Arthur Ward – författare

Hornby can trace its roots back to the very start of the 20th century and has since become one of the most iconic names in toy manufacturing, whose toys have delighted generations of children and collectors around the world. Its rich history is intertwined with that of many other famous toymakers, and today Hornby is the custodian of several heritage brands, including Airfix, Corgi and Scalextric. The Hornby Book of Collectable Toys vibrantly tells the story of their magical world of toys, from the early Meccano years through to the present day. Drawing on his experiences as an author, photographer, and interviewer of some of the greatest names in the British toy industry, Arthur Ward brings the industry to life. Packed with original colour photos, many previously unpublished, enthusiasts and novices will find something for them within these pages.

Hornby can trace its roots back to the very start of the 20th century and has since become one of the most iconic names in toy manufacturing, whose toys have delighted generations of children and collectors around the world. Its rich history is intertwined with that of many other famous toymakers, and today Hornby is the custodian of several heritage brands, including Airfix, Corgi and Scalextric. The Hornby Book of Collectable Toys vibrantly tells the story of their magical world of toys, from the early Meccano years through to the present day. Drawing on his experiences as an author, photographer, and interviewer of some of the greatest names in the British toy industry, Arthur Ward brings the industry to life. Packed with original colour photos, many previously unpublished, enthusiasts and novices will find something for them within these pages.

We live in the information age, a period that offers unrivalled data transfer and unlimited access to global archives. Collectors have never had it so easy. Today, at the click of a mouse, via the Internet they can exchange details about items they are looking for or send photos of things they want to sell, and communicate with dealers and like-minded enthusiasts located at opposite sides of the planet.

Online market places like eBay offer a cornucopia of accessible objects and the opportunity to, sometimes, purchase items at knock-down prices. However, being provided with unlimited access to information is only of any use if you know what you are looking for. The ever-expanding resource of the World Wide Web might be a repository of everything but if you are looking in the wrong section, or asking the wrong question, it can provide myriad dead ends rather than bang-on answers!

Collectors of militaria, that catch-all term that covers everything from army badges to gas masks, have always relied on ready access to reference works to help them navigate around the bewildering landscape of available collectables. Most of the classic reference works have been targeted at the experienced collector and are often difficult for the tyro to decipher. Something handier is needed.

The Beginner's Guide to Wartime Collectables is intended to be that easy to use guide. It will not only tell the novice about the major types of twentieth-century military collectables, it will also show what they look like and, importantly, what the newcomer should be looking for. It's also important to be sure you are purchasing authentic military artefacts and not mere reproduction items or, worse still, out and out fakes.

Written by a lifelong collector, this book is also full of the author's own photographs, many, like those showing details of insignia and other regalia, taken with specialist close-up lenses, so that every detail can be clearly seen.

The 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War in August 2014 makes this publication very timely and, I hope, elevates commonplace items like postcards and crested china to their rightful place as definite military collectables.

As featured in Sussex Local Magazine

In WW2 information leaflets and posters proliferated. Soldiers were bombarded with Field Regulations, airmen with the latest updates about airborne early warning, bomb sights and radio navigation and sailors with material that helped them identify enemy aircraft and submarines and told them how to operate the new ship board weapons to destroy them.

An abundance of familiar slogans exhorted the population to do the utmost: 'Go To IT!', 'Come Into The Factories', 'Keep Calm and Carry On', 'Dig For Victory', 'Lend A Hand on the Land', 'Walk When You Can'. Other messages warned of the consequences of irresponsible behaviour: 'Careless Talk Cost Lives', 'Loose Lips Sink Ships', 'Keep It Under Your Hat' and 'Be Like Dad, Keep Mum', the latter illustrating just how much social mores have, thankfully, changed in the last 75 years.

This book is concerned with the plethora of printed ephemera that was designed to educate, instruct, inform and entertain. Such original material can still be bought and is easy to store – the posters also often making attractive items for display – but as with all other authentic historical material supply is finite and examples of wartime publications in first class condition command a high price. This is the first time a single volume has been dedicated entirely to a long overlooked component of wartime collectables. It is designed to complement books which focus on traditional militaria such as uniforms, equipment and regalia and is intended to reveal just how much material was produced, across the board, by each of the warring nations. It will advise enthusiasts about what was produced, what is still available and where to find it and, importantly, how to conserve and store such vintage printed items.

By the spring of 1940, the phoney war suddenly became very real. In April Hitler's forces, invaded Norway and a month later began their assault on France and the Low Countries. The Anglo/French allies were routed. The British escaped to fight another day after evacuating the bulk of their armies at Dunkirk. When on 10 May Winston Churchill became Prime Minister he soon discovered that the nation's defenses were in a parlous state and a Nazi invasion was a very real possibility. By the end of the month, nearly a million British citizens had joined the Local Defense Volunteers, soon to become the Home Guard, of Dad's Army fame. Churchill, however, realized the Home Guard was initially of little more than PR value, an important morale booster. A more serious deterrent needed to be created if Hitler's panzer divisions and the full might of the blitzkrieg were to be thwarted. Consequently, to supplement the sorely ill-equipped regular forces (all of their tanks and most of their artillery had been abandoned in France) a new, British resistance force was required. The intentionally blandly named ‘Auxiliary Units’ might have been the answer. Formed in the Summer of 1940, in great secrecy, this force of 'stay behind' saboteurs and assassins was intended to cause havoc behind the German front line should the Wehrmacht gain a foothold in Britain. Their mission was to go to cover, hiding in underground bunkers for the first 14 days of invasion and then springing up, at nightfall, to gather intelligence, interrogate prisoners, destroying fuel and ammunition dumps as they went about their deadly business. Each Auxilier knew his life expectancy was short, a matter of weeks. He also knew he could not tell a soul about his activities, even his spouse. 'Dads Army' they were not. Following the publication of his 50th anniversary history of the Battle of Britain, A Nation Alone, written in association with the RAF Museum, Arthur Ward looked deeper into the story of the Invasion Summer of 1940 and enjoyed unique opportunities to interview those involved with Auxiliary Units at the very top and in the front line, as volunteers in a six-man cell.

Collecting Action Figures presents an alphabetical survey of each of the major toy manufacturers and the whole array of action figures they produced. Covering everything from old-school GI Joe and Action Man figures, including the fantastic toys of Louis Marx and Mego, right through to the game-changing Star Wars 3-inch action figures of the 1970s and 1980s, this is the must-have reference guide for enthusiasts and beginners alike. With over 200 colour photographs, it details the history of action figures arising from the launch of fashion dolls in the 1950s; it describes the industry and consumer reactions to the first action figures; it reviews the many different incarnations that came to market; it looks at film and television tie-ins and finally, provides an essential guide to where to find gems, what to pay and how to look after them.