I'm the Winner of the Osprey Blog Birthday Competition!

Osprey Publishing are the publishers of a huge range of books on military history. I've been a fan of their military history series for many years and have several of their titles in my book collection. Sometime last year I became aware that Osprey had a blog where some of the employees and other contributors would discuss their interests and provide cool links to military history-related sites. I immediately subscribed to this blog and have since enjoyed the numerous entries that are posted each and every month.

Not long ago, Osprey announced that their Blog was now a year old and to celebrate they ran The Osprey Blog Birthday Competition where one lucky reader could win a book from every month that the Blog had been running. With 12 copies of recent Osprey books as a prize I was certainly motivated to enter.

To enter the competition, you had to leave a comment saying which Osprey book is the most valued in your collection and why that is. The most interesting / weird / funny / moving comment would then be chosen by their panel of bloggers.

I entered...and WON! It's been announced on their blog (I used a pseudonym for my surname in my entry) and I only just received an email from them confirming it.

Here is the announcement from their website.

The Osprey Blog competition winner

July 24, 2008 12:00 AM

With everything that has been happening on the new website - the bloggers have only just been able to get together and choose a winner for the Osprey Blog Birthday Competition.

And the winner is....drum roll please...

Wayne Peredur, for this great comment...

"The most valued Osprey book in my collection is No. 7 of the Osprey Military Campaign Series - 'Alexander 334 - 323BC' (or Lucky Number 7 as I have come call it).

You see, not only is this book an excellent overview of Alexander the Great's conquest of the Persian empire, I also believe it's instilled with some of the luck of this ancient military genius.

I enjoy ancients gaming, whether it be board games or miniature games. Immediately after reading this book for the first time I was motivated to play a miniatures game recreating one of the battles excellently described within. The luck of Alexander must have been with me as the dice rolled well, my tactics were brilliant and I went on to convincingly win the game.

I soon began to notice a pattern. If I handled this particular Osprey title before any of my games I usually ended up the victor.

So now I have developed the habit, prior to any games, of flicking through this book or just running my finger down the spine for luck. And do you know what? Thanks to the inherent luck within this fantastic Osprey book (and my undiagnosed OCD), I now win more games than I lose!"

I love the idea that Campaign 7 is your lucky charm (although now your opponents might try and steal your book from you to aid their chances!) In fact, this week as I choose my lottery numbers I might do it while gently caressing my copy of NVG 110 Universal Carrier: The Bren Gun Carrier Story...

Congratulations again Wayne, your selection of 12 books will be winging its way to you shortly! - Mike.

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Thank you to Osprey Publishing and the panel of Osprey Bloggers - I'm very much looking forward to receiving my 12 books. Now for the difficult part - choosing just 12 from the 141 excellent titles they've published over the last 12 months!