MARTYN DOWNER

The Author

Martyn DownerMartyn Downer was born in 1966 and educated at Stowe and at Edinburgh University where he read history. In 1993, after some years working in the antiques business in London, Martyn joined Sotheby's auctioneers where he subsequently became a director and head of the jewellery department. He is currently a director of Corfield Morris, the independent consultants to collectors of Fine Art and Antiques.

He lives in rural Hertfordshire with his wife, Sam Shaw, who is a painter, and his three young children.

In 2003 Martyn published Nelson’s Purse (Bantam Press, 2004) which related his discovery of a remarkable trove of treasures which had once belonged to Britain’s greatest naval hero. His latest book The Queen’s Knight (Bantam Press, 2007) is a moving account of life inside the Court of Queen Victoria.

Martyn is currently writing a history of Britain from the Norman Conquest to the Second World War as experienced by generations of one family. Bloodline will be published by Quercus in 2010.