DAVID DOWNING
I grew up in the London suburb of Harrow, then spent four years at Sussex University doing a BA in Afro-Asian Studies and an MA in International Relations. Between 1973 and 1976 I worked for one rock magazine and freelanced for several others. In 1974 I travelled overland to India via Iran and Afghanistan.
Between 1975 and 1987 I lived in inner London and my first published book, which grew out of the rock journalism, was Future Rock in 1975. Since then I have worked as a freelance book writer. In this period the books mostly alternated between modern culture (rock music and movies) or political/military history, but I also wrote two works of ‘faction’ – the WW2 alternative history The Moscow Option about the forward-looking Russian Revolution 1985. I made three trips to the Soviet Union.
In 1987 my first real novel – the thriller The Red Eagles - was published in the US. Over the next six years I was involved in the creation of an environmental centre in north-east London, and undertook two lengthy trips to South and Central America. From 1993 I lived in Boston, Massachusetts with my partner Nancy, who subsequently became my wife. During five years in America I wrote umpteen SAS/SBS novels for Bloomsbury as David Monnery and a biography of Neil Young.
Since 1998 Nancy and I have lived in Guildford, UK. I wrote three football books on my return, and then spent several years writing history books for children. Since 2005 I have written four volumes of the John Russell series of espionage thrillers and a military history, Sealing Their Fate. Two more Russell books have recently been contracted to my UK and American publishers which will be the last in the series and I am also working on a new series of novels set in and around the First World War.
LATEST BOOK: POTSDAM STATION
April 1945. Hitler’s Reich is on the verge of extinction, and its enemies are already plotting against each other. Assaulted by Allied bombs and Soviet shells, ruled by Nazis with nothing to lose, Berlin has become the most dangerous place on earth.On the Oder front line John Russell’s eighteen year-old son Paul awaits the Soviets’ final onslaught, and the certain prospect of either death or imprisonment. Inside Berlin, Russell’s girlfriend Effi has a Jewish orphan to care for, and the Gestapo on her trail. The advancing Red Army promises liberation, but is also seeking retribution, particularly from German women. Russell is in Moscow. To find and save his son and girlfriend, he must reach Berlin no later than the Red Army. But only the Soviets can get him there, and the price of their help will threaten both his and the world’s postwar future.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Books for adults: Potsdam Station (Old Street; Soho Press, 2010/11); Sealing Their Fate: Twenty-two Days that Decided the Second World War (Simon & Schuster (UK), Da Capo (US), 2009), Stettin Station (Old Street; Soho Press (US), 2009/10), Silesian Station (Old Street; Soho Press (US), 2008), Zoo Station (Old Street; Soho Press (US), 2007), English v Argentina (Piatkus, 2003; Emecé, 2006), The Best of Enemies: England v Germany (Bloomsbury, 2000), Passovotchka (Bloomsbury, 1999) – history of 1945 Moscow Dynamo tour of UK, Dreamer of Pictures: Neil Young (Bloomsbury, 1994; Da Capo (US); Rittor (Japan); Goldmann (Germany), The Red Eagles (Macmillan (US), 1987), Robert Mitchum (W.H. Allen, 1985), Marlon Brando (W.H. Allen, 1984; Stein & Day (US)), Jack Nicholson (W.H. Allen, 1983; Stein & Day (US)), Russian Revolution 1985 (New English Library, 1983), Robert Redford (W.H. Allen, 1982; St Martins (US)), Charles Bronson (W.H. Allen, 1982), Atlas of Territorial and Border Disputes (New English Library, 1980), Jane Fonda: All-American Anti-Heroine (Omnibus, 1980) (with Gary Herman), The Moscow Option (New English Library, 1979; St Martins (US); Greenhill, 2002), War without End, Peace without Hope: 30 Years of the Arab-Israeli Conflict (New English Library, 1978) (with Gary Herman), Clint Eastwood: All-American Anti-Hero (Omnibus, 1978) (with Gary Herman), The Devil’s Virtuosos: German Generals at War (New English Library, 1977; St Martins (US); Playboy (US)), Future Rock (Panther, 1976). Non-fiction for children (all since 2001), Iran (Macmillan Library, 2008), Afghanistan (Macmillan Library, 2008), The War on Terror (Franklin Watts, 2007), Geography of the Middle East (Gareth Stevens (US), 2007)
History of the Middle East (Gareth Stevens (US), 2007), Governments and Leaders of the Middle East (Gareth Stevens (US), 2007), Conflicts of the Middle East (Gareth Stevens (US), 2007), Global business: who benefits (Heinemann Library, 2007), Origins of the Holocaust (Gareth Stevens (US), 2006), Persecution and Emigration (Gareth Stevens (US), 2006), Towards Genocide (Gareth Stevens (US), 2006), The Death Camps (Gareth Stevens (US), 2006), Fighting Back (Gareth Stevens (US), 2006), Aftermath and Remembrance (Gareth Stevens (US), 2006), The Making of the Middle East (Raintree, 2006), Afghanistan (Heinemann Library, 2004), Apartheid (Heinemann Library, 2004), The War in Iraq (Heinemann Library, 2004), Malcolm X (Heinemann Library, 2003), Che Guevara (Heinemann Library, 2003), Oliver Cromwell (Heinemann Library, 2003), Saddam and Iraq (Heinemann Library, 2003), The War on Terrorism (Heinemann Library, 2003), India and Pakistan (Heinemann Library, 2003), Africa: Postcolonial conflict (Heinemann Library, 2003), Martin Luther King (Heinemann Library, 2002), Mohandas Gandhi (Heinemann Library, 2002), Vladimir Lenin (Heinemann Library, 2002), Yasser Arafat (Heinemann Library, 2002), Emmeline Pankhurst (Heinemann Library, 2002), Democracy (Heinemann Library, 2002), Communism (Heinemann Library, 2002), Fascism (Heinemann Library, 2002), Capitalism (Heinemann Library, 2002), People Power (Heinemann Library, 2002), The Great Depression (Heinemann Library, 2001), John F Kennedy (Heinemann Library, 2001), Joseph Stalin (Heinemann Library, 2001), Benito Mussolini (Heinemann Library, 2001)
