Andrew and me2

John Tintera is our Sales and Marketing Director over in the US. John has been doing a great job flying the flag for Osprey at dozens of events every year - so the chances are that if you have visited an Osprey stand at a show in the US you will have bumped into John. He has taken all the best bits from Sarah's job, and all the best jobs from Richard and combined it into one role. Unfortunately for him, the work of two people doesn't easily go into the work for one person, so John is actually hiring for a little help at the moment - so if you fancy working for Osprey and with John - why not apply for our Marketing Coordinator role?

John is pictured above with Andrew, the newest member of the Osprey family. John hasn't quite got to the point of using Men-at-Arms for bedtime reading material, but I am sure it won't be long!

When I asked John what his favourite Osprey book was he replied:

9781846034008

"My favorite Osprey book (so far!) is The Great Locomotive Chase - Andrew\'s Raid 1862 by Gordon Rottman.

As sales and marketing director for the US and Canada, I read a lot of Osprey books, but rarely have time to read any single book from cover to cover. I read this book in its entirety, with much pleasure, while sitting by a fire on a Saturday evening last winter.
 
Osprey books sometimes get knocked for the “workmanlike” quality of their writing (read: non-literary). The counter-argument is that it\'s difficult to capture the essence of a topic as broad as, say, the Scandinavian Baltic Crusades - and include pages and pages of uniform detail - in 48 pages!

There is simply not room for taught narrative or rhetorical flourishes.

Which leads me to why I so enjoyed The Great Locomotive Chase: it reads like a short story. The plot is tightly compact, the characters are vividly drawn, the tension is high, and the ending delivers a satisfying wallop. As a lover of short stories,

I wish that all Osprey books, short as they are, could transport me as swiftly as this one did. Alas, they are designed for other purposes. I suppose my secret is now out: “Raid” is and always will be my favorite Osprey series and The Great Locomotive Chase captures its spirit perfectly."



Now I would never dream of putting words into John's mouth, but in the light of this revelation I have to question whether he was inspired to name his son after an Osprey book!?