studio Theatre, Salisbury 2006)

Pack of Lies (Studio Theatre, Salisbury 2007)

Rope (Studio Theatre, Salisbury 2009)

Fawlty Towers (Athenaeum Limelight Players, 2013)

My Love of Aviation and Pirates

The first thing you might wonder about is why aviation and pirates? The two don't seem to go together. Both subjects are packed with danger, excitement and adventure.

My love of aviation began as a youngster when my father would bring home books on the exploits of men like Robert Stanford Tuck, Billy Bishop, Douglas Bader and many more. My young hands would take these books and race up to my room where I would read them from cover to cover. My father then helped me to expand my reading to pirates, boys own classics and as I got older to thrillers by Alastair MacLean and Robert Ludlum.

But the people in these books were paper heroes to me. It was only when I joined the Ministry of Defence that I came in contact with real heroes - the men and women who fight in far away places on behalf of the UK. Over the years I've been in Bosnia, Iraq, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Brunei, Russia and so on. I've talked to very senior officers, pilots, politicians and soldiers.

While my interest in aviation and all things military grew my interest in pirates subsided until I spent 24 hours on a frigate in the Gulf of Oman. Shortly after that I wrote Pirate Hunter that began the sequence of books on pirates.