Born in China where his father was a medical missionary, Lawrence Siddall grew up in Oberlin, Ohio. He is a 1952 graduate of Oberlin College, and subsequently earned an M.S.W. from the University of Connecticut and an Ed.D from the University of Massachusetts. He retired as a psychotherapist in 1996, and lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Siddall’s second book “A Boston Love Story” was published in early 2023. The book may be purchased or ordered at Amherst Books.

The heart of this novel is the relationship between Luke, a college textbook editor, and Rosa, a curator at the Museum of Fine Arts.

Early in their relationship, Luke suffers multiple injuries in a bicycle accident that leave his face scarred. Fearful that Rosa won’t be able to accept him, Luke struggles with his new identity.

The narrative follows Luke and Rosa as they each come to terms with his injury and the future of their relationship.

In 2008, Siddall published his first book, a memoir entitled “Two Years in Poland and Other Stories”, in which he describes his late-life adventure as a Peace Corps volunteer in Poland where he taught English in a high school from 1997 to 1999 following his retirement.

As a 67-year-old grandfather, Siddall was one of only 450 senior Peace Corps volunteers out of 6,500 worldwide.

He vividly describes the challenges he faced in his classroom, his struggle to learn the language, his initial feelings of isolation in adjusting to a new culture, and the close friends he eventually makes.

Siddall’s Peace Corps adventure is only one of many in his active lifetime. He weaves these stories into his narrative as flashbacks, the longest of which describes an amazing 11,000-mile overland trek from Europe to India in a VW Beetle in 1956 at a time of political Mid-East instability. His account of working his way back to the U.S. on a freighter is the colorful final chapter to this five-month-long odyssey.