J. D. Davies

J. D. (David) Davies (born 1 April 1957, Llanelli, Carmarthenshire) is a British historian, specialising primarily in naval history, and the author of both fiction and non-fiction books.

Davies was educated at Llanelli Boys' Grammar School and Jesus College, Oxford. After teaching for some years in Newquay, Cornwall, he returned to Oxford to undertake doctoral research on the naval history of the Restoration period. He was awarded the degree of DPhil in 1986. He subsequently taught history and politics at Bedford Modern School, also serving as a Sub-Lieutenant RNR (CCF). Ultimately, he served as Deputy Head (Academic) at BMS from 2000 to 2004. He then gave up full-time teaching to develop his writing career.

Davies's first book, Gentlemen and Tarpaulins: The Officers and Men of the Restoration Navy (1991) was a revised version of his doctoral thesis . His second book, Pepys's Navy: Ships, Men and Warfare 1649–89, was published in 2008, followed in 2010 by his first non-naval book, Blood of Kings: the Stuarts, the Ruthvens and the ‘Gowrie Conspiracy’.

Davies has contributed many articles and essays to historical journals and other works, including 67 entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and a chapter in the Oxford History of the Royal Navy. Britannia's Dragon: a Naval History of Wales was published in 2013 by the History Press, and he is working on a history of the Stepney family, baronets of Llanelli.

His non-fiction book Kings of the Sea: Charles II, James II and the Royal Navy, was published by in 2017. It discusses how the two monarchs developed the navy but also provides new information about Charles II.

In June 2018, Davies was working on the first novel in anew Tudor Naval series.

Matthew Quinton novels

Set in the period Davies had been researching for over 25 years, the series of novels centre on the adventures of Captain Matthew Quinton, one of the young "gentlemen captains" promoted by King Charles II of England despite their almost complete lack of experience of the sea. The first book, Gentleman Captain, published in North America in 2009, was very well received, being described by Booklist as "a splendid book, with terrific characters, a thrilling adventure, and a wonderful sense of time and place"and by Kirkus Reviews as "a delightful tale" . The subsequent books in the series (as of June 2018) include The Mountain of Gold, The Blast that Tears the Skies, The Lion of Midnight, The Battle Of All The Ages, Death's Bright Angel, The Rage of Fortune and The Devil Upon the Wave.

Not officially one of the series in some lists, another book (2014), Ensign Royal, also features Matthew Quinton but is a shorter novella.

Davies won the Julian Corbett essay prize for naval history in 1986, and in 2009 Pepys’s Navy was awarded the Samuel Pepys prize and Latham medal. Davies was elected chairman of the Naval Dockyards Society in 2005, a position that he continues to hold, and served as Vice-President of the Navy Records Society from 2008 to 2012, having previously served several terms on the society's council. He is also currently a councillor of the Society for Nautical Research and a member of the committee of the Samuel Pepys Club. Davies was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2010 .

Davies lives in Bedfordshire with his partner Wendy Berliner, an award-winning education journalist who served as education correspondent of The Guardian, editor of the Times Educational Supplement, and is now Head of Education for Guardian Business and Professional.