LATEST NEWS:

My new book Novel Crime Scenes: Twenty Deadly Landscapes will be published by the Bodleian Library on 26 April 2026. I am talking about it at the Oxford Literary Festival, 25 March 2026

Brief Author bio

I almost accidentally ended up as an author and journalist, writing books that reflected my own life: setting up home (Mangle to Microwave), having children (Dream Babies: Childcare advice from John Locke to Benjamin Spock), exploring Europe with them (Heidi’s Alp), and discovering with them the real places in Arthur Ransome’s books (Arthur Ransome and Captain Flint’s Trunk; The World of Arthur Ransome). The books led to journalism in the major national newspapers and my becoming founding Editor of Oxford Today, the University’s first alumni magazine (now on line only as QUAD) and Senior Executor of the Arthur Ransome Literary Estate.

Enthusiasm for Thomas Malory, author of the Morte Darthur led me to write a major biography of him. And enthusiasm for his fifteenth century contemporary Alyce Chaucer’s magnificent tomb in Ewelme (near Wallingford) led me to exploring her life and to writing a trio of history mysteries imagining parts of it that we know nothing about (The Serpent of Division, The Book of the Duchess and Murder Will Out).

Literary geography fascinates me and I now write books for the Bodleian Library (Writing the Thames, Novel Houses: Twenty Famous Fictional Dwellings and the forthcoming Novel Crime Scenes: Twenty Deadly Landscapes).

I enjoy giving author talks on any of my books and on Arthur Ransome. As I published the three Alyce Chaucer books myself, I can also talk about the travails and triumphs of self-publishing.

Call me on 0796735090 if you would like me to speak at your event.