Dominic Selwood

Early life and career

Selwood was born in England, and grew up in Salisbury, in Cyprus and in Germany. He went to school at Edge Grove and Winchester College, and studied law and French law at the University of Wales.

He was awarded a scholarship to the University of Poitiers, where a chance meeting in a local café with the publisher (and early sponsor of Private Eye) Anthony Blond led to a collaboration on Blond's Roman Emperors. He was awarded a doctorate by New College, Oxford on medieval religious and military life, specialising in the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller, the two leading military orders of the Crusades. While conducting his research, he won a research scholarship to the Sorbonne in the history of Byzantium and the Christian Near-East. In 1997, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and he is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

He was called to the Bar in London by Lincoln's Inn, joined a set of barristers' chambers in the Inner Temple, and was a member of the Western Circuit. In a 2014 interview he said that his work as a criminal barrister had been formative for writing thrillers.

Selwood says he is "obsessed with the weirder side of the past", and describes himself as a "deeply fuzzy and laissez-faire English Catholic". He is a Freemason, belonging to the Old Wykehamist Lodge. He has spoken at schools, universities, literary festivals and the British Museum.

Newspapers and magazines

Selwood writes for the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper and is currently a resident history commentator, including the daily 'On this Day' column. His writing has been described as a "must read", "a fascinating change from the usual dusty history books", and "strident debunkery". He has also contributed to The Spectator, Prospect Magazine, and The Catholic Herald.

Television and radio

He appears regularly on television and radio as a historical commentator and adviser, including on the news discussing historical topics. Documentaries include:

Views

Selwood has argued for King Richard III of England’s guilt in the disappearance of the Princes in the Tower, and has queried the assertion of a 99.999% certainty of the DNA found in the bones in the Leicester car park in 2012 being that of Richard III.

He has written on Britain’s religious history. Like Eamon Duffy, he has argued for the widespread popularity and vibrancy of traditional religion in late medieval English society before the Reformation, and highlighted the intense efforts made by the Tudor regime to stamp it out from the top down.

He has criticized the popular depiction of Thomas Cromwell in Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall books for blurring historical fiction and fictional history, creating a literary persona for Cromwell that bears no relation to the historical person.

He has written of the ancient and enduring English fascination with magic and pagan celebrations like May Day and Halloween, and has explored the religious background to witchcraft and the medieval witch trials, arguing that the Reformation stoked the popularity of witch-hunts in Europe, resulting in the "brutal and pointless murder of tens of thousands of innocent women".

Selwood has argued for the medieval origin of the Shroud of Turin, and defended Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin in his acquisition of the Elgin Marbles or Parthenon sculptures from ongoing destruction in Ottoman Athens.

He has also argued in favour of the existence of Arthur as a warrior who led resistance to the Anglo-Saxon invasions of Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries. Although the historical character of Arthur is ultimately unknowable, the chronicle evidence for him cannot be ignored.

He has also highlighted the service to Britain in World War II of Muslims like the SOE/FANY Noor Inayat Khan, who worked alone behind enemy lines in occupied France, and Spaniards like Juan Pujol García, who was one of MI6's most effective spies.

Non-fiction

Novels

Antiquarian Ghost Stories

Films

Music

Selwood played bass in London rock band, The Binmen, with Sweet and Slade singer Mal McNulty and Necromandus and Ozzy Osbourne drummer Frank Hall.

He is a lifelong fan of Motörhead, and wrote the obituary of frontman Lemmy in The Spectator, describing him as "a national treasure – a unique collision of swing and amphetamines".