Mark Felton Explained

Mark Felton
Birth Date:May
Birth Place:Colchester, Essex, England
Occupation:Author, historian, YouTuber
Years Active:2005–present
Organization:Royal British Legion (2010–2014)
Notable Works:Zero Night and his Youtube channel Mark Felton Productions
Module:
Embed:yes
Channel Url:MarkFeltonProductions
Channel Display Name:Mark Felton Productions
Channel Display Name2:War Stories with Mark Felton
Channel Url2:WarStorieswithMarkFelton
Genre:History
Years Active:2017–present
Subscribers:2.14 million
Views:842 million
Stats Update:21 Jan 2024

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.[1] He attended Philip Morant School.[2] 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.[3] 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.[4]

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.[2] [5] He was a volunteer for the Royal British Legion in Shanghai, organising the annual Poppy Appeal in Eastern China, from 2010 to 2014.[6] He assisted the British Consulate Shanghai in the rediscovery of the graves of four British soldiers killed by the Japanese in 1937.[7] [8] [9]

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).[10] [11] His book Zero Night, about an escape from a German prison camp, received much critical attention,[12] [13] [14] and was the subject of the BBC Radio documentary Three Minutes of Mayhem.[15] Zero Night has been highlighted to Essential Media for feature film development.[16] [2]

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.[17] In 2017, he became a member of the Naval Order of the United States.[18]

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).[19] For example, he has covered the German Wehrmacht's use of captured U.S. M4 Sherman tanks during the Second World War.[20] 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.[21] 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.[22]

In 2022, Felton was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.[23]

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.[24]

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."[25]

Personal life

Felton lives in Norwich with his wife and son.[26] [27]

Publications

Notes and References

  1. Web site: About Mark . 3 September 2017 . 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..
  2. Web site: Silver screen comes calling for Colchester author. Gazette. 7 April 2015 . 15 May 2016.
  3. Web site: Dr Mark Felton: Biography. Institute of Continuing Education, University of Cambridge. 24 July 2021 . 26 July 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210726011047/https://www.ice.cam.ac.uk/about-us/staff-profiles/tutor/dr-mark-felton. dead.
  4. Web site: DISSERTATION: Resistance in exile : Sitting Bull and the Teton Sioux in Canada, 1876-1881. 14 January 2024.
  5. Web site: Jeffs . Clare . 1 August 2012 . Author's appeal for books bound for university in China . 1 December 2023 . The Echo.
  6. Web site: Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal Shanghai 2013 launches. That's Online. 6 May 2016.
  7. News: Lost graves of four Ulster heroes who fell in China found. . 9 May 2016.
  8. Web site: HMS Daring – British Graves found in Shanghai. www.gov.uk. 9 May 2016.
  9. News: British soldiers' graves honoured in Shanghai cemetery. BBC News. 9 May 2016. 12 December 2013.
  10. Web site: Combat Trains. RadioTimes. 6 May 2016.
  11. Web site: Tojo Fuels the Fire of Hatred and Savagery. American Heroes Channel. 6 May 2016.
  12. News: An Over-the-Top Escape Plan. Wall Street Journal. Edward . Schneider . 28 August 2015. 26 April 2016.
  13. News: es . El piloto británico sin piernas que causaba pavor a los cazas nazis. ABC. 7 April 2015. 26 April 2016.
  14. News: Zero Night review: Flight to freedom. Gulf News. Somshankar . Bandyopadhyay . 23 September 2015. 26 April 2016.
  15. Web site: BBC Radio Cambridgeshire – BBC Radio Cambridgeshire Special, Three Minutes Of Mayhem. BBC. 9 May 2016.
  16. Web site: Hollywood To Tell Tale of Annbspeven Greater Escape by Allied POW's. subscription. 15 May 2016. The Australian.
  17. Author is 'bowled over' by a second Hollywood deal, East Anglian Daily Times, 28 October 2016
  18. Web site: Naval Order of the United States = 2017 Spring Edition.
  19. Web site: Mark Felton Productions. YouTube.com. 5 May 2023.
  20. Web site: 2019-10-31 . How Nazi Germany Used Stolen American Tanks In World War II . 2023-07-07 . Jalopnik . en.
  21. Web site: Tattrie . Jon . 2022-04-04 . Hikers find rare WW II Canadian tank 'rusting peacefully' in English field . 2023-07-07 . CBC News.
  22. Web site: War Stories with Mark Felton – YouTube. 2021-02-25. www.youtube.com.
  23. Web site: 23 May 2022 . Society elects 333 new Fellows, Associate Fellows, Members and Postgraduate Members . 28 May 2022 . Royal Historical Society.
  24. Web site: Operation Swallow - REVIEW. 1 April 2020. 4 January 2024. Litercurious.com.
  25. Web site: Dear Tank Community. Deutsches PanzerMuseum Munster. January 2022. 30 November 2023.
  26. News: Clapp . Iris . 2007-09-28 . Shanghai is full of nice surprises for Mark . . 2024-03-14.
  27. City author's history books transfer to the big screen, Norwich Evening News, 4 November 2016

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Mark Felton".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.