除了在两岁半的时候撞了一次车外，我最早的记忆莫过于在地中海东部赛普洛斯岛上的登山攀岩之旅。那是一个节奏舒缓，催人入眠的地方，我对那里最主要的记忆便是躺在火热的希腊和罗马废石之上，十字军的建筑看着壁虎们应和着蝉的声音舔舐着他们的眼球。
二十年后，我前往牛津大学和索邦大学学习，研究那些骑士与十字军们---这些建造了让我毕生难忘的城堡们的人们。
我的第一本书---《隐居骑士》正是在那时创作出来的。这是一部关于圣殿骑士团和医院骑士团的历史书作---所有十字军中最具有代表性，同时也最经典的一群人。我不会把这本书作为一本轻松愉悦的读本去推荐。这本书更适合于那些希望获得曾住在法国南部腹地的圣殿骑士团和医院骑士团成员的真实名字、地点和时间的人们。书中将涵盖他们是如何吸引新成员、建立坚固的寺院、改造乡村风貌、结识友人并树立敌人、发展银行专业知识、并最终穷其所有精力去将新的骑士、马匹、武器、财务等输送到他们的卫戍部队，在神圣土地上开展十字军之征。这一研究过程中的每分每秒都令我挚爱不已---为此我翻遍了古老法国教堂中的所有古老的历史文献，查阅了世界上许多最美的图书馆，阅读大量无价并极具启发性的手稿。
当这一切研究结束后，我回到伦敦，成为了一名律师（法庭律师）---很快便熟悉了从谋杀、恐怖主义、绑架到国际暗杀等的一切。虽然最终我还是放弃了，但这些年的时光对我而言还是无可取代的。为这些自由命悬一线的人们进行辩护，对我而言是一项极大的荣耀。
从那以后，我做了许多事情。一系列的巧合使得我有机会在中东生活并工作了一段时间。正是在这里，我看向波斯湾那片蔚蓝的水域（当然在此在壁虎和蝉的陪伴下），诞生了我的第一部惊悚小说。《摩西之剑》是一个节奏轻快紧凑的故事，有关于国际谍事、古老神秘的线索、圣经考古、暴力以及不可或缺的圣殿骑士团。我希望你们在阅读它的时候能够感受到我创作时的同样激情！
My earliest memories - apart from crashing a car when I was two and a half - are of scrambling around the mountains and stony bondu on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. It was a slow and sleepy place to live back then, and I chiefly remember lying on the hot stones of ruined Greek, Roman, and crusader buildings watching geckos lick their eyeballs to the sound of dozy cicadas.
Twenty years later, I went to Oxford and the Sorbonne to specialize in researching the knights of the crusades - the people who had built the castles I remembered so well.
My first book, Knights of the Cloister, is what came out of that time. It’s a history textbook on the Knights Templar and Knights Hospitaller - the most iconic of all the crusaders. I don’t recommend the book as light relaxing reading. It’s more for people who want names, places, and dates of real Templars and Hospitallers living in their heartland of Southern France. It covers how they attracted new members, built fortified monasteries, transformed the countryside, made friends and enemies, developed expertise in banking, and focused all their efforts on sending fresh knights, horses, weapons, and money to their garrisons fighting the crusades in the Holy Land. I loved every minute of the research - rummaging through ancient chests in old French churches and working in some of the world’s most beautiful libraries reading priceless illuminated manuscripts.
When the research was finished, I went to London and became a barrister (court room attorney) - quickly getting thrown into everything from murder and terrorism to kidnapping and international contract killing. I gave it up in the end, but I wouldn’t swap those years for anything. It was an enormous privilege being permitted to defend people whose freedom was on the line.
Since then I’ve done a lot of things. A series of coincidences brought me to live and work in the Middle East. It was here, looking out over the azure waters of the Persian Gulf (with geckos and cicadas for company again), that my first thriller novel was born. The Sword of Moses is a fast-paced story of international espionage, ancient cryptic clues, biblical archaeology, violence, and - of course, the Knights Templar. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it!