David Kottler spent two years in the Army and four years in the Jesuits: two as a novice (including a short time in a Carthusian monastery) and two as a philosopher at Heythrop. A few years later, he read civil engineering at what is now the City University and then spent most of his working life as a consulting engineer. In 1990, he was elected a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He has spent the last nine years writing and, with his wife, making Christmas Nativity sets that are sold worldwide. He remains a practicing Roman Catholic.