Firstly, my name is not Pascal Bonenfant - it is Stephen Hart. Pascal Bonenfant is the hero of a series of novels, the first of which, The Unfortunate Deaths of Jonathan Wild, is now available at Amazon - here and set in the early part of the 18th Century in London.

By day I am a humble computer programmer with a prominent Australian telco, struggling to make my PhD in Archaeology relevant to my job. (If you want to read my thesis, based on fieldwork I undertook while living in Jordan in the 1980s, you can find it online at Macquarie University - The Archaeology of the Land of Edom. Unless you have a strong interest in Edomite pottery you should probably give it a miss.)

When darkness falls I turn into a humble historian, amateur lexicographer and novelist. For the last few years I have been pursuing an interest in 18th century Britain resulting in two books: the aforementioned novel and a non-fiction book about the language of the underworld in Georgian London entitled Cant - a Gentleman's Guide.

The 18th century in Britain is a fascinating period where the remains of an agricultural economy hit the rotating blades of the industrial revolution. Stuff flies in all directions and it never really settles down until the until later in the 19th century.

I’m the sort of person who wants to be there when it all happens. The 18th century is that sort of place.

Currently I reside in Sydney, Australia with my family and no pets except for the cat from next door which refuses to go away. I did have a pet stick insect but it escaped into a tree and we could never find it again.

Some Biographical Notes

Name: Stephen Hart

Born: Mid 1950s

Residence: Sydney, Australia

Occupation: Computer Programmer

Education: BA (Hons) University of Sydney; DipLib University of NSW; PhD Macquarie University

Some of the more interesting bits of Employment History:

• 1982-1986 - British Institute of Archaeology in Amman, Jordan
• 1989-1991 - Strategic Studies Group computer gaming company
• 1994-1999 - DesignSoft programming house
• 2001-present - Optus telecommunications

Interests: archaeology, history, computer programming, gaming, playing jazz music, reading, writing