David Bell

WELCOME TO MY WEB SITE

Born in Melton Mowbray in 1939, I now live in Ashby-de-la-Zouch in north-west Leicestershire.  I was a Primary school teacher for thirty years, including headships of village schools at Cauldon Lowe in Staffordshire and at Sudbury in Derbyshire.  I escaped from teaching when I was fifty, tunnelling out from underneath a mountain of paper, in order to write full time.  My first  stories were science-fiction tales for children.  These were broadcast on BBC Radio Leicester, then published as a children's book.  I then started writing gory crime and horror stories, under the pen-name Jack Wainer.  Since then, I have written seventeen off-beat local history books, all published by Countryside Books.  I always turn my books into talks.  Having been a jacket-and-tie, short-back-and-sides teacher for so long, I am now the only pony-tailed 69 year old in my town.  "Grow old disgracefully."  I love listening to New Orleans jazz and drinking cider.  I am a member of the Crime Writers' Association - and the convenor for its Midlands chapter.  (Like the Hells Angels, the CWA refers to its regional groups as chapters).   I am also the current chairman and programme secretary of Ashby Writers' Club, founded in 1984, which originally grew out of some short story writing classes I was running at two local colleges. 

http://www.thecwa.co.uk

http://www.ashbywritersclub.co.uk

BOOKS PUBLISHED

                 

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Leicestershire & Rutland Tales of Mystery and Murder
Leicestershire & Rutland Murder Casebook
Leicestershire Ghosts and Legends
Leicestershire Privies
Leicestershire Heroes
Memories of the Leicestershire Coalfields
Those Were The Days - Leicestershire in the 40s, 50s and 60s
Derbyshire Ghosts & Legends
Derbyshire Tales of Mystery & Murder
Derbyshire Privies
Derbyshire Heroes
Memories of the Derbyshire Coalfields
Nottinghamshire Privies
Nottingham Murder Casebook
Staffordshire & The Black Country Murder Casebook
Ghosts & Legends of Staffordshire & The Black Country
Staffordshire Tales of Mystery and Murder

Memories of the Nottinghamshire Coalfields (pub Oct 2008)