James A. Oliver

James A. Oliver is an international writer, editor, and consultant. He is also the author of "A Footprint in the Sand", an epic political comedy inspired by a special assignment at the end of the Cold War, and "The Anarchist's Arms" - a stage play set in near-future London. In 2006, "The Bering Strait Crossing: A 21st Century Frontier" was published worldwide. In 2007, he was invited to Moscow for a symposium on the subject at the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 2009, the materials formed the basis of a Discovery Channel documentary broadcast that year. (The Beringia link concept was later awarded the Grand Prix for innovation at the World Expo in Shanghai 2010.)

From 2007-2009, he lived on the Ile Saint Louis in Paris, while working on the Single European Sky (SES) project. In this interlude, he also developed the script for "The Pamphleteers" (2010), which investigates the birth of journalism on a timeline from the Reformation to the revolutions in America and in France, with profiles of Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, Thomas Dekker, John Milton, Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift - and Tom Paine. "There was freedom of expression in this era," James Oliver reminds the gentle reader, "so long as you were prepared to pay for it at the end of a rope." "Strait of Gibraltar: formation to the 21st century" (work-in-progress) is an investigation of the great waterway that links the Atlantic Ocean with the Mediterranean Sea and forms the inter-continental divide between Europe and Africa across the legendary Pillars of Hercules. Publication scheduled for c. 2015-16 as the second part of the trilogy Where Continents Meet.

James Oliver is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.