Biography

Iain Ballantyne is the author of well-received factual books and a novel. A former globe-trotting defence reporter, one-time movie reviewer on radio and co-devisor of a game show with a wine theme broadcast on national television in the United Kingdom. His most recent TV programme was a primetime documentary on the pursuit and destruction of the WW2 German battleship Bismarck in WW2.

Iain’s books include the award-winning ‘Killing the Bismarck’ (2010), ground-breaking ‘Hunter Killers’ (2013), highly praised ‘Arnhem: Ten Days in the Cauldron’ (2019) and ‘The Deadly Trade’ (2018). The latter was described by ‘The Times’ newspaper as ‘superbly told…consistently fascinating’.

‘Martin’s Eyes’ (2026) is Iain Ballantyne’s latest book (and debut novel). It is partly inspired by Iain meeting and interviewing a real-life Nazi hunter and former prisoners of war while writing features for the ‘Western Morning News’. In the month of its publication ‘The Times’ described ‘Martin’ Eyes’ as one of ‘Eight great historical novels to read in April’. An accompanying review described it as ‘a nuanced, moving take on a perpetual question: how did normal men become foot soldiers to Hitler’s appalling vision?’

Other praise for ‘Martin’s Eyes’ (published by Chiselbury) has saluted it as ‘a gripping novel of love, betrayal and espionage’ with characters that are ‘compelling’ and offering ‘relentless’ action. Another reviewer called it ‘a terrifically gripping WW2 novel. Beautifully written and wonderfully atmospheric – it tells a compelling tale of wartime life in all its aspects. Masterly!’ Furthermore, the novel’s style has been described as ‘John Le Carré meets Alistair MacLean’ with comparison to the works of the late, great Len Deighton.

Journalism

A widely-travelled and experienced journalist, Iain has pursued a varied career.
His defence reporting assignments took him into Arctic Norway and the Barents Sea, to waters off China and Kuwait, into Bosnia and to Berlin, plus venturing into the deserts of Arabia and North Africa. He reported from Eastern Europe a number of times, including Russia.

As a regional newspaper reporter Iain covered crime, local courts and councils, environmental health, golden weddings, occasional sporting events, and country shows, carnivals, fires and murders, shootings, the arts and social issues (including poor housing), along with local and Parliamentary politics.

During his journalistic travels abroad Iain not only had a front row seat to report on major events – such as the fall of the Soviet Union, the 1990/91 Gulf War and military operations off and in the conflict ravaged Balkans – but also the end of British rule in Hong Kong. He profiled the new Germany in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall, venturing to the Czech Republic, Latvia, Austria, Gibraltar, Morocco and Tunisia on various other writing assignments.

Scriptwriter

Iain briefly worked for a London-based national news agency as its Defence and Diplomatic Correspondent and then for some years was a freelance scriptwriter for a multi-media company with offices in the Café Royal and then Golden Square in Soho.

Iain generated scripts for the Royal Navy Presentation Team (RNPT), a multi-media roadshow that explained the roles, operations and ethos of the Senior Service to select audiences, including members of the general public, industry executives and community leaders.

Iain also wrote the scripts for naval training films, a regular RN video news show and worked on special productions about the Royal Navy and Royal Marines in the Iraq War plus a documentary about WW2’s Battle of the Atlantic whose narrator was Sir Richard Attenborough.

TV and Radio

Iain has commented on defence and naval history topics for various national radio and regional television outlets, most recently for Radio 5 Live on the Adrian Chiles and Matt Chorley shows.

Iain at one time regularly reviewed movies on the radio – having started out as a teenager writing reviews for regional publications in the UK. He also co-devised a TV game show with a wine theme for the UK’s Channel 4 (1998) and in 2021 Channel 4 broadcast a documentary based on Iain’s cinematic-style book ‘Bismarck: 24 Hours to Doom’(2016). It featured interviews with British naval veterans of WW2 that Iain filmed with a cameraman colleague. Iain also contributed to its script.

Special Publications

Iain is Editor of the popular ‘Guide to the US Navy’ (published on a regular basis since 2018) and its sister ‘Guide to the Royal Navy’ (since 2003) both special editions of Warships IFR plus also helmed a VE Day 80 bookazine, also for Sundial Magazines

Iain has made major contributions to other special publications. He wrote a major narrative history on the Submarine Service of the Royal Navy for the ‘Submarine Memorial’ (2022) and also for ‘Battle of the Atlantic’ (2023) and ‘D-Day 80’ (2024) All were commemorative publications for the TheVeteran.UK

Award-winning Editor

Iain’s accolades include being awarded a Fellowship by the UK’s Maritime Foundation in 2017 for his ‘immense contribution to the maritime cause.’ Iain is the founding and current Editor of the global naval news magazine ‘Warships IFR’ which over that past three decades has built up a loyal readership, with a worldwide team of writers and photographers.

Podcasting

Iain hosts the Warships IFR podcast, interviewing senior naval officers, fellow historians and authors, naval veterans, academics and well-informed naval and defence experts. He has also been on other podcasts – including an episode on the sinking of the Belgrano for Dan Snow’s History Hit podcast – and has appeared on the ‘Secrets and Spies’ and ‘Cold War Conversations’ podcasts and several times on the WW2TV YouTube channel.

Talks

Iain has given talks on his books and related topics, including at: the National Museum of the Royal Navy; the Isle of Wight Literary Festival; Royal Navy Submarine Museum; the Fleet Air Arm Museum; York Festival of Ideas; the Army and Navy Club, London. In 2028 he was lead speaker at an event in Harwich to mark the surrender of the German submarine fleet at the end of WW1. He has given talks to the HMS Cossack and HMS Warspite veterans’ associations, and is an honorary member of the latter. Iain has also been an special guest at the HMS Hood and HMS Dorsetshire annual dinners, plus has survived the occasional gathering of submariners.