John Coetzee (the Nobel Prize winner and author of Foe) Library Journal Edward, O'Hare, Politico Professor Kevin Barry Professor Irving Rothman Dr James Canton John Martin is an English novelist and biographer. Like Defoe he was brought up in Essex. He has written widely on politics, finance and business. John has a BSc Econ (Hons) from the London School of Economics, where he specialised in International History, and an MA in Life Writing from the University of East Anglia. He has worked as a business consultant and has managed companies in Britain, Germany, Japan and the USA. He is best described as a research-based biographer. He has used his research skills to discover original material about Defoe in numerous archives in several countries. In recent years he has published two novels and four works on Defoe and Jonathan Swift. He is married to Larisa Kleymenova, and lives and works in Norwich.