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My first novel, The Straits of Treachery, is now available in paperback, published by Allison & Busby.

I am a British author, historian and journalist. I have published three works of non-fiction and my first novel, The Straits of Treachery, a tale of derring-do set in Sicily in September 1810. I am now writing a sequel, under the working title The Restless Harbourset in Palermo in 1811 and 1812. My journalism and book reviews have appeared in a number of publications.

Winner of the Society for Army Historical Research’s Fiction Prize 2020

Born in London in 1962, I was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, from where I graduated with an M.A. in Modern History. I was called to the Bar by Gray’s Inn in 1990.

My interests include architecture, the British countryside, art, politics, cricket, racing, springer spaniels and drinking wine.

I live in Dorset with my wife and two children.

BOOKS

The Battle of Maida 1806 by Richard Hopton
Pistols at Dawn by Richard Hopton
A Reluctant Hero by Richard Hopton
Richard Hopton

“swashbuckling, suspenseful and elegantly plotted, an intoxicating romp through the treacheries, duels and bravery of the Napoleonic wars”
Vanora Bennett, author of The People’s Queen

“Thoroughly absorbing history … Hopton’s prose races along, bringing to rich and detailed life the insanity and insouciance of this terrible sport.”
Daily Telegraph.

“Compelling”
Good Book Guide

“Here may be all you need to know about duelling – from its origins, possibly in a challenge issued by the Holy Roman Emperor to the French King in 1528, to its fizzling out before the second world war.”
Financial Times.

“Fluent and entertaining”
Times Literary Supplement

“A fluent and entertaining history of the practice of duelling”
Times Literary Supplement.

“Learned … absorbing”
Daily Telegraph.

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