My favorite period is World War II, and I'm in the middle of writing my fourth novel set in that era.
When I was a child in the 1940s and early 1950s, my parents and grandparents spoke of Britain as home, and New Zealand had this strong sense of identity and coherence as being part of the commonwealth and a the identity of its people as being British.
Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed.