Robert Frederick Tapsell

Robert Frederick Tapsell is an English author , born in 1936, in Croydon, Surrey (now South London). Tapsell has written three historical novels and was the editor (translator) of one non-fiction book about royal dynasties . During his national service in the Royal Air Force (RAF) he was trained as a Russian language translator . Tapsell worked in military intelligence , specializing in Eastern Europe . After discharge, he worked for an insurance company and as a shipping clerk , while preparing himself for college . He began studying at the School of Slavic and East European Studies at the University of London in 1960, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in History in 1963. He married Shirley Joan Fussell in 1964 in Walton, Stafford, England . He also traveled several times to Western Europe, the Balkans , Egypt, and Iraq , and described himself as possessing many foreign languages, but not mastering any of them. Tapsell then moved into academic administration , working at several British universities , including the University of East Anglia in Norwich , England, before emigrating to Australia in 1974. He returned to the United Kingdom in 1982, where he died in April 1984. Leaving his widow and two sons.