Nick Bastin lives in London with his wife and three children and two cats.

His mother’s family come from Argyll in the West Highlands and the Island of Islay. He met his wife, who is from the Isle of Skye, studying Gaelic at an evening class in London – she was always much better at it than he was.

In 2007 he co-authored a Very Canny Scot – Daniel Campbell of Shawfield and Islay, a biography of one of Scotland’s leading figures of the early 18th century.

The Book of the Black Tower Trilogy are his first novels.

Teddy Campion is his Great Great Uncle and From the Frontline of History draws on diaries and private letters that have never been previously published.