Schooled at St John's College, Johannesburg, James Bourhill holds a doctorate in history from the University of Pretoria. He did his national service in a mounted infantry unit and began his tertiary education at Cedara College of Agriculture, after which he went farming in Rhodesia and America. James is the author of Come back to Portofino - Through Italy with the 6th South African Armoured Division (2011); Deveron to Devastation: Brother officers of the 7th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (2014) and Return to Morogoro: With the South African Horse through East Africa to France and Flanders (2015). He divides his time between his farm in South Africa and his second home in the village of Plan de la Tour in the South of France.