Multi-award-winning author and businessman John Dragonetti moved from the USA to Cairo, Egypt in 1972 and his family, to take the position of Headmaster of the Cairo American College. In 1974 he relocated the family to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to become Headmaster of the American School.  Three years later he left the education sector for a new career in business, staying in Dubai with his family until 2013, intermittently residing for brief periods in Doha, Qatar, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Maputo, Mozambique.

As an international businessman, he traveled to numerous Middle Eastern countries, developing a fascination with Arab history, culture, and language.

It was the stories and experiences, of friends and business associates, members of the tribal families, as well longtime resident expatriates, that really enthralled him, and led to the writing of The Falcon and the Shaikhs, a historical fictional account, of the intricate relationships cultivated between pioneering expatriates and the tribal families who laid the foundation of Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah, before the formation of the United Arab Emirates in 1971.

The Falcon and the Shaikhs can be considered as a prequel to his first novel, Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist for Best Multicultural Fiction, The Duke of Dubai, a fictional parody of some of the real-life, eccentric oil field characters who really existed in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s.