An author and journalist specializing in Indonesia and the Indian Subcontinent. His Raffles and the British Invasion of Java, an account of the five-year British interregnum in 19th-century Java, won the 2013 John Brooks Award. His most recent book is A Brief History of Indonesia.
Born and brought up in Cornwall in the far west of the United Kingdom, he first came to Indonesia a decade ago as a globetrotting surfer. That first journey – through the outer reaches of Nusa Tenggara at the height of the wet season – was the start of an enduring fascination, and he soon returned to live and work in Java, first as a teacher, and then as a journalist and photographer.1