I was born in Manchester in 1947, educated at North Manchester Grammar School and Salford Technical College where I studied Maths, Physics and Chemistry for a while before getting extremely bored with Applied Mathematics and dropping out.

I was an insurance clerk for a few years before trying my hand as a salesman, but my first love of writing kept getting me into trouble as I was often found scribbling down ideas for stories when I should have been working!

After marrying my wife Barbara in 1968 we moved to the Preston area and I obtained the post of Junior Reporter on the Garstang Courier at the ripe old age of 23.

The next 40-odd years saw me work for a number of newspapers and other publications in the Lancashire area as reporter, feature writer, sub-editor, Editor and Group Editor as well as a stint as a Press Officer and I had several short stories and freelance articles published on a variety of subjects from American Football to tropical fishkeeping!

I was also a professional Tarot Card reader (as ‘Sebastyan’) for a year or so, and organised Craft Fairs in the North West for a number of years.

More recently I held the post of Associate Lecturer in Journalism at The University of Central Lancashire in Preston where I taught Newspaper and Magazine Design to post graduate level for several years until  my final retirement.

This has given me the opportunity to write pretty much full time.

I live in the village of Chipping in Lancashire with my dear wife of more than 55 years. We have two grown-up sons, a grown-up granddaughter and three grandsons.