Novelist and poet. Two novels published by Paper Books, "Baber's Apple" (2006) and "Three Jumpers" (2008). Self-published e-collection of poems and other writings about the sport of Bowls, "A Bag of Bowls" (2011). I love novels and can be influenced by much of what I read. "Tristram Shandy" remains a great favourite - I consider it the first post-modern novel. A quick look along my bookshelves suggests I am a fan of such as Paul Auster, William Boyd, Raymond Chandler, Michael Dibden, Janice Elliott, Henry Fielding, Gunter Grass, Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, James Joyce, Philip Kerr, John LeCarre... enough (or too much). In poetry I find myself returning time and again to Basil Bunting's "Briggflatts". So what do I write about? Broadly, the condition of England. That doesn't mean I set my work exclusively in England. Indeed, to gain perspective on the country, it is necessary to look at it and describe it from the outside looking in as well as from the inside speaking out.

PhD in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University (2008)