Novels
Death on Stanley Dock
Published by Level Best Press (2025)
Liverpool, 1891. Detective Sergeant Thomas O’Callaghan is a man haunted by failure. The gruesome murder of a young girl at Stanley Dock dredges up memories of the unsolved Ripper killings he left behind at Scotland Yard.
When Danish surgeon Sophia Amalie Steenberg is drawn into the investigation, her expertise reveals a chilling truth linking the killer to Liverpool’s role in the transatlantic slave trade. As Thomas and Sophia delve into Liverpool’s history, they uncover further sinister connections.
With another victim claimed and the killer’s methods growing more depraved, the pair must race against time to stop a killer intent on leaving a trail of terror across Liverpool.
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Short writing
Non-fiction
Fiction
"Helping Hands" (Black Cat Weekly, upcoming)
"Piano Man" (Celluloid Dreams Anthology, upcoming)
Non-fiction books
Pharaoh Seti I
Published by Pen & Sword (2018)
Pharaoh Seti I ruled Egypt for only eleven years, from 1290 to 1279 BC, but his reign marked a revival of Egyptian military and economic power, as well as advances in cultural and religious life. Born the son of a military officer in northern Egypt, Seti grew up far from the halls of power in Memphis and Thebes. But when Horemheb, the last king of the 18th Dynasty, died without an heir, Seti’s father was named king. He ruled for only two years before dying of old age, leaving Seti in charge of an ailing superpower.
Seti set about rebuilding Egypt after a century of dynastic struggles and religious unrest. He reasserted Egypt’s might with a series of campaigns across the Levant, Libya and Nubia. He dispatched expeditions to mine for copper, gold, and quarry for stone in the deserts, laying the foundations for one of the most ambitious building projects of any Egyptian Pharaoh. His actions allowed his son, Ramesses the Great to rule in relative peace and stability for sixty-nine years, building on the legacy of his father.
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Praise for Pharaoh Seti I
"For me the most fascinating aspect of this study is the quite amazing amount of detail we have about some aspects of Seti’s life and of the lives of many of his subjects. There is even one period in his reign where we can construct his weekly itinerary, as the records of the palace baker have survived, and they tell us where the Pharaoh’s bread was being sent! We also have a random, but for the period quite remarkable, selection of documents about the lives of relatively ordinary Egyptians – some from surviving working documents, others from records of their achievements in their tombs. These fragments give us a feel for some of the details of ordinary life that we don’t get again until the Roman period."
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- History of War
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"This book provides a useful introduction to the Nineteenth Dynasty allowing Seti I to emerge from the long shadow cast by his more famous son."
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- Hillary Wilson, Ancient Egypt Magazine
Egyptomaniacs: How we Became Obsessed with Ancient Egypt
Published by Pen & Sword (2020)
The Greek historian Hecataeus of Abdera declared during the 4th century BCE that the Egyptian civilization was unsurpassed in the arts and in good governance, surpassing even that of the Greeks. During the Renaissance, several ecclesiastical nobles, including the Borgia Pope Alexander VI claimed their descent from the Egyptian god Osiris. In the 1920s, the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings prompted one of the first true media frenzies in history. For thousands of years, the Pharaonic culture has been a source of almost endless fascination and obsession. But to what extent is the popular view of ancient Egypt at all accurate?
In Egyptomaniacs: How We Became Obsessed With Ancient Egypt, Egyptologist Dr. Nicky Nielsen examines the popular view of Egypt as an exotic, esoteric, mystical culture obsessed with death and overflowing with mummies and pyramids. The book traces our obsession with ancient Egypt throughout history and methodically investigates, explains and strips away some of the most popular misconceptions about the Pharaohs and their civilization.
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Praise for Egyptomaniacs
“I have always been attracted to and fascinated by Ancient Egypt. In this superb book, Nicky Nielsen explains why we are so caught up in what happened in Ancient Egypt.”
- Books Monthly (UK)
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"This book is a beautiful discovery, cleverly and pleasantly written!"
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-On the Old Barbed Wire
Jagten på Tutankhamon
Gads Forlag (2022)
Da arkæologen Howard Carter efter ti års ihærdig søgen den 4. november 1922 fandt indgangen til barnekongen Tutankhamons grav, var hans lykke gjort. Der var nok guld til at gøre ham og hans sponsor, adelsmanden lord Carnarvon, både berømte og stenrige.
Men ikke alt var fryd, guld og gammen. Fundene førte til slagsmål mellem journalister, styrkede nationalistiske strømninger i Egypten og var med til at forværre det anspændte forhold mellem Egypten og Storbritannien.
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Jagten på Tutankhamon er ikke kun en dramatisk fortælling med helte og skurke, forbandelser og ørkenstøv, glitrende guld og rygter om et 3.000 år gammelt kongemord. Det er i høj grad også en historie om skattens betydning, det oldegyptiske samfund og Carters egyptiske kolleger – de kvinder, mænd og børn, som er blevet glemt. Det er historien om Tutankhamons korte liv og den lange søvn, som Carter vækkede ham af. Og endelig er det fortællingen om, hvordan fundene kom til at præge den vestlige verdens syn på de gamle egyptere.
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Praise for Jagten på Tutankhamon
“Forfatteren har formået at beskrive hele forløbet i et uprætentiøst sprog, som fænger fra første side.”
- Kulturinformation
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"Bogen er letlæselig med et fint afbalanceret abstraktionsniveau, velstruktureret indholdsopbygning og yderligere skrevet i en meget vellykket symbiose af journalistisk og spændende faglig formidling."
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-historie-online.dk
The Pirate Captain Ned Low
Published by Pen & Sword (2023)
Edward ‘Ned’ Low’s career in piracy began with a single gunshot. While working on a logging ship in the Bay of Honduras the quick-tempered Ned was provoked by the ship’s captain. He responded by grabbing a musket and inciting a mutiny. Then the London-born sailor and a dozen of his crewmates held a council, stitched a black flag and voted to make war against the whole world preying on ships from any nation, flying any flag.
Low’s name became synonymous with brutality and torture during the 1720s as he cut a swathe of destruction from the shores of Nova Scotia to the Azores, the coast of Africa and throughout the Caribbean. Ned Low’s life was one of failed redemption: a thief from childhood who briefly rose in the world after moving to America, only to fall again lower and harder than before. He was feared even by his own crew, and during his life on the wrong side of the law he became infamous for his extreme violence, fatalistic behaviour, and became perhaps one of the best examples of why pirates were classed in Admiralty Law as hostis humani generis: the common enemies of all mankind.
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Praise for The Pirate Captain Ned Low
“...the end product of which is a fine piece of historical work. The tapestry of a narrative that Nielsen does weave is awe-inspiring.”
- The Northern Mariner/Le marin du nord - Vol. 32, No. 3 (Fall 2022)
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"Throughout the narrative Nielsen poses numerous questions and then explains what may have actually occurred based on empirical evidence, his research, and educated analysis."
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-Pirates and Privateers
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"The amazing life of Ned Low, one of the most successful of 18th century pirates, is the subject of a new book detailing his cruelty to the captains of the ships he captured.The Pirate Captain Ned Low details some of the many ships Low captured before stripping them of their valuable cargoes."
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- Terry Sutton MBE