As far back as I can remember, stories have been a major part of my life. At first they were in my head, a whole set of worlds of wonderful make believe. Then they became verbal to wile away long car journeys, rehearsed during boring lessons at school. For the longest time nothing was put into writing except a little poetry and some songs.
Then adulthood came and, with it, responsibility. I tried to put my stories away and concentrate on a career in business. This took me to America where we lived for close to twenty years, also to Scotland where my family comes from. But the stories would not lie down, kept coming back to me. In a fallow period in my thirties I wrote my first novel. It was terrible so I wrote another. Then I started ‘2024: A History of the Future’ and things seemed to come together. But it was still little more than ideas and so it remained for a long time until I sold my business and moved to Dorset. Now it is complete and the second book, ’18 Acres of England’ is well on its way.
Parallel with my love of stories is an equal love of history. Perhaps it is the millions of different ways things can work out that appeals to me. Or perhaps it is the unknown parts that allow the imagination to play. But my writing is infused with history, mixing and matching ideas and themes that talk of freedom, choices and strong social concepts. But at the end of the day, each book hopes to be a good story with twists, humour and characters that come alive to the reader.
