I’m an author and freelance journalist. I spent 16 years covering the British government for Bloomberg, taking in five prime ministers, as many elections, and the odd referendum. Before that, I worked for the Mirror and the Financial Times. I now have a regular spot as sketchwriter for The Critic.

All of my career moves have been accidental. I started as a computer scientist but fell into journalism, and then stumbled across a true WW2 spy story that so excited me I wrote a book about it.

My latest book, The Illusionist, is the true story of Dudley Clarke, an eccentric British officer who used stage magic techniques to persuade enemy intelligence of the existence of fake Allied armies.

My previous book, Agent Jack, doesn’t have quite so many laughs, although there’s an incident with a jar of marmalade and a blueprint for a Vickers tank. Oh, and there’s a naked German in a wardrobe. 

I read Artificial Intelligence at Edinburgh University, and consequently I’m the only member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery to have built a rugby-playing robot. Here’s a list of books that made me.

I live in south east London with my wife and sons. In 2002, I helped to set up Christians in Journalism, which is now part of Christians in Media.

If you’re weirdly curious to know even more about me, here are the eulogies I wrote for two of the people who helped me become the person I am, my mother and my uncle: