Writing

Represented by Bill Hamilton at A.M. Heath, David is a translator, editor of Bloomsbury’s Looking at… series on Greek drama, and author of numerous books on Greek and Roman history.

His Athens Trilogy, published by Harvard University Press, has received much praise. It consists of Phoenix: a Father, a Son and the Rise of Athens (about the Persian Wars and the establishment of the Athenian Empire), a Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year; Hubris, Pericles, the Parthenon and the Invention of Athens, published most recently in 2026; and Nemesis, Alcibiades and the Fall of Athens.

He is currently engaged in writing two books for Thames and Hudson – Ancient Greece in 50 Monuments and A Brief History of Athens – as well as editing Looking at Oedipus for Bloomsbury.

David contributes articles and book reviews to Minerva and History Today, articles to ARGO, Current World Archaeology and Aspects of History, and book reviews to the Classics for All website. His translations and adaptations of Greek drama and poetry are performed regularly throughout the world.

Theatre

David’s current theatrical offerings are both literary entertainments.

It’s All Greek, performed by Dame Siân Phillips and Robert Powell, weaves together passages by Homer, Herodotus, the tragedians and poets such as Sappho and Alcaeus to ‘lead us on a journey through the looking glass of ancient Greece to reveal beguiling female sensitivity and tough hardened masculinity, a heady cocktail that quite often leads to lust.’

Women and Troy, with Dame Siân Phillips and Rachel Donovan, uses speeches from David’s adaptation and reconstruction of Euripides’ Trojan Trilogy to explore the impact of war on those caught up in it.

Both shows are currently being booked by Clive Conway Productions, and dates will be posted on the Calendar page of this website.

‘Let me tell you how much my wife and I, along with our companions, enjoyed the performances and especially the writing, which Alex Jennings rightly said made the words seem as fresh as if written yesterday.’ (Audience member)

Talks and Lectures

David has lectured regularly for The British Museum, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, City Lit, London and Goodenough College. David also speaks at literary festivals, including Cheltenham, Oxford, Hexham, Bridport, Sheffield, Ilkley and Lichfield.

David has been conducting online classes for New-York-based 92NY, and with the University of North Carolina. Chapel Hill, while, as a Fellow of Goodenough College, London, he participates in Dean’s Seminars with its members.

In 2026 these take him to Tunis to explore Carthage with the Bishop of North Africa, Santorini for work on the early history of Greece and well as seismology with Professor Tamsin Mather, and Athens to explore the Hekatompedon.

David is a regular guest lecturer for Noble Caledonia, and is looking forward to travelling with them to Sicily, Sardinia, Italy, Greece and North Africa in 2026, 2027 and 2028.