After spending most of 40 years working as a fire safety professional, I came to full-time writing late in life, spending the next 10 years writing text books and client advice material for a global corporation’s in-house training academy. So, no one was more surprised than me when I found myself, in my twilight years, writing children’s storybooks. 

This change in my working routine enabled me to take on voluntary work for several charities that were operating in support of the emergency services, seeing me taking on roles ranging from the driver of an emergency support vehicle, based at a large fire station, to being an operational member of my local county search & rescue (SAR) team.

It was my experiences volunteering for the SAR team, which inspired me to write books for young children, in the hope that my first few books would give an age-appropriate insight into the work of SAR teams and cover some important things for children and their parents to discuss! 

Please note that all of the author royalties from sales of my books are donated, by me, to a nominated registered UK charity. Which particular charity can vary from book to book, but I will always try and say in my social media posts, where each donation is going! 

Phil.

Feb 2026