The Hidden History of GPS

I’m writing a book, and to the surprise of everyone I know, it’s not about climate change, ABBA, or food. Instead, it’s about space and time. No biggie!!

You can read more about it here. It will be published in the U.S. and Canada by Morgan Jones at Bloomsbury, probably in 2026. The UK details will be announced soon.

My U.K. agent is Sophie Lambert at C&W, and my U.S. agent is Eric Lupfer at Fletcher & Co.

We often think about GPS as just SatNav or Google Maps, taking us from place to place. But GPS is so much more than that. It plays a crucial role not just in understanding where we are in the world, but in underpinning precise time, too. In fact, it’s used for everything from shipping to finance to farming, to tracking workouts, finding dates, and ordering takeaways. Not to mention war.

So when GPS starts to get a little weird—sending boats, planes and people into places and times where they shouldn’t be—the implications are huge (and surreal.)

This is a book about how a tool for precision bombing overturned daily life in ways we never expected, and the role it played during key moments in 20th and 21st century history. It’s also a book for people who just love mysteries.

You can also sign up here for periodic updates on writing, researching, and mini dispatches from across the 20th and 21st centuries. Think scientists, spies, smugglers, pirates, Soviets, and everyone else in between.