Hi! My name is James Essinger and I'm a writer of fiction and non-fiction. In my fiction I have a particular interest in personal relationships, travel, history, information technology and chess. In my non-fiction I have a particular interest in the history of computing, and in language. I was born in Leicester in the English Midlands in 1957 and I attended Overdale Junior School in Leicester and also Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys. After a year between school and university, I studied English Language and Literature at Lincoln College, which is part of the University of Oxford. After leaving university I taught English in Finland for three nine-month sessions. I learnt Finnish, and I still speak Finnish fairly fluently. I also speak German and French. My interests, aside from writing, include: my friends, movies, travel, chess and history.