Timothy Ashby was born in the USA but moved at the age of 13 to the small Caribbean island of Grenada, which his veterinarian father and occupational therapist mother had chosen for charitable volunteer service. Mr. Ashby lived a “Huck Finn” existence, rarely attending school,and spending his teenage years surfing, sailing, diving and indulging his lifelong passion for history and archaeology. His interest in creative writing was mentored by the late Martin Woodhouse and Dudley Pope, historian and author of nautical fiction who was inspired by C.S. Forester. Mr. Pope even named one of the characters in his Lord Ramage series of historical novels “Captain Ashby,” in honor of the teenage Tim Ashby.
Mr. Ashby subsequently lived in Spain and the UK, returning to Grenada in his early 20s where he was a director of various businesses until the Communist Revolution of 1979. He moved to California to attend the University of Southern California, receiving his PhD in International Relations in 1986. His doctoral dissertation was published by Lexington Books in 1987 as The Bear in Back Yard: Moscow’s Caribbean Strategy. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich included long passages from the book in a floor speech to the U.S. Congress.
Tim Ashby was in Washington DC from 1984 to 1990, working first as a counter-terrorism consultant to the U.S. State Department, and then as a senior official - the youngest political appointee of his rank - at the U.S. Commerce Department, responsible for commercial relations with Latin America and the Caribbean. He held two Top Secret security clearances and worked with a number of colorful characters, including members of the U.S. military’s Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).
During the 1990s, Mr. Ashby resided in the UK, earning an MBA degree at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and working in Central and Eastern Europe on a variety of privatization and economic development projects. He also has a law degree from what he calls “a fine Jesuit university,” and is a licensed attorney in Florida and Washington, DC. He is the author of Devil’s Den, Missed Opportunities, numerous articles, and the prize-winning ghost story, “Warrior’s Return.”