Nigel Cawthorne is a prolific writer and is the author of both popular and investigative history books. Four of his publishers tell him that he is the most published living author in the UK. This is difficult to verify as he works under five different names and assumes other writers do too.

He was born in Wolverhampton – though Wikipedia says it was Chicago – and was brought up in what was then rural Surrey, now commuter belt. His first job was milking cows. Though the feel of a warm udder has its attractions for an adolescent boy, most of the job consisted of shovelling cow shit… But let’s not go further down the route.