Author Biography

Despite being given a life expectancy of thirty (courtesy of his father) Chris is now in his seventh ‘bonus year’.  Born in Sheffield in 1969, he was introduced to the wonderful world of storytelling at an early age, again courtesy of his father.

In 1976 the family moved to Norfolk, but Chris managed to find them.  During his five year stint in the land of tractors and strange accents Chris discovered talking book audio cassettes – a new innovation at the time.  With no Playstation or Internet to distract him, it wasn’t long before Chris was almost word perfect on a wide range of classics from Treasure Island and Kidnapped to Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

His imagination had been well and truly stirred.

Again, Chris clung to the family when they relocated back to Sheffield in 1981.  Now talking fluent ‘farmspeak’ he was branded a ‘poshy’ by many of his fellow schoolmates.  Not surprisingly English proved to be his favourite subject and provided him with the opportunity to lay down some creative writing of his own.  The 1980s were a key period in Chris’s life.  It was around this time his obsession with films began.  Watching at least one film per day led, rather inevitably, to truancy.  When his father found out about his son’s ‘extended absenteeism’, a life expectancy of sixteen looked more likely.

Predictably, in the late 80s, the two great pleasures in life came knocking – beer and girls.  Indulging freely in both, Chris found O Levels exams to be more of an irritation than anything else and duly passed only three of the nine taken.  Undaunted by this meagre haul he embarked on A Levels, again distracted by beer and girls in equal measure.  Another major piece of life’s jigsaw fell into place when Chris befriended a group of fellow students best described as slightly south of sane.  They too enjoyed drinking in excess of government guidelines and the group (still friends to this day) became known as The Hardcore.  After retaking a couple of exams Chris entered 1988 with a grand total of six O Levels, a solitary A Level and a respectable capacity for swilling beer – all hopes of life as a barrister lay in ruins, but that had always been his parents’ idea.

Further education looked unlikely, however, Chris managed to secure place at Bucks College of Higher Education, the basket beneath the A Level guillotine.  A degree in Business Studies was his aim and in 1992, after four years where the beer and girls quota went through the roof, he finally achieved his goal.

Employment and the spectre of the real world loomed.

One thing Chris was very clear about was this: he wasn’t going to wind up slaving away in a nine-to-five office job.  His first nine-to-five office job arrived two weeks later courtesy of Barclays Bank.  Determined to escape, Chris tried and failed to join both the Police and the Royal Marines.  He has remained an office worker ever since.  Reading, and more recently, writing books and watching films continues to dominate his spare time.

Right now, he’s living in his beloved Sheffield with his equally beloved wife, Sharon.