J. D. Davies (historian and author)

J. D. Davies
Born	J. D. (David) Davies (1957-04-01) 1 April 1957 Llanelli, Carmarthenshire
Nationality	English
Occupation	British historian (Naval history)
Known for	Author
Website
www.jddavies.com

J. D. (David) Davies (born 1 April 1957, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire) is a British historian, specialising primarily in naval history, and the author of both fiction and non-fiction books.

Life and career

Davies was educated at Llanelli Boys' Grammar School and Jesus College, Oxford. After teaching for some years in Newquay, Cornwall, he returned to Oxford to undertake doctoral research on the naval history of the Restoration period. He was awarded the degree of DPhil in 1986. He subsequently taught history and politics at Bedford Modern School, also serving as a Sub-Lieutenant RNR (CCF). Ultimately, he served as Deputy Head (Academic) at BMS from 2000 to 2004. He then gave up full-time teaching in order to develop his writing career.

Published works

Davies's first book, Gentlemen and Tarpaulins: The Officers and Men of the Restoration Navy (1991) was a revised version of his doctoral thesis .^[1] His second book, Pepys’s Navy: Ships, Men and Warfare 1649-89, was published in 2008, followed in 2010 by his first non-naval book, Blood of Kings: the Stuarts, the Ruthvens and the ‘Gowrie Conspiracy’. His first novel, Gentleman Captain, was published in the UK and Germany in 2009 and in the USA in 2010. Set in the period Davies had been researching for over 25 years, the book centred on the adventures of Captain Matthew Quinton, one of the young "gentlemen captains" promoted by King Charles II despite their almost complete lack of experience of the sea. Gentleman Captain was very well received, being described by Booklist as "a splendid book, with terrific characters, a thrilling adventure, and a wonderful sense of time and place" ^[2] and by Kirkus Reviews as "a delightful tale" .^[3] A sequel, The Mountain of Gold, was published in the UK and Germany in 2011 and the USA in 2012, ^[4] followed by The Blast That Tears The Skies (UK publication in April 2012). At least three more books will follow. Davies has contributed many articles and essays to historical journals and other works, including 67 entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and a chapter in the Oxford History of the Royal Navy. He is currently working on a naval history of Wales, to be published by the History Press, and on a history of the Stepney family, baronets of Llanelli.

Awards and positions of responsibility

Davies won the Julian Corbett essay prize for naval history in 1986, and in 2009 Pepys’s Navy was awarded the Samuel Pepys prize and Latham medal.^[5] Davies was elected chairman of the Naval Dockyards Society in 2005, a position that he continues to hold, ^[6] and served as Vice-President of the Navy Records Society from 2008 to 2012, ^[7] having previously served several terms on the society’s council. He is also currently a councillor of the Society for Nautical Research^[8] and a member of the committee of the Samuel Pepys Club. Davies was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2010 .^[9]

Personal life

Davies lives in Bedfordshire with his partner Wendy Berliner, an award-winning education journalist^[10] who served as education correspondent of The Guardian, editor of the Times Educational Supplement, and is now Head of Education for Guardian Business and Professional.^[11]

References