About me

I am the author of Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-earth, published by HarperCollins in Britain and Houghton Mifflin in the United States, and translated into Italian and Chinese.

The fruit of five years’ research and writing, it is the first substantially new biographical study of J.R.R. Tolkien since 1977, and tells of his experiences as a soldier on the Somme, his youthful friendships and battlefield bereavements, and the laying of the foundations of Middle-earth in the midst of the First World War. You can read more about Tolkien and the Great War and its critical reception here.

Some of my other writing will be made available on this website. By far the most substantial is a piece of new biography about Tolkien, his Oxford college and the Great War, which I delivered at a conference there in August 2006; it contains much material that could not be accommodated in Tolkien and the Great War.

I have spoken at other Tolkien-related conferences, written further reviews, and made a number of appearances on DVD, television and radio. A fairly comprehensive list of these publications and activities can be found here.

I hope to add more material to this website in due course, so please do come back.

I studied English Language and Literature at St Anne’s College, Oxford, and I have since pursued a career in journalism and writing, including 13 years on the London Evening Standard and three years freelancing, mainly at Daily Mail Online. I live with my wife Jessica and our daughter Lorelei.