The potted biography

Over a long and varied career I have been lucky enough to express myself through several artistic mediums - as a teenager I hand-wrote 150 pages of what was undoubtedly a spectacularly bad science fiction novel, while also enjoying photography, art, and hiking in the Peak District. The first novel was, thankfully, abandoned, but then I wrote another, and another…and another, until finally, after 35 years of badgering publishers, I became a published author with Murmuration. The photography? Well, that turned into an amazing thirty-year career as a press photographer, which took me around the world and gave me privileged access to everything from Wembley finals to Downing Street. The hiking? I completed my Gold Award in the Duke of Edinburgh’s scheme and am now a member of a Sheffield U3a walking group. And the art? Ah, the art. After gaining an O Level in the subject I didn’t pick up a pencil/pen/brush for over forty years, busy enough as I was with work and writing The Masterpiece. But then, one day in Derbyshire, I was sitting on a bench and I looked across at a tree across the path. ‘That would make a good drawing’, I thought. As it turned out, it did! Since then I haven’t stopped, finding endless inspiration from both the Peak District as well as natural wonders from further afield.