GET IN TOUCH
If you would like to start a project together please get in touch via the details below or complete our contact form:
T: 07846 220 007
E: paul.chrystal@btinternet.com
Author, history consultant & broadcaster
Welcome to the official website of author and historian Paul Chrystal
New in 2026
New in 2025
New in 2027
Books in Foreign Languages
CHINESE EDITION
JAPANESE EDITION
About Paul…
Author, history consultant and broadcaster.
Paul attended the Universities of Hull (BA Hons) and Southampton (MPhil) where he took degrees in classics, and the University of Sorbonne, Paris. After that he worked in medical publishing for companies such as Wolfe Medical, CV Mosby, Churchill Livingstone, Wiley-Blackwell, CRC Press, Academic Press and Elsevier.
He has since been history advisor to local visitor attractions such as the National Trust in York, writing features for national newspapers, and broadcasting on BBC Radio York, BBC Radio Manchester, BBC Radio Tees, on BBC Sounds, the Radio 4 PM programme and on the BBC World Service.
He blogs and podcasts, and is a contributor to a number of history and archaeology magazines; he is author of over 200 books and articles published since 2010 on a wide range of subjects.
His books have been translated into Chinese and Japanese.
His latest book is ‘The Romans: A People’s History’ – due for publication in September 2026.
He is former editor of York Historian, Journal of Yorkshire Architectural and York Archaeological Society (YAYAS)
‘The author has an extraordinarily comprehensive knowledge of classical history – THE HISTORIAN
read moreSee me on Good Reads here>
Bestsellers
Chapters in other books
‘Two Case Studies on Receptions of Sex & Power: Lucretia and Verginia’ – in
The Routledge Companion to the Reception of Ancient Greek and Roman Gender and Sexuality, (2023, London)
Editor of the ‘DEATH’ CATEGORY FOR OXFORD BIBLIOGRAPHIES IN CLASSICS (OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS)
‘Rowntrees Tales’ Chapter in Quakers, Business, and Industry: Quakers and the Disciplines: Volume 4: by Stephen W. Angell, Pink Dandelion, et al. 2017
Recent & Forthcoming Events
2026 February 25th
Jack Youll Vc – Wheatley Hill History Club February 25Th 2026
May 2026
Eboracum: York Roman Festival
June 2026
Podcast on Discover Britain with Henrietta Easton talking about my Bridgerton Revisited
www.discoverbritain.com
July 2026
Malton Roman Festival
September 2026
Op-ed piece for Merrion West on The Romans: A People’s History https://www.merionwest.com/latest-collection/
October 9-11 2026
Festival of Chichester, Fishbourne Roman Palace
Festival of Chichester, Fishbourne Roman Palace
Recent book signing
September 2023 Airborne Museum, Arnhem for Gunners From The Sky
Praise for Paul’s Books
Here is a welcome innovation – a book about ancient Rome that foregrounds the person in the street rather than the over-entitled and over-discussed nobleman. A thoroughly satisfying read.’
– Anthony Everitt, on The Romans, (author of The Rise of Rome: The Making of the World’s Greatest Empire)
‘Paul Chrystal has an eye for the quirky and unusual. His highly readable style and solid scholarship combine to make this book an engrossing read.’
– Philip Matyszak, on The Romans, (author of A Walk Through Ancient Rome)
‘The author has an extraordinarily comprehensive knowledge of classical history.”
– THE HISTORIAN on Miracula
‘Chrystal triumphs in terms of sources and detailed narratives, written in clear prose (no academic jargon) with gusto and humour . . . A breathtaking assembly of ancient sources, unlikely to be bettered.’
– Fortean Times on Miracula
‘The tradition of paradoxography – writings about the unusual, the miraculous, and the absurd – runs back to Hellenistic Greece and beyond, including Aristotle, Callimachus, Cicero, and Pliny alongside lesser-known practitioners. In this connection the historian Chrystal’s new Miracula is both a continuation and a commentary, presenting oddities, trivia, and twice-told tales from the ancient world and contextualizing them for the reader. Here are marvels from pygmies to Polyphagus (Nero’s personal cannibal), the war-cats of Cambyses to the longest word in ancient Greece.’
– The New Criterion on Miracula
‘A book full of astonishing facts and strange stories drawn from Ancient Greece and Rome – rarely retold in English – is a surprise and a delight . . . Paul Chrystal has upended the paradigm of sober history-telling to produce a potpourri of stranger things . . . When you’re not laughing aloud or cracking a smile, you may just be impressed by how much the ancients knew.’
– InReview on Miracula
“For clear, well-organised and thorough information on the subject, it would be hard to find a book that covers so much ground so economically.”
– Peter Jones MBE, on Women in Ancient Rome
BBC History Magazine
“This is an impressive piece of work, not least because of the wealth of evidence, and the number of references to ancient sources.”
– Stanley Ireland, on Women in Ancient Rome Emeritus Reader in the Department of Classics and Ancient History, University of Warwick
“An excellent read for those that wish to have a more complete understanding of the Roman era…Chrystal is an informative and engaging guide.”
– Rebecca Richards, on Women in Ancient Rome
All About History Magazine
“Fascinating and unsettling…a useful overview on all things intimate in Ancient Greece.
“Above all I am indebted to Paul Chrystal, who originally suggested this topic, and whose scholarly and comprehensive text on the subject [Miracula] I look forward to seeing in print.”
– Minerva on In Bed with the Ancient Greeks
The International Review of Ancient Art & Archaeology
FAMILY WAR HISTORIES
I have researched and written three books about close family members based on unpublished private correspondence:
Gunners from the Sky – about my dad’s war service in Italy and his four days of hell as part of an advanced signals unit fighting on the bridge at Arnhem in September 1944. With Major (retd) David Chrystal BEM, MiD.
The Seaforth Highlanders – about my uncle’s capture outside Dunkirk and his subsequent four years spent in German POW camps, with hard labour.
Jack Youll VC – about Jack’s war with the 11th Northumberland Fusiliers in World War I France and Italy where he was awarded the VC – but was tragically killed weeks before the 1918 Armistice. With Nina Youll – my cousin’s daughter in law.