Photo courtesy of Charlotte Taylor

I was born right at the end of the fifties. Well, with four days to spare! That now means I have lived in eight decades. I was born in North Essex and grew up with my younger brother and sister.

I am extremely proud of my heritage. My paternal grandfather was, in a way I suppose, a modern day navvie. He travelled the country helping in the construction of massive civil engineering projects. His last job before settling down was the Abberton Reservoir near Colchester. This is where my father grew up and eventually met my mother. She was the daughter of a local farmer. I was really pleased to be recently sent an old recording of my maternal grandfather’s recollections of life before the reservoir arrived. You, too, can hear this at https://www.merseamuseum.org.uk/mmresdetails.php?col=AV&ba=cke&rt=Audio&pid=LN007201_002

The reservoir has played a major part throughout my life although it is now a while since I went back there. The last time I went there was for my father’s wake. The reservoir brought him to the area so it seemed only fitting that we should see him off from there as well.

My paternal side has, shall we say, an interesting history. For some reason my great grandfather changed his family name from Bryant to Taylor. Family legend has it that he was heavily involved in protests against the landed gentry in the Welsh Marches and became a wanted man. I would love to explore this one day and find out the truth and, if it floats the creative boat enough, put the legend into writing for posterity.

Jane and I on a Canary Islands cruise

I got married to my wife, the ever supporting and suffering Jane, in 1987. Three children and, to date, four grandchildren later we have arrived to where we are now. We now live in the beautiful county of Norfolk. Our village is just about perfect. It has a pub, a shop, post office, tearoom, primary school, farm-shop, village hall complete with social club. It also benefits from many sports clubs. Having just had football reintroduced it only lacks God’s gift to sport: cricket. Maybe one day? None of the aforementioned would be any good without the people; since our move here we have been made incredibly welcome by the most hospitable community you could meet. Our children and grandchildren are now spread throughout Norfolk and Suffolk.

I worked in the construction industry, as a Quantity Surveyor, for over forty years before failing eyesight finally forced me to call it a day in 2021. Most people have no idea what a QS does. The best way to describe it is to say that you count the materials used in building things. Oh, but if it were that simple! We are responsible for the financial control of construction projects. We are the bane of customer’s and sub-contractor’s lives alike. We are the ones who want to charge the former too much, usually based on fact, and not pay the latter enough, also usually based on fact! Moving into writing is an interesting career change but to follow one’s dream must be everybody’s ultimate aim. I gave up on playing cricket for England or football for Ipswich Town several years ago now. Never mind, there is always the next life!

Outside of sport, particularly cricket and football, my main interest is history. To live a stone’s throw from the birthplace of our greatest ever admiral and in the same village where our first ever prime minister went to school is an amazing feeling. You feel you are forever walking among giants; metaphorically, at any rate! This brings me onto a recent interest, I mean addiction, I have hooked on to. It is a podcast by, I think, a very enthusiastic amateur. I hope I am not undermining him in any way? He is the brilliant David Crowther and his podcast can be found in all the usual places, I am sure. A link to the website is https://thehistoryofengland.co.uk

You had better get along there quickly as you have nearly 400 regular episodes to catch up on let alone all the special features and guest programmes. Perhaps read my stories first because once you start you will become absorbed by David’s captivating voice!

Me at Bodnant Garden, Conwy, Wales

History also points me in the direction of my reading. Well, I say reading, as a Severely Sight Impaired (SSI) person, which is blind in old money, I spend my time invested in audio books. I love a good serial and the master craftsman of all in the historical fiction genre is, without a doubt, Bernard Cornwell. His Sharpe series is without compare and when you add this to the Utred stories, the Grail Quest and the Arthurian tales there is a fair old body of work. Julian Stockwin has created the wonderful series of books based on a pressed sailor, Thomas Kydd, who, I hope, will eventually rise to admiral. It’s not history but I can’t wait for the new Jack Reacher to come out every year. Lee Child, initially, and latterly with his brother, Andrew, has created some brilliant adventures. There are some cracking short stories and collaborative tales as well. I dream of the time that Curt and Sue-Beth will pick up the hitch-hiking Jack Reacher on an English road somewhere and they become embroiled in an incredible adventure. One can always dream!

One of the first things that I struggled with when I first started writing was the naming of characters. Outside the main ones, that is, Ipswich Town squads, old and new, have provided me with many of the surnames. See if you can spot your favourite players in the pages of the novels and short stories? Sean Bryant is named in honour of my great grandfather.

I thrive on feedback. None of us wants to hear negative stuff but providing we learn from it there is no such thing as negative criticism. I will change styles following people’s observations on occasions but at other times I might fervently disagree with the criticism and continue along the same way I always have. The decision is mine.