I came to Canada in 1971 from England to do graduate work at the University of Toronto. Being an experimental psychologist – that is, a psychologist who does experiments on how people perceive, remember, and think – was great fun, but the academic job market was unpromising even then, so I left academe for good. I spent most of my career as a management consultant, specialising in helping clients develop strategy and then implement the organizational changes to make those strategies come to life.

After retiring and moving to Meaford, a small town on the shore of Georgian Bay in Ontario, I got involved in starting and running a film festival and in doing pro-bono work for the local municipality. 

In 2015, I went to Ischia, a small and little-known island in the Bay of Naples. This was a bit of a pilgrimage: my grandfather was killed there in 1947, when the RAF plane he’d hitched a ride in flew into a mountain. Terrible things were done after the crash; according to Truman Capote, who lived on the island shortly afterwards, three people who somehow survived the crash were stoned to death, and bodies were desecrated and looted. How could people cope with the knowledge that what they did was deeply wrong? In short, how does someone deal with guilt? 

The result was The Presence of the Past, a novel that starts with the crash as it happened, but then goes on to explore the story of the entirely fictional Ischian participants. It’s a modern morality play, exploring guilt, forgiveness and faith. One reader wrote, “I don’t have words to tell you how much I enjoyed it – the story, the writing… Just fabulous.” Another said, “… congratulations on tackling such a complex, layered, detailed story. Fabulous settings that resonated with me…Lots of sensory detail...”

Yes, of course you can buy it. Just click here. 

After that, I wanted to find out if this was a one-shot wonder, or if I could do it again. The Road to Jerusalem is the result. I hope you enjoy it.

You can reach me by sending an e-mail here. I’d love to hear from you.