A Talk by Stephen Drake-Jones (November 2013)

The AUS Department of English and the Sharjah International Book Fair present a talk by Stephen Drake-Jones

Stephen Drake-Jones was born in Leeds, Yorkshire and moved to Spain during Franco's last year in power in 1975. His initial forays to the battlefields of Wellington in Spain and Portugal inspired him to found the Wellington Society in 1979.

He joined the Royal Spanish Navy in 1982 and taught military history and English at the Admiralty, Madrid. Drake-Jones also taught at a series of Madrid campuses for USA study abroad students before going full time with the Wellington Society in 1998.

Drake-Jones lectures and takes many school, college and private groups to every battlefield of the Peninsular War, 1808-1814 in both Spain and Portugal. He was guest speaker at Cape Trafalgar for the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, and has addressed NATO, SHAPE and other military groups on Peninsular War battle sites. He was the subject of a BBC Radio 4 documentary "The Forks of War2" and was history advisor for the BBC three-part presentation The Iron Duke in 2001.

His previous works covers Napoleon's 114th French Line Regiment. He is currently working on a book that combines his stories and experiences over 30 years he has been following Wellington in the Iberian Peninsula.

Drake-Jones lives in Madrid and adds cooking Indian dishes to his hobbies.