John Van der Kiste

John Van der Kiste (born 15 September 1954 in Wendover, Buckinghamshire) is a British author.

His first book, ''Frederick III'', appeared in 1981, and since then has become an author of royal and historical biographies, as well as books on local history, true crime, rock music, fiction and drama. He is also a contributor to the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' and ''Guinness Rockopaedia'', and has produced articles on historical, musical and art subjects in national and local journals, including ''Illustrated London News'', ''BBC History Magazine'', ''Record Collector'', ''This England'', ''The Independent'' and ''Gibbons Stamp Monthly''. He has reviewed books and records for the press, written CD booklet notes, and between 1991 and 1996 edited and published the 1970s rock fanzine ''Keep on Rockin''.

In 2002, he was a consultant for the BBC TV documentary ''The King, the Kaiser and the Tsar'', first broadcast in January 2003. He has contributed articles to the BBC History Extra website, and a chapter on William IV to ''Kings and Queens'' by Iain Dale (2024).

In 2015, "I'll Never Walk Away", a song which he co-wrote with Miles Tredinnick under his music business alias Riff Regan, and Steve Voice, appeared on Regan's solo album ''Milestones''. He also played harmonica on 'Cling to Black Leather', a track on ''The Hell For Leather Mob'', released in 2020 by Regan and Voice's band London.

Between 1978 and 2017 he was an assistant in the Library and Learning Resources Centre at City College Plymouth, formerly the College of Further Education, where he was commissioned to write a history of the college for internal circulation. Provided by Wikipedia