James Hawes (author)
James Hawes (born 1960) is a British novelist and popular historian who has also written screen adaptations for two of his works. Early life and education. Hawes grew up in Gloucestershire, Edinburgh and Shropshire. As an undergraduate, he studied German at Hertford College, Oxford. In 1985–1986 he was in charge of CADW excavations at Blaenavon Ironworks, now a UNESCO World Heritage site. He went on to study for a Ph.D. on Nietzsche and German literature 1900–1914 at University College, London in 1987-89, before lecturing in German at Maynooth University (Ollscoil Mhá Nuad), Sheffield University and Swansea  University. Writing. Hawes has published six novels, two of which he has adapted as screenplays for movie productions. The first two, "A White Merc with Fins" (1996) and "Rancid Aluminium" (1997) were both "Sunday Times" bestsellers. "The Guardian" praised Hawes as a satirist for his novels, "Speak for England" (2005) and "My Little Armalite" (2008). His Kafka biography, "Excavating Kafka" (2008), caused outrage in Germany. In 2008, James Hawes became Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Oxford Brookes University. In 2012 he was promoted to Reader. Among his former students there are Kit de Waal ("My Name is Leon") and  Catherine Chanter ("The Well"). "Englanders and Huns: The Culture Clash which Led to the First World War", published by Simon & Schuster, focused on the Anglo-German rivalry of the later nineteenth century. The book received positive reviews and was shortlisted for the Paddy Power Political Books of the Year. One chapter—on the long-forgotten murder of Queen Victoria's personal chef in Bonn in 1865—became the subject of an exhibition in the Bonn City Museum from May–August 2015. His book "The Shortest History of Germany" (Old St.) was published in May 2017. It peaked at #2 in  the Sunday Times non-fiction pb bestsellers (May 2018). He also published Shortest History of England ( 2020 ).