In A Nutshell . . .
A former Hong Kong Government Chemist and head of Hong Kong’s Forensic Science Laboratory, I have over thirty years’ experience in scientific crime investigation. On retirement to Tuscany, I fulfilled a life-long ambition by studying art restoration. My wife Gail and I now share our time mainly between Italy and Thailand, both of them wonderful places to indulge our joint passion for writing.
Bigger Nutshell . . .
A former forensic scientist and Hong Kong Government Chemist, I studied for my bachelors and doctorate degrees in chemistry at the University of Nottingham, after which I joined the West Midlands Forensic Science Laboratory in Birmingham, England.
Hong Kong
After three years of learning the nuances of the trade, I followed an ambition to work overseas by taking a post as a forensic scientist in the Hong Kong Government Laboratory. The lure and excitement of the Far East proved very strong and twenty-eight years later I was still there, retiring eventually as Hong Kong’s last expatriate Government Chemist in 2004.
Tuscany
From Hong Kong, my wife, the children’s book author and illustrator Gail Clarke, and I moved to the wilds of Tuscany where we set about taming our three acres of land. At the same time, we took steps to improve our Italian and I also embarked on a course of study and work experience in art restoration.
… and everywhere
However, we found we still missed many aspects of the Far East and we had a yearning to rediscover England after so many years away. Having decided there was no reason why we couldn’t embrace the lot while still pursuing our writing, we now share our time largely between Tuscany, Thailand and England.
Inspiration
As a forensic scientist, my caseload covered a wide range of crimes, including homicides, kidnappings and fire investigations, the work often starting at a crime scene and finishing with the presentation of expert evidence in court. This background and my more recent forays into the world of art restoration were drawn on extensively in writing the Dust of Centuries Series (originally called the Rare Traits Trilogy), the Cotton & Silk Thrillers and the stand-alone thriller, An Imperfect Revenge.
Addtional note: June 2024: new titles coming out this year or early next year are:
The Kegby Legacy, a standalone thriller spanning sixty years set mainly in rural Lincolnshire and Sydney, Australia; and
The Cotton & Silk Crime Thriller Series Book 4 — Not For Crossing. More on that closer to its release.
I am also the author of a non-fictional work, Hong Kong Under The Microscope, an account of the one hundred and twenty-five-year history of the Hong Kong Government Laboratory from 1879-2004.
Hong Kong under the Microscope
A history of the Hong Kong Government Laboratory 1879-2004
Hong Kong’s Government Laboratory was set up in 1879 in the days when Hong Kong was very much a colonial backwater. Hugh McCallum, a young Scot appointed as the first Government Apothecary and Analyst, arrived to find his ‘laboratory’ was a single room with no equipment in a hospital for prostitutes.
Hong Kong Under the Microscope traces development of the laboratory through its first 125 years, from those early, primitive days to the modern, state-of-the-art and internationally recognised laboratory that it had become by 2004, employing nearly five hundred scientists to provide forensic, analytical and scientific advisory services to the people of the present day international business, trade and tourism centre that is now Hong Kong.
To buy a copy of Hong Kong Under the Microscope, go to the HK Government Bookstore, click on the ‘Browse Government Bookstore for Government Publications’ link, register, search for the book’s title and hit ‘Buy!’ The cost is HK$56 (~US$7.21) + postage