Nicholas Rankin
Author, Independent Scholar and Journalist

Nicholas Rankin is a writer and radio broadcaster who grew up in East Africa, was educated in England and lived and worked in South America and Spain. He has long had an interest in 20th century warfare and media: his 2003 biography of the newspaper reporter George Steer, Telegram from Guernica, was a study of propaganda and psychological operations. His best-selling 2008 book Churchill’s Wizards, published in USA as A Genius for Deception: How Cunning Helped the British Win Two World Wars, looked at camouflage as a tactical manifestation of bluff to conceal weakness, but also as an expression of the talent for theatre in the British Isles. Deception in warfare is a deadly serious pretending, Rankin believes. His forthcoming book in 2011, Ian Fleming’s Commandos, is about a British Naval Intelligence unit in WW2 that was founded by the author of the James Bond books.