I often sit back and think about what I’ve done with my life and initially, I think, nothing. I’ve done nothing with my life that is worth talking about. But then, I think again, but harder and I realize that I’ve achieved quite a lot. Getting to this age is one thing I suppose. One thing I do regret is not paying enough attention at school. I was a bit of a rebel in those days, all I wanted to do was to have fun. Learning, to me, wasn’t fun and it should have been. It could have been if I’d let it. Learning was boring, except English and History and that was probably down to the English and History teacher, Mr Garnett. He made reading and writing interesting, which is probably why I gained a passion for writing. I just love writing, especially for this website. It is all my own work and another of my achievements.

            Mr Garnett was a wonderful teacher and he had a great sense of humour. He was the deputy head when I was at the secondary school, now called the John Masefield high school and he was really popular with everyone.

            While I was there, I achieved something else. I learned to play the guitar, something I always wanted to do. But with money in short supply, my parents couldn’t afford it for a long time. Then, they bought me my first guitar for Christmas. Later, Roy Hill and myself formed a band, which you can read about on another page.

            My next major event was when I met my wife, Carol. We got married in 1971 and are still there. I count having my two daughters as two more major achievements because they both grew up to be successful. I urged them to do well at school and not to waste their time there, like I did. Neither I nor my wife, pushed them, we merely encouraged them to do well. And, thankfully, they both did. Sarah went on to sixth form college and then on to university. Now she works as a probation officer in Hereford. She’s also a single parent to Jade, my lovely granddaughter.

            Leanne, my youngest daughter, elected not to go on to uni after sixth form, but went on to Holme Lacy agricultural college to train as a veterinary nurse. She’s always loved animals so the career suits her well. She now works at a practice in Abergavenny, not too far away thankfully.

  Whilst the kids were growing up, I had the chance to do something else I'd always fancied doing. I have always been a lover of motorsport, all kinds from motorcycles to formula one. But my main motor racing love is Rallying. I just love it. I used to follow the RAC rally around Wales with a workmate, Steve Hall. Then, he decided he didn't want to just watch, he wanted to actually drive in a rally. He asked if I was interested in giving it a shot so I did a correspondance course in rally navigation and then, we entered our first rally. The car was a stage prepared mini cooper and it went like the wind. As novices, I had an hour and a half to plot the route with map references. I was still doing it when we arrived at the first competetive stage. It was great fun driving flat out down country lanes in the middle of the night, (it was a road rally actually which are always done in the night) and apart from throwing up half way around, I really enjoyed it. The problem was that I am no good at reading when I'm travelling. It always makes me ill. So from then on, I always dosed myself up with travel sickness pills and relied on the adrenalin rush to keep me awake and alert.

Another ambition which I fulfilled was to go to Disneyworld. I managed to do this in 2005 when we went to Eurodisney, Paris with my daughter, her boyfriend and my granddaughter . We had a wonderful, wonderful time. It was actually my first time in a foreign country and to spend it with my ganddaughter, Jade, made it all the more special

                                    "The Years Roll By"

   I’m into middle age now but I still have ambitions. The main one is to write a best selling novel. It’s just a dream at the moment and probably always will be. But that doesn’t stop me from writing and enjoying what I write. I have sent a couple of manuscripts away but they were rejected. But I’ll keep on trying and maybe one day, it will all happen for me.

            I suppose you must be wondering what sort of stuff I write. Well, I really enjoy writing romantic stories. Boy meets girl, they fall in love and live happily ever after, with a bit of turmoil in between of course, just to make it interesting. Whether I get published or not is of  no real consequence because I just want to write and to enjoy writing.

I was pretty good at English at school and usually did quite well in exams too. In fact, I came top along with a girl called Lorna Waters in one of my early exams so I suppose that was how I came to want to write.

It began a number of years ago when I just decided I wanted to write a book. I used to get all these ideas going through my head and I imagined myself as a hero of some kind doing some wondeful deeds whilst having exciting adventures. Then, instead of just thinking about it and wanting to do it, I damned well got on and did it. My first attempts were always hand written and have since been lost somewhere. They may be in the attic along with all the other junk my wife and I have accumulated over the years. But then I aquired an old typewriter and churned out a couple of short novels.

I want to be a writer. I want to use my imagination and put my thoughts down on paper. I want to make up my own stories, to write about the things I like to read about. It's so easy to go to a book shop, browse the titles and finally choose something to read. It might look okay from the blurb on the back or the excerpt inside, but in the end, the whole thing might be one big disappointment. I know that when I write something, it is less likely to be a disappointment to me because what's in there is out of my own mind. And ultimately, I want other people to enjoy it too

I started to write romantic stuff, the sort of thing you read in Mills and Boon. I sent a couple of manuscripts away and they both came back rejected but that didn't put me off. I still like to write romantic stuff but I have diversified into other things. I have just published my first thriller novel. It's not a complicated plot but just something that came into my head after a bit of inspiration from someone I used to know a few years ago. I've also had a stab at erotic stuff but that isn't really the thing I want to do.

My main ambition is to write childrens books and I've finally come up with an idea for a story. It's called

                                       "The Secret of Lizard Mountain"

and the great thing is that Lizard Mountain actually exsists. it's an old disused quarry just outside of Ledbury where my friends and I used to go fishing for newts. Can you fish for newts? Is that the right term, fish? It makes no never mind really. Anyway, it's going to be a childrens adventure story with, hopefully, lots of surprises and shocks for the young readers. It's actually aimed at 10 years and upwards, so it's fingers crossed and on with the typing. I'm up to about 43 words a minute at the moment and getting better all the time. Not bad for an old guy with big fingers, is it?

This is how Lizard Mountain looks today but there was a pool at the base when I was a young fella.

This is how the book cover is going to look and yes, it is all my own work and  I used about seven different photographs to arrive at this final "work of art", my first almost successful effort at photo editing. The little girl holding the giant butterfly is my granddaughter, Jade.

Below are the covers of two other novels written by my friend, Beverly Giles. You will probably have guessed that Beverly Giles is a pen name of mine which I use when writing romantic novels which is what these two are. The reason I use a female name is that women tend to read romantic novels written by women. So, if you want to purchase one of these books at a very reasonable price then please visit www.Lulu.com, where you will find lots of great books written by wannabe authors, like myself. The great thing about these two books is that the author is local, born and raised in Ledbury and now living not too far away. To see a preview or purchase either or both of these two novels, please click on the link below the pictures.