Chris Craig:

Born and raised in Lithgow, New South Wales (Australia). I grew up in the mountains before moving to Lake Macquarie and attending Whitebridge High and the University of Newcastle, studying History and Economic History. I have enjoyed a varied career including labouring in the BHP steel-works, working as a concrete contractor, a student politician, a newspaper columnist and as an Industrial Officer for the Australian Journalists Association (which became the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance while I worked for them).

I cut my teeth reading C.S. Forester, Herman Wouk, Leon Uris and Georgette Heyer. Have you read them? You should, if you haven’t yet. They are the real deal. Well researched, well written. True to the story. If you enjoy them, you’ll enjoy my work. It’s worth a read.

re the House of Thunder Series:

My interest in ancient history began by chance. As the President of the University of Newcastle Student's Association back in 1984, one of my arduous duties was to visit like-minded souls in the Student's Association of our fellow steel city  campus: the University of Wollongong. During that visit, the Wollongong Uni SRC President, a Mr David Brown, introduced me to the joys of Ancient Wargaming. I was hooked. I resolved to obtain an army of little lead figures of my own so that I could compete in the championship events that occurred every long weekend in one place or another. Mr Brown accompanied me to the wargames shop in Sydney at the time: The Tin Soldier. I asked what army was in stock for me to paint up and fight with. The salesman took a box from the top shelf.

"This is the one you want," he said, blowing dust from the lid, "Carthaginian. A well balanced army with a bit of poke."

And so it was that I ran the armies of Hamilcar and Hannibal Barca in wargames tournaments for years. A big part of the hobby is reading about the people and events that you are representing on the wargames table. It is a great introduction to the classical era. And, I might modestly report that I rose in the hobby to the point where I won an Australian Championship in 1999 (15mm Ancients, WRG 7th), albeit with an Ilkhanid army, not, sadly, the Carthaginians. And I still think WRG 7th Edition was the high point of wargaming rules so far.

The other influence that swept me into the embrace of the classics was that of the late Professor Godfrey Tanner. Godfrey was a wonderful man and  Professor of Classics at the University of Newcastle. I sat with him in meetings of the University Council and the University Senate. He used to often confound those learned gatherings by recalling how some ancient Greek or Roman character had confronted the very same issue that they were dealing with. Sadly, they often missed the point. Interestingly, Godfrey was often right. This did not make him any more popular. As Godfrey and I battled against the tide, defending values that others seemed happy to abandon, one thing became apparent to me: in the world, both ancient and modern, it has never been enough just to be right. This, I would argue, gave me a valuable insight into the story of the Carthaginians.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading the books as much as I enjoyed writing them.

Cheers,

Chris Craig