Latest books

UK hardback edition of The Gods of Atlantis published on 18 August 2011

US edition of The Mask of Troy published on 24 May 2011, with a print run of over 160,000 copies

The UK edition of The Mask of Troy was published by Headline in 2010 and has sold over 100,000 copies in its UK and Commonwealth editions, with many foreign language editions due out soon

The Tiger Warrior, published in the UK and US in 2009, has also been published in other languages including French (Editions First), Dutch (De Boekeriji) and Turkish (Altin), and has sold over 240,000 copies

Global editions

By Summer 2011 over a hundred and thirty editions of the six novels have been published in twenty-nine languages

Latest foreign language editions

The Mask of Troy to France (Editions First), Greece (Dioptra), Holland (De Boekerji), Slovenia (Ucila), Indonesia (Gramedia) Czech and Slovak Republics (Metafora) and Latvia (Zvaigne)

The Tiger Warrior to Italy (Newton Compton), Brazil (Planeta) and the Czech and Slovak Republics (Metafora)

Crusader Gold to Latvia (Zvaigne) and Japan (Fusosha)

Six novels published
Over 2,000,000 copies sold
Translated into 29 languages
New York Times and London Sunday Times bestseller

‘What do you get if you cross Indiana Jones with Dan Brown? Answer: David Gibbins’ (London Daily Mirror)

Welcome to my website. I’m an archaeologist and diver and the author of six novels, with many more to come. My novels have sold over two million copies and are published in twenty-nine languages. It’s thrilling for me to think that so many have read my books, and followed my fictional team in their quest for the greatest treasures of the past – I hope their adventures seem as real to you as they do to me when I’m writing them!

My novels draw on my personal experiences. I’ve been passionate about maritime exploration for as long as I can remember. I’d circumnavigated the world by sea as a boy, and learned to dive as soon as I could - I grew up at a time when the greatest heroes for me were Captain Cousteau and the pioneers of underwater archaeology. I first dived on a shipwreck in Canada at the age of fifteen, and since then have led many expeditions around the world to explore wrecks and submerged ruins dating back to the dawn of civilization. My fascination with archaeology led me to complete a doctorate at the University of Cambridge in England, and to teach archaeology as an academic. After the publication of my first novel Atlantis in 2005 I was able to write fiction full-time – and to carry out more real-life exploration and archaeological research than ever before.

My novels are brimming with action and discovery, and are present-day thrillers as well as explorations of the past. My fictional characters draw on my knowledge of how expeditions work, of the people who propel a quest forward. Expeditions are a great basis for fiction because they’re an analogue of life itself - the voyage and the friendships along the way can be as rewarding as the destination. That’s what makes the fiction come alive for me as I’m writing it, along with the adventure and the discoveries themselves.

Each novel contains an Author’s Note detailing the factual backdrop behind the story. To complement those notes, the website will feature a Facts behind the Fiction page for each book with images of sites and real-life artefacts in the novels. So far we've put up pages for The Tiger Warrior and The Mask of Troy. We also plan to include video clips of me diving on shipwrecks, exploring archaeological sites and talking about the books, to appear on the Facts Behind the Fiction and the Biography pages. I try to have first-hand experience of everything I write about – for example, for my second novel Crusader Gold I dived under ice in Canada and dived in the sacred cenotes of the Maya in Mexico, and travelled from ancient Constantinople to Viking sites in Newfoundland and the icefjords of Greenland. A synopsis of each book and a link to an excerpt on my US publisher’s website is found on The Books page, where we also plan to put links to my many editions in other languages.

I’m more enthused than ever about my real-life and fictional adventures ahead – every new shipwreck I dive on, every new archaeological site I explore, inspires me in some way. I feel only one step away from truly finding the treasures in my novels – the site of Atlantis, the lost golden menorah, an ancient text containing an astonishing revelation. These are real possibilities, not the stuff of fantasy. Every new novel I write excites me as much as the first. I hope they do the same for you!