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.

Resumé

Writing is my third career. It builds on everything I’ve done and learned in a luckily long-ish and interesting life. I’ve always put my heart into everything I’ve done, believing that to do otherwise is to waste precious time; and I’ve always put my shoulder to the wheel to further the things I believe in. I’m finding writing is a joyous and rewarding way to do both.

My second career was in education, as a researcher, lecturer and teacher at the Open University and at primary schools in Oxfordshire.

The first was in commercial systems, as coder, analyst and designer, including early on-line systems and R&D in applications of AI.

Education:

Shirebrook School, A levels, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, General Studies

Durham University, BA, Philosophy, Psychology and Anthropology

Oxford University, MSc, Research Methods in Education

Open University, PhD, Science in Primary Schools

Oxford Brookes University, PGCE Primary,; PhD,;

Warehouse Art School, Oxford, Contemporary Art Practice

Oxford University DCE, Writing Fiction