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Mark Felton

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Mark Felton
FRHistS
BornMay 1974 (age 49–50)
Colchester, Essex, England
Education
Occupation(s)Author, historian, YouTuber
Years active2005–present
OrganizationRoyal British Legion (2010–2014)
Notable workZero Night and his Youtube channel Mark Felton Productions
Television
  • Combat Trains
  • Top Tens of Warfare
  • Evolution of Evil
YouTube information
Channels
Years active2017–present
GenreHistory
Subscribers2.14 million[1]
Total views842 million[1]
Last updated: 21 Jan 2024
Websitemarkfelton.co.uk

Mark Felton (born 1974) is an English author, historian and YouTuber. Felton has written over a dozen non-fiction books. He runs several channels on YouTube covering different historical subjects of the 20th and 21st century, mainly related to World War I, World War II, and the Cold War. Felton has been a lecturer at the University of Essex and at various universities in China. He has also been featured on television as a military history expert. In 2014, he published Zero Night, a book about the 1942 mass allied escape from the German prisoner-of-war camp Oflag VI-B.

Early life and education

Felton was born in 1974 in Colchester, Essex.[2] He attended Philip Morant School.[3] Felton sat for a BA in history and English at Anglia Polytechnic University; he also holds a postgraduate certificate in political science, an MA in Native American studies, and a PhD in history, all from the University of Essex.[4] Felton's PhD thesis, titled "Resistance in exile: Sitting Bull and the Teton Sioux in Canada, 1876-1881", was in the field of Native American studies.[5]

Career

Felton taught at the University of Essex before moving to China for nine years, where he taught at various locations including Shanghai University and Fudan University.[3][6] He was a volunteer for the Royal British Legion in Shanghai, organising the annual Poppy Appeal in Eastern China, from 2010 to 2014.[7] He assisted the British Consulate Shanghai in the rediscovery of the graves of four British soldiers killed by the Japanese in 1937.[8][9][10]

Felton has appeared on television as a military history expert, including in the series Combat Trains (History Channel), and Evolution of Evil (American Heroes Channel).[11][12][dead link] His book Zero Night, about an escape from a German prison camp, received much critical attention,[13][14][15] and was the subject of the BBC Radio documentary Three Minutes of Mayhem.[16] Zero Night has been highlighted to Essential Media for feature film development.[17][3]

In 2016, Felton's book Castle of the Eagles: Escape from Mussolini's Colditz, which concerns the escape of British generals from Vincigliata Castle near Florence in 1943, was identified for feature film development by Entertainment One.[18] In 2017, he became a member of the Naval Order of the United States.[19]

In October 2017, Felton started his first YouTube channel, titled Mark Felton Productions, which explores a variety of historical subjects in terms of the 20th century (including material outside of the First World War and Second World War context, such as releases about the Cold War).[20][non-primary source needed] For example, he has covered the German Wehrmacht's use of captured U.S. M4 Sherman tanks during the Second World War.[21] In April 2022, Felton published a video identifying an abandoned tank found in an English field as a rare Canadian Ram tank, designed and built during WWII.[22] In November 2019, Felton created a second channel, titled War Stories with Mark Felton, on which he posts recordings of himself reading from books that he has written.[23][better source needed]

In 2022, Felton was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.[24]

Felton's most recently published work is Operation Swallow: American Soldiers' Remarkable Escape From Berga Concentration Camp, which details the illegal mistreatment by Germans of U.S. prisoners of war under Nazi captivity in the context of the Battle of the Bulge. It was published by Center Street in October 2019. When creating the book, Felton analysed official documents as well as eyewitness accounts.[25]

In January 2022, the German Tank Museum issued a statement responding to a YouTube video Felton had posted, refuting a claim that they had "recently sold a Tiger I to a private collector and replaced it with a 1:1 plastic model." The Museum accused Felton of "...just want[ing] a maximum degree of sensation and emotion in his video, regardless of facts and with minimum workload."[26]

Personal life

Felton lives in Norwich with his wife and son.[27][28]

