A student, an English language teacher, a clerical worker, a volunteer counsellor, a husband, a reader of books, a player of computer games and a friend to cats.

I have been all these things, but at the same time I have always been a writer.

One of my first birthday presents was a toy typewriter. My mother expected me to play with it for a while and then get bored and abandon it.

Instead, I wore it out.

These days I'm using a computer, which is a lot easier to use than a toy typewriter, believe me. I write short fiction for my own amusement, book reviews for my website, and now articles for Helium.

Writing is part of me and what I do. As long as I have eyes to see with, fingers to type with and a brain to think with, I'll always be a writer.

Whatever else I do in this life, writing will be part of it.

My passion is ...

human potential and the power of the imagination.

I know too much about ...

computer games (the result of a misspent middle age.)

My parents always told me ...

to love what I do.

My childhood ambition ...

was to be a zoo-keeper.

My favorite memory ...

is waking up when I was a kid, and realising that it was Saturday and I didn't have to go to school. It doesn't get more perfect than that.

Why I write ...

It's something I have to do.

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

The House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds

My first job ...

.was at Richard Language College, teaching English.

My best moment ...

... was probably when I passed my Mathematics GSE "O" level on my third attempt. What a nice surprise.

My inspiration ...

is the kaleidoscopic, bizarre, world of dreams.

Arts & Humanities > Horror, Mystery & Suspense Book reviews: Carrie, by Stephen King

4 of 5

Who could ever forget the excellent 1976 movie version of Stephen King's novel Carrie, with Sissy Spacek at her wide-eyed best as the eponymous Carrie and John Travolta as the thuggish Billy Nolan. With its great casting, script and music, Brian de Palma's Carrie remains one of the better screen adaptations of a Stephen King story. The novel itself is also very good, although it has a documentary style (with newspaper excerpts and letters) which is not quite what I'm generally used to in a King book. It was his first published novel (although the fourth that he actually wrote) and it was th...

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Writing:

Rating:

• Marketplace Premier Writer