Biographer, travel writer and translator. His book Transit of Venus has been described as “the best modern travelogue about the Pacific” and his latest book is an acclaimed biography of the writer Norman Lewis, Semi-Invisible Man. He has also written and presented radio and television documentaries and writes for English and French newspapers and magazines including the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Traveller, Prospect, Times Literary Supplement and L’Atelier du Roman. He translates from French and German and is a recipient of the Académie Française Prize for the Advancement of French Literature. He was shortlisted for the 2016 French-American Foundation Translation Prize. He is a Royal Literary Fund Consultant Fellow.

• Recent book translations :
From French into English :
2017, The Great and the Good, Michel Déon (Gallic Books) – La Cour des grands (Gallimard)
2017 (June), Your Father’s Room, Michel Déon (Gallic Books) – La Chambre de ton père, (Gallimard)
2015 (Oct), The Dictator’s Last Night, Yasmina Khadra (Gallic Books) – La Dernière Nuit du Raïs (Julliard)
2014 (Oct), The Foundling’s War, Michel Déon (Gallic Books) – Les Vingt Ans du jeune homme vert (Gallimard)
2014, The Vatican Cellars, André Gide (Gallic Books) – Les Caves du Vatican (Gallimard)
2013, The Foundling Boy, Michel Déon (Gallic Books) – Le Jeune Homme vert (Gallimard)
2010, The Evolution of Theatre, André Gide (Cambridge Literary Review)

From German into English :
2016 (Sep), A Sense of Beginning, Norbert Gstrein (MacLehose Press)
2013, Winters in the South, Norbert Gstrein [with Anthea Bell] (MacLehose Press)

• Translations and editions in progress :
Michel Déon, The Stripling (Gallic Books, forthcoming)