Peter Frankopan is Professor of Global History at the University of Oxford. His books include The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, a Sunday Times Book of the Decade and New York Times bestseller, which has been translated into more than forty languages and was named one of the 25 most important books translated into Chinese, alongside Pride and Prejudice and The Great Gatsby.
In 2023, he published The Earth Transformed: An Untold History, which has also been a major international bestseller. It explores how the natural world and the climate have shaped both the planet and human history, and what the past can tell us about the profound environmental changes taking place today. An illustrated edition, written for younger readers, is published in October 2026.
Peter’s most recent books are Revisiting the Byzantine Commonwealth, a volume co-edited with Jonathan Shepard in 2025 that looks at the workings of empire; and, with Jan Dumolyn, The Connected World of Bruges, a book that accompanies the opening exhibition for the new BRUSK museum in Bruges for which Peter was lead curator and was one of this year’s major cultural events in Belgium.
A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Royal Geographical Society, the Royal Anthropological Institute and the Royal Asiatic Society, Peter is also President of the Royal Society for Asian Affairs. Alongside his academic and writing work, he advises governments, multilateral organisations and corporations around the world on geopolitics, risk and the lessons history can offer for navigating a period of profound global change.