Biography
I was born in Eastbourne, Sussex, in 1941; and much as I love that county, my life has led me to several other locations - the Midlands, Nottingham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Berkshire - and finally in retirement to Ledbury in Herefordshire.
Here I lead a convivial and fairly self-indulgent time socialising and writing novels. I emphasise the latter, because although being a literature graduate of two universities and having taught 'Eng. Lit.' all my professional life, never did I ever contemplate doing any creative writing myself. |
Textual analysis of other people's poetry and prose was quite enough for me - and indeed, gave enormous satisfaction. But for some reason the desire to tell a story myself with invented characters and situations, never really took a hold.
It was only when I was sixty-four and well retired, that out of idle curiosity I thought I might try my hand at a short story - just to see what writing fiction felt like. I found out . . . and to my ongoing surprise a quintet of humorous novels (the Revd Francis Oughterard series) was the result.
Since then several others have emerged. The books are 'retro' in that they are set in the 1950s, and although dealing with crime are basically light-hearted. Their main concern is the characters and how they react to the situations (often embarrassing) in which they find themselves. There is not much hard violence, but plenty of absurdity!
It was only when I was sixty-four and well retired, that out of idle curiosity I thought I might try my hand at a short story - just to see what writing fiction felt like. I found out . . . and to my ongoing surprise a quintet of humorous novels (the Revd Francis Oughterard series) was the result.
Since then several others have emerged. The books are 'retro' in that they are set in the 1950s, and although dealing with crime are basically light-hearted. Their main concern is the characters and how they react to the situations (often embarrassing) in which they find themselves. There is not much hard violence, but plenty of absurdity!