Trust me, I'm a Sagittarian (a brief biog)

I grew up in Langwith, a pit village in north-east Derbyshire, in a household with few books and a lot of people. The nearest library, in Shirebrook, became a home from home, and fed my early hunger for reading. I now live in Oxford, where I share a young dog and a lovely family with artist Imogen Rigden.

In my youth I worked on hill farms in the White Peak and Baden-Württemburg.

After uni I worked on the Concorde project, early on-line systems, and very early R&D in AI.

When my daughter started school a lifelong interest in education and learning became a passion, and I switched to educational research and teaching, via mid-life MSc, PhD and PGCE. On the way I helped set up the first community-owned wind farm in southern England (Westmill).

I’ve been a member of the Green Party on and off since it was the Ecology party in the 1970s, and a life-long organic gardener, re-wilder, clean water campaigner and hands-on activist, notably with BBOWT and The Friends of Burgess Field.

Now I write free-ranging fiction and do my best for wild things at every opportunity.