Ian Kemish AM is a former Australian diplomat who served as ambassador to Germany, high commissioner to Papua New Guinea, international adviser to the Prime Minister, and head of the consular and crisis management service. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in recognition of his leadership of the emergency response to the 2002 Bali bombings. An adjunct professor at the University of Queensland, he continues to work as a strategic advisor and as a volunteer director in the homelessness and international humanitarian sectors. Ian’s first book, The Consul (UQP, 2022), offered a personal perspective on Australia’s foreign affairs challenges over two decades − spanning hostage diplomacy, natural disasters and evacuations from war zones. Two Islands is his first work of fiction, drawing on both his diplomatic work in the Balkans in the mid-1990s and his strong family links with the western isles of Scotland.