Thanks!

I am enormously grateful to many people who have taught me many things about writing, life and the universe.

For an aspiring writer even a few words of encouragement, or interest, or advice over a short period, or the patience to read just one thing thoughtfully - or the willingness and courage to edit one ruthlessly! - is something they will not forget.

Specific mentions over many years must include my mother, who stirred me to take up writing and excellence in it again (and, though I never knew her to talk to, the memory of her mother, who I am told could quote poetry by the hour); those who worked to teach me English in the first place; John Rayner; my various scientific co-authors; and Cath Coffey. Others needing thanks range from those offering merely a single key comment to friends who stayed friends: in chronological order, Tim Saunders; Lois Rock; Helen Hayes; my other science colleagues; Colin Russell; my fellow students; Gill Ellis and the local ACW group; James Workman of Authonomy; and of course my three children and Auntie Edna.

Finally the one person so far unmentioned is my long-suffering wife Christine, who has believed in me for far longer than anyone else. She has always been the example I have been stirred to live up to; I think of no-one else short of Jesus whose company I admire more - even though, when I think of her, I am reminded of the words of George Whitefield; when asked if he expected to see John Wesley in heaven, he replied bluntly: “I fear not, for he will be so near the eternal throne and we at such a distance, we shall hardly get sight of him.”

So what do I do? What do I write? What have I put into print? How did it begin?

How?

Most of my writing has had either a scientific or an environmental flavour rather than a literary one. I have never been trained in the world of words; indeed, I gave up any literary pretensions when I failed English Literature at O-level. That embarrassment undoubtedly did me a favour personally by disabling any serious ambition or pride I could ever have had in writing! Yet otherwise it made no difference to me (apart from surprising me and wounding my ego, since I had actually worked for the exam; I had been particularly fond of the poems of Robert Frost and detested the mournful ones of Thomas Hardy).

That was because I went straight into a science career. Thereafter, I wrote nothing thoughtfully or for for pleasure until the age of 21, when my mother challenged me to keep something more than a mere diary during some Hebridean travels. That led on to a wildlife short story and, more importantly, left a strangely sweet and alluring taste in my mouth.

Self-published novels

My short stories tended to grow until one of them, planned as a six-pager, turned to my surprise into the first of various drafts of The Song of Rockall, my first completed novel. Begun in 1986, it took three years to write on one of those old Amstrad PCW 8256's (remember them? - ye of the black screen with green words and a monitor that swallowed the disk). That draft of Rockall was rejected (albeit with kind and encouraging noises) by Lion for several good reasons, of which the one that most took me aback was that it was apparently too amusing! It was felt too tongue-in-cheek to be a properly dramatic adventure story. (I liked it that way; but then I like the Shire as much as Gondor). Therefore I moved deliberately on to lighter fiction; in 1990 I invented Lifandoy and started writing about it in A Nest on Lifandoy, followed by An Orchid in Lifandoy and Falcons Over Lifandoy. A fourth story in this series is in writing. My self-publishing takes time, especially when the texts have travelled over decades from the glowing green version through several forms of Windows and Word! This has left them encumbered by what amounts to an entire hidden hinterland of dead formatting, abandoned breaks and styles and other junk. All these I have to scrape away!

Maps

Both of these stories also gave me the chance to apply another interest of mine, which is maps. See the My Maps link on the left for more on the maps which accompany my novels.

Islands

Yet another interest is Islands. See the Islands - New Project link on the left.

Environment

Most of my hobbies revolve around natural history and I have written many items on the environment (both the natural one and, in the form of local history, the human one).

Short fiction and Poetry

I have also included a few of my short stories written over a number of years, of very varied outlook; and also some more recent experiments in bad poetry

Traditionally published non-fiction

My non-fiction work, "Alderley Park Discovered", was something I had considered for many years but always decided against. That was, until I decided to tidy my papers a couple of years after leaving industry! I decided to put my Alderley Park records in order in case anyone ever asked me about them. They were incomplete, so I phoned up the site manager, Graeme, to ask if I could borrow back some history files I had left with him. A conversation as I did so led to me - somehow - finding that I was going to write a book on the history of the Park. Two more discoveries - that the company had a "Legacy Capture" project which would support me; and the discovery that a publisher, Carnegie, would be very interested . . . well, the giant project, with the help of an enormous number of people, started from there...

Self-published faith non-fiction

Over many working years in the laboratory I pondered analogies between the science of chemistry and the Christian faith. The full set has now been self-published as Discovering Jesus in a Chemistry Lab: 52 Reflections From a Bench (2017).

An odder book, only on Kindle, is Adam, Eden, Evolution and Three Men: Debate in a Boat (2017). I am still thinking about the things I wrote in this, and regard it as a work possibly still in progress

Professional

Finally - although properly, of course, it should have been first - is my professional work as a research scientist. Like most chemists in industry I have my name on a number of valued and perhaps important, but undoubtedly turgid and very rarely read publications. In my case I have actually written two or three myself, so these do represent yet another genre for me in addition to my amateur scribblings. (These were all edited ruthlessly by my scientific colleagues; and if you think being edited and proof-reading fiction is hard!...). Scientific papers are highly codified and structurally rigid; yet this makes attractive the enterprise of trying to make them readable! This is an excellent challenge. I have tried my best to achieve this in small ways.

List

A list of references to my professional and other work that has appeared in the public domain is added as an indigestible tail to the rather piecemeal buffet I have offered via this website, rather like the slab of bread at the bottom of the plate that my father used to call a doorstop. Please shut the door behind you when you have finished chewing and decide to leave. Thank you.