Douglas Hawkins was born in Germiston, South Africa, where he lives today. Shortly after he was born, the family moved to the Kingdom of Swaziland (today Eswatini) where he spent his formative childhood years before returning to South Africa. Following his retirement from the corporate world, he has pursued his passion for the multifaceted histories and cultures of the people of South Africa, and the wide diversity of the country’s fauna and flora, geology and geography. He is a qualified Field Guide and a South African National Guide in history and culture. He has travelled extensively around South Africa, western Zimbabwe, southern Zambia and northern Botswana. His writings have focused especially on the 19th century Anglo-Zulu and Boer-Pedi battlefields, narrated from the viewpoint of the Zulu and Pedi nations. Of Vagabonds Missionaries and Thieves is the author’s second novel. His first book, My Brother’s Keeper (second edition published in 2014) is a factually and culturally accurate portrayal of the first month of the Anglo-Zulu war of 1879, written solely from the Zulu standpoint.