He has spent most of his adult life in Spain, having settled in Valencia with his Spanish wife, actress and dancer Salud Botella.

In 1993 he graduated from Oxford University (St John's College) with a degree in Arabic and Islamic History.

Webster is the author of fifteen books on Spain and Spanish themes, ranging from travel to history, biography, detective fiction, essay, short story and poetry.

Apart from his books, Webster has also written for the British newspapers The Guardian, The Observer, Financial Times, The Daily Mail , the New Statesman and Sunday Telegraph, and for the Spanish newspaper El Asombrario.

He has appeared in several British TV documentaries, including An Islamic History of Europe,[8] presented by Rageh Omaar on BBC television and the critically acclaimed Andalusia: The Legacy of the Moors for Five.