About

I’m an author and journalist, living in New York City, with an occasional sideline as an editorial consultant for various environmental organizations.

My most recent book, The Long Reckoning: A Story of War, Peace, and Redemption in Vietnam, was published by Knopf on March 28, 2023, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the withdrawal of the last American combat troops from Vietnam. I’m now working on a sequel about the experiences of those who fought on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

The Long Reckoning is my eighth book. Most of them revolve around a recurrent set of themes - war and civil conflict, human rights, and the natural environment - and they often reflect my abiding passion for mountains, rivers, and faraway places. The topics I’ve written about include the civil wars in Central America, where I cut my teeth as a journalist in the early 1980s; the 19th century exploration of the American West and the wars against the Plains Indians, and the Chinese democracy movement that culminated in the Tiananmen Square protests and the 1989 Beijing massacre. Mixed in with these are a memoir of my travels down the River Ganges in India and Bangladesh, from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean, and even a couple of books about my longtime love of fly-fishing. I’ve also written many long-form magazine articles on international politics, culture, and the environment for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and countless other publications. Both my books and my magazine work have won numerous awards and honors.

Despite traveling to more than 50 countries and spending most of my adult life in the United States, part of my heart remains in my native Scotland. I’m married to the writer Anne Nelson, and we have two children, David and Julia, who seem to have inherited the family fascination with journalism, research, and travel.