As an author of the odd, I’d like to remain a little mysterious. However, because publishers consider it commercial to show their authors to be of worthy interest, below is my claim to having an interesting background.

 

My mother’s family lived in a haunted house, I believe her and her family’s experiences of this are most likely due to hallucinations- when I was very young I had hallucinations. As a child, I was brought up in Manor Park, East London. Those years are my most impressionable and treasured days. But it was during this time my mother had her first breakdown.

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Manor Park was a catalyst for my imagination and my desire for other worlds. I found myself trapped in the dull confines of the inner city but dreaming of places I'd seen on the screen and in the pages of books and comics. I was very fortunate to live within walking distance of several open spaces- Wanstead Flats, The London Cemetery, The Ilford Golf Course, Valentines Park, and by far the best of all- Wanstead Park. These places were my opportunity to escape and to imagine. My imagination took hold of me but at school I struggled with reading and writing. In consequence, my first opportunity to be creative resulted in endless drawing and painting for which I got much praise and I was, for a short while in my adult life, a practicing artist. I struggled at the bottom of the class with English and eventually failed my English exam, but nonetheless one English teacher once read something I'd written ,out aloud to the whole class, and another, who simply must have ignored my poor spelling and grammar, had me top of the class-but only for a single half term. This particular teacher and I must have shared similar tastes because every time he set essays it was always on something which I could write about with passion. His recognition encouraged my creativity to expand into writing.