Paul Beaver worked for five years on Jane's Defence Weekly, including spells as Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, and has operated as a freelance war correspondent for Sky News in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Sierra Leone. He has written over 50 books on military history, including most recently Spitfire People (2015). He spent 27 years in Army Air Corps Reserves, is a qualified pilot, and is now Honorary Group Captain of No 601 (County of London) Squadron, Royal Auxiliary Air Force.