James Waterson

James Waterson is a graduate of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and has post-graduate degrees from the University of Dundee and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. He traveled and worked in the Middle East, the United States and China for a number of years but now calls Prague home and Dubai the office.

His first book, The Knights of Islam, a history of the slave soldiers and sultans of Islam was started on a nearly dead laptop propped up on an ironing board in Shanghai, added to between night shifts in a London bedsit and completed on a building site masquerading as a house in the Appenines, eventually being published in 2007.

In pursuit of a living wage James has, at various times, been an actor in Chinese movies, a radio host, an oil rig worker, the voice of Chinese Steel, a university lecturer, a nurse and a contadino. He still writes and consults on healthcare and health economics in areas as diverse as disaster management, medication management and children's intensive care.