John Kernow was born in Cornwall and immigrated to Australia as a child. He was unspectacular academically. More impressive than his academic record was his ability to survive his western Sydney school physically unscathed. At university, he discovered that he had chosen one of the most boring subjects on the curriculum and that another was forcing him to read a well-known female author, most of whose characters he wanted to strangle. It was too much just to meet girls and he left university without graduating. He fell into engineering out of desperation and despite well intentioned warnings to avoid it like the plague. He managed both to stay sane and avoid discovery as a fraud by changing employers on a regular basis. Through that simple ploy he obtained employment in Australia, UK, the Middle East, and Asia. He now lives in Queensland with his wife and superannuated cat. His stated object as a writer is to amuse as many as possible and pay the cat’s vet bill.