Roy and Lesley Adkins began their working career as field archaeologists at the new city of Milton Keynes in the mid-seventies. Their work then took them to south London before they set up an archaeological consultancy in the West Country. They first published The Handbook of British Archaeology as postgraduates in 1982 and have published many archaeology and history titles since. They are also the authors of bestselling general titles, the most recent of which are The War for All the Oceans, Trafalgar: The Biography of a Battle and Jack Tar: Life in Nelson's Navy.

Victoria Leitch gained a degree in History at the University of London and then spent several years working as an illustrated-book editor. She subsequently returned to academia and completed an MPhil in Anglo-Saxon and Romano-British Archaeology at Oxford University, where she is now studying for a doctorate, specializing in Roman North African ceramics. She has taken part in many excavations and has studied the pottery on a number of important sites, including Benghazi and Jarma in Libya, Lamta in Tunisia, and Pompeii, Cuma and Metaponto in Italy.