John Jeremy Hespeler-Boultbee was born at Vancouver, Canada, in 1935. His education started in Australia, continuing in the United States, Canada and Great Britain. As soldier and journalist he travelled widely throughout Africa, the Middle and Far East and North America.

He studied architectural history in Great Britain, returning to Canada in 1956 to work as a journalist. At the University of Victoria he studied classical history and anthropology, living for a winter among the people of the Nass and Skeena Rivers on British Columbia’s Pacific Northwest coast. He earned his degree in history in art, three-dimensional design and ceramic sculpture.

As a journalist, he covered the Captain’s Revolution in Portugal in 1974, the following year accepting a post as lecturer at the University of Lisbon. Simultaneously, and for twelve years, he re-designed and restored old Portuguese homes in the Sintra hills and the Alentejo. Through hands-on experience he absorbed the local secrets of traditional indigenous construction and stonemasonry, an apprenticeship-cum-expertise which stood him in excellent stead when he came to consider the subject of this book.

He has made several forays into the Highlands of Ethiopia on behalf of the Department of History and CIDEHUS (Centro de Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Ciências Humanas e Sociais), the research and development institute at the University of Évora. He is an associate of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa University. His findings, illustrated with both photographs and drawings, provide a useful and stimulating exploration of Portugal’s cultural and architectural influence in Ethiopia’s Highlands during the XVI and XVII centuries. His viewpoint will benefit anyone seeking to enhance a more general knowledge of African or Portuguese history.

He returned to Canada in 2000, residing first in Owen Sound, Ontario, later relocating to Victoria, British Columbia. In 2007, after several more journeys to Ethiopia, he relocated there to take up a research position at Bahir Dar University on the southern shore of Lake Tana. He currently heads the university's new art department.