Conville & Walsh

Art Lester grew up reluctantly in the American South before working as a newspaper reporter, supermarket clown, fire tower operator, taxi driver and carnival worker. After university, he ran a counter culture Mexican restaurant that hosted Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, among others. That was where he met the literary hero of his youth, Jack Kerouac.

During the eighties, he worked in Kenya, Botswana and the Dominican Republic, becoming a speaker of Swahili and Spanish. Since 1992 he has been minister to Unitarian congregations in London and Dublin. His publication credits are as diverse as his history, including Mike Shane Mystery Magazine and the BBC World Service, among others. His book, Seeing with Your Ears, won a prestigious US self-published book competition.

He divides his time between London and a village of the Alpujarras valley of Southern Spain with his wife, Gilly Fraser, a television script writer and former playwright in residence of the Royal Court Theatre.