Writing historical fiction has become an unbidden and unexpected passion. For thirty years I’ve been published in my academic disciplines of psychology and moral philosophy. There, the principal thrust of my writing has been on leadership, the identification of potential and the leveraging of productive talent.

Historical fiction allows me to reconnect with three other aspects of my earlier life – full-time and volunteer reserve service in, first, Naval Intelligence and secondly the Royal Marines (SBS and Commando) Thirdly is an abiding love of history developed in the sixth form by a wonderfully engaging history master whose passion for his subject was inescapably infectious.

Historical novels – especially those with a strong naval or military element – provide plenty of scope for exploring leadership and leader styles, in so many different historical and socio-political contexts. The challenge is that of imagining what would be leadership which produces results in, say, the English Civil War or the American War of Independence, based upon experience of the professional yet egalitarian leadership so typical of modern British Special Forces. The one is primarily authoritarian – the other is essentially authoritative. After only four years as a writer in this fascinating genre my only regret is that I waited until the age of 75 to have my first novel published…