Dr Joe Flood was born in Australia's last slum in Redfern, Sydney in 1950. His mother was one of Australia's most famous writers, and three of his younger siblings are prize-wining authors. From 1994-6 he was the first Co-ordinator of the Indicators Programme in the United Nations, and he assisted countries throughout the world on governance issues on behalf of the UN, the World Bank and other aid agencies. He was editor of the flagship Global Report on Human Settlements 2003, “The Challenge of Slums". He has been involved in genetic genealogy since 2008, and he administers a large group of people of Cornish descent. In 2010 he began creative writing, and has published stories and poems in Hecate (Queensland), Thema (California), The Lake (Ireland) and Avalon Review (Florida). He has published three book-length non-fiction works and is completing a series of five novels or creative memoirs.