Welcome to my virtual book launch, for Cold War Berlin: An Island City Volume 1.
A book written in lockdown and launched in lockdown, so no glitzy champagne reception and speeches, I'm afraid - just a blog post.
I am really pleased to be launching the first in the mini-series of books on Cold War Berlin, published by Helion & Company. It has been a fascinating process, beginning back in November 2019 with me sat in my favourite seat at the café in Waitrose, Truro, cyber-stalking Tom Cooper from Helion on LinkedIn. Tom would eventually become my editor and he has been an enormous help in introducing me to the world of publishing and guiding me through my first book project. As well as being an editor, Tom is a very busy author in his own right, and also a talented illustrator, so towards the end of the project, Andy Miles took over the editing and helped take the project over the finish line.
As with any 'speech', there are a number of people to thank. Cold War Berlin features a fantastic set of illustrations and maps created by a truly global team. We have Tom from Austria, Anderson Subtil from Brazil, George Anderson from the UK, Luca Canossa from Italy and Goran Sudar from Bosnia-Herzegovina. Albert Grandolini from France also helped with some of the images.
Apart from launching my books, I'll use this blog to delve a little deeper into the subject, publishing little snippets of Cold War history that may not have made it into the final book edit, or deserve more attention.
I am currently working on the second volume in the Cold War Berlin series for Helion, which covers the period from 1950 to 1961, including the building of the infamous Berlin Wall. I'm also working on my first project for Pen & Sword Books, a book on Cold War espionage.
So, would you please raise your glasses to Andrew Long's first book - Cold War Berlin: An Island City Volume 1. Available from www.andrewlong.info, www.helion.co.uk and your local bookshop.