Simon J. House

Simon House is an independent military historian - and Lost Opportunity is his first book. It is the book of his doctoral thesis, gained at Kings College London in May 2012 under the supervision of Professor William Philpott (Bloody Victory and Attrition) and examined by Professor Sir Hew Strachan and Professor David Stevenson. Despite a lifelong passion for military history, Simon came to the profession late in life - having fitted in a 32-year career as an accountant and senior executive at...See more

Simon House is an independent military historian - and Lost Opportunity is his first book. It is the book of his doctoral thesis, gained at Kings College London in May 2012 under the supervision of Professor William Philpott (Bloody Victory and Attrition) and examined by Professor Sir Hew Strachan and Professor David Stevenson. Despite a lifelong passion for military history, Simon came to the profession late in life - having fitted in a 32-year career as an accountant and senior executive at British Telecom before retiring in 2001 to pursue other interests. One of those interests was, of course, military history, which took him to the reading rooms of the Imperial War Museum. There he used his French and German-language skills to research the Battles of the Frontiers. Whilst translating the French Official History's version of the Battle of the Ardennes, his eye was drawn to a copy of the German History - Der Weltkrieg - which when translated, gave a very different story of the battle. There followed nearly 10 years of painstaking research to unearth the truth about this little-known and misunderstood battle. Simon is 65 years old and is married with three sons. He has six grandchildren and (so far) two great-grandchildren. He lives in Southampton (the UK one) and is currently researching for his second book: this time on the subject of the 'tipping points' of the Second World War. See less