Born in Cambridge as a war child, I have led a variegated and muddled existence, having studied at Liverpool University during the Beatles years, worked as a clinical psychologist in Wales, been a journalist in the West Country, acted as a drama instructor in Essex, and taught English as a foreign language in Spain, Eastern Europe and Italy. It was here I developed a love of Italian art, food, landscape, and history, especially that of the Renaissance era. My fascination of the period led to the visits and research which have resulted in this scholarly yet sensuous and heady bodice-ripper, set in the dramatic turbulence of the High Renaissance. 
  I now live in Hungary with my delectable wife, the painter Eva Dvorzsak.