I'm probably the most unlikely of writers. I come from a family that values lack of education above everything else. Where to aspire to anything is seen as a class betrayal. Where you're expected to just muddle through from day to day, to laugh at those with careers, families etc.

So I turned my back on them all. I took a BSc in economics in my late thirties and an MA in creative writing in 2001.

I knocked out 4 novels in just 10 months in 1987/88.

I now make most of my money (much to my family's disgust!) from the Internet and from investing.

Without the need to scrape a living from writing I can now enjoy writing just want I want to! Hopefully that shows in my work ...

My passion is ...

skiing, railways and new music

I know too much about ...

poverty

My parents always told me ...

to fuck off and be quiet

My childhood ambition ...

to be the world's first trillionaire

My favorite memory ...

club vagabond in Leysin, 1987/88

Why I write ...

because it's the easiest thing in the world

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

the economist/the mighty boosh/enter shikari

My first job ...

picking tomatoes

My best moment ...

being born

My inspiration ...

skippy the bush kangaroo

Autos > Cars Why car enthusiasts shouldn't lose sleep over global warming

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Car enthusiasts shouldn't lose too much sleep over global warming because it's probably too late to do anything about it. They may as well keep burning up the ashphalt whilst they still can, because believe me in a few years time very few of us will be able to afford petrol - or the much-trumpeted replacements.

The problem is that as oil runs out ALL alternatives begin to cost more as they all rely on oil originally. Electricity is generated by burning oil, using equipment developed through cheap oil technology; hydrogen relies on high tech equipment delivered through oil-based technolog...

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