Alistair Ward was born in Guildford, England in 1965. He was educated at Christ's Hospital, Horsham and Aston University in Birmingham. In September 1992, he travelled to the Spanish Basque country to take up an English teaching post at an academy in Irún. One day the director of the academy mentioned that the Duke of Wellington had once passed through the area. The comment triggered an interest in the fascinating shared history of Britain and Spain. After a year in Irún he moved to another language academy in Murcia in the south-east of the country. In 1996, having returned to live in England, he started work on España Britannia not realising that it would take seven years to complete. He lives in Windsor with his wife Susie and two daughters, Isabella and Amelia.