has multiple issues . please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . learn how and when to remove these template messages this article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . september 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message this article contains content that is written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . april 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message learn how and when to remove this template message pen and sword company logo pen and sword books is a british publisher which specializes in printing and distributing books on military history and other niche subjects . pen & sword books is part of the barnsley chronicle newspaper group . the barnsley chronicle is one of the uk s oldest provincial newspapers and one of the few weeklies still in private ownership . it was launched in 1858 and celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2008 . contents 1 history 1.1 select series 2 references 3 external links history edit the first books produced by the company were in response to public demand following a series of articles first published weekly in the barnsley chronicle . dark peak aircraft wrecks told the story of crash sites in the dark peak national park and a further weekly feature on the history of two kitchener battalions known as the barnsley pals aroused a public thirst for more . over the years these books have been reprinted a number of times and collectively have reached a sales figure of around 20 000 copies . durham pals from pals book series western front south from holt s guidebooks series following on from the success of the dark peak and barnsley pals books a number of local history paperbacks were produced along with a series of battlefield guide books . battleground europe proved immediately successful and as more and more titles were produced the company made the decision to launch a book publishing arm of the group . when the leo cooper imprint became available the barnsley chronicle bought it ; and the pen and sword publishing house was established in 1990 . 1 leo cooper 25 march 1934 29 november 2013 the husband of novelist jilly had established a strong reputation for publishing military history titles and had some well known books in his list . cooper later retired . 1 pen and sword also covers naval and maritime history aviation local history family history collectables and antiques nostalgia and true crime . select series edit aviation heritage trail stories history and events behind famous aviation operations battlegrounds over 100 illustrated battleground guide books from periods including 1066 wars of the roses the english civil war napoleonic zulu war the boer war world war i to world war ii holt s guidebooks overview general information books with detailed maps memorials battleground descriptions and tourist focused summaries covering varied campaigns from world war i and world war ii pals narratives documenting the lives of friends comrades and pals who joined together in the same battalions to serve king and country during the great war classics books covering military operations and stories from many different periods throughout history warships of the royal navy stories behind famous royal navy ships from the napoleonic wars to contemporary military conflicts images of war photographs from wartime archives with detailed captions and references shot in the tower the story of the spies executed in the tower of london during the first world war 2 references edit a b obituary leo cooper telegraph.co.uk 2 december 2013 . shot in the tower the story of the spies executed in the tower of london during the first world war amazon.co.uk leonard sellers books . amazon.co.uk . retrieved 2014 03 08 . external links edit official website barnsleychronicle.co.uk barnsley chronicle retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title pen and sword books & oldid 718905063 categories book publishing companies of the united kingdomhidden categories articles needing additional references from september 2014all articles needing additional referencesarticles with a promotional tone from april 2012all articles with a promotional tone navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 6 may 2016 at 10 13 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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