Look and Listen

Biography

Raised in the rural outskirts of Leek in North Staffordshire, I've worked in the paper, tyre, and cement industries. I was involved in the development of digital control systems at one of Europe's premier cement manufacturing sites before moving onto the project team. .. . Over the years, work assignments have taken me to America, Germany, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Switzerland, and numerous sister sites on mainland UK. .. . In 1985 I complemented a technical education, with a Bachelor of Arts degree. It would have been so much easier had I studied when I was at the age when my brain didn't seize up so readily, but I guess then, I was young and bolshie and thought there were more exciting things to do.' .... When jobs around the home allow, my time is divided between writing, attempting to play 8-ball pool, and socializing. Like most authors, I nurtured a desire to write from an early age, and like most, became a clandestine scribbler. .... In 1994, I went public when a string of magazine stories were accepted. I've been published regularly ever since. My stories have been recorded by 'Talking Newspapers', been featured in periodicals, anthologies, summer specials, international newspapers, broadcast on prime-time radio, and published in several international writing competitions (at times fighting off entrants from 27 countries). WITHOUT REPROACH is my first full-length novel. I am now working on the sequel. . ... I have two sisters, two daughters, and inherited two more daughters with my second marriage. Between them, my family have blessed me with eight grandchildren. I now live with my wife in Spain, overlooking vineyards, villages and olive groves.

Inspiration

At junior school I wrote silly little stories and tried to palm them off onto other kids (unsuccessfully). As an adult, I started to write short stories, perhaps as a foil for the strict confines of engineering. I found the most successful were drawn from emotional experiences, and so went down that route. I was absolutely thrilled when one reader even sent fan mail to the magazine, saying that she had been moved to tears. Retiring to Spain has allowed me the time to explore the larger canvas of novels, and of course the area has a charm which is perhaps quite inspiring for artists of any flavour.