Growing up in Newcastle in the 80s (that wonderful era of bad hair, worse clothes, the battle between Wham and Duran Duran, Rubik’s Cubes and Miami Vice), is probably at least partly to blame for my vivid imagination! I’m happily married to Vanessa and still living in the beautiful North-East of England. Some of my favourite authors who have helped inspire me include Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Terry Pratchett, Jeff Long and James Herbert. The King of America, in particular, was, in part, influenced by Frank Herbert’s Dune, Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, J R R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and the phenomenon that is Star Wars. For helping to inspire me, I thank them all. Some of my other interests include weight-training and rock climbing (although that took a bit of a knock when I had a bit of a tumble in 2005 which resulted in a couple of operations and a shed loada metal being crammed into my leg!) as well as being – I think it’s safe to say – a huge film fanatic. And yes, I do also love all the socialising stuff too, but let’s try not to turn this into a CV!

English Language, English Literature, Creative Writing and Theatre & Performing Arts