John McAneney

Born in New Zealand, John began his working life in the navy before following a career in science. After gaining a PhD in Madison, Wisconsin, he has worked in France, Spain, Australia and New Zealand. In "Where Wine Flows like Water", John chronicles the adventures of he and a friend as they walk some 1000 kilometres along El Camino, the pilgrimage trail to Santiago de Compostela in NW Spain. The book features a collection of regional dishes from the kitchens of friends along the route. A second edition of "Where Wine Flows like Water" is now available on Amazon.

For some years, John was based at a small research station in the Bay of Islands, in the northern-most, sub-tropical part of New Zealand. This is an area with a rich colonial past and a place to which people are drawn for its sailing opportunities, climate and coastal scenery. It has a well-deserved reputation of eccentricity. For some of this period, John, Delphine and their two children chose to live at a remote beach on Maori tribal lands. John's first novel "Shifting Sands" grew out of this experience. These days, John is the Managing Director of Risk Frontiers at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. Risk Frontiers is an independent research centre studying the impacts of natural perils - floods, hail storms, bushfires, volcanic eruptions and tropical cyclones - on communities in the Asia-Pacific region and modelling and pricing these risks for the insurance sector.