James is a British historian specialising in church history and warfare in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

His special talent lies in presenting history in an easily digestible. He is able to make rigorous history entertaining, whatever your existing level of knowledge.

James is an expert in Catharism, a popular so-called heresy that flourished in the Languedoc during the High Middle Ages. He has been researching Catharism and its relationship with early Christianity for over twenty years.

He writes on a range of topics including Gnostic Dualism, the Cathars of the Languedoc, the Counts of Toulouse, Occitania, Medieval Warfare and the Inquisition.

His work is characterised by serious scholarship combined with an entertaining style. A polymath, he has also written on subjects as diverse as computer simulation, mathematical problems, early Christianity, English etymology, castle architecture, philosophy, and comparative philology. He is the webmaster of www.cathar.info and www.catharcastles.info

James has travelled extensively in Central Asia and Southern Asia, researching Zoroastrianism and other Dualist religions. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London in 1990.