Richard Major,
who was born in Polynesia, has degrees in history, literature and theology,
and gained a doctorate
at Magdalen College, Oxford, with a thesis on Reformation literary theory.
He has since taught at universities in England, Italy, America, Australia, India, Slovenia and, most recently, Hungary.
For some years he worked in New York as a journalist and commentator.
He now lives with his wife and two children in the middle of Africa.