I’m a great believer in serendipity.  From time to time, I come across fascinating historical characters whose stories are crying out to be told.  Now retired from a successful business career, I am lucky enough to have time to tell some of those stories.  

There is no plan: just an openness to explore whatever comes my way. I put a lot of effort into detailed research and aim to stay true to established facts and dates. But ultimately I am writing to entertain as well as inform, so I will invent scenes and dialogue where I think it is justified.  I try to steer a course between pure fiction and biography: my aim is plausibility rather than strict accuracy. My inspiration, though I can never hope to emulate her, is the incomparable Hilary Mantel.

On the face of it, my literary journey – from north-west Essex, via Venice and Constantinople, to Ireland, Spain, Italy, Morocco – who knows where next – is completely random.  But within the subterranean network of historical rabbit holes, it’s a clearly marked path.  I hope you enjoy following it.