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All about me… I was born in Leicester in 1971 and have lived there for most of my life apart from the five years I spent in London, doing a bit of uni work and a whole lot of other stuff. I eventually graduated in Politics ( I think my professor took pity on me ) from Southbank University in 1994. Upon leaving uni I decided that I had to get a job and join the real world. This led to a period in which I did some really boring jobs, like selling random things over the phone, managing the stacking of shelves and letting people into a cinema ( all roles which obviously required a deep knowledge of Marxist philosophy ). I came back to Leicester in 1995 with no money and a distant dream about becoming the next Sue Townsend and eventually found myself managing a bar and then a nightclub. Now I'm not saying that it was particularly hard work - it was fun - but at the same time I started to write the story that would become (un)arranged marriage, my first novel for teenagers. I spent the next eighteen months cultivating a conversational relationship with my neighbours cat, insomnia and the rather fetching bags under my eyes that the publishers tried in vain to hide on my author photograph. |
The end result was an incredibly long novel called something like 'that arranged marriage thingy'. SEVEN (yes - SEVEN !) edits later it emerged like a big thing after a period at a health farm as the slimline, svelte and strangely titled (un)arranged marriage. The good people at Random House Children's Books decided to publish it and I became a real, yes that is your book on the shelf, author. The only downside was that I could no longer dream all day about becoming an author which meant an end to literary discussions with the fraternal feline from next door. Oh well…
Since then I have been frantically trying to justify my existence with a whirl of interviews and appearances at schools and libraries. Someone at the Edinburgh Festival asked me to come along and my local paper started asking me to write them 500 word rants about whatever was winding me up at the time. Yes ! Well it beats stacking tins of 9p beans or trying to persuade Mr Random Bloke to buy a weekend pass to Doubleglazingland, over the phone, whilst I was half asleep…
My own influences are wide-ranging. My favourite writers are Roald Dahl, Sue Townsend and crime writers such as James Lee Burke, James Ellroy and Walter Mosely. I'm an avid fan of Reggae Music and artists such as Bob Marley, Burning Spear and Dennis Brown, amongst others, not only have me singing along (badly) but inform much of the way that I look at the World and things in it.
I'm also indebted to the friends and family who have supported me over the years, who I've name checked further on. I'm still waiting for Bollywood to call after seeing my author photograph and considering a career in journalism. But as long as I've got some reggae music to listen to and the exploits of Liverpool FC to watch I'm happy. Read on and you can find out everything you need to know about my books and what I do when I'm not asleep (which is quite a lot)…