founded 1969 country of origin united kingdom headquarters location oxford publication types books nonfiction topics military history imprints shire old house official website www.ospreypublishing.com osprey publishing is an oxford based publishing company specializing in military history . predominantly an illustrated publisher many of their books contain full colour artwork plates maps and photographs and the company produces over a dozen ongoing series each focusing on a specific aspect of the history of warfare . osprey has published over 2 300 books . they are best known for their men at arms series running to over 500 titles with each book dedicated to a specific historical army or military unit . osprey is an imprint of bloomsbury publishing . contents 1 history 2 series 3 references 4 external links history edit in the 1960s the brooke bond tea company began including a series of military aircraft cards with packages of their tea . the cards proved popular and the artist dick ward proposed the idea of publishing illustrated books about military aircraft . the idea was approved and a small subsidiary company called osprey was formed . the company s first book north american p 51d mustang in usaaf usaf service was published in 1969 . soon after ward proposed trying the same idea with famous military units and in 1971 the first men at arms title appeared . in the late 70s the firm was acquired by george philip ltd. in 1988 philip was acquired by reed international ; it was sold to the private equity firm botts & company . 1 during these years the firm grew steadily adding new titles and new series to their catalogue . although they have produced books of all types the main focus remains on military history particularly the military history of britain . osprey publishing now publishes an average of 10 12 books a month . shire books was acquired in 2007 and the science fiction fantasy and horror imprint angry robot was purchased from harpercollins in 2010 . 2 the reprint house old house was acquired in 2011 . 3 to continue expansion a majority stake in osprey was sold by botts to alcuin capital partners in 2011 . 4 in 2012 osprey acquired duncan baird later renamed nourish and its watkins imprint . 5 6 in 2013 osprey acquired british wildlife publishing . 7 in 2014 osprey and its imprints were sold by alcuin . angry robot nourish and watkins went to etan ilfeld while osprey shire old house and british wildlife went to bloomsbury publishing . 8 9 series edit air vanguard launched in autumn 2012 it is the technical aviation series whose books give a concise history of an aircraft s design and operational history . aircraft of the aces a series that focuses on fighter pilots who became aces with first hand accounts aircraft profiles unit listings and scale plans . 10 aviation elite units provides a full combat history of a fighter or bomber unit that earned particular distinction in action with first hand accounts stories of the unsung heroes of each unit and specially commissioned aircraft profile drawings and illustrations . 11 battle orders details the organization of famous military units campaign individual battles or campaigns in military history combat a new series detailing the differences between soldiers in the field combat aircraft concentrates on one of the greatest aircraft in aviation history the technology behind it and the men who flew it . 12 command details the lives of important generals and admirals dark osprey a comedic series detailing paranormal topics such as nazi zombies and alien invasions duel comparing contemporary opponents such as french and british frigates in the age of sail or german and soviet tanks on the eastern front . elite details individual units or tactics essential histories each book studies the origins politics fighting and repercussions of one major war or theatre of war from both military and civilian perspectives . 13 fortress details important fortifications from roman forts to hitler s bunkers to the berlin wall men at arms an illustrated reference on the history organisation uniforms and equipment of the world s military forces past and present . 14 myths and legends examines the great stories that have echoed down through time to help shape our cultures . each title focuses on a specific legendary figure retelling the related myth and also provides interesting factual information about the history behind the story and its evolution over time . 15 new vanguard approx 200 books on military equipment such as vehicles artillery and ships osprey wargames a series of wargaming rules osprey modelling how to guide to military model making raid details about famous military raiding actions or daring plans warrior focuses on the individual warrior of a specific period or culture examining his experiences on the battlefield as well as his training fighting methods and day to day living . weapon discusses individual weapons from sidearms to artillery references edit sturrock to chair osprey publishing . the bookseller . retrieved 2015 01 19 . neilan catherine 2010 05 11 . hc imprint angry robot acquired by osprey . thebookseller.com . archived from the original on 2010 09 27 . retrieved 2010 09 07 . osprey acquires old house publishing . osprey publishing . retrieved 2015 01 19 . osprey gets additional funding ; seeks acquisitions . publishers weekly . retrieved 2015 01 19 . osprey buys duncan baird . the bookseller . retrieved 2015 01 19 . duncan baird rebrands as nourish . publishers weekly . retrieved 2015 01 19 . osprey buys british wildlife publishing . the bookseller . retrieved 2015 01 19 . osprey sells off watkins angry robot and nourish . the bookseller . retrieved 2015 01 19 . bloomsbury buys osprey . the bookseller . retrieved 2015 01 19 . http www.ospreypublishing.com aircraft aces http www.ospreypublishing.com elite units http www.ospreypublishing.com combat aircraft http www.ospreypublishing.com essential histories http www.ospreypublishing.com men at arms http www.ospreypublishing.com myths and legends external links edit official osprey publishing website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title osprey publishing & oldid 705773924 categories book publishing companies of the united kingdomcompanies based in oxfordmedia in oxfordpublishing companies established in 1969books about military history 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 deutschfran aisitaliano polski edit links this page was last modified on 19 february 2016 at 14 03 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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