About the Author

Originally from Yorkshire, John Marshall grew up in Torquay, Devon, on the top of a hill, overlooking the town and the distant bay. He remembers the openness, the cries of gulls, a garden bursting with flowers and insects, and he was from a very young age in awe of the natural world and its Creator.

Having studied French and Spanish at university, he spent most of his working life in teaching. Now retired, he admits to being ‘spectacularly good at doing not very much’. His wife agrees and once claimed that he was the only person she knew who could happily spend an entire afternoon contemplating nothing more than a blade of grass. That said, he also writes, surveys and photographs local butterflies, walks, runs and cycles, and occasionally does a little exploring in France and Spain, particularly in the mountains and other wild places. In the Church, he especially likes praying with others, ‘above all on those occasions when the Lord very obviously shows up and does something wonderful’.

John is married to Carol. They live in the South West, not very far from their three children and six grandchildren.