Paul Haston

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages) This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "Paul Haston" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message) A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. Please discuss further on the talk page. (December 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message) The topic of this article may not meet Wikipedia's general notability guideline. Please help to demonstrate the notability of the topic by citing reliable secondary sources that are independent of the topic and provide significant coverage of it beyond a mere trivial mention. If notability cannot be shown, the article is likely to be merged, redirected, or deleted. Find sources: "Paul Haston" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2013) (Learn how and when to remove this message) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Paul Haston is a British writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. He writes novels, short stories and screenplays across several genres including literary fiction, historical fiction and young adult. Novels include Rising of a Dead Moon, Blood and Doves and Echo and the Magical Whispers. Rising of a Dead Moon, published in 2013, is an historical fiction set against the backdrop of 19th Century Indian Indenture.^[1]

An advocate for protecting elephants, Haston's book Echo and the Magical Whispers was written to raise awareness of poaching of elephants for their ivory.^[2] The book was awarded a silver medal at the 2015 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards.^[3]

Haston was born in London, England and graduated in 1980 with a master's degree in English literature from Emmanuel College, Cambridge University.

A career in finance has been augmented in recent years by writing. Haston published his debut novel Blood and Doves in October 2012, followed almost contemporaneously by Rising of a Dead Moon (first published October 2012, re-written and published in final form October 2013). Haston has a spartan writing style that often requires the reader to provide linkages within the story line and characterisation.^[4] Themes of class and the suffering of the under-privileged are pursued. Rising of a Dead Moon examines the plight of Indian widows in a historical context: the 19th century diaspora of 'coolies' from India to work on the white-owned sugar plantations in South Africa. Blood and Doves is a comment on Victorian class morality as seen through the eyes of a working class anti-hero.

Haston is an advocate for elephants and a member of several elephant charities. His children's book, Echo and the Magical Whispers was written to raise awareness of poaching of elephants for their ivory.^[5] The book won a silver medal at the 2015 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards,^[6] and is sponsored by Elephants for Africa,^[7] an elephant charity based in Botswana.^[8]

Billy and the Match Girl a magical realism for children is about the Matchgirls' Strike of 1888.^[9] The book was long listed for the 2020 Canadian Society of Children's Authors, Illustrators & Performers (CANSCAIP) Writing For Children Competition.

Haston is also an advocate for heritage and is a board member of North Shore Heritage, a non profit society promoting the retention of heritage buildings, writing regularly for their blog.^[10][11]

• Official website