The author is a retired Australian lawyer whose career brought him into close contact with people attempting to migrate from less-developed countries to the Western world. Over many years, he witnessed the legal, emotional and cultural toll of displacement - both through his work and through his own experience of migration.

Extensive travel throughout the Middle East, including Iran, Syria and Lebanon, further deepened his understanding of the lives behind migration statistics and political debate. Those experiences shape Iran, We Ran, a novel written with restraint, empathy and an acute awareness of what it means to leave everything behind.