I'm 49, have been married for 25 years and have a daughter of 13. I am an engineer with a Master's degree in Structural Engineering and an Honours in Commerce. I live in Pretoria, the capital city of South Africa.

I resigned my position at a company to write my debut novel, The Wewelsburg Covenant, which won The Citizen newspaper book prize in 2009, a prize that aims to profile debut South African authors.

Winning the prize encouraged me to self-publish my novel, but I went back to the drawing board to make sure that the book was in the best possible shape it could be for readers. I spent many late nights and early mornings for months on end researching the fascinating history that forms the backdrop for my novel.

Did Heinrich Himmler, the leader of the SS, really believe that the Holy Grail existed, and did he truly think that if he found this object, that it would help Germany win the war by unlocking some mystical Aryan power?

Enter Otto Rahn, a 'real-life' Indiana Jones who spent years of his life uncovering the clues of the Grail left by the ancient Cathars. Rahn was eventually employed by Himmler to find the grail, and when Rahn died under mysterious circumstances years later, some think that the secrets to the grail did not die with him, but were locked up in Himmler's personal safe at Wewelsburg Castle (looted by Allied soldiers towards the end of the war). What if that story had been continued, secretly hidden from the world?

So I tried to imagine what could have happened, and the history fascinated me so much that I couldn't help tie it, and many other aspects of it, into my story. I took the liberty of weaving what facts may exist about the history of the Nazi occult into a fast-paced occult novel that centres around characters with a great deal of personal conflict.

What if, I asked myself, the Fourth Reich had to rise again? And what if there was one man at the centre of it all, who had the power to decide the fate of the world?

I am a family man with a tremendous thirst for knowledge, intellectually minded, a keen follower and critic of world geopolitical events and a near-fanatical lover of sports. I believe prejudice to be one of humankind's worst traits. My favourite quote is 'Patriotism is a virtue of the wicked', 'Carpe Diem' is my motto in life and the underlying plot for my novel is driven by the question: 'What if love truly conquers all?'

I'd love to hear from you. Email me at wewelsburgcovenant (at) gmail (dot) com.