PROFILE
Joshua Provan is an author, speaker and artist from the United Kingdom, who studies the
historical impact of Conflict on Culture through the ages and is a specialist in British
Colonial history in the long 18th century. He is self taught, and when not researching,
works as a copywriter, illustrator, historical advisor, reviewer and content creator.
EXPERIENCE
WORKS IN PROGRESS
Those With Honour and Courage: The Gulf Coast Campaign 1779-1781, Contracted:
University of Oklahoma Press, (2025). Armies of Colonial Virginia 1600-1690,
Contracted: Helion and Co (2026).
BOOKS 2020 – PRESENT
Author of three books, Wild East: The British in Japan 1854-1868, Fonthill Media, 2020,
Bullocks Grain & Good Madeira: The Maratha and Jat Campaigns 1803-
1806, Helion &; Company 2021. Every Hazard and; Fatigue: The Siege of
Pensacola 1781, Helion & Company, 2023, .
CHAPTERS &; ARTICLES — 2012 – PRESENT
In addition to his blog Adventures In Historyland, he has contributed chapters to two
collected volumes on aspects of long 18th century warfare, Waging War in America: The
Operational Challenges of five armies (Don Hagist, Ed.) Helion & Co 2023, Sales Figures
as yet unreported) and An Unavoidable Evil: Siege Warfare in the Age of Napoleon, (Dr.
Zack White, Ed.) Helion & Co, not yet published. In 2023 he wrote a chapter in Kings and Queens (Iain Dale Ed., Hodder), on Henry IV. In 2024 his chapter entitled No Harder Service appeared in the Something Like Philosophy collected edition edited by Brandon Fisichella. Alongside these, he is the author of several magazine articles for The Historians Magazine (a publication for which he was briefly a sub editor): The Spanish in the American Revolution, 2022, The Endless Wave (Origins of Surfing) 2022, Amda Seyon I and the Ethiopian Empire,
2023, and, Ashoka and the Mauryan Golden Age, 2024. Josh’s work has also appeared in Salient Points: The Journal of the Great War Group. Older articles can be found on the
media section of Joshua’s website.
MEDIA – 2020 – PRESENT.
Featured over 50 times to date as a presenter and expert/guest on various podcasts, and
Radio programs, such as Sher e Punjab 600am, History Hack, Generals and Napoleon,
Napoleonic Quarterly, The Napoleonic Wars Pod and History with Jackson Podcast,
details of which can be found on his website under, Media. He administers his own
YouTube channel, as an extension of Adventures in Historyland, alongside these
appearances.
SKILLS
Joshua is a proficient rider and Olympic style swordsman, with a basic understanding of the dynamics of historical swordsmanship. He is comfortable in the outdoors, having undertaken many long distance hikes in the cairngorms, summiting, Cairngorm and Lochnagar, the latter in a day long 15 mile round-trip. In the summer, Joshua enjoys surfing, though he is still only a beginner, and has been a strong swimmer all his life, having once swam 100 lengths for charity as teenager. He can read basic Spanish and French, and has ambitions to improve both, in addition to learning other languages. Art has always formed a large part of Joshua’s life, indeed he often prefers to be seen as an artist before anything else, skilled in both traditional watercolour and digital art, his work can be seen on his website, and also in several of his books. In 2023 he worked closely with Dr. Mai Musié (ICS) to create three depictions of prominent African figures from Ancient Greek novels for the African Heritage and Myth project as part of the Inclusion and Participation Initiative at the School of Advanced Studies London.