Jack Eden

The novel Furt Bent from Aldaheit was inspired by events in 1971 when, at age 19, the author founded a newspaper in a country town near Auckland. He published a story on the innocence of a farmer found guilty of a double murder, and was visited by investigating officers for whom the story was an embarrassment.

Eden left the town, and his newspaper, and headed north to the Hokianga where he met several Vietnam War draft dodgers (subject of new novel Jetsam's Caress). He continued in journalism, working on several community and daily newspapers in New Zealand and Australia.

He started writing novels seriously in 2005, and has completed seven, two of which have been published. "Memories of the events surrounding those early days of writing about Arthur Alan Thomas stayed with me. Furt Bent from Aldaheit is a work of fiction, but it is fair to say it is inspired those events."