After a successful career as a Company Secretary with a major national charity, I ran my own consultancy for four years working mainly in the not-for-profit sector.
I’ve now stopped doing this so I can concentrate solely on writing.
The Reckoning was my first novel and is a psychological thriller. The second one, Darkness Falling, is described below. I have also recently published a third novel, The Invitation, which again is a psychological thriller in which a woman is invited to her own funeral…
I have an English degree from a Welsh University, Aberystwyth: they let you in if you could spell it. I chose Aberystwyth because I had chronic asthma in my youth and I thought a coastal University might sort it out which rather miraculously it did! I also went to Aberystwyth without bothering to check it out first – this was a mistake because I hadn’t realised it took 3 days to get there. Lots of bands used to pull out of gigs once they realised how impossible it was to get there so the only ones who turned up were the one hit wonders like Led Zeppelin. In all seriousness they did play there once in a hall on the sea front because I think there was a local connection.
I’m also currently working through a very long bucket list. So far I’ve done three tandem parachute jumps (Why? Because I’m an idiot with a death wish) tried paragliding and three years ago started doing stand up.
I’ve been married for 40 years and I have two sons. My youngest is working as a doctor in Bristol, having studied medicine at Birmingham, and the eldest works for Glaxo Smith Klein as a Data Scientist, having completed a PhD at Warwick – obviously any sign of intelligence on their part is all down to my wife. The oldest of four brothers, and therefore the most downtrodden, I’m supposed to be the sensible one, but then that’s not difficult given what clowns the others are. Let’s hope they don’t read this…still no worries there; they’re all illiterate anyway. In terms of success my brother, Mick, has clearly got the jump on me there, but you’ll have to do your own research to find out why.
I published my second novel, Darkness Falling, about the Irish Famine, two years ago. It was a labour of love and took me a long time to write. Both my parents are Irish, so this subject has a particular resonance for me. It combines the story of a family affected by the famine, an exploration of the politics of the period, and the British government’s disastrous policies in managing the crisis.