Patrick John Stevens was born in Johannesburg on 2nd December 1946, the same month Alan Paton completed Cry, the Beloved Country and also the same month Steve Bantu Biko was born, so some characters in The Greatest Game derive from both. Pat Stevens has worked throughout Southern Africa as an engineering draftsman, this is his qualification for writing African novels, knowledge of the African people gleaned from an African lifetime. The author now lives in England but the river between Africa and Pat Stevens runs deep, a second novel titled Hero of the Struggle is now available at www.pdbookstore.com.