My fascination with character study led me to my degree in Psychology and Philosophy from the University College of North Wales and then as a college lecturer in English Literature which, combined with a fascination for the atmosphere I found in Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca", all drove me to become a full-time writer of character studies, atmospheric mystery and suspense, with underlying romance and family/relationships. Troubled souls; the outsider, the lonely, any driven to extremity, have been indispensable for my novels which you can sample and, I hope, download from the online bookstores I've included in the Home and Novel Excerpts & Samples sections of my website. Of my novel based in Cyprus, "Aristo's Family", Barbara Erskine, best selling author of River of Destiny, has generously commented on the "beautifully observed characters, intriguing and atmospheric scenes and, above all, the suspense which made me want to read on". My favourite film producer is Alfred Hitchcock, and I suppose it is true to say that I have been most influenced in my writing by Patricia Highsmith, who always struck me as more interested in the psychological motives of the 'why-done-it' than the 'who-done-it'. Of those who have sadly passed, Ruth Rendell, D H Lawrence and - particularly - Daphne du Maurier, have fired my enthusiasm while of those who, thankfully, still live, I enjoy the work of Ian McEwan and Susan Hill, author of The Lady in Black. I suspect that my teaching of English Literature in colleges and then as a private tutor have in some measure informed my new suspense A Child from the Wishing Well. This features an eerie music tutor, her young pupil Rosie and Rosie's paranoid and inept father, Gerard, who nevertheless yearns to mean more to his daughter. Throughout, I think it is fair to say I was consumed with the question of whether Gerard, the paranoid father, could in the end fight his mental illness to grow closer to his daughter, Rosie, who is, emotionally, alone. Other than being an author, I am a well-behaved 'hubby' and ' Pops' to my dear daughter, Catherine. I confess to a passion for plump, docile tabbies and am moved by the music and life of the composer Edward Elgar, my interest leading me each year to a cottage in the Malvern Hills and to the Three Choirs Festival.