The youngest son of a headteacher I was born in Bangor and brought up in the small Welsh coastal town of Pwllheli. I went to college in Liverpool, studying Geography and English, before enrolling for teacher training in Manchester. Having decided that I was not one for shaping young minds, I returned to Wales to work at the local Butlin’s holiday camp, doing everything from chalet allocations to scrubbing dirty grill pans in a baby bath full of tepid water in the off season.  

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I did this over three summers before joining the civil service, starting in North London benefit offices, moving to the Health & Safety Executive and ending at the Department for Transport in Westminster.

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After first visiting London at the age of twelve, my desire to live there became the first certainty of my life. Inspired by many old films and books, I am obsessed with social history, particularly that of the capital in the first half of the 20th Century – so much so that I enjoy the research as much as the writing.

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It had always been my intention to write a novel or two whenever I found the time, and having retired early from the British Civil Service, I’ve found the time. My aim is to immerse the reader in both place and period as authentically as I can manage - but not in a cosy ‘nostalgic’ way.