Pizzles in Paradise - An English Vet's Life in New Zealand, #1

Biographie de John Hicks

I am a retired veterinarian. My wife and I emigrated to New Zealand in the early 1970s. Apart from a brief stint in a dog and cat practice in Yorkshire, I spent most of my working life in various parts of rural New Zealand enjoying the challenge of mixed practice with sheep, deer, dairy and beef cattle, horses, working dogs and pets. For my two veterinary memoirs I have drawn as much on my formative years in England as my subsequent experiences in New Zealand.
Emigration brings with it a questing interest in origins and roots and this is also a theme in my writing. I was the 'Vet Talk' columnist for The Southland Times for several years and have contributed articles to scientific journals and various magazines. My columns were usually of a quirky, or satirical nature - in similar style to that I have used in 'Pizzles in Paradise', which was first published by Hazard Press in New Zealand in 2005 and reprinted in 2007.
The new edition of 'Pizzles in Paradise', and its recently completed sequel, 'A Wander in Vetland', were my first ventures in epublishing. I have always been drawn to literary fiction and 'She Bid Me Take Love Easy' is my first work in this genre. It is a coming-of-age novel that draws heavily on my own experiences of boarding at a strict single-sex English public school and the subsequent shock of release into university life during the "swinging" '60s: the confusing years when society's attitudes towards sex were being redefined.
I have used a parallel true story - an account of a disastrous love affair in the Indian Army in Victorian times - to delve into themes of obsession, love, jealousy and sexual morality.