Although I enjoyed writing and illustrating, I felt that I wasn't going to earn a good living from either so I started work as an office clerk. Then in 1965 I joined the Royal Navy as, appropriately, a Writer. In my 23 years of Service I was fortunate enough to travel to many exotic places, among them Rawalpindi, the Khyber Pass, Sri Lanka, Tokyo, Zululand, Mombasa, Bahrain, Tangier, Turkey, Norway, Finland, South Georgia and the Falklands. All useful material for writing stories.
My home town is Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear but due to naval commitments most of my adult life was spent in Hampshire or abroad. I married Jennifer, a lecturer in Spanish and French, and we have one daughter, Hannah. On retiring from the Navy, I went into IT as an analyst programmer. Throughout my time in the Navy and afterwards, I continued to write and draw. At one time I was the World Authority on Webb Patent Gas Sewer Lamps - see the article at the link on the left. I took a writing correspondence course and was so successful at the time that I was asked to tutor for them, but my naval commitments precluded taking on that job. Over the years, I edited several Naval establishment and ship magazines and also a small press magazine, Auguries. When my second IT redundancy came along, I felt that it was a hint to change career direction and seek out a writing job, perhaps with a magazine. Luckily, I met up with an old acquaintance, Bob Jenkins, and he took me on as the sub-editor of his fledgling magazine, The Portsmouth and District Post. I also contributed articles, stories and artwork.
Ultimately, Jen and I planned to emigrate to Spain in 'retirement' but this was brought forward two years early and we moved to the Alicante region in 2003. Happily, Bob kept me on as sub-editor and I was able to work for the magazine through a Broadband connection until - sadly - the print version of the magazine finished with issue #48, October/November 2007 (a shame they didn't get to #50).
Now that Hannah and her husband Harry have also moved out to Spain we feel we are fully settled in our new home and country. In September 2008 we became proud grandparents with the birth of Darius. Now I have more time to devote to writing. I contribute to a variety of magazines in the UK and Spain and I'm currently the Chairman of the Torrevieja Writers' Circle. I advise on manuscripts and filmscripts as required.
In 2006 I was joint runner-up in the Harry Bowling Prize with the early chapters of my thriller Pain Wears No Mask, now published by Libros International. In May 2007 I was 3rd in the international writing competition 'Torrevieja - Another Look' with the short story 'The Busker of Torrevieja' and also short-listed with the story 'When the flowers are in bloom', which is set in Japan. 2008 was a good year, in which I saw my fourth book published. My fifth book was published in May 2009 and I my sixth was published in November 2009, with a seventh in the pipleline for 2010.
After my fourth book was accepted (two by Libros, two by Hale), I was asked to become an editor for Libros International, who are based in the Costa Blanca. In 2007 I co-edited Express Westerns's anthology Where Legends Ride and in 2009 edited the follow up, A Fistful of Legends.