About the Author

John was called to Christian ministry in his twenties and in the decades it took to convince the Church of England, he had more incarnations than Dr Who. He served in the British Army and worked in business, in particular producing international events on commodities and finance. He was ordained in 2005, then served in the Royal Navy as a Chaplain from 2008. Now an author and Bible teacher, his main ministry is to those outside the church who see themselves as spiritual but not religious, to those who sense there must be more to life than this, and those who long to find what more there really is.

John's mother was a lapsed Roman Catholic consumer champion and aspiring politician. His father was a BBC producer of radio satire: a decorated soldier who had returned from WW2 with a chestful of medals and demons with most them. The religion of John's childhood obscured God, so God took him away from the church to meet Jesus on the mountains and beaches of Wales.

John is passionate about exploring the social fabric of first-century Palestine in which Jesus conducted his earthly ministry. "Maximus and the Blood of Innocents" tells the story of Jesus' final weeks from the viewpoints of those who had to deal with his arrival in Jerusalem that last time.

Many say that Jesus could only have been a lying charlatan, a deluded fool, or everything Jesus himself said he was. John is convinced that the rabbi Gamaliel was right when he advised the authorites just after Jesus death: "if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought, but if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it." John has also found that, because Jesus was everything he said he was, God's Holy Spirit has, over the centuries, worked through Jesus' followers to change the world we live in.