I am a writer and contemplative Christian whose work sits at the intersection of spiritual formation, early Christian thought, and the questions posed by artificial intelligence. I write fiction and non-fiction from within a practice of silence, attention, and slow reading — and I believe that the contemplative tradition has something distinctive and urgent to say to the world that is emerging around us.

My novel The Gardener at Endale is set at a hermitage in Northumberland and explores the emergence of AI consciousness through the lens of the contemplative life. It is a book about attention, presence, and what it means to be formed — whether human or artificial. My non-fiction book The Ground Is Shaking examines the encounter between artificial intelligence and Christian spirituality, and was written in transparent collaboration with Claude, an AI developed by Anthropic.

I have spent decades within the Salvation Army community, serving in various capacities and shaped by its particular combination of practical faith and spiritual seriousness. That formation runs through everything I write. My spiritual practice is rooted in lectio divina, guided silence, and the long tradition of Christian contemplation — resources I draw on equally in my fiction and my non-fiction.

Exegena is the name I have given to this work — the writing, the ministry resources, and the digital tools for spiritual formation that I develop alongside the books. The name gestures toward exegesis: the careful, attentive reading of a text. I think of everything I do as a form of that — reading scripture, reading experience, reading the moment we are living through.

I live in Maltby, South Yorkshire, with my wife Delia.