About this item
For better or worse, what we are is often determined by our family; the events that occurred many years before we were born and the choices that were made by our forebears are our inheritance - we are the inexorable product of family history. So it is with nations. The history of Great Britain has been largely defined by powerful and influential families, many of whose names have come down to us from Celtic, Danish, Saxon or Norman ancestors. Their family names fill the pages of our history books; they are indelibly written into the events which we learned about at school. Iconic family names like Wellington, Nelson, Shakespeare, Cromwell, Constable, De Montfort and Montgomery ... there are innumerable others. They reflect the long chequered history of Britain, and demonstrate the assimilation of the many cultures and languages which have migrated to these islands over the centuries, and which have resulted in the emergence of our language.
About the Author
John Moss writes mysteries. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2006 in recognition of his career as a professor of literature with over a score of books in his field, John moved progressively away from literary criticism to creative writing, before settling comfortably into the Quin and Morgan series which now occupies his writing efforts full time. As a boy, he declared he wanted to live a life of adventure. So far, so good. He has participated in many endurance sports, including the original Ironman. He swam the Hellespont, and ran the Boston Marathon eleven times. He has dived in wondrous places, ranging from the Red Sea and the Great Barrier Reef to Tahiti, Easter Island, and numerous sites in the Caribbean. He has trekked through the Barren Lands on his own for twenty-eight days, and across major portions of Baffin Island. At different times he has raised horses, bred dogs, kept swans, and cultivated bees. He remains astonished at being alive, a sentient self-conscious part of the universe. Writing mysteries is the best way he has found, yet, of exploring the breadth of a full life and its inevitably ominous end.
