Patreon Newsletter #1! (Patreon)

Dear Patrons, 

Welcome to the first Epic History newsletter! This is the first of our regular, fortnightly updates, exclusively for Patreon supporters - a way to share news, production updates and anything else that comes to mind...and also 'one cool history thing!' (more on that later).

New team members

First, I'm delighted to announce two full-time additions to the Epic History team:

James, our new Channel Assistant, has a History degree from King's College London. His studies focused on the British Empire and Decolonisation, but he also loved studying Crime in Early Modern England and The Troubles. He also loves the Romans (who doesn't). James is now in charge of all channel operations. 

Harry, our new Edit Assistant, read History at University College London, focussing on 20th century Chinese history, but his other major fascination is WW2 - aided by the fact he grew up next to Imperial War Museum Duxford, with Spitfires buzzing his house as a kid! Harry will be taking on an increasing range of editing and animating roles. 

It's great to have them both on board, two highly talented individuals with the history background to match. And a bigger team is going to mean more videos, more often! 

Production updates

Napoleon in Egypt Part 2 is imminent! We're following Napoleon's expedition to Palestine, the siege of Acre, and much more. Patrick and Mike of PMF are doing great work on this episode, and we hope to have it for you in about 2 weeks.

The first episode of our new short series on Nelson's Battles is also on the horizon. Episode 1 is the Battle of Cape St.Vincent. This is a very challenging and technical production, with a lot of 3D animation, but I hope the results will be worth it! Here's a little sneak peek... 

The Battle of Wabash is also in production, and will be in two parts. Many of you will know that this was a ferocious battle between Native Americans of the Northwestern Confederacy and the infant US Army. The Native American side of the story is often neglected, so I'm pleased to say we're liaising directly with the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma (one of the main forces present at the battle) to ensure our scripts are balanced and accurate.  We've also been speaking to some great artists, whose work we'll feature in the video... 

One Cool History Thing

This is the part of the newsletter where I'll be sharing random historical bits and pieces that I hope you'll find interesting! It could be about a book, film or TV, something from our research or just a great fact I've come across. This week, a trip to an airfield:

Like many of you no doubt, I've been watching the 'Masters of the Air' series from Hanks and Spielberg. Early episodes follow the USAAF 100th Bomb Group, posted to Thorpe Abbotts in Norfolk, England for the bombing campaign against Germany. My dad happens to live nearby, so we visited a couple of years ago, and found a renovated control tower and fantastic little museum. Here are some photos!

(First one shows airfield control tower in the 1970s before renovation).

Let us know your thoughts on the series if you've been watching it, and feel free to share other recommendations and cool things with me and the Patreon community in the comments!

More updates soon, and thank you for supporting the channel!

Toby