Waterfield was born in 1952, and studied Classics at Manchester University, where he achieved a first class degree in 1974. He went on to research ancient Greek philosophy at King's College, Cambridge until 1978, after which he became a lecturer at Newcastle University and then St Andrews University. He later became a copy-editor and later a commissioning editor for Penguin Books . He is now a self-employed writer.

Translations

• Plato: Philebus (translation, introduction, notes), Penguin Books (Penguin Classics), 1982
• Plato: Theaetetus (translation, introduction, notes), Penguin Books (Penguin Classics), 1987
• Plato: Hippias Major, Hippias Minor, Euthydemus (translations, introductions, notes) in Plato: Early Socratic Dialogues (ed. T.J. Saunders), Penguin Books (Penguin Classics), 1987
• Ps.-Iamblichus: The Theology of Arithmetic (translation, introduction, notes; foreword by K. Critchlow), Phanes Press, 1988
• Xenophon: Conversations of Socrates (translations of Apology, Memorabilia, Symposium and Oeconomicus, with introductions and notes; partly a revision of earlier versions by H. Tredennick), Penguin Books (Penguin Classics), 1990
• Plutarch: Essays (translations; introductions and notes by I.G. Kidd), Penguin Books (Penguin Classics), 1992
• Epicurus: Letter on Happiness (translation and biography; introduction by J. McDade, S.J.), Rider Books, 1993 (U.S. ed. Chronicle Books, 1996)
• Plato: Republic (translation, introduction, notes), Oxford University Press, 1993 (World's Classics, 1994; Book of the Month Club, February 1994)
• Plato: Symposium (translation, introduction, notes), Oxford University Press (World's Classics), 1994
• Plato: Gorgias (translation, introduction, notes), Oxford University Press (World's Classics), 1994
• Plato: Statesman (translation; introduction and notes by J. Annas), Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought), 1995
• Aristotle: Physics (translation; introduction and notes by D. Bostock), Oxford University Press (World's Classics), 1996
• Xenophon: Hiero the Tyrant and Other Treatises (translations of Agesilaus, Hiero, Ways and Means, On Horsemanship, On Hunting and Hipparchicus; introductions and notes by P. Cartledge), Penguin Books (Penguin Classics), 1997
• Herodotus: The Histories (translation; introduction and notes by C. Dewald), Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics), 1998 (History Book Club, Book of the Month Club, Reader's Subscription, BCA)
• Plutarch: Greek Lives (translations; introductions and notes by P. Stadter), Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics), 1998
• Plutarch: Roman Lives (translations; introductions and notes by P. Stadter), Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics), 1999
• The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and the Sophists (translations, introductions, notes), Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics), 2000
• Euripides: Orestes and Other Plays (Ion, Orestes, Phoenician Women, Suppliant Women; translations; introduction by E. Hall; notes by J. Morwood), Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics), 2001
• Euripides: Heracles and Other Plays (Alcestis, Heracles, Heraclidae, Cyclops; translations; introduction by E. Hall; notes by J. Morwood), Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics), 2002
• Plato: Phaedrus (translation, introduction, notes), Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics), 2002
• Xenophon: The Expedition of Cyrus (translation; introduction and notes by T. Rood), Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics), 2005
• Plato: Timaeus and Critias (translation; introduction and notes by A. Gregory), Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics), 2008

General Non-fiction

• Prophet: The Life and Times of Kahlil Gibran, Allen Lane, 1998 (Penguin, 1999; U.S. ed., St Martin's Press, 1998; TSP Book Club; Italian ed., Guanda, 2000; Spanish ed., Editorial Complutense, 2000; French ed., Editions Fides-Bellarmin, 2000)
• Hidden Depths: The Story of Hypnosis, Macmillan, 2002 (Spanish ed., Debate, 2002)
• Athens: From Ancient Ideal to Modern City, Macmillan, 2003
• Xenophon's Retreat: Greece, Persia, and the End of the Golden Age, Faber and Faber/Harvard University Press, 2006
• Why Socrates Died: Dispelling the Myths, Faber and Faber/Norton/McClelland & Stewart, 2009

Children's Adventure Gamebooks

• Rebel Planet, Puffin Books (Puffin Fighting Fantasy Gamebook 18), 1985 (French ed., Gallimard 1986; U.S. ed., Dell 1986; computer game, Adventure Soft 1986; Japanese ed., Shakai Shiso Sha 1987; Danish ed., Borgen 1987; Portuguese ed., Verbo 1991; Brazilian Portuguese ed., Marques-Saraiva, 1992; Czech ed., Perseus 1997)

• Masks of Mayhem, Puffin Books (Puffin Fighting Fantasy Gamebook 23), 1986 (French ed., Gallimard 1987; Japanese ed., Shakai Shiso Sha 1988; Danish ed., Borgen 1988; German ed., Thienemann 1989; Hungarian ed., Taketa 1992; Portuguese ed., Verbo 1993; Hebrew ed., Opus 1993; Czech ed., Perseus, 1999)

• Phantoms of Fear, Puffin Books (Puffin Fighting Fantasy Gamebook 28), 1987 (French ed., Gallimard 1988; Danish ed., Borgen 1989; Japanese ed., Shakai Shiso Sha 1989)

• The Money Spider (with Wilfred Davies), Penguin Books (Penguin Plus), 1988 (Polish ed., eMPi2 1996)

• The Water Spider (with Wilfred Davies), Penguin Books (Penguin Plus), 1988

• Deathmoor, Puffin Books (Puffin Fighting Fantasy Gamebook 55), 1994 (French ed., Gallimard 1996)

Academic titles

• Before Eureka: The Presocratics and Their Science, The Bristol Press, 1989 (U.S. ed., St Martin's Press, 1989)
• Plato: Gorgias, Analysis and Commentary, Project Archelogos [e-publication], 2001

Notes

3. Official website

Bibliography

• Bound to Please, by Michael Dirda p 5-9, W.W. Norton, 2005.

Robin Waterfield