David John James (30 November 1923 – 2 October 1993) was a Welsh author of historical novels.^[1][2]

Life and work

John James was born in Aberavon. His family were poor and his father was a steelworker who had left school at 13 to work in the tin works. John was largely self-taught, reading the entire works of Shakespeare under his bedclothes with a torch before he was 8 years old. He studied philosophy at St David's University College, Lampeter, and also read and completed BA (converted to an MA) in psychology at Selwyn College, Cambridge.^[1] He became a psychologist for the Ministry of Defence, lecturing on the selection and training of air crews for the RAF at Brampton. Writing was a hobby.

He is known for writing four historical novels set in Roman and early medieval Britain and Europe. Some of these novels, including Votan and Not For All The Gold In Ireland, feature characters from Norse and Celtic mythology.^[2] Neil Gaiman is an admirer of James, especially his novel Votan, which provided one model for American Gods, calling it “I think probably the best book ever done about the Norse”.^[3] James's skilful evocation of life and myths of Dark Age Europe also won him the admiration of neo-pagan authors John and Caitlin Matthews. The British writer Byron Rogers said that whereas "other historical novelists cheat" by putting people with modern opinions and sensitivities into the past, John James "had a man from the past as his hero"; James "knew how such a man would have dressed and what he would have eaten, and, what is far more important, he knew what went on in his head".^[4]

John James died in Cambridge in 1993 and is buried in the graveyard at Strata Florida Abbey in Wales.