Hello and welcome to my website.

I’m a writer and part-time university lecturer based in South Wales, and hopefully, you’ll be able to find out all you need to know about my books from browsing these pages, but if you have any questions please don't hesitate to send me an email. I'll be delighted to answer your questions on any aspect of my work.

My latest book is 1812: War with America (Harvard, 2007) the first military history of the War of 1812 from the British perspective since the early 19th century. As the Canadian historian William Kingsford wrote in the 1880s, events in North America between 1812-15 were not forgotten in Britain, ‘for they have never been known there’, so my primary aim is to bring an obscure episode in British history to the attention of British readers, and secondarily, to present a British perspective to readers in North America.

I am delighted to say that 1812 has recently won a Distinguished Book Award from the Society for Military History, and has been short-listed for the George Washington Book Prize.

I am currently working on an account of the buccaneers of the 17th century and their part in helping to establish English, Dutch and French empires in the Caribbean. The aim of this book is to place the swash and buckle of characters like Henry Morgan into a broader historical context, while hopefully retaining the excitement and romance of the period. It is due to be published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson in May 2009. I will also aim to publish two further titles in the Osprey Campaign Series in the spring of 2009, Niagara 1814 and Kohima 1944, hopefully with more to follow

Apart from writing books I am a regular reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement, The Daily Telegraph, History Today and various journals, and I lecture part-time with the History Department at Swansea University, where I am an honorary research fellow with the Callaghan Centre for Conflict Studies as part of the new BA (Hons) scheme 'War and Society'.