Hi there, thanks for dropping by. 

I started life in England but grew up mostly in rural and suburban New Zealand with my mum, dad and younger brother. This was a fairly normal upbringing, apart from some of the weird things going on in my head, which led to me writing all sorts of stories from a very young age.

I became, mostly by accident, sports editor for a rural New Zealand newspaper despite not knowing much about rugby.

This career led eventually to covering events as grandiose as the Rugby World Cup and the Le Mans 24hr race. I was sworn at by John Daly for being too quiet, and once fell in a harbour while taking photos of a boat.

Later, I moved to the UK, left journalism, went back to it, and left again.

While working in PR for the NHS I had to attend a lecture in which a clinical researcher described exploding pigs in excruciating detail; I fled to a nearby pub and, while enjoying a pint, wrote the first chapter of what would become They Fell to Earth.

I spent the best part of seven years trying to finish it.

I now live in Staffordshire, and still work for the NHS but no longer have to write about exploding pigs.