John Van der Kiste (born 15 September 1954 in Wendover, Buckinghamshire) is a British author, son of Wing Commander Guy Van der Kiste (1912–99). He was educated at Blundell's School in Tiverton, where he briefly formed a rock band Cobweb with fellow pupil Miles Tredinnick, later the vocalist with the new wave band London and subsequently a playwright and scriptwriter, and read librarianship at Ealing Technical College, where he edited the librarianship students' magazine Stamp Out. His first book, Frederick III, appeared in 1981, and since then has become a prolific author of royal and historical biographies, as well as books on local history, true crime, rock music, fiction and drama. He is also a contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and Guinness Rockopaedia, and has produced articles on historical, musical and art subjects in national and local journals, including Illustrated London News, Royalty Digest, European Royal History Journal, Best of British (magazine)|Best of British, BBC History Magazine, Record Collector, Antique Collector, This England, The Independent and Gibbons Stamp Monthly. He has reviewed books and records for the press, written CD booklet notes, and between 1991 and 1996 edited and published the 1970s rock fanzine Keep on Rockin. In 2002, he was a consultant for the BBC TV documentary The King, the Kaiser and the Tsar, first broadcast in January 2003. More recently he has contributed articles to the BBC History Extra website. In 2015, "I'll Never Walk Away", a song which he co-wrote with Miles Tredinnick under his music business alias Riff Regan, and Steve Voice, appeared on Regan's solo album Milestones. He also played harmonica on 'Cling to Black Leather', a track on The Hell For Leather Mob, released in 2020 by Regan and Voice's band London. He lives in Devon. Between 1978 and 2017 he was an assistant in the Library and Learning Resources Centre at City College Plymouth, formerly the College of Further Education, where he was commissioned to write a history of the college for internal circulation. Books Historical and royal biography Frederick III, German Emperor 1888 (1981) Queen Victoria's Family: A Select Bibliography (1982) Dearest Affie: Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Victoria's Second Son, 1844-1900 (with Bee Jordaan) (1984) Queen Victoria's Children (1986) Windsor and Habsburg: The British and Austrian Reigning Houses 1848-1922 (1987) Edward VII's Children (1989) Princess Victoria Melita, Grand Duchess Cyril of Russia, 1876-1936 (1991) George V's Children (1991)