Iain Gordon founded and ran for 30 years a specialist publishing house producing periodicals for Army garrisons and establishments in conjunction with being Managing Director of an established Scottish weekly newspaper. He regularly writes articles on military history and speaks at academic symposia in the United Kingdom and overseas.
Since his retirement he has written five books on military and naval matters, four of which have been published by Pen & Sword: Admiral of the Blue, the biography of a Georgian Navy admiral, was shortlisted for the Mountbatten Maritime Prize in 2006 and Bloodline, a study of the origins and development of the regular formations of the British Army, has become the standard reference work in its field.