Paul began his writing career in his early 30s after working as a researcher and editor for museums and publishers. He has written over 60 books – most of them non-fiction – on everything from Stone Age cookery to genetic engineering.

Paul started writing novels in 2004, and has now had six Historical Fiction books published by Bloomsbury. Auslander, set in Nazi Berlin and published in 2009, has been shortlisted for 20 book awards including the Red House Award, the Booktrust Teenage Prize, and the Hamelin Associazione Culturale Book Prize. The Financial Times said ‘Ausländer ranks among the very best of wartime historical fiction.’

More recently Paul has written about Renaissance Prague in The Cabinet of Curiosities, and Cold War Germany in his latest book Sektion 20. His is currently finishing a novel set during the First World War.

Paul is a regular visitor to schools, where he takes writing workshops and gives talks based around his Nelson era Powder Monkey trilogy, Auslander, and Sektion 20.

When he’s not writing Paul likes being a Dad, playing music and travelling.