I was born in 1942 in Aberdeen, Scotland, and came to live in Wolverhampton in 1946 after my father was demobbed from the army. I was educated at St. Luke's Primary School, where I learned to read and write, and Wolverhampton Grammar School, where I learned little of real value. After three highly enjoyable years roistering and philosophising at Durham University, I was awarded a third class degree in Classics. This, together with holiday jobs as a hot dog salesman, as a bus conductor, and as a pea picker, qualified me to teach English in secondary schools, which I did with moderate success and considerable satisfaction for the next twenty years.

In 1984 I became English Adviser for Dudley LEA, which allowed me to promulgate my anarchic views on education to my heart's content. In 1993 I became an independent Educational Consultant, not knowing what this was or what it might entail. In my case it mainly entailed leading Ofsted inspections and teaching at the University of Birmingham, though I have also advised government, governors, and the governed in a variety of ways.

I have always been a writer. My first creative piece, I believe, was a newspaper written in Latin. My poetry collection, Warchild (1975), received faint praise and then was quietly forgotten. Three subsequent novels never saw the light of day, despite spending many agonised hours in the slush piles of well-known publishers. My Tallyforth Mystery series of crime novels was launched in 1998 with Be a Falling Leaf (now reprinted). This was followed by Bird on the Wing (2000), The Liquidator (2002) and The Llareggub Experience (2003).

My first travel narrative was Grey Paes and Bacon (2001), an irreverent and amusing perspective on the people and places in the Black Country. That was followed by Dancing with Sabrina (2002), an equally idiosyncratic account of my walk along the banks of the River Severn from source to sea, by Special Offa (2004), an account of my journey on the Offa's Dyke Path and by On the Wall with Hadrian (2006), a fun-filled account of my travels with the Roman Emperor along his famous Wall.