I’m Mark Griffin, a writer and creator with a lifelong fascination for history, technology and the ideas that shape our world.
A child of the Cold War, I grew up in Aden, Singapore and Germany before serving in the Royal Air Force, including tours in Germany and the Falkland Islands. Later, I worked for Cray Research, helping maintain some of the most powerful computers in the world, before founding my own web design agency.
Today I channel those experiences into books, articles, websites and digital projects. Whether I’m exploring Britain’s remarkable achievements, uncovering forgotten stories or explaining complex ideas, my aim is always the same: to satisfy curiosity, challenge assumptions and leave readers knowing something they didn’t know before.
My Books
The Second Elizabethan AgeViagra, Concorde, Harry Potter, the World Wide Web: over a hundred of Britain’s greatest post-war achievements in one volume, celebrating the scientists, inventors, writers and dreamers who shaped the modern world across the seventy-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II.
The Business School of Hard KnocksTwo hundred true stories of the business education no MBA teaches: pricing blunders that cost millions, an intern who saved a fortune, a cyberattack stopped for pocket change. Real cases that resist tidy frameworks and reveal lessons only hard experience delivers.
Odysseus: The King of CunningEveryone knows the Trojan Horse; few know whose idea it was. This is the life of Odysseus, cleverest and most dangerous mind in the Greek world, told in his own voice as he talks, tricks and kills his way home.
Anthea and AchillesOffered glory or a long life, Achilles chose glory. Three thousand years later he wakes in the modern world, guided by archaeologist Anthea Spyrou, and must choose: remain the warrior history remembers, or become the man he never could be.
My Websites
Creating Futures UKAffordable professional websites for UK small businesses.
Creating Futures USAffordable professional websites for US small businesses.
Adam Smith TodayApplying Adam Smith’s economic ideas to modern issues.
No ReparationsExamining the case for slavery reparations in the Caribbean.
Holocaust TodayDocumenting the Holocaust, its victims, and those responsible.
My Blogs
SubstackMy Substack: essays and stories on history, science, technology and whatever else captures my imagination.
Cybersecurity in the Real WorldA plain-speaking guide to online threats and staying safe in an increasingly dangerous digital world.
DidcotmanMy personal blog hasn’t been updated for years, but many of the posts are still relevant today.