John M Bourne

John M Bourne was born in 1949 in Brighton on the south coast of England, the eldest of 5 children. He was educated in Brighton, and then worked there in Insurance and a Solicitors office. In 1968 he met Sandra and they were married in 1970 and settled in Maidstone.

In 1971 he joined Kent Police and served with them for the next 19 years. Their marriage was blessed with 2 children. In the late 1980's he began to believe that he was being called into Christian Ministry. He was accepted for training in 1988, and tried to study and continue in the police, but the workload was too much and he left the police in 1990 as a senior sergeant.

In 1991 he was ordained at Canterbury Catherdral. In 1994, after a curacy at Allington in Maidstone, he was appointed Vicar of Marden, Kent and Chaplain of HMP Blantyre House. He held that position for the next 9 years. They were good years, seeing the Church grow and being involved in a number of adventures in his work at the prison. Unfortunately ill-health forced him to retire in 2003.

The family had grown and flown by then, and John and Sandra moved back to the Sussex coast. He spent his time in walks on the seafront, and began to write, something that had been in his mind for some years. His first book, Coppering The Cannon, was written under a psuedonym and described his early years in the police. His first novel was The Depths Within, a tale of adventure and trial. A story of crime and police work nears completion, and work on a Biblical historical fiction has just begun.