Richard Allibone was born in 1967 and studied Classics and Ancient History at Pembroke College, Cambridge. He has pursued a lifelong interest in military history , especially the study of the underlying psychology of warfare, and the role of religious ideology. His university thesis explored the relationship between military psychology and civic ideology during the Peloponnesian War in C5th B.C. Athens. He lives in London with his wife Anne and this his first novel.