James Evans did his PhD at Oriel College, Oxford, following a first-class Masters in Historical Research. He has worked as a producer on various historical television documentaries, including Dan Cruickshank's 'Hidden Houses' (BBC2), Niall Ferguson's 'Western Civilisation' (C4), Griff Rhys Jones's 'Rivers' (BBC1) and Michael Wood's 'English Story' (BBC2), for which he also contributed to the accompanying book.