He was born in Hertfordshire and was educated at St Albans School and Downing College, Cambridge, where he graduated with honours in archaeology and anthropology.

His television credits include development and scripting for the BBC's QI,[7] Channel 4's Time Team,[8] including writing the Christmas special Time Team's History of Britain, script editing Bob Geldof's Geldof in Africa, and developing Terry Jones' Barbarians.

[9] He has also written the 3x1 hour history of the Egyptian New Kingdom for the BBC and Lion Television, Egypt’s Golden Empire, which was nominated for an Emmy Award.

He has a long association with Indian director Shekhar Kapur and was historical consultant on his features Elizabeth, The Four Feathers, and Elizabeth: The Golden Age coaching cast (including Cate Blanchett, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Richard Attenborough, Fanny Ardant, Vincent Cassel, John Gielgud and Heath Ledger) and crew in the historical background to the stories.

He has also worked closely in developing other history-based features for directors, including Gillies MacKinnon, Sam Mendes, Jan de Bont and Neil Jordan.