More about the author

My first attempt at creating children's fiction occurred many years ago. I was still at school and I remember, my English teacher, Mr Robinson, asked the class to write a short story. I wrote one about a lazy boy who never went out to play. 

In the story his legs had became so annoyed by the boys lack of activity that they decided to leave him sitting in his chair and go out on their own in search of adventure. 

The right leg went to the shops where it got lost and bumped by the hoards of shoppers. 

The left leg went to the beach and nearly drowned when it decided to go for a swim, forgetting the fact that legs can't swim on their own!

Both legs decided that they couldn't find adventure without the boy, so reluctantly they returned home.

Upon being reunited with his legs, the boy promised never to be lazy again. The story was well received by my teacher, and as such I was asked/forced to read it out aloud during morning assembly, in front of the entire school, much to my horror.

In later years, whilst reading bedtime stories to my two young daughters, I found it increasingly difficult to stick to the words written in the books. I found myself replacing them with my own, or worse still, pretending to read the book whilst telling them a story completely made up. That was the point when I realized I had a love for storytelling. 

Many years later, I enrolled in a comprehensive writing course with The Writers Bureau. Unfortunately, due to the pressures of work, together with home commitments, I never got around to finishing the syllabus, instead it was boxed up and put in the attic.

Several years passed, and my interest in the writing course was somehow rekindled. I retrieved the dusty blue box from the attic and began submitting work for marking. However, just like on the first occasion, I didn't give it my fullest attention, and the blue box ended up back in the attic. 

Several years later I entered a writers bureau short story competition. They were asking writers to provide the first few paragraphs to a story and I won the competition with my entry 'The Italian Cat Sitter' (Read it here on my website)

They published it on their student's blog and, for the very first time I felt like I had achieved something with my writing. There was no prize money involved, but I did get a winners certificate which now hangs on my wall and provides encouragement to continue writing. 

In December 2019 I was the runner-up in a short story competition arranged by a local charity on the Isle of Wight called 'The Sight for Wight'. The remit was to produce a short story based on the topic: The Sounds of Christmas, and the competition rules limited the number of words to just five hundred. I called my entry 'The Sounds of Grandad's Christmas, and you can read it here on this website. 

At the awards ceremony, I was presented with a certificate and a twenty-five-pound voucher to spend at M&S. 

Receiving financial reward for my writing was a milestone. It was my second award certificate; but my very first payday. I was very proud of that moment and despite only being runner-up, I knew that the competition attracted a large number of local writers, everyone of which expected their story to be the winning one, so I was over the moon. 

In 2022, I won my second award at the Sight for Wight annual short story competition. On that occasion, I came third with my entry called 'The Mystery of Luccombe Bay' (Available to read here on this website)

It introduced my private eye, Harry Sharp for the very first time.

So I now had a third certificate to hang on my wall and, as a bonus, I received a twenty-five-pound restaurant voucher to use at a local IOW venue.

In that same year, I joined a creative writing group in East Cowes. It was there that I was first introduced to the world of writing verse (Thank you, Graham Brown, for the inspiration you gave me). 

In 2023, I began writing a children's book. I called  'The Search for Donkey Paradise', and I was amazed when a local publisher offered me a contract to complete it. The book was published in December 2024. It was published by Ginger Fyre Press and I hope you buy it to help raise as much money as possible for the Donkey Sanctuary. Let me know what you think about my story, or anything else by contacting me on the contact page of the website.