Biography

My academic background, school and university, was the world of Latin and Ancient Greek, classical civilisation. I studied at Oxford and won a first class undergraduate degree. After that I took a job in the financial world. That was a learning curve and miles out of my comfort zone.

I lived in Tokyo, then in Madrid and Vienna, alternating with spells in London. By living locally I honed my Spanish and German, although I picked up little Japanese. As the grandson of a Frenchwoman I am happy in French.

When I came back to London full-time, my thoughts returned to the lessons of history. The perpetual now of the markets lost its glitter.

My interest in early modern Europe came from books first of all. At the outset, from the four volume biography by Winston Churchill of his ancestor the first Duke of Marlborough. I read it first in my early twenties and again in my forties, both times wishing it would never end. There are more exacting historians but this is some read.

Always I have liked 'being there.' Visiting historic places, museums, battlefields. Seeing what is left helps you imagine the past. Another experience, in the early 1990s - I still think about it - was finding the exquisite Liria Palace in downtown Madrid and realising that its Spanish owner, with her Stuart name, descended from the Stuart kings. Unexpected connections.

When I stopped working in finance I was free to concentrate on two interests: the past and the creative world. The first has led to my writing two books: Henrietta Maria and The King's Only Champion.  As for the second, the practice of drawing and painting is always in my life. So I put some sketches in this site.

For a third book I am researching the French court of the seventeenth century. There are many superb studies for the broad public on early modern England, but little on continental Europe, even on Scotland and Ireland. I like the links between nations and I like biography.

Why do things happen? History tells us about unreason. It is the study of disruption. The best laid plans stall and crumble. In history we see luck and character and the unexpected. Real life.