John Brassey was born in Heswall in 1953 and grew up in the Lancashire seaside resort of Southport where he attended King George V Grammar School. He left school after completing his A' Levels and joined one of the high street banks working in many branches and offices throughout Merseyside before moving to London as a secondee to the Department Of Trade And Industry. After his secondment he switched careers and used his banking and DTI experience to join Instanta Ltd, his parent's catering equipment manufacturing business in Southport, which he ran initially with his brother Peter and then with his wife Marion after Peter retired. He and Marion sold the business in 2010 and recently retired to Framlingham in Suffolk. John is an avid reader who has always enjoyed writing. He wrote a regular blog for the Instanta website and, upon retirement continued blogging in "Notes From Retirement...Where Did The Years Go?" (johnbrassey.blogspot.co.uk) in which he has charted the adventures of moving to a completely new and unknown area. When not reading or writing he is a regular cinema and gym goer, a cyclist and he also enjoys searching local farms with his metal detector. He is also a voluntary business mentor for Suffolk Chamber Of Commerce and a volunteer for the Framlingham Hour Community. He has two children, Sarah who is a teacher living in St Andrews and Paul a TV Producer living in Kent. Since retirement John and Marion have been blessed with three granddaughters Rose, Catherine and Melody and a lot of their time is now spent travelling to Kent and to Fife where they have bought a caravan to be close to the family.