Welcome! I’m Dr Clare Makepeace. I’m a historian, writer, lecturer and consultant in the cultural history of the First and Second World Wars. My debut book is Captives of War. British Prisoners of War in Europe in the Second World War (runner-up in the 2018 Society for Army Historical Research Templer Best First Book Prize) and I’m an Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London.

I have also written on POWs in the Far East and researched and written extensively on the visits of British soldiers in brothels in  World War One. In both these topics, I focus upon the wider themes of men at war, emotions in war and memories of war.

I have written for numerous magazines and websites including BBC History Magazine, History Today, The Daily Mail, BBC News online, The Psychologist and Who Do you Think You Are? magazine.

I work with various media professionals both in a consultancy and on-air capacity and have contributed to programs for BBC 1, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC World Service, local radio outlets as well as newspapers, including the Independent and the Guardian. My work inspired an Arts Council funded theatre production ‘The House Behind the Lines’, which recently completed a regional tour in Yorkshire, as well as a poem by Hollie McNish on ‘War’s Whores’, commissioned as part of the centenary commemorations.

I have taught modern British history, gender history, captivity studies and history core courses, at undergraduate and postgraduate level, at the Institute of Continuing Education at the University of Cambridge; Birkbeck, University of London, and UCL.

Please do read more on my website, and don’t hesitate to get in touch.