I as some of you may already know was born in New York City in the year of 1967 but am currently living in Warsaw, Poland with my wife of the last 11 years and daughter whose expired years will number 10 on the 12 of February. As for who my parents were or are this I do not see as having any consequence on me let alone on my writing so I will just leave it at this. My mother is South American (half white half Indian) presently married to an Australian who to the best of my knowledge is a "Knight Of The British Empire". A title he earned for his services during World War 2 which saw him enter the RAF and earn the rank of wing commander at a very young age. This however I know only from him whose name I leave out plus that he saw service in the Mediterranean under Lord Admiral Mountbatten. My father I do not mention in any ways other then that he gave me my love for history.   

What I will talk about however is my upbringing which took place in a family that was pretty much cemented in the upper class as we lived on the upper east side of Manhattan where I attended and was suspended from one of the most expensive private schools in Manhattan. I say one of the most expensive as the "Tutoring School of New York" was far from being one of the best being that it was a school for kids who had problems performing academically yet had parents with enough money to place them an in a school where loafing replaced educating. As a footnote to this I will say that during my time in this school which was from 1983 to 1986, I met though did not really befriend "Elizabeth Murdoch" whose father was and still I is I gather none other then the Australian media mogul "Rupert Murdock".

If there be people who influenced my life it was my grandfather whose place of birth strangely enough is unknown to me not that this matters for what does is that his name was Hildebrand and he was my grandfather. There are many things I can say about him for instance the gracious manner he behaved himself through out his life wish sadly ended when I was only 9 years of age.  He was somebody who was my idea of what elegance and dignity was all about and though he achieved neither fame nor fortune he was the one who not so much through his words but his example showed me what decency was about.

Many may consider me unfortunate to have lost my grandfather at such an early stage in life but I thank life that I had him at all for during the time we had together he passed on to me his gentlemanly ways that saw him treat whom ever he encountered with respect regardless of that person's social or economical position. It is actually from him and his wife, my Italian grandmother that I got my love of the arts that includes my passion for opera and classical music. It being a sight which never will leave my memory which was of him playing the violin while my grandmother played the piano in the room in our house that was the music room.    

I do not wish to bore anybody needlessly with the details of my life so I will get to some facts about myself. I have all modesty aside an innate talent for languages as I am fluent in English, Italian, French, Spanish and Polish. I am also a man who has traveled to many a country such as every one on the European continent with the exceptions of Bulgaria and Romania. With regards to South America it is to Argentina, Chile, Peru and Ecuador that I have been to while Panama was the sole country I have ever set foot on in Central America.

As for my hobbies and interests this I would say are opera and classical music. Wagner, Verdi, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Handel, Puccini, and many others are those that be among my favorites as I can often be found in attendance at the Warsaw opera. Apart from being an opera aficionado I am also a big football fan and as an Italian American I always wish to see Italy (Please read "San Lorenzo")  win as often as possible. Naturally I have a favorite club which happens to be "AC Milan" whom I have I cheered for ever since the days of Gianni Rivera. To continue with my hobbies I must add shopping for clothes as well as basically anything that might be for the home as it is while shopping that I loose control over myself as I start to shop till the point of being about to drop. To this list I must insert as no list of my hobbies would be complete without traveling which as one can see I have done a lot of. History is also another passion of mine as I have read countless of articles on Wikipedia on the subject along with a few books by Norman Davies but above all Paul Johnson who remains my favorite historian. To round of my list going to restaurants, bars and museums are also among the things of my interest that I feel compelled to mention.

It may surprise some that reading is not among the things I love to do, reason being that for some reason or other it is not something I enjoy for its own purpose. I do enjoy learning about history, diverse cultures, and music and it because of this that I read but not because I like reading but because I like learning making reading a necessity. I naturally have read a number of books though probably not as many as most authors have but some books I have read as I would not want to have the dubious distinction of being the first writer to write a book without having read one. Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment", "The Idiot" and "Brothers Karamazov" are to be found in the not so long list of books which have been read by me, though I must confess that this list does not exceed 50 books but most likely does not dip below 40. With regards to philosophy I would say that though I have one concerning just about every subject under the sun I have never read any what so ever. I am aware who Marx, Schopenhauer, Wesendonck, and Nietzsche were but I have never read there works as I believe my mind to be just as capable as any that are or have ever been with regards to being able to create its own line of thought. If depth by the issue then those who have read my work will not notice a lack of this when comparing it to any other writer who puts his ideas on be it paper or pen drive.

With regards to my education this I can not in earnest claim to have gone beyond high school with some years of college completed though I did not obtain any degrees of any kind in the subjects which I started that included photography, economics and French.

However if the issue be my writing this I must claim that if there should be any quality what so ever in my written work this comes from what I audaciously would classify as sheer talent and nothing else. It is not arrogance that leads me to make the past statement but fact that I have never in my life studied literature in any way shape or form as I also have never in as much as taken any courses in creative writing. Perhaps this is the reason that I have a weak point with regards to punctuation which is not prevalent in my use of grammar which I master completely as I have been a teacher of English as a second language in Poland for the last 13 years. In many ways one can compare my writing to Wagner's music for Wagner though considered one of the greatest composers of all time did not have much in the way of formal musical training as his schooling went little beyond having learnt the basics.

Another perhaps good point to my little schooling with regards to writing is that it allowed my own style to develop as it was not one that was not influenced by any teacher or writer for that matter though I must give credit where it is due. I had a teacher in "The Tutoring School of New York" whose name was Ann Lafarge who made me believe I could read a book by Voltaire called "Candide" and write a report on. I believe she was French speaking and also taught French in the same school. She however did not stay long in this school and went on to become a publisher at Random House. It is my hope that though contact between us has been lost that she read my present day work and tell me her opinion and hopefully I will get more then the B+ she gave me for the "Candide" essay.   

Actually the reason I took up writing was not to become an author or anything of the sort but to write texts for the students of my English school to read and hopefully enjoy as well as understand in order to help them enlarge their vocabularies along with their knowledge of English. It only happened last year that I had my first article ever published on the net or any where else for that matter when www.articleland.co.uk opted to publish "The Little Opera Singer". After that I continued work on the book "New York's Opera Society" which I completed last year. "The Little Opera Singer" was followed by several other articles which number in the area of 30 that have been published on many a website and read by thousands of readers. I however believe the number of my readers would be much higher had I started putting my work on other websites sooner then I did for I waited till November of last year before I put up my work on websites other then www.articleland.co.uk. About my book "New York's Opera Society" this I recommend to those interested in buying it to go to the following website www.iuniverse.com .

To end this brief story or description of my life with levity I will say that it if truth be said my writing has more then likely been more influenced by the thousands of films I have seen then anything else. It is even strange how despite my having seen so many films I practically remember every scene from every film that has ever passed my eyes along with every dialogue sometimes word for word. I also believe it was films that developed my biggest assets as a writer.  This being two in number which are my imagination along with my passion for not only telling a story but expressing my thoughts, feelings and emotions which I hope has not gone unnoticed by those who have leant my work the time it took to read.