"The face for radio, but not the voice for it"

I had a new experience last month: I was interviewed for a podcast. (The tongue-in-cheek title of this post is meant to refer to me, not my handsome and mellifluous host, Scott Van Roekel.)

Scott is the creative genius behind the "Shot and Shield" podcast dedicated to 19th century and colonial tabletop wargaming. Each episode is a medley of information, ideas, interviews and entertainment geared to the interests of us C19 wargamers. Scott is a pro, it is well produced with bursts of music, audio clips of various kinds, and of course the engaging manner of the "Duke of Florida" himself. There is also a supporting Shot and Shield Podcast Wargaming Group on Facebook which is a rich resource in its own right.

Scott recently interviewed Dr Chris Brice. Chris is series editor of the "Musket to Maxim" books published by Helion, not to mention author of several books of his own. The resulting Shot and Shield Supercast 31 focusing on "Forgotten Victorian Generals" is well worth a listen.

Scott also asked Chris to offer authors of other books in the series for interview. I am honoured to have been the first up after Chris. Shot and Shield Supercast 32 includes a long conversation between Scott and me (starting about 25 minutes in). It hangs on the hook of my book "Hungary 1848: The Winter Campaign", but really it is a wide-ranging discussion. We talked not only about events during the Hungarian revolution and war of independence, but also about the background to it, the aftermath, and ripples and echoes in other subsequent conflicts; and not only about the military aspects but also the political and diplomatic dimensions, some insights into the characters involved, etc. Scott had scheduled an hour for our call but we ended up talking for a good 90 minutes plus - don't worry, he's edited it down! - but that tells you we had a lot of fun doing it, and I think that comes through in the podcast.

Regular readers of this blog may well feel they already know more than they ever wanted to about Hungary 1848. In that case, by all means skip the interview with me - but I do encourage you to sample other episodes. If you need something to listen to while you're painting figures, or on your commute, or whatever - give "Shot and Shield" a go!