Vancouver writer and arts policy consultant, and one of Canada's leading cultural commentators. Born and educated in England, he spent several years as a journalist in London before emigrating to Canada in 1967. He was dance, music and drama critic for The Vancouver Sun and CBC Radio for over 30 years, and is the author of a number of books on the arts in Canada, among them Dance Canada: An Illustrated History (named as one of the "165 Great Canadian Books of the Century" in 2000), a biography of ballerina Evelyn Hart, a collection of his dance writings over three decades, and The Defiant Imagination: Why Culture Matters, a passionate manifesto asserting the central importance of the arts and culture to modern Canada.

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