Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
David Sinclair is the author of eight previous books, including the recent Hall of Mirrors and the best-selling The Pound: A Biography. He has enjoyed a long career as a senior journalist with some of Britain's leading newspapers, and divides his time between London and Normandy.
This bio was last updated on 12/26/2016. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.
How did you first hear about Sir Gregor MacGregor, and what made you
decide to write a book about him?
When I first heard the outline of the MacGregor story, I found it so
hard to believe that I felt it must be worth further investigation--and
that if it did turn out to be absolutely true, it would definitely deserve
a book. It came about at a New Year party, when I was living in Ireland. A
friend of mine, Desmond FitzGerald, who holds the ancient Irish title of
The Knight of Glin, told me that he had found among the family archives at
Glin Castle, in County Limerick, material relating to the involvement of
two of his ancestors with a certain General Sir Gregor MacGregor in a
sensational 19th century fraud. MacGregor had invented an entire country
in Central America. Not only had he sold land there to hundreds of people
in Scotland, and persuaded them to emigrate, but he had also floated a
£200,000 loan on the London capital market for the "government"
of this fictitious country. How had he gotten away with it? Desmond did
not know. What concerned him was whether his forebears had been part of
the plot, or ...
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.