About the author

Gerard Charles Wilson

After a lifetime working in the book business (mostly educational publishing) I now concentrate on my writing.<br>One of my formative experiences was living in Holland with my Dutch wife for two and a half years. On returning to Australia, I completed a major in Dutch Language and Literature at Melbourne University and then transferred to La Trobe University where I studied through to a master’s degree in philosophy. My studies and immersion in another culture and language, together with my Catholic faith, form the biggest influences on my writing. But shaping those influences are my mother and father. One could not have wished for better or more principled parents.<br>My master’s thesis was on Edmund Burke whose thought enters my writing in one way or another. My preoccupations are social and cultural from a Catholic and (Burkean) conservative point of view. This reflects my acceptance of the Catholic idea of the reciprocal relationship between faith and reason.<br>My favourite fiction authors are Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Evelyn Waugh. Evelyn Waugh’s style and mastery of English have been my biggest influence – not in vain, I hope. My favourite modern non-fiction author is philosopher Roger Scruton. I spend my leisure time reading and occasionally walking along the nearby shores of Port Phillip Bay. I love opera, musicals, and the ballet (<em>The Nutcracker</em>&nbsp;is my favourite.) I enjoy fifties rock ‘n’ roll, forties big band and the American songbook. Mozart is my favourite classical composer, but I am acquiring a liking for Bach.<br>My novels are in the genre of the ‘Catholic novel’. They are in the style of Catholic novelists Evelyn Waugh, Grahame Greene, and Morris West. I deal with similar political, philosophical, and moral issues. The difference from general fiction is the assumed philosophical framework. Most modern fiction assumes a materialist framework while the Catholic novel assumes a natural law framework (See the ‘Catholic Novel’ page on my website.) Finally, there is always a romantic content in my stories. Love relationships are an incisive way of exploring the human person.