Robert Newman

Robert Newman is Greek-Cypriot, English, French and American. He has worked as a farmhand, warehouseman, house-painter, teacher, mail sorter, social worker, mover and broadcaster. Newman has been politically active with Reclaim The Streets, the Liverpool dockers, Indymedia and People's Global Action. The Fountain At The Center Of The World is Newman's third novel, following Manners (Penguin) and Betty Trask award-winning first novel Dependence Day (Random House), but the first to be published internationally.

The writing of The Fountain At The Centre Of The World was the subject of a BBC film shown on national television in Britain, Australia and parts of Europe. Research for the novel took him onto Welsh trawlers, into refugee detention centers and tropical disease hospitals. He also learnt Spanish and travelled extensively through Mexico and Central America.