Best-selling Corby author returns to county for Oundle Festival after publication of new book The Hiroshima Men

Writer Iain MacGregor was a pupil at Lodge Park School where his love of history and English literature was nurtured in the 1980s.

His career has seen him work for some of the world’s best known publishing houses Harpercollins, Hachette, Random House, Simon & Schuster, and currently for Bloomsbury.

The 57-year-old has worked on major number one bestsellers including Bruce Springsteen's memoir, and with US Secretary of State, First Lady, senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

On July 3, Iain will return to Northamptonshire to St Peter's Church for a talk, an audience Q&A and a book signing of The Hiroshima Men.

He said: “I am originally from Corby, left to go to university and then built a career in publishing working with the likes of Simon Schama, Melvyn Bragg, and Max Hastings. Over the past decade I have then developed as an award-winning writer myself, published in at least ten languages.

"I am proud that I come from a working class family. My dad was in the steel works and then a coalman; my mother a dinner lady who attended night school to qualify as a chef.

"We never really had any books in the house, but both my parents were avid newspaper readers, and I guess that is where my love for literature came from at first.”

After attending Woodnewton Primary School, Iain moved to Lodge Park School.

He said: “I went to school at Lodge Park Comprehensive - and they ran foreign trips abroad - where I went to Soviet Russia in 1981 - and again, that gave me a desire to study history at university.

"I left and within a few years my parents moved back to Scotland to the west highlands to retire. I went straight from university into the publishing industry, climbing up the ladder in editorial.

"I have travelled the world and met/ published some incredible people's stories, as well as major No.1 bestsellers - my biggest being Bruce Springsteen's memoir, and also Hillary Clinton."

Like many families in Corby the MacGregors moved to the boomtown from Scotland in the 1950s. His father served with the Northants Regiment, passing on a love of history and politics.

Iain said: “I had some inspiring teachers at Lodge Park who engendered my love of history and English literature. Naturally, I am a very patriotic Scot! But I love Northamptonshire hence I wanted to speak at Oundle, where as a 14 year-old I competed in the Oundle School drama festival.”

Iain’s latest book, ‘The Hiroshima Men’ tells the decade-long (1936-46) story of the race for the atomic bomb, through the eyes of four main participants (American and Japanese), the war across Europe and the Pacific, and ends when Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and war journalist John Hersey breaks the story of what 'Little Boy' actually did to Hiroshima in his iconic article for The New Yorker magazine.

The account takes the reader from the corridors of the White House to the laboratories and test sites of New Mexico; from the air war above Nazi Germany and the savage reconquest of the Pacific to the deadly firebombing air raids across the Japanese Home Islands.

The Hiroshima Men also includes Japanese perspectives – a vital aspect often missing from Western narratives - to complete MacGregor's ‘nuanced’, ‘deeply human’ account of the bombing's meaning and aftermath.

Iain is the author of the acclaimed history of Cold War Berlin: Checkpoint Charlie, and the award-winning The Lighthouse of Stalingrad: The Hidden Truth Behind WWII's Greatest Battle.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, has spoken at many literary festivals and conferences in the UK and abroad, appeared on podcasts such as The Rest is History and on television documentaries.

Now living in London, Iain remembers his days in Corby with great fondness.

He added: “Corby was a product of its time - a tough steel town. I was surrounded by Scots, and all my friends at school were in the same boat. Corby was a great place to grow up - a strong community, many characters, and surrounded by beautiful countryside.”

Iain MacGregor - The Hiroshima Men is at St Peter's Church in Oundle on Thursday, July 3 starting at 7.30pm until 9.15pm.

For tickets go to the Oundle Festival of Literature box office by clicking here.

Find out more about Iain MacGregor here www.iainmacgregor.com.