Born in the US, first went to India in 1970 as a Peace Corps volunteer. PhD from Berkeley in 1980 on Indian folklore, taught at Berkeley, Dartmouth, Heidelberg, Humboldt (Berlin) and mostly at SOAS in London, where I moved in 1994. Now live in Hove, with my wife, on the south coast. I love historical fiction, not ancient stuff, mostly early to mid 20th century. Novels can bring history alive and help us to understand the past.



