Peter Padfield

Peter L. N. Padfield (3 April 1932 – 14 March 2022) was a British author, biographer, historian, and journalist who specialised in naval history and in the Second World War period.

[7] He concluded that in the Board of Trade Inquiry chaired by Lord Mersey there had been "crazy deductions, distortions, prejudice, and occasional bone-headed obstinacy of witnesses and the court",[8] and the huge success of this enabled him to begin writing books full-time.

He developed the theory that it may have been part of a significant German peace offer and suggested that Hess was carrying documents with detailed proposals from Adolf Hitler.

[13][18] They settled first at Clare, Suffolk,[19] and brought up a son and two daughters in East Anglia, buying a gaff-rigged Norfolk shrimp boat for sailing on the River Deben.

Taking many holidays in Switzerland, until the arrival of old age the couple's interests included cross-country skiing in the winter months, and they continued with mountain walks in the summer.