Author
John Payton Foden is a Toronto-based writer. For the past 30-years he’s been paying the bills and keeping the lights on by wearing a suit and tie as a consultant lobbyist.
He has an extensive track record of success providing strategic communications advice related to public policy, business planning, and project implementation to the public, private, and non-profit sectors.
With expertise in city government, he has managed campaigns related to some of the most volatile public policy files of his generation, including municipal amalgamation, property tax reform, race relations and employment equity, two Olympic Games campaigns, waste incineration, urban redevelopment, and renewable energy infrastructure.
His analyses of global and North American policy developments have been presented to federal, state, provincial, and municipal agencies, industry groups, professional organizations, and public organizations. His articles have appeared in many publications, ranging from trade magazines to daily newspapers, such as the National Post and The Globe and Mail. He has also provided issues commentary for broadcast media, including the CBC, CTV, Global, and Rogers, as well as local and national radio.
He is an award-winning baseball player and coach.
Magenta is his first published novel.
Reviews
“John Foden seems to have captured the violence, insecurity and deceptions that underpinned the Bosnia War extremely well. His point about the fragility of civilization is also well made as the ethnic groups who had previously got on well together rapidly turned on each other in the face of war. This could easily happen elsewhere, – as we are beginning to see…”
—Lieutenant-General Sir Hugh Michael ROSE, KC, CBE, DSO, QGM
Commander United Nations Protection Force, Bosnia-Herzegovina
“He who would live off war must eventually yield something in return, observed Bertolt Brecht. John Foden’s fast paced, action filled page turner of journalists covering the Balkan Civil wars meshes perfectly with this stark warning.”
—Anthony FEINSTEIN, Author, Shooting War; Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto
“The writing is terrific. The insights on war and violence – from the perpetrators’ perspective – settling into the obscene logic of using violence to end violence – and victims’ perspective – that loss is as inevitable and uncontrollable as it is senseless – were incredibly good. The epilogue was particularly amazing– and again, the insights on war and wisdom portrayed by the characters was starkly accurate and compelling, and I’d even venture to say profound in many places.”
—Corinne DUFKA, Human Rights Watch, Associate Director, West Africa
“Magenta is a lyrical warning about how hatred destroys. By bearing witness to that terrible time, Magenta reminds us of the sacrifice made by frontline journalists, who are the eyes and ears of a history we cannot afford to forget. Magenta is an eyes-wide-open punch in the face.”
—Michael GRIPPO, CBC Cameraman, Sarajevo (1992-1994)
“John Foden’s engrossing story captures in stark, short sentences, the chaos that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia and the civil war in Bosnia. Divisive ethnic nationalist leaders created the context for fear, anger, and even atrocities among neighbours during the siege of a cosmopolitan city, Sarajevo, and throughout the countryside of Bosnia-Hercegovina.”
—Don STEVENSON, Former Canadian diplomat in Yugoslavia; former Ontario deputy minister of Intergovernmental Affairs; former President of the Institute of Public Administration of Canada; Head of Canadian Urban Institute mission to Bosnian municipalities, 1997-98
