Stephen Bown studied history at the University of Alberta. He is the author of the internationally acclaimed Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail and A Most Damnable Invention, which was shortlisted for the Wilfred Eggleston Award for Non-Fiction and the Canadian Science Writers' Association Science in Society Book Award. His most recent book is Madness, Betrayal and the Lash. He lives in the Canadian Rockies.