Roger Crowley

Roger Crowley is a best-selling narrative historian with deep interests in the Mediterranean world and its surrounding area. At Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he read English but has gone on to build a reputation for writing page-turning history based on original sources and careful scholarship.

He is the author of a loose trilogy of books on the Mediterranean: Constantinople: The Last Great Siege/1453 (2005), Empires of the Sea (2008) – a Sunday Times (UK) History Book of the Year in 2009, and a New York Times Bestseller – and the City of Fortune on Venice (2011), as well as Conquerors (2015), a rare break out into the Atlantic with the Portuguese. His latest book Accursed Tower explores the end of the Holy Land crusades. His books have been translated into many languages.

He has talked to audiences as diverse as Melvin Bragg’s BBC program In Our Time, the Center for Naval Analyses in Washington, NATO, the Hay Festival, and the National Maritime Museum, appeared on TV programs, written articles and reviews, and traveled as far as China to give lectures. He is married and lives in England in the Gloucestershire countryside.

Roger Crowley was educated at Sherborne School and read English at Emmanuel College Cambridge. As the child of a naval family, early experiences of life in Malta gave him a deep interest in the history and culture of the Mediterranean world, which has remained the major subject of his work. 

He has traveled widely in the Greek-speaking world, taught English in Istanbul, and walked across Western Turkey. He worked for many years as a publisher before pursuing a full-time writing career. He is married and lives in England in the Gloucestershire countryside.

He has a reputation for writing page-turning narrative history based on original sources and eyewitness accounts combined with careful scholarship. He is the author of a loose trilogy of books on the history of the Mediterranean: Constantinople: The Last Great Siege/1453 (2005), drawing on his interest in Istanbul, Empires of the Sea (2008) about the contest for the Mediterranean between the Ottomans and Christian Europe, which was a Sunday Times (UK) History Book of the Year in 2009 and a New York Times Bestseller – and City of Fortune on Venice’s maritime empire (2011). 

These were followed by Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire (2015), an account of early Portuguese activities in the Indian Ocean. His latest book, Accursed Tower: The Crusaders' Last Battle for the Holy Land (Yale, 2019), chronicled the end of the crusades and the fall of Akko in 1291. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages.

Roger has talked to audiences as diverse as Melvyn Bragg’s BBC program In Our Time, the Center Analyses in Washington, NATO, the Hay Festival, and the National Maritime Museum, appeared on TV programs, written articles and reviews, and lectured to tour groups.