Father Robert Easton joins us from the South Coast, where he has spent the past fifteen years as chaplain to Brighton College.
His accent might suggest otherwise, but he’s a proud Scot, having been born and bred in Glasgow, before his family moved south of the border. While at Bryanston School in Dorset, he developed a passion for the written word – both contemporary and classical – and armed with a degree in English from the University of Bristol, and a certificate in Broadcasting Journalism from University College, Cardiff, he embarked on a career with BBC radio. Lured into the world of academic publishing, he managed two companies for more than a decade in the United States, during which time he met and married his wife, Kai, who currently heads the English Department at SOAS in central London. Returning to England, he ran the book division of a British journal publisher for a couple of years … and then, finally, he found his true vocation of the Church. He read theology at the University of Oxford, and began his ordained life in Stoke Newington, before moving down to Sussex.
In response to the tsunami of Boxing Day 2004, Robert started the charity “Extra Cover” in Sri Lanka. He visits there three times a year, where the charity serves 1200 meals a day to some of the poorest children in remote villages in the southwest of the island, and helps to ensure all the children at 25 schools have access to good food, clean water, and sufficient resources to learn and enjoy life. Having spent much of his life of working alongside children and adults with learning difficulties, his charity has opened four small schools, and two vocational training centres, for those with special needs. For more information, please visit www.extracover.org.co.uk.
He has had two books of popular history published (both currently available on Amazon) and has written three novels, two for the young adult market.
Robert and Kai have rescued a terrier from Ireland, and renamed him Seamus, after the poet Seamus Heaney. More than two years after giving him a home, they’re still trying to bring him to heel.