Publications

  • Felton, Mark (August 2007). Pen and Sword Books: The Fujita Plan – Hardback. Pen and Sword Books. ISBN 9781844154807.
  • Felton, Mark (2007). Slaughter at Sea: The Story of Japan's Naval War Crimes. Pen & Sword. ISBN 978-1-84415-647-4.
  • Felton, Mark (2008). The Coolie Generals: Britain's Far Eastern Military Leaders in Japanese Captivity. Pen & Sword.
  • Felton, Mark (2009). Japan's Gestapo: Murder, Mayhem & Torture in Wartime Asia. Pen & Sword.
  • Felton, Mark (2009). "The History Press – Today is a Good Day to Fight".
  • Felton, Mark (2009). The Real Tenko: Extraordinary True Stories of Women Prisoners of the Japanese. Pen & Sword.
  • Felton, Mark (2010). The Final Betrayal: Mountbatten, MacArthur and the Tragedy of Japanese POWs. Pen & Sword.
  • Felton, Mark (2010). 21st Century Courage: Stirring Stories of Modern British Heroes. Pen & Sword. ISBN 978-1-84884-073-7.
  • Felton, Mark (2011). Children of the Camps: Japan's Last Forgotten Victims. Pen & Sword.
  • Felton, Mark (2011). The Last Nazis: The Hunt for Hitler's Henchmen. Pen & Sword. ISBN 9781848842861.
  • Felton, Mark (2012). The Devil's Doctors: Japanese Human Experiments on Allied Prisoners-of-War. Pen & Sword. ISBN 978-0-19-106297-1.
  • Felton, Mark (5 June 2013). Never Surrender: Dramatic Escapes from Japanese Prison Campsyear=2013. Pen & Sword Military. ISBN 978-1-78159-022-5.
  • Felton, Mark (2 September 2013). China Station: The British Military in the Middle Kingdom 1839–1997. Pen and Sword Books. ISBN 978-1-78159-069-0.
  • Felton, Mark (2014). Guarding Hitler: The Secret World of the Fuhrer. Pen & Sword.
  • Felton, Mark (2014). Zero Night: The Untold Story of World War Two's Most Daring Great Escape. Icon Books.
  • Felton, Mark (2015). The Sea Devils: Operation Struggle and the Last Great Raid of World War Two. Icon Books.
  • Felton, Mark (2015). "The Perfect Storm: Japanese Military Brutality in World War II". In C. Carmichael; R. Maguire (eds.). Routledge History of Genocide. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315719054. ISBN 9781315719054.
  • Felton, Mark (2016). Holocaust Heroes: Resistance to Hitler's Final Solution. Pen & Sword. ISBN 9781783400577.
  • Felton, Mark (2017). Castle of the Eagles: Escape from Mussolini's Colditz. Icon Books.
  • Felton, Mark (2018). Ghost Riders: When US and German Soldiers Fought Together to Save the World's Most Famous Horses in the Last Desperate Days of World War II. Da Capo.
  • Felton, Mark (2019). Operation Swallow: American Soldiers Remarkable Escape from Berga Concentration Camp. Center Street. ISBN 978-1-5460-7643-8.

References

  1. ^ a b "About Mark Felton Productions". YouTube.
  2. ^ "About Mark". 3 September 2017. Retrieved 5 May 2023. Born in Colchester in 1974, Mark gained his PhD at the University of Essex where he lectured in history before spending nearly a decade teaching in Shanghai, latterly at one of China's most prestigious colleges, Fudan University. He also organised the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal for Eastern China, and was an education instructor for the Peoples' [sic] Liberation Army.
  3. ^ a b c "Silver screen comes calling for Colchester author". Gazette. 7 April 2015. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
  4. ^ "Dr Mark Felton: Biography". Institute of Continuing Education, University of Cambridge. Archived from the original on 26 July 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
  5. ^ "DISSERTATION: Resistance in exile : Sitting Bull and the Teton Sioux in Canada, 1876-1881". Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  6. ^ Jeffs, Clare (1 August 2012). "Author's appeal for books bound for university in China". The Echo. Retrieved 1 December 2023.
  7. ^ "Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal Shanghai 2013 launches". That's Online. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  8. ^ "Lost graves of four Ulster heroes who fell in China found". Belfast Telegraph. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  9. ^ "HMS Daring – British Graves found in Shanghai". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  10. ^ "British soldiers' graves honoured in Shanghai cemetery". BBC News. 12 December 2013. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  11. ^ "Combat Trains". RadioTimes. Retrieved 6 May 2016. [dead link]
  12. ^ "Tojo Fuels the Fire of Hatred and Savagery". American Heroes Channel. Retrieved 6 May 2016.
  13. ^ Schneider, Edward (28 August 2015). "An Over-the-Top Escape Plan". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  14. ^ "El piloto británico sin piernas que causaba pavor a los cazas nazis". ABC (in Spanish). 7 April 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  15. ^ Bandyopadhyay, Somshankar (23 September 2015). "Zero Night review: Flight to freedom". Gulf News. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  16. ^ "BBC Radio Cambridgeshire – BBC Radio Cambridgeshire Special, Three Minutes Of Mayhem". BBC. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  17. ^ "Hollywood To Tell Tale of Annbspeven Greater Escape by Allied POW's". The Australian. Retrieved 15 May 2016.
  18. ^ Author is 'bowled over' by a second Hollywood deal, East Anglian Daily Times, 28 October 2016
  19. ^ "Naval Order of the United States = 2017 Spring Edition" (PDF).
  20. ^ "Mark Felton Productions". YouTube.com. Retrieved 5 May 2023.
  21. ^ "How Nazi Germany Used Stolen American Tanks In World War II". Jalopnik. 31 October 2019. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  22. ^ Tattrie, Jon (4 April 2022). "Hikers find rare WW II Canadian tank 'rusting peacefully' in English field". CBC News. Retrieved 7 July 2023.
  23. ^ "War Stories with Mark Felton – YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 25 February 2021.
  24. ^ "Society elects 333 new Fellows, Associate Fellows, Members and Postgraduate Members". Royal Historical Society. 23 May 2022. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  25. ^ "Operation Swallow - REVIEW". Litercurious.com. 1 April 2020. Retrieved 4 January 2024.
  26. ^ "Dear Tank Community". Deutsches PanzerMuseum Munster. January 2022. Retrieved 30 November 2023.
  27. ^ Clapp, Iris (28 September 2007). "Shanghai is full of nice surprises for Mark". Daily Gazette. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
  28. ^ City author's history books transfer to the big screen, Norwich Evening News, 4 November 2016
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