David Gibbins is a renowned author of thriller novels, born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1962 to English parents who were both academic scientists. As a child, he traveled around the world with his parents, spending four years in New Zealand. This early exposure to different cultures and environments would later influence his writing, which often draws from historical and archaeological contexts.
Gibbins is a graduate of the University of Bristol, where he received a first-class honors degree in Ancient Mediterranean Studies. He furthered his education at Cambridge University, earning a PhD in Archaeology from Corpus Christi College in 1990. His academic background in archaeology provided him with the expertise to write authentic and plausible narratives in his novels.
In addition to being a novelist, Gibbins is also an accomplished underwater archaeologist. He learned to scuba dive at the age of 15 and has since led numerous underwater archaeology expeditions around the world. His fieldwork has taken him to various locations, including the Arctic Ocean, Mesoamerica, and the Great Lakes in Canada. His many publications on ancient shipwreck sites have appeared in scientific journals, books, and popular magazines.
Gibbins began his writing career in the late 1990s, after leaving teaching at the University of Liverpool's School of Archaeology, Classics and Oriental Studies. He has since written eleven novels, including the Jack Howard series of archaeological adventures and the Total War series set in the ancient world. His novels have been translated into over thirty languages and have appeared on both the New York Times and the London Sunday Times bestseller lists. Gibbins' awards include a Fellowship and Medallion from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.