Certified as an armed security contractor, trained in Africa, Ben has an MA in International Security from the University of Reading, UK, including terrorism, irregular conflict and strategic theory, and has lived in a Middle-East conflict zone for multiple years teaching primary school. Though known for writing political intrigue action-thriller, Ben has written in many genre placing in, among others, the Academy's Nicholl for neo-transcendentalism. His undergraduate was in Visual Art, including photography, film, stone-carving and bronze-pouring, and working as a Country Risk Analyst he has been published on Kurdish-MENA security dynamics.