Retirement from my Chair at the University of Liverpool gave me – at last – the opportunity to fulfil a long-standing desire to write fiction. Since then I have published over 40 short stories (in anthologies and magazines) and 15 novels. Another children's book is awaiting illustrations and three more novels are gaining a final polish, chapter by chapter, in the small, highly critical writers' group I lead in Liverpool. Although I've written a semi-historical novel and a children's book, I lean towards slightly futuristic, but credible, science fiction stories, in which I can draw from a broad scientific background. I did all the calculations for my space trilogy (Saturn Run, Mars Run, Jupiter Run) and my military detective Jim Slater series (five books to date) starts with an advanced form of brain surgery. The challenge, of course, is to make all this gripping and easily accessible to the reader – but that's what I love about writing creatively!
