P.D. Smith is an independent researcher and writer. His most recent book is City: A Guidebook to the Urban Age, published by Bloomsbury in 2012. His previous book, Doomsday Men: The Real Dr Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon (2007, Penguin), was described by the Daily Telegraph as "chilling" and "irresistible".
He regularly reviews non-fiction books for the Guardian, and has also written for the Independent, the Financial Times and the Times Literary Supplement. His interests include genre fiction, cities, the life of Einstein and the way science is explored in literature.