Simon Forty was educated in Dorset and the north of England before reading history at London University’s School of Slavonic and East European Studies. He has been involved in publishing since the mid-1970s, first as editor and latterly as author. Son of author and RAC Tank Museum curator George Forty, he has continued in the family tradition writing mainly on historical and military subjects including books on the Napoleonic Wars and the two world wars. Recently he has produced a range of highly illustrated books on the Normandy battlefields, the Atlantic Wall and the liberation of the Low Countries with co-author Leo Marriott.

Stephen Smith, a veteran of over a thousand armed operations during his twenty-two years with the Metropolitan Police specialist firearms command, was born in south London in 1960. He joined the Met at nineteen and after twelve years in uniform passed selection for PT17, the Mets firearms unit, where he was selected to work on the specialist firearms teams, experiencing first-hand the explosive and controversial world of police firearms operations.Between operational postings, Stephen has taught most aspects of armed policing. He left the Met in 2013 after 33 years service and now instructs firearms and tactics with a non-Home Office police force.Author of _Stop! Armed Police!_ (Hale Publishing, 2013) Stephen Smith recently featured on Channel 5, in the four-part documentary series _Armed and Dangerous_ and previously HBO's _Secrets of New Scotland Yard_. He has also advised on films and TV police dramas. He continues to have a great interest in police firearms history and supports the police firearms charity the PFOA.