Thomas Holland is an English author who has published best-selling books on topics including classical and medieval history and the origins of Islam. In addition to his writing, he has worked with the BBC to create and host historical television documentaries, and presents the radio series Making History. Holland was born in Oxfordshire 5 January 1968 and brought up in the village of Broad Chalke, Wiltshire, England. James Holland is also an author whose focus is World War II. He has said that his two passions as a child were dinosaurs and ancient civilizations. Holland attended Chafyn Grove preparatory school and the independent Canford School in Dorset. He then went on to Queens' College, Cambridge, graduating with a 'Double First' (first-class honours in both parts I and II of the course of study in the English Tripos). He began working on a doctoral dissertation on Lord Byron, at Oxford University, but soon quit after deciding that he was "fed up with universities and fed up with being poor" and instead began working.