About the Author

One of eight children, Rob was born and grew up in rural Northern Ireland. 

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As a boy, he was introduced to the wonderous beauty of the countryside through numerous early morning long treks with his father and a dog.  In those times Rob was also fortunate enough to enjoy many marvellous boyhood adventures with his pals, roaming the wide-open fields and glens that surrounded them. 

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As a teenager in the late sixties, Rob left the lush green countryside of Ireland with his parents and siblings to live in England in the city of Coventry, as they sought out the booming opportunities there.  He took with him his then broad Irish accent, his love of Nature, and special memories of the enduring warmth and friendship of the Irish people.

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After a few years in Coventry, he departed to take a year out hitch-hiking around Europe, North Africa and Turkey, before returning to Coventry again to marry a fair-haired young English woman.  

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Adventures in the Middle East beckoned, and together they travelled to the brown deserts of Kuwait, spending a decade there and starting a family.  They were fortunate to leave Kuwait just before war broke out, this time travelling to the Southern hemisphere to find a new home in New Zealand, where they have lived for the past 30 years.  

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Rob had a grammar school education, an MBA, and a career in international corporate organisations, culminating as Commercial Director of a major multi-national New Zealand company, before retiring from paid occupation to take on voluntary service.

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Having indulged his passion for studying and then tutoring practical philosophy for some 20 years, he was invited to pioneer the introduction of practical philosophy courses into New Zealand prisons for high security risk prisoners.  Against expectations, the courses became so increasingly successful and popular that Rob founded the Freedom Philosophy Society to help serious offenders change the direction of their lives for the better.  

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Rob’s humour, love of Nature, practical philosophy, and his search for a deeper understanding of people and life, is reflected in his writing.

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In addition to writing and prison volunteering work, he keeps in shape with yoga and regular long walks in the New Zealand bush.

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Fall from Grace was originally written for a large family circle and friends. In part the novel is a tribute to the woman who inspired the idea of the central character, ‘Grace’, and her tenacious belief in love and hope despite a tumultuous life in Ireland.   

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The book was published with much enthusiasm and prompting by readers of that early edition, who felt that Grace’s strange but wonderful story should be shared with a wider public.

 

Rob's daughter, Rachael (Connect Films), provided the endearing little sketches.