Of my earliest years, I was born in 1933 on School Street, Thurnscoe, Yorkshire, although I don’t remember living there. I do vaguely remember living at 32 Westfield Crescent, Thurnscoe and our next door neighbour was a woman called Mrs. Gregory and her dog named Bruce; somehow I don’t remember a Mr. Gregory. Across the street from us was a family who I think was called Taylor, who had a son called Denis who was much older than me so I was not supposed to play out with him. There were also two other families with boys of my age named Ellis and Silverwood. I remember Ken Ellis best; I suppose because I knew him the longest. (Junior Silverwood’s family moved to Nottingham before my family moved to Worsborough Dale.)

The three of us were inseparable. We had all started school together at the local infant school, in the baby class, and in the afternoon we had to go to sleep on small beds in the classroom. In the 1930s, children had much more freedom than they have now; children today are watched over much more closely than we were. Even at that age we were told to go out to play. Mum would say, “I’ll give you a shout when the tea is ready.”

The three of us Ken, Junior, and myself used to walk to school together; we were called “the three musketeers;” we were always late for school, and it was not unknown for some other parent to remark to my mother, “I’ve just seen them wandering to school; they were at the Big Lamp.” I don’t know if the Big Lamp still exists in Thurnscoe but at that time it was a local feature, as was Merril Hill.

The son of a miner, I was an inveterate reader, frequenting the local library from the age of 7. I left school at fifteen with no qualifications. I was very shy with no confidence; I'd been a mother’s boy all my life and had no idea what I wanted to do. There was an advert in the local paper for a decorator’s apprentice; Mother said, “Why don't you do that?” So that's what I did; my father took me to meet Mr. Rowley who took me on. At the time we lived in Worsbrorough Dale, Barnsley.

Ever since I was eleven I had been in the Scout movement and remained in it until I was 24. It was at a meeting of Scouts and Girl Guides that I met my wife, Margaret Waring. She became a school teacher. She was extremely clever and artistic, very musical, but had no ambition. I moved in a circle of educated people with no education myself. Underneath, I wanted to compete with these people and when I saw the advert for a writing correspondence course, I took it. None of these people had done that, and I began writing. This course enabled me to get my first story published in a London evening paper and since then I have continued to write.

When I was 23, I opened up shop as a decorator - just me, no employees. I started in business with the encouragementof my future father-in-law who was a businessman. Meanwhile, my own parents had always been employees and discouraged me. I later started up the Selclene domestic cleaning business and operated that until I came to live in Hampshire. When my wife died at 41, I bought a derelict farmhouse in a tiny hamlet called Smallbanks at Addingham in Wharfedale. I retired from business when I was 83 and started to learn to play the piano when I was 86.

A small foot deformity had prevented me from being called for National Service in the armed forces which was a huge disappointment because I always wanted to be a pilot. When I was 63 I trained as a glider pilot and fulfilled my childhood dream of being an aviator and pursued that hobby into my eighties. Dreams can come true after all.

When I’m not writing, my Hampshire life includes regularly playing bowls and table tennis. My current family consists of a daughter, one grandson, a brother twenty years my junior, a son-in-law, sister-in-law, and various nieces and cousins.

Here's a glimpse of Odiham, Hampshire, where sources of inspiration abound.

All photos courtesy of wikimedia.com