I was born at an early age. It was an age when the bombs had not long stopped falling upon the United Kingdom and rationing was still very much in force. I was born in south west London and  plunged headfirst (presumably) into the remains of one of the worst winters on record in Britain and Europe. My arrival in the world happened in a flat above a ladies' dress shop adjacent to The Wimbledon Theatre on The Broadway and was heralded by the sound of lunch being prepared in the kitchen.  A few weeks later, mother returned to north London which is where I spent the next 18 years growing up in a flat above a baker's shop. It seems inevitable that, with those credentials, I would spend large parts of my life in the retail trade and on the stage. But my employment, though incredibly varied, was never one of choice until towards the end of my working life. My first proper job was in WH Smith's book department before turning to diamond cutting. Then I spent 14 years in the fruit trade followed by 10 years as a supermarket manager. I left all that behind to work in the insurance industry for a while before working in market research. Life picked up when I was taken on by the Irish Government's Central Statistics Office for 16 years. Simultaneously, I was attached to the UK's Office of National Statistics for a couple of years, ensuring that I was subject to the Official Secrets Act in two countries. There were other jobs along the way but my happiest and most rewarding years began when I was accepted by Crystal Reference Systems and joined a world of academia that I thought had passed me by. In spite of company changes of name and direction, this glorious world of reference books, editorial expertise, and linguistic web classification lasted for more than 12 years. It saw me through to an overdue retirement and provided me with a feeling of self worth that had been suppressed for decades. And when it all came to an end, my writing began in earnest. Seeing my name in print meant the realisation of an ambition that had been fermenting since I was 18.

Perhaps those final working years would have been granted sooner if I had made better use of my seven years spent at one of the best grammar schools in the country. But the five football pitches, three cricket squares, six tennis courts, athletics facilities, and a modern gymnasium proved to be damaging distractions to academic success. In later life, a host of trophies won across five different sports was ample evidence of my diversion from more important matters. And the one of which I am most proud? No, not the cup finals or the leagues. It is the one that I received for being a member of the team that won the Welsh Indoor Cricket Championships.