Hugh McManners

Joseph Hugh McManners is a British author, television producer and presenter, journalist, and musician, and songwriter.

He was born into an academic family in Oxford, the son of historian The Rev. Professor John McManners, and was brought up in Australia. He was educated at Sydney Church of England Grammar School, Shore, Magdalen College School Oxford, and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He read Geography at St Edmund Hall Oxford.

McManners spent eighteen years in the British Army, the majority of his time serving with 3 Commando Brigade. He was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1973 and was promoted Lieutenant in 1974 and Captain in 1979.

During the Falklands War in 1982 he fought with the Special Boat Service and worked with the SAS, and was awarded a Mention in Despatches. He was promoted Major in 1985. He spent five years with 148 (Meiktila) Commando Forward Observation Battery, as a commando, paratrooper and an army diving supervisor, and ran the British Army’s jungle warfare training school in Belize. McManners then passed the year-long Army Staff College course at Camberley, and spent two years working at the Ministry of Defence in London. He has served at Fort Ord California with the US Army's 2nd Infantry Division (Light), on counter terrorist duties in Armagh, Northern Ireland, and with the United Nations in Cyprus during the Turkish invasion of 1974. After commanding 17 Corunna Field Battery with the 13th/18th Royal Hussars , he retired from the Army in 1989.

McManners was the Defence Correspondent of The Sunday Times newspaper for five years, and also contributed to other major UK newspapers including The Observer and The Daily Telegraph also writing an article in The Independent regarding the controversial shoot to kill policy. He has co-produced a list of television documentaries and series on military subjects. He co-presented the BBC2 Bare Necessities survival series and the critically acclaimed Radio 4 series The Psychology of War. He is the author of many military books including the hard-hitting Scars of War, and several very successful Dorling Kindersley titles, including the Outdoor Training Manual and the Commando Survival Guide. He continues to work as an author and broadcaster, lives in London, and has two very musical sons. Also a musician and songwriter, he is the singer and guitarist for The BashBand.

Works

 * Falklands Commando
 * Crowning the Dragon
 * The Scars of War
 * Commando Survival Guide
 * Outdoor Training Manual
 * The Backpackers Manual
 * Commando - Winning the Green Beret
 * Top Guns
 * The Complete Wilderness Training Manual
 * Dorling Kindersley Children's Outdoor Adventure book series
 * Ultimate Special Forces: The Insider's Guide to the Most Deadly Commandos
 * Forgotten Voices of the Falklands: The Real Story of the Falklands War
 * Gulf War One - Real voices from the Front Line (to be published in Nov 2010 by Ebury)