'Peter Strawhan was born at the ‘Old Queen Vic’ Maternity Hospital, Rosewater, in 1932. A bleak wartime childhood in a working-class western suburb followed. He endured a five-year apprenticeship as a motor mechanic, later spending almost twenty-five years as an insurance assessor. A midlife crisis and adult matriculation led to Flinders University and a BA in History with First Class Honours. In 2005, after retiring to the south coast, he was awarded a doctorate by the University of Adelaide.'
