For decades I’ve written non-fiction books around my other work. But my son’s struggles pushed me into middle-grade and young adult fiction.

Like so many young people, particularly boys, he got to about 12 and just lost interest in reading books. So I found him a couple of series that he actually did get into, like the Young Samurai series by Chris Bradford and The Ranger’s Apprentice by John Flanagan. What next?

Obviously I had to write a new middle-grade series for him. So I did. And by the time I’d done that he was too old for them. Life lessons huh?

But it’s been the most exciting writing experience of my professional life, and none more so than the new young adult series Leaving Valhalla (published June 2024). The research was fascinating but then it got weird. The characters started to come to me in dreams, pushing themselves forward. The hero, Dagmar, was meant to be a secondary character but it soon became clear she was going to be the lead, she left me in no doubt about that.

That’s a true story. That doesn’t happen when you’re writing a book about Jeeps.

Feel free to have a rummage among my books here.