I was born in Northampton, England, in 1963 (in that brief golden era between the release of Please, Please Me and the assassination of JFK). After reading management at university, I joined the Civil Service, ending up in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport advising various Ministers on policy for the UK film industry. In 1998, I joined the British Film Institute as Deputy Director, and was promoted to Chief Executive Officer the following year. More recently I have worked at Ashridge Business School running leadership development programmes. I am on the Council of Management of the British Board of Film Classification and a member of BAFTA. My experiences on the fringes of the film industry led directly to my writing Ordinary Joe which is about an accountant named Joe West who finds himself drawn into the crazy world of Hollywood after an illicit one-night stand with top actress, Olivia Finch. The novel moves from New York to London to Cannes to LA, all drawing on places I knew well in my film industry days. Sadly, however, the central story of this fringe character's intimate liaison with a gorgeous superstar is pure invention!