Biographical note

Clayton Donnell has had a lifelong fascination with the fortifications of the Western Front. He spent his early years living in Belgium, and often visited the sites of the Brialmont forts. Over the years he has amassed a large collection of material relating to this period, and has translated much of it from French to English. He has previously co-written Modern European Military Fortifications, 1870–1950: A Selected Annotated Bibliography (Praeger, 2004), and has written Breaking the Fortress Line 1914 (Pen & Sword, 2013), and three books in the Fortress series for Osprey: The Fortifications of Verdun 1874–1917, The Forts of the Meuse in World War I, and The German Fortress of Metz 1870–1944.

Donato Spedaliere was born in Lausanne, Switzerland, and moved to Tuscany, Italy, at the age of ten, where he still lives today. He has studied in Florence, and served in the Italian Army as a paratrooper.
Since 1995, he has worked as a professional freelance illustrator for publishers in Italy and abroad. His artworks are to be found in many books, encyclopaedias, magazines, and museum collections. He is also a 3D artist, specialized as Matte Painter, Concept Designer and CG generalist.