The idea to write a book has been in my mind since at least the year 2000. But one thing or another always seemed to get in the way. Not least was my work with the Australian Foreign Service. My diplomatic work, nonetheless, helped sustain the idea. By this I mean that although I might have become jaded with certain aspects of diplomatic life in the run up to June 2012, when I separated from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the one facet of my diplomatic work of which I never tired was the writing.
It was my continuing attraction to writing, particularly the challenge of weaving words into a coherent narrative, that convinced me to put aside self-doubts and have a crack. When the time came to leave DFAT, however, I found I still had gas in the tank and the thought that I might take a new career path convinced me to study law.
Completing a Juris Doctor degree at the Australian National University was a great learning experience. The inherent writing tasks, essays and the like, also served as a constant reminder that my enthusiasm for writing a book remained alive and well. I remain admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory but do not practice.
In 2017 I decided it was time to become a full-time writer drawing on my 33 years of travelling the world and the raft of experiences and cultures to which I had been exposed. I have been at it full-ever since and love the creative challenge.
In November 2020 that year, I released The Far Grass, the fictional story of British spy during the Cold War, which has gone to receive critical acclaim. My latest novel, Weather over Mendoza, is expected to be published by the Shawline Publishing Group in the Australian spring of 2022.
