Peter Watson was educated at the universities of Durham, London and Rome, and was awarded scholarships in Italy and the United States.
After a stint as Deputy Editor of New Society magazine, he was for four years part of the Sunday Times ‘Insight’ team of investigative journalists. He wrote the daily Diary column of the London Times before becoming that paper’s New York correspondent. He returned to London to write a column about the art world for the Observer and then at The Sunday Times.
He has published three exposes in the world of art and antiquities and from 1997 to 2007 was a Research Associate at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge. He has published twelve books of non-fiction and seven novels, some under the pen name of Mackenzie Ford. He lives in London where his interests include theatre, opera, and fishing.
Author website: http://peterwatsonauthor.com/
Books in order of publication:
War On The Mind: The Military Uses And Abuses Of Psychology – 1980
Twins: An Uncanny Relationship – 1983
The Caravaggio Conspiracy – 1983
The Nazi’s Wife – 1985
Landscape of Lies – 1989
Stones Of Treason – 1992
From Manet to Manhattan: The Rise of the Modern Art Market – 1992
Nureyev: A Biography – 1994
Capo – 1995
Sotheby’s: The Inside Story – 1997
The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century – 2000
Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud – 2005
The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities–From Italy’s Tomb Raiders to the World’s Greatest Museums – 2006
Crusade – 2007
Gifts of War – 2008 (As Mackenzie Ford)
The Clouds Beneath the Sun – 2009 (As Mackenzie Ford)
The German Genius: Europe’s Third Renaissance, the Second Scientific Revolution, and the Twentieth Century – 2010
The Great Divide: History and Human Nature in the Old World and the New – 2012
The Age of Atheists: How We Have Sought to Live Since the Death of God – 2014
Queen’s Witness – 2014
Flowers in Winter – 2014 (As Mackenzie Ford)
Madeleine’s War – 2015
Convergence: The Idea at the Heart of Science – 2016
The Age of Nothing: How We Have Sought To Live Since The Death of God – 2016
Fallout: Conspiracy, Cover-Up, and the Deceitful Case for the Atom Bomb – 2018
The French Mind: 400 Years of Romance, Revolution and Renewal – 2022
The British Imagination: A History of Ideas from Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II – 2025
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