Townsend, David: - David Townsend, a retired professor and translator of medieval literature, has dedicated twenty-five years to the study of Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, and the memory of Norwich's Jewish community post-expulsion. Finding no historical sources that fully satisfied his curiosity, he took to fiction, leading to his debut novel, The Ram in the Thicket. Townsend's work is inspired by his deep interest in the Middle Ages, women's spirituality, English local history, and medieval Jewish experience. He shares his life with his husband Jonathan Silin and their cat, Violet, splitting time between Toronto and Amagansett, NY.