I was born in Corbridge, Northumberland and lived in the north east of England until I was seven. My parents uprooted the family in 1966 and we moved to live in Hereford, where I went to Broadlands CP School and Hereford Cathedral School. I started piano lessons when I was nine and sang as a chorister in Hereford Cathedral for four years - and am very proud to have been head chorister for part of that time. Music was a massive part of my childhood and adolescence, so it probably isn't a surprise that I ended up in a rock band called Gruin, formed with schoolmates. I wasn't particularly academic and left education at 19 after pretty miserable exam results. My day job took me to Berkshire, where I lived in and around Slough for ten years before moving to Lancashire in 1989. Life as a musician dwindled during my late 20s and, eager to sustain my creativity, I started writing the book that became Colouring In in 1990. During the late 90s I was married, and have two fabulous children - Alana and Jacob. Colouring In was self published in 2016, which led to an amazing collaboration with Purple Parrot Publishing on each of my three published books. As I write this bio, a 4th Novel - Justinian's Daughters - is finished and I've begun work on a 5th.