John Porter spent his childhood growing up amongst the fruit orchards of North Kent in England, and after leaving grammar school, gained his horticultural qualifications at Hadlow College near the historic spa town of Tunbridge Wells. He migrated to Australia at the age of nineteen with his first wife in 1980 and has mostly lived in the Sydney area since then.
Although deriving his main income over the years from the plant industry and from his own wholesale and retail nurseries, John has always maintained the keen interest in words and storytelling that was first fired up by his father’s vast collection of books, and an enigmatic and inspirational English teacher at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Faversham.
John has written for many local organisations and groups in his native England, as well as preparing a number of public documents for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the 1980’s. He has also published many poems and short stories in various publications in England and Australia over the years, including a number of short works for The Upper Room.
The author and his present wife now live at Gloucester in rural New South Wales, where they own a garden centre and pet shop. John draws inspiration for his books from the Australian bush, the daily customers, and the host of chickens, birds, dogs, cats, rabbits and guinea-pigs which are bred on the premises, as well as from the colourful tapestry of his own past.
Although John’s works are richly imbued with a dark, sometimes surreal humour, his writing often contains elements of historical, philosophical and social interest.
John has been published in Europe and Australia, and won the New England Award for Crime Writing in 2014 with his story The Moonlighter. The story also received a Commended Award in the Fiction category of the Thunderbolt Prize.
In addition to several other short story anthologies and a book of whimsical poetry, John’s newest novel The Collector is available by contacting the author at ggc1@iinet.net.au