MEDIA
BIOGRAPHY
SHORT FORM BIO.
Dominick Donald was brought up in Britain and the US before studying at Oxford University. Stints as a soldier, a lecturer, a UN official and an editorial writer, plus a War Studies PhD, led eventually to political risk analysis for a large London firm, eventually becoming its Head of Geopolitics. He has written editorials for The Times and US business magazine Red Herring, and reviews for the Guardian and the TLS. Now a freelance writer and political risk advisor, he is married with three children and lives on the Oxfordshire-Wiltshire border.
LONGER FORM BIO.
Dominick Donald was brought up in Britain and the US before reading Modern History at Oxford University. When his service in the British Army was cut short through injury he tried writing TV scripts, teaching at universities in Japan, and a lot of travelling in Central Asia before starting a War Studies PhD at King's College London. Stints as a foreign affairs and defence editorial writer at The Times, as an official at the UN in New York, and as a contributing editor at Silicon Valley's Red Herring magazine led to a political risk start-up in London in 2002. Ultimately its Head of Geopolitics, he acquired an unusual expertise on issues ranging from Somalia-based piracy to Iraqi politics. He now works as a freelance political risk consultant from his home on the Oxfordshire-Wiltshire border, where he lives with his wife and three children.
'Breathe' is the first of two thrillers set in his childhood home, Notting Dale, in the 1950s. It was mostly written at weekends or on the commute from Swindon to London and back, with the last burst in 2016. It is set in the midst of London's worst ever smog, in December 1952 - a fog so bad it brought the city to a standstill and killed thousands of people. (The deaths led to the 1956 Clean Air Act, which ultimately banished smogs from British cities.) The second book will be set in the midst of the Notting Hill race riots of 1958.
LONG FORM BIO.
Dominick Donald is thoroughly British but first learned to talk with a Gulf Coast Texas accent, mostly dinned out of him by the time he was four. He acted in numerous TV commercials as a child but since then has largely avoided cameras like the plague - apart from a couple of brief forays following in his mother's footsteps on 'University Challenge' (they remain the only mother and son to have ever competed in the quiz).
A Modern History degree at Oxford University was followed by service in the British Army, cut short when he broke his knee on a brick wall; he then tried writing TV scripts, teaching at universities in Japan, and a lot of travelling in Central Asia before starting a War Studies PhD at King's College London. Stints as a foreign affairs and defence editorial writer at The Times, as an official at the UN in New York, and as a contributing editor at Silicon Valley's Red Herring magazine led to a political risk start-up in London in 2002. Fourteen years of advising governments and corporations on how to interpret events in areas of political instability - ultimately as Head of Geopolitics - made him an expert on issues ranging from Somalia-based piracy to Iraqi politics and economic reconstruction in war-zones, as well as a regular guest lecturer in war colleges and postgraduate departments in the US and UK. He now works as a freelance political risk consultant, mostly for financial institutions, from his home on the Oxfordshire-Wiltshire border, where he lives with his wife and three children.
'Breathe' is the first of two thrillers set in Notting Dale - Notting Hill's scruffy twin, and his childhood home - in the 1950s. It was mostly written at weekends or on the commute from Swindon to London and back (he wouldn't recommend editing sex scenes in a crowded train carriage!), with the last burst in 2016. It is set in the midst of London's worst ever smog, in December 1952 - a fog so bad it brought the city to a standstill and killed thousands of people. (The deaths led to the 1956 Clean Air Act, which ultimately banished smogs from British cities.) The second book will be set in the midst of the Notting Hill race riots of 1958.