David V.S. West
Historical Adventure Novelist
David V.S. West was educated at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he took a B.A. in Engineering Science. During a career in engineering and project management he was commissioned by Gower Publishing to write a book on Project Sponsorship. This led him to study creative writing with the Open University, and a new career as a writer. Whist reading a biography of Sir Francis Drake he learnt that Francis Walsingham had a spy named Sir Anthony Standen who fed him detailed intelligence on the Spanish Armada. Standen is David’s mother’s maiden name, and he has since discovered that his 10th great-grandfather was Edmund Standen, Anthony’s younger brother. The Spy who Sank the Armada weaves David’s attempt to explain why and how his ancestor did what he did through the known history of his life.