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On air and in print
Over the years, I’ve appeared on the BBC, Sky News and other media outlets to talk about what I call “transformational” themes: the big shifts in energy, transport, banking and finance that continue to reshape our world. These themes form the backbone of much of my journalism.
A world-view shaped abroad
My background in languages — I started out teaching modern and ancient languages — means I do much of my research in French, Spanish and German. My wife, Margaret, and I now live in New Zealand’s South Island after many years in Scotland, and we travel widely throughout Europe and the Asia-Pacific.
Life beyond the desk
When I’m not writing, you’ll probably find me training for triathlons or playing the piano. I’ve been lucky enough to win my age group at the European Triathlon Championships — most recently in Valencia in 2021 — and next up is an 11km trot across the Auckland Harbour Bridge as part of the marathon.
Why history matters
I’ve always believed that history is the best teacher we have — though we’re not great students.
Today was a long time in the making.
Quite a few billion years in fact.
Selwyn Parker
author | journalist | speaker
Latest work
Touching God
In World War One pilots fought duels high in the sky, at first in rickety planes with only rifles for weapons. But as the air war advanced, they dropped onto the enemy at speeds of up to four hundred kilometres an hour and emptied machine guns straight into the cockpit.
The public on both sides revered the highest-scoring pilots as "aces" and heroes. They were showered with medals. As more and more pilots poured in from all over the British Empire and eventually from America, the dogfights turned into terrible battles of attrition among the clouds. Few of the aces survived.
And yet in the years leading up to the war, aviation was conducted with a sense of joy and wonder as men and women all over Europe risked their lives to escape the confines of the earth. Up there, they said, they were "touching God".
All too soon though, they were confronting Hell.
About Selwyn
History, humanity and the odd triathlon.
A life in words
I’m an award-winning journalist and the author of a dozen books, mostly about the people and events that helped shape the world we live in — and what those stories can still teach us today.
Right now, I’m putting the finishing touches to a non-fiction account of the aerial combat in the First World War, and it’s almost ready for take-off (see what I did there?).
My most recent published book is Coin of the Kingdom, the opening volume of a trilogy set in England and France in the early 1100s, when the crafty Henry I locked horns with Louis VI (better known as Louis the Fat). Book two is already underway.
During Britain’s lockdown, I gave The Great Crash — my widely reviewed account of the global consequences of the 1929 Wall Street collapse — a complete overhaul. The book continues to have a life of its own: it’s been translated into Portuguese, Turkish, Hebrew, Mandarin, and now Spanish.
Around the same time, NBC asked me to contribute to a documentary on the lessons history offers in times of crisis — proof, if any were needed, that the past has a habit of repeating itself.
I also re-edited Chasing the Chimney Sweep, my award-winning account of the outrageous, heroic and sometimes downright mad story of the very first Tour de France in 1903.
Other work
Stories that still matter
I’ve written widely across history, finance, sport and the unexpected stories that shape the world around us.
Here are a few of the books that continue to spark conversations and questions wherever I go.
Coin of the Kingdom
A fight for supremacy
It is 1100, a time when the Normans are tightening an iron grip on England and France is riven by squabbling factions. Henry, one of the sons of William the Conqueror, is about to begin his long reign while, in Paris, Louis the Fat is preparing to fight for the very survival of the Capetian kingdom.
The two new kings could hardly be more different — Henry, wily and calculating; Louis, a warrior with little patience for subtlety. Their battles, intrigues and alliances draw in a host of vivid characters, from Henry’s restless elder brother, Robert Curthose (known as Short Pants), to the notoriously brutal Duke de Bellême. Into this turbulent world steps Patrice, a young moneyer who becomes unwittingly entangled in the struggle for power that shaped the early medieval period on both sides of the Channel.
Coin of the Kingdom is the first in a trilogy that follows these largely overlooked events of the twelfth century as England and France claw their way out of the Dark Ages. It is also a story of ordinary people facing plague, hunger, tyranny and brutality — and the resilience that kept them alive.
The Great Crash
A warning from 1929
This is the story of the financial cataclysm that started with the Wall Street stock market crash of 1929, and set in motion a series of economic, political, and social events that affected many millions of people in America, Britain, Europe, and Australia.
The Crash rolled across the world like a tidal wave, toppling governments, spreading the wave of dictatorships in Italy and Germany, infecting entire industries and plunging millions into unemployment and poverty. By the time it began to lift in 1935, the lives of people in scores of countries had changed forever.
Could it happen again?
Chasing the Chimney Sweep
Where the Tour begaN
It was the original Tour de France that started it all off. Conceived by a cycling-mad newspaper editor as a stunt to save his paper, the Tour of 1903 was a brutally tough event of non-stop, day-and-night stages raced over punishing roads while pedalling the heavy iron bikes of the day. Little wonder that some of these huge-hearted racers went nearly mad with fatigue and others resorted to dirty tricks to get through the ordeal. And so the culture of suffering was launched - and it has permeated the Tour de France ever since.
Chasing the Chimney Sweep is a nostalgic voyage around that race of so long ago. On the hundredth anniversary of the first Tour, four amateur cyclists attempted to follow in the wheel tracks of the originals, sometimes with unexpected and unfortunate results. But when it was all done, they emerged with a renewed admiration for these forgotten racers on which the heritage of the Tour de France has been built over so many years.
Awake All Hours
New Zealand junior doctors' rebellion of 1985
For most of the 20th century New Zealand's junior doctors, as in most other Western countries, had toiled almost endless hours in hospitals with minimal pay. The consequences of extreme fatigue on their health and personal lives was severe. In 1985 a handful of junior doctors decided enough was enough. They launched a campaign for more reasonable hours and conditions, arguing that the safety of patients was being put in jeopardy. Awake All Hours is the account of that successful rebellion.
LET'S TALK
If you'd like to get in touch, I’d love to hear from you.
Email: selwynjamesparker@gmail.com