I’m the author of 8 books, 6 commercially published, one self-published and one private commission. Four were produced in collaboration with Steve Humphries of Testimony Films whose TV documentary singles and series on BBC, ITV and Channel 4, my books accompanied. I write mainly oral and narrative histories, though one is a dramatised biography and one part memoir, part history.

My first book, Love Child (Vermilion 2005) is a history of child adoption in the UK, interleaved with the story of my own adoption and birth family reunion. My latest project, published by Pen&Sword History in April 2026, is Trent Park House: a Century of Secrets, revealing the many contrasting 20th century ‘lives’ of Trent Park, the country estate in north London with an extraordinary wartime story and much else besides.

I write to learn more about my country’s recent history and my place in it.