The author
Martin Winter was born in Adelaide, South Australia, in 1952. He completed high school in 1969 and was awarded a scholarship to study Science at The University of Adelaide, but found his passion in the Humanities - Classics, Philosophy, and Politics - the latter channelling his activism during Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War.
He graduated with Honours, then sailed to England. Claiming he could speak German, he found a job guiding passengers on bus trips across Europe and the Soviet Union. On his first trip, he met a girl from Sydney, and they have been together ever since.
In the autumn of 1976, they took the infamous Magic Bus from London to Athens, continuing on to Egypt, for a journey that sparked his fascination with the countries bordering the Eastern Mediterranean. He wanted to visit the places he had read about as an undergraduate, and see where his father had spent most of WWII fighting against Rommel in the Western Desert, but left with more questions than answers, discovering cultures thick with mystery and myth, Islam and Orthodoxy - themes at the heart of The First Quran.
When he returned to Australia, he married Merrilee. They opened a restaurant, planted a vineyard and made wine. It was an idyllic place to raise their three children, but Winter wanted to show them the world, and on the eve of the new millennium, he took a job representing the interests of the French multinational, Le Cordon Bleu, in the Americas, and was appointed visiting professor at the University of Brasilia. In the following year, he transferred to London, returning to the city he had come to seeking adventure, more than twenty years before. The company was in rapid growth, his address book filled with the names of extraordinary people across the globe, and although it seemed this chapter of his career would never end, eventually, the need for the children to have permanent roots became paramount, and the family returned home. Within a few weeks, his experience had been noticed, and shortly after was offered the opportunity to lead Adelaide's destination marketing authority. He remained CEO for seven years until assuming the same role with the country’s premier visitor destination, The Gold Coast.
At every turn, Winter has come face to face with people with remarkable life stories; sharing vodka with Russian submariners in Odessa, taking tea with Muslim friends on the sands of the Persian Gulf, and enjoying a private dinner in Palazzo Vecchio. Every experience has added to his understanding of the human condition and contributed to his writing, now his full-time focus.
Winter scribbled down the opening chapter of The First Quran while on a long-haul flight to Europe, and fleshed out the story over many summers, sailing the Aegean with Merrilee, on their yacht, Ella. They now live on the beach in Queensland, Australia.
