Donald Featherstone's War Games (1962)
Revised edition (2008)
Articles
Book review by Bob Cordery
Comments
Andy Grainger on War Games by Donald Featherstone
His comments are reproduced with permission'The Don (as we know him in my London wargaming circles) is the father of the modern wargaming hobby due to the publication of 'Wargames' and the companions on Naval Wargames, Air Wargames, my favourites 'Advanced Wargames' and 'Wargames Campaigns' and so on. But without 'Wargames' I do not think the hobby would have taken off in the way it did. It showed soldiers and terrain such as those owned by schoolboys such as myself, in action in a wargame with rules and equipment that we could understand. In my case a friend found 'Wargames' in the local library and introduced me to it in 1966. I was about 11 and my life was altered fundamentally! All the other books eg Young's 'Charge' were merely derivatives as, of course, were WRG, Tunstill etc.
Wargamers Newsletter brought together many of the individuals who wrote most broadly about the hobby as opposed to remaining on the tramlines of the WRG dominated Slingshot. Miniature Warfare was glossier but did not generate the same spirit of debate. Perhaps this was because the first thing you turned to in Wargamers' Newsletter was Don's editorial which you always knew would send your mind fizzing like the fuze on a Napoleonic howitzer shell!
I do not therefore disagree with your comments except possibly to suggest that his achievement was even greater than you imply.'