I’m always delighted to give talks to national and local history societies, literary festivals, local libraries, reading groups, etc,usually for a modest fee plus expenses. Please go to the Contacts page to get in touch.
Note to organisers – it’s not essential for my talks to be accompanied by a full orchestra
Given sufficient notice, talks can be tailor-made to suit a particular area, e.g. ‘[County name] and the Sailing Navy, 1600-1850’.
Other topics include:
– Writing 17th century naval fiction
– The Anglo-Dutch Wars of the Seventeenth Century
– Samuel Pepys
– The ‘Gowrie Conspiracy’ of 1600
– Admiral Adam Duncan
– Admiral John Byng
– and talks about my books, either generally or individually
Speaking at the inaugural Stuart History Festival, Worcester, July 2025
I have delivered, inter alia:
– the keynote address to the New Researchers in Maritime History conference, University of Plymouth, 2016
– the Barry Coward Memorial Lecture at Birkbeck College, London
– the Betty Loosely Memorial Lecture to the Royal Stuart Society
– Trafalgar Night addresses to various branches of the Royal Naval Association
– the (televised) eulogy to Admiral John Byng at Southill Church, his burial place, on the 250th anniversary of his execution, 2007
Speaking to the Historic Novel Society (North America) conference just outside Washingtpn DC, 2019. (With Gillian Bagwell and Jeff Shaara, author of Gods and Generals)
I’ve delivered other talks and lectures to, again inter alia:
– the Hitchin, Taunton and Penzance literary festivals
– the International Commission for Maritime History at King’s College, London;
– the Anglo-French naval historians’ conference, and to conferences in the Netherlands and Sweden;
– the Mediterranean Institute of the University of Malta;
– the Welsh maritime history conference;
– the early modern history seminars of Oxford, Cambridge and London universities;
– the ‘Open Museum’ adult education programme at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich;
– the annual conference of the Naval Dockyards Society, also at Greenwich;
– and many local history societies and libraries in the Home Counties and South Wales
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