I was born in North Shields, a fishing town in the North East of England. During my formative years, I did not write much, other than school essays, but I was an avid reader and classic bookworm. Many hours were spent  in my own Tower of Tomes, in the local library. In particular, the writing of Charles Dickens and J.R.R. Tolkien made a deep and lasting impression: Dickens for descriptive style and social commentary, and Tolkien for storytelling and pure imagination. 

After graduating from Sheffield University, I moved to Japan. It was there I felt the urge to start writing and jumped straight into full stories. Then back to England and a few more satirical novels. I acquired an agent, and even met with editors at HarperCollins, but it did not amount to much.

In the nineties, I moved to California and penned a few more novels, more for my own enjoyment than anything else. Work, and the need to make an honest living got in the way. I now live in Berkeley, California with my wife, two kids, and a trio of pets.

After twenty years in Silicon Valley, I decided to take early retirement and focus on the things I love: writing, music, and studying languages. Gastown is my first venture into writing an epic grimdark fantasy, and world-building. There is much more to come!