Michael Livingston

Michael Livingston is an American historian, author and broadcaster whose work combines medieval scholarship, military history and historical fantasy. He is a Distinguished Professor at The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, where he teaches the military and cultural history of the Middle Ages. His non-fiction frequently reassesses famous battles by combining documentary evidence, landscape analysis and modern conflict studies. His major works include Never Greater Slaughter: Brunanburh and the Birth of England, Crécy: Battle of Five Kings and Agincourt: Battle of the Scarred King, together with 1066: A Guide to the Battles and the Campaigns, co-written with Kelly DeVries, and The Killing Ground: A Biography of Thermopylae, written with Myke Cole. He has also edited scholarly collections concerning the battles of Brunanburh and Crécy and co-authored Medieval Warfare: A Reader.

Livingston’s fiction draws extensively upon ancient history, mythology and military conflict. The Shards of Heaven trilogy—The Shards of Heaven, The Gates of Hell and The Realms of God—reimagines the struggle between Octavian, Mark Antony and Cleopatra after the assassination of Julius Caesar, introducing powerful religious artefacts into the events surrounding the rise of the Roman Empire. The first novel was later reissued as The Ark and the Empire. His Seaborn trilogy—Seaborn, Iceborn and Stormborn—is a maritime fantasy adventure rather than conventional historical fiction. Livingston has also written Origins of The Wheel of Time, an authorised examination of Robert Jordan’s life and the historical, literary and mythological influences behind his fantasy series.