Biography.

About Jonathan 

Jonathan Falconer (born 1961) is an English publisher, author and historian. Born in Bath, Somerset, he now lives in Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire. He has written more than 40 books on aviation, military, local, and general history. He was educated at Fitzmaurice Grammar School, Bradford on Avon, and Bristol Polytechnic before embarking on a career in book publishing and writing in 1986.

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Jonathan has a wide ranging interest in history generally, but his primary concern and area of expertise is in Royal Air Force (RAF) history in the Second World War, a passion that has its roots in family links with the Service. His father and grandfather were in the RAF, and a great uncle served in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) in the First World War, transferring to the newly formed RAF in 1918. 

‍    From a young age, these family connections and the opportunity to meet and talk to veterans of both world wars, have driven his urge to research and record the experiences of those whose lives were shaped by the great conflicts of the 20th century.

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A Bathonian by birth and a Bradfordian by adoption, Jonathan’s belief in the importance of communities and their stories is another long-standing pursuit. With his father David they researched and wrote two books about their home city of Bath in the Second World War and the experiences of its inhabitants. As a boy, David had first-hand experience of the Bath Blitz, which informed his discussions with more than 50 interviewees whose personal testimonies were included in these publications.

Jonathan spent over ten years identifying more than 300 servicemen and one woman from the two world wars whose names are commemorated on Bradford-on-Avon and district’s war memorials, researching their stories and recording what happened to them. Sadly, many of these tales had remained unknown and undiscovered to all but a few since the events themselves. Jonathan considers his two volumes of Names in Stone that relate these experiences as being among the most important books he has written, filling in many gaps in the story of how the world wars affected Bradford-on-Avon and its inhabitants. 

Genealogy is another passion and an extension of Jonathan’s belief in the importance of communities – in this case the community of family. With his wife Annie they continue to research their respective family trees, revealing many incredible stories of their ancestors down the centuries and across continents. Most of all he enjoys writing, photography and the detective work of historical research – assembling facts and information to make a picture; taking photographs and tracking down archive images; weaving together interviews, pictures and other research material to make a great, illustrated narrative, taking readers on a journey into the past that they will remember after they’ve finished reading the book.