Look and Listen

Biography

I've always been a writer but the publishers just didn't agree until recently. So I've had a career in software R&D and user interface design which started in the UK, spent a while in Switzerland and finally took me to Australia. Now I live on a bush plot on a mountain top with my wife and dog, and write.

Inspiration

I've always been a big fan of 'hard' science fiction amd of beautiful writing. The heroes of my youth - Wells, Asimov, Heinlein, Pohl, Bradbury, Ballard, Wyndham, Vonnegut, Le Guinn, Aldiss, Zelazny, Clarke, etc. - are still my heroes but, over time, I've added a few others like Greg Egan, Stephen Baxter, Greg Bear, David Brin, Alastair Reynolds, and Gregory Benford. Plus, there are a few stand-out books by great writers who have 'dabbled' in sci-fi, like 'Kalki' by Gore Vidal, and 'The Handmaid's Tale' by Margaret Atwood, and others. As well as 'serious' sci-fi, I have a love of sci-fi comedy, so Doughlas Adams (especially the Dirk Gently books), Harry Harrison (The Stainless Steel Rat books, of course, but I like the Deathworld books best of all) and odd novels, like Stephen Fry's 'Making History'.