I'm 48, and live in Topsham, Devon, England, with my wife Clare. We moved here from Birmingham in July 1996, and have a cat and no children.

I was born in Gosport, Hampshire, and am mainly science-educated: a degree in Natural Sciences (specialising in Metallurgy & Materials Science) from Selwyn College, Cambridge. I worked variously - and not very successfully - in ceramics research at Stoke-on-Trent, packing parts in a Loughborough bus factory, and geophysics technical posts at the University of Birmingham, before discovering an aptitude for computers and writing, hence moving to IT journalism in 1987. I prefer to work freelance: as Somerset comments in Se7en: "Anyone who spends a significant amount of time with me finds me disagreeable."

I work primarily as a technical writer: I'm a regular Specialist Reporter for the bi-monthly magazine Scientific Computing World, for which I write software features and reviews, and I write PR and house newsletter features for other companies. I also recently moved into web page design.

Link to business page
Link to portfolio of articles

I've a little fiction in print: a co-written story, Lord of the Files, in the 1990 Digital Dreams science fiction anthology; several SF and mystery pastiches in computer magazines; some pulp fiction for Olympia Publishing; and, recently, an erotic but basically serious adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest for the e-publisher Amatory Ink.

Clare is a writer too, having retired from teaching to pursue this career, especially to work on novels. She's won several major writing competitions, with stories in the 1994 Ian St James Awards anthology, Brought to Book, and in the Serpent's Tail anthology, The Catch, which featured winners of the 1996 Asham Literary Foundation competition for women's fiction. She has adapatations of Cold Comfort Farm and The Snow Queen under way.

She has designed sets, costume and backcloths for Exeter Little Theatre Company, where she directed The Admirable Crichton for the Exeter Festival 2002 this summer. She also carves Faberge-type eggs and makes seriously good patchwork jackets.