I retired from the Student Health Service at the University of British Columbia in 1989 at the age of 60 years because of a significant family history of heart disease. I had authored or co-authored 26 scientific papers during my 18 years at the university. I experienced difficulty making the transition from writing scientific papers to writing a novel that explores emotion rather than data. I started single handing my sailing vessel, Tremethick II, in 1985 and progressively moved further north each year. In 1992 I visited Port McNeill for the first time and asked at their library if there was a biography of Captain William H McNeill. Since the town was named after Captain McNeill I was surprised that they had no information on this man. I did some research on this interesting Bostonian who came on the coast as a fur trader in 1819 and eventually stayed there and became an employee of the Hudson Bay Company. He married a Kagaini Haida chief's daughter and I was fascinated by the aboriginal cultures, their way of life and their carved cedar totem poles that depicted their legends and myths.  The research took five years before I started to write the book. I finished, Captain McNeill and his Wife the Nishga Chief, in 1998 and Hancock House published it in 2001.  I have written about seven stories that I put away and have occasionally revised. One story started when I was anchored in Viner Sound in 1996. I felt a presence on board that set off my imagination of a spirit of a young Kwakiutl boy trapped in Viner Sound because the burial rites had not been performed at the time of his death. The idea of spiritual possession was reinforced when a Haida woman told me about her possession by the bad spirit of Hot Spring Island in the Gwai Hanas Park on the Queen Charlotte Islands. In 2012 I decided to self-publish, Strange Possession at Viner Sound. The book contains the stories of six lives. Two half-breeds (Matti and Bessie), a Chief at the Indian village of Gwyasdums (Chief Joseph), a Shaman (Caring-well) at the village and two Kwakiutl boys (Lad and Jojo) held captive at a secret Japanese radio base during WWII. Their lives are interwoven within the novel.

Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. (1950)
BA, 1953. MB BChir 1956. LMCC 1959
Flight Lieutenant, Royal Canadian Air Force (1958-61)
Member, Canadian Committee for Fertility Research
Member, WHO Task Force Male Fertility Research - Clinical Trials Division
Director, Student Health Service at University of British Columbia.