I have spent some of my life on all six continents.
I am the oldest of a family of four children—but my beautiful younger brother Paul died in 2008, my lovely sister Elizabeth—who was the youngest of us—in 2020, and my lovely sister Theresa in 2023.
I was born in September 1943, in east London, as bombs fell. I grew up in East Africa—first Uganda, then Kenya—where my father (an accountant) worked in the colonial service. The family left Kenya in 1963.
I went to Oxford University, where I read English, and later did a D Phil: on the treatment of emotion in Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë. My D Phil thesis can be read online—or downloaded as a PDF.
While finishing my thesis, I took what I thought would be a temporary job at Oxford College of Further Education. It turned out to be an interesting enough job that I stayed there until April 1997, when I left in order to concentrate full time on writing and freelance work.
I taught English, worked as a tutor for the Open University, and worked as a personal counsellor. (I am a trained counsellor.)
Computing
I also taught computing. I gave classes to professional programmers in C and C++, and Windows programming. I had become interested in computers in the 1960s, went to classes in the 1970s, and bought my first computer (a 'BBC B') in the early 1980s. In 1986-7 I studied for a postrgraduate diploma in computing at what is now South Bank University—passing with distinction.
It's important to me to stay up-to-date. In computing, this means mastering new programming languages, and being at home with the latest technologies used on the World Wide Web.
Web Design and Development
Unusually, I am home in both ‘back-end’ development and the worlds of graphic and experience design. For development work, I can use React, node.js, SCSS, tailwind CSS, etc., but I find I work much more efficiently with the fundamental tools: HTML 5, XML, CSS 3, JavaScript, AJAX and PHP (I make an exception for jQuery). I am at home with the latest versions of content management systems such as Drupal and (these days) WordPress.I have made my own contribution to WP theming on Github.
In the last 25 years I have designed many websites: you can see examples on this very website. In the last few years I have concentrated on responsive design.
Unfortunately, I was so busy on clients’ websites that I had no time to update my own—including this one—until now.
For design work, before Adobe took over Macromedia, I used to use both the Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, GoLive, LiveMotion) and Macromedia's Studio (Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, Freehand).
I now (in ) have an almost disablingly expensive perpetual subscription to Adobe's Creative Cloud. This is how a feudal Adobe is keeping even the most creative of serfs in a perpetual fiefdom. (I have to confess that our feudal lord keeps producing useful software.)
The tools that I use most of the time, however, are not expensive at all: my sketch pads, pencils with a range of leads and the code editor Brackets.
Family
I got married in 1969 (and divorced in 1985). I have two children.
My son Piers works in technology for the media. He and his partner Tom got married in August 2024. My daughter Imogen is an accountant—like my father—who now runs her own UK probate business. She and her partner Mike got married in December 2004.
I have four grandchildren: two grandsons—Bradley and Ewan—and two granddaughters: Jessica, who was born in November 2003, and Phoebe, who was born in October 2006.
Writing
I wrote my first story at six. I have been writing ever since.
In the 1960s I wrote for IT, produced multimedia events, and wrote and composed a rock musical which toured England's ‘Arts Labs’.
My first steady job was as a singer/guitarist, in the ‘Monk's Retreat’ in Oxford. (I managed to throw in some of my own songs.)
While I was working at Oxford CFE I wrote articles, poems, songs and several plays and musicals—for which I also wrote the music. Almost all of them were produced by amateur groups.
Looking back on them now, what intrigues me is how oddly I managed to anticipate things about to happen.
In early 1984, in a collaborative musical featuring contemporary heroes, I took as my character Nelson Mandela, whose status as an icon in Europe was only restored in the summer of that year (with, among other manifestations, the Specials' Free Nelson Mandela and the Trotters' Mandela House).
Even more oddly, in 1980 I wrote a musical based on the Orpheus legend about a 60s pop star who had his first big hit in years and was then killed. John Lennon had his first big hit in years while we were in rehearsal. During the week of our production, he was killed.
Since 1997 I have worked on a new translation of Bizet's Carmen, which was produced at the Oxford Playhouse, and on a novel and a play. I also worked as an editor and proof-reader, before devoting myself full time to Web work.
Film Extra
Something I was able to do when I first began to work for myself was to appear in films as an extra. You would have to peer very closely to see me in the Canadian film The Red Violin, or the nineteenth James Bond—The World Is Not Enough. But I am visible in the videos of Bridget Jones' Diary, and no one could miss me in Mike Bassett: England Manager.
Homes
In the first decade of the 21st century, I spent some of every year in Australia, where my sisters settled. (From the early 1990s, my mother was also there: she died in September 2005. My sisters have also died in the last few years.) In Asia I have visited Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. In South America I know Colombia, and its offshore islands, which include what is for me the most beautiful place on earth—the tiny Caribbean island of Old Providence. I stayed for some time in Mexico City. Of Canada and the USA I know only the eastern states—though my wife and I did get to Texas.
I first came to Spain in 1967. I moved here in 2001, having bought a house in Calpe (in the east of Spain, where I first encountered the sunsets which fill a valley with pink light). In between entertaining visitors I keep up with all things Web, and develop websites.
2006
I believe 2006 changed my life quite deeply.
2007
In January, I set up a Web hosting and design company, Web Costa Blanca, partly as a tribute to Barry Williams, to whom the site is dedicated. (Select ‘View Source’ at the welcome page.) In June that year I had a heart scare; it turned out to be a false alarm, and my health has never been better than it is now. In August I went to the wedding of my beautiful cousin Frances, pictured at the church door with her new husband Meilyr.
2008
This was the year my brother Paul died. The only thing that redeems it is the hope that I have forged links with one or two of his friends in Madrid.
2009 - now
Both my sisiters have now died. An absolute loss. And most of the friends I made out here have now died, or moved back to the UK. On the other hand my children and grandchildren are coming into their own, friends from England still visit, and my Web business is flourishing. Creative work continues to keep me excited.
In 2021, I published my 20th-century novel A Disturbance of Memory on Amazon.
For more recent purely personal stuff you need to read my Facebook page.