James McDonald

James McDonald is a British historian, writer, translator, public speaker and consultant. He has been researching Catharism and its relationship with early Christianity for over twenty years.

He writes on a range of topics including Gnostic Dualism, the Cathars of the Languedoc, the Counts of Toulouse, Occitania, Medieval Warfare and the Inquisition.

His work is characterised by serious scholarship combined with an entertaining style. A polymath, he has also written on subjects as diverse as computer simulation, mathematical problems, early Christianity, English etymology, castle architecture, philosophy, and comparative philology. He is the webmaster of www.cathar.info and www.catharcastles.info

James has travelled extensively in Central Asia and Southern Asia, researching Zoroastrianism and other Dualist religions. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London in 1990.

He was educated at University College, Oxford, and Sussex and Nottinham Universities in the UK. He holds higher degrees in mathematics, operational research, history and theology.

Previous books published, listed below

He is also the webmaster of the most authoritative website on the Cathars on the web, www.cathar.info

James McDonald has also written government reports, magazine articles, and a regular column for the Sunday Express in the UK.

Wordly Wise has been adapted into a national weekly BBC radio program in the UK (Wordly Wise on Radio 4).

A Dictionary of Obscenity, Taboo and Euphemism was reprinted by Sphere in 1989, and has been reprinted again by Wordsworth under the title A Dictionary of Obscenity, and Taboo.