Richard Middleton was for many years Lecturer and Reader in American History at Queen's University, Belfast. Among his various publications are The Bells of Victory: The Pitt-Newcastle Ministry and the Conduct of the Seven Years' War, 1757-1762 (Cambridge University Press, 1985 and 2002), Colonial America: A History to 1763 (Blackwell, 1992, 1996, 2002 (and 2011 with Anne Lombard) and Pontiac's War: Its Causes, Course and Consequences (Routledge, 2007). He is now an independent writer and scholar.