David H Webb biography

David Webb lives in Sydney, Australia, with his wife, Natalie, and their children. He studied at the University of Sydney, Moore College, and more recently at Tanglewood in Sydney where he developed skills in counselling with a personal interest in the men's movement and authentic masculinity. Influences include: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as well as Robert Bly, Larry Crabb, Dan Allender, John Webb, and John Eldredge.

David H. Webb on Beckwood Brae

When I was eighteen, in my last year at an all-boys high school, as a text for the advanced English class (my favourite subject) we were given Emma by Jane Austin.
For anyone unfamiliar with the book, it is about a spoiled eighteenth-century heiress who takes four hundred and sixty pages attempting, unsuccessfully to get her young friend married. I wouldn't presume to criticize Jane Austin (although she may not mind anymore); Emma is a classic, but it just isn't a boy-book. One of my classmates had the temerity to ask why this was set for a class of young men.
Less audacious, I simply struggled with the book but made myself a promise that one day I would write a story for men, especially young men and those not too beaten and bruised by the world to enjoy stories, or maybe they need them the most.
Thankfully, some of the great psychologists of our age such as Robert Bly (Iron John) and Larry Crabb (The Silence of Adam) and others more recently have created a movement that has started men thinking more about their purpose in the world.
I wanted to write a story that would strike a chord with the God-given longings within a man that are meant to make him strong and courageous; with the tenacity to struggle toward what is good and important, however lonely the road or impossibly strong the opposition, not because he is strong and impressive but because that is what he wants to be. An in that struggle - perhaps - also win the love and respect of the girl of his dreams.
This is that story.
To the men who read it, I ask you to look for someone you will meet in these pages who may help you as well in ways that will surprise you.
To the girls, if you do read this book, I hope you will learn something true about what men are that will show you how to help them be all that they can be. This writer is convinced that what a woman wants is a man she can respect.
The story takes you to another world, different in many ways yet not so unlike ours in the end. "Are there other worlds?" you ask. As C.S. Lewis says, "Nothing is more certain."

All David H Webb Reviews