I was born in Dundee, Scotland in 1968 and after a young childhood spent around the UK, my family settled down in Newcastle upon Tyne. It was here that I grew up and as a young lad with the strong feeling of being Scottish (and being reminded regularly of my accent). I never really noticed that I had become a Geordie until I went to (of all places, you might say!) Sunderland Polytechnic.
By that time I had already met my future wife and had fallen in love not just with her but with what I can only describe as my home; my city (Newcastle) and my county (Northumberland).
It is a strange path that took me took me from Environmental Studies at Sunderland to an MA in Anglo-Saxon Studies at Newcastle, but the route was always via writing and to a large part reading as well. My inspirations are largely in Fantasy and to a lesser extent Sci-Fi, but in my early twenties I gained a fascination for all things Arthurian in fiction, stemming from reading Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave. There came a point however when there were only so many retellings of the same material you could read and so I looked around and found that there was a body of other books set at around the same time but without the divisive and restrictive figure of Arthur. The most influential of these was Ragnarok by Anne Thackerey, a book that took me away from my cosy Celtic Twilight romanticism into the cold dawn of Anglo-Saxon expansion. I found that I was more at home there, for of course I was back full circle to The Hobbit, the first book that I can remember being read to me (thanks George!).
It became clear to me that this was something I needed to know more about. As someone who has always been a writer, it opened up new avenues. A book that I was anxious to write gained Anglo-Saxon elements before being dropped in favour of a new concept, which in time would become "The Adventures of the Billy Goats Gruff."
I still go for romanticism (but not necessarily romance) by the bucketload but I hope that I have picked up enough of a respect for my favoured period so that I do not ride rough-shod over period detail. I never cease to rail against depictions of peoples and events that are just the way that Hollywood sees history.
I have also published a book about the poet Cædmon, recorded by Bede as the first man to compose Christian poetry in the vernacular language and mode. When I have finished the paper edition, I have several ideas for new books awaiting their time to flourish.
Some time has passed since the blurb on The Adventures of the Billy Goats Gruff was written. Children have grown older and left home and I have moved a couple of times too. I currently live with my wife, one of my children and the same two lurchers in Hexham, Northumberland.
