John Lewis-Stempel is a historian and author, who was born in Herefordshire

Herefordshire

Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...

, England, where his family have lived for over five hundred years. He has written on a range of subjects from Native Americans

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 to natural history, but specialises in military history. His semi-autobiographical 'The Wild Life' was hailed by Paul Blezard, the literary editor of The Lady

The Lady

The Lady may refer to:*The Lady , England's oldest weekly magazine aimed at women*Lady of the Lake, several related characters in Arthurian legend...

 as 'Beautifully written. As close to poetry as you'll find in prose.' Overall Lewis-Stempel has published nearly a hundred books, which have been published in languages as diverse as Portuguese Brazilian and Japanese, and which have sold over a million copies.

Lewis-Stempel started writing under the name 'Jon E. Lewis' for Constable & Robinson

Constable & Robinson

Constable & Robinson Ltd. is an independent British book publisher of fiction and non-fiction works. Founded in Edinburgh in 1795 by Archibald Constable as Constable & Co. it is probably the oldest independent publisher in the English-speaking world still operating under the name of its...

, for whom he still writes many books in the 'Autobiography' and 'Mammoth' series. Under his real name of John Lewis-Stempel he published 'Six Weeks: The Short and Gallant Life of the British Officer in the First World War' in November 2010 to widespread acclaim; it was reviewed in The Literary Review

The Literary Review

The Literary Review is an American literary magazine founded in 1957. The quarterly magazine is published internationally by Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, New Jersey...

 as 'The single most moving book that I have read on the Great War.' In 2011 he authored "Young Herriot", a biographical account of the early years of James Herriot

James Herriot

James Herriot was the pen name of James Alfred Wight, OBE, FRCVS also known as Alf Wight , an English veterinary surgeon and writer, who used his many years of experiences as a veterinarian to write a series of books of stories about animals and their owners...

, to accompany the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

series of the same title.

Lewis-Stempel lives on a farm in Herefordshire with his wife and children.

External links

• http://www.constablerobinson.com/?section=authors&author=jon_e_lewis&dir=asc&imprint=
• http://www.lawagency.co.uk/?page=writers&sub_page=specific&writers_id=82&filer=2
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/video/2009/may/23/hay-festival-john-lewis-stempel