Alan Bardos

Alan Bardos is a British historical novelist whose fiction focuses on the political intrigue, espionage and military conflicts of the first half of the twentieth century. He studied Politics and History at Brunel University and later completed an MA in television scriptwriting at De Montfort University. Bardos lives in Oxfordshire and has described his approach to historical fiction as combining extensive research with imaginative reconstruction, particularly where the documentary record leaves uncertainty about motives and events. His interest lies especially in the hidden diplomacy, intelligence operations and political manoeuvring surrounding the two world wars.

His Johnny Swift series begins with The Assassins, set around the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the outbreak of the First World War. The Dardanelles Conspiracy follows a secret British attempt to influence the Ottoman Empire during the war, while Enemies and Allies places Swift amid espionage and suspicions of betrayal within the Allied cause. Bardos later began the Daniel Nichols series set during the Second World War. Rising Tide takes place against the background of Pearl Harbor and a conspiracy intended to keep the United States focused on the Pacific, while Hunter Class moves to 1943, where Nichols joins Ian Fleming’s 30 Commando during the invasion of Sicily and becomes involved in an operation to capture German communications technology. Across both series, Bardos mixes fictional protagonists with real historical personalities and events, using the thriller format to explore the intelligence and political dimensions of twentieth-century warfare.