I was born in Birmingham, England far too many years ago and, like my main character ‘Mac’ Maguire, I came to live in leafy Hertfordshire. I ended up in a big village called Letchworth Garden City, the very first ‘Garden City’ in the world.

I have the same problems with chronic back pain as my main character and so the Mac Maguire mysteries were born out of a need to be doing something that wasn’t a spread sheet at the weekends. However, even I’ve been surprised at how Mac has taken on a life of his own and I now see myself more as being Mac’s biographer than his inventor.

In my time I’ve had many professions but I started off as a musician. I played guitar professionally for some years before forming my own band and songwriting team. (The ad is for my best guitar of all time  – a 1968 Fender Telecaster that I still have). However, in my late thirties I concluded that I was probably not going to be a rock star anytime soon and so I became a quality professional in the automotive industry. In trying to place quality systems online I became interested in the structure of websites and information architecture. I eventually got invited to apply for a job at the BBC in London where I worked for the next decade and a half, first as an Information Architect and then as a Business Analyst for Radio and Music (now BBC Sounds). I’m now retired and I’m writing full-time. 

I have been with my wife Kathleen, my first and best reader, for over thirty years now and I’m grateful that, after all that time, we can still enjoy a chat and a drink at the end of the day. I have a wonderful and talented son, Patrick Seamus, who is responsible for most of my book covers. For my sins, I have also supported Aston Villa Football club for the past sixty-seven years.

I’m also a member of the Society of Authors and, just recently, I’ve become a member of the Crime Writers Association.