Martin Goodman sat down to be a writer at the age of twelve, and three months later decided the market wasn't ready for him yet. Work took him to Berlin, the Netherlands, Italy, Thailand, China, Qatar and Saudi Arabia as well as around the UK. He was buying time to write. His debut novel On Bended Knees, just re-released, was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award, and his most recent one The Cellist of Dachau, takes music and the Holocaust as its themes. Nonfiction books, some award-winning, are about the sacred, fights to save the environment, and the history of medicine. Born in Leicester, he studied English at Leeds, took a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Lancaster, and is professor emeritus of creative writing at the University of Hull. He shares homes in Los Angeles, London and Lowestoft with his husband, the environmental lawyer, writer and Zen priest James Thornton. "Such narrow, narrow confines we live in. Every so often, one of us primates escapes these dimensions, as Martin Goodman did. All we can do is rattle the bars and look after him as he runs into the hills. We wait for his letters home." – The Los Angeles Times