I was born in Parsons Green, London, but was not the son of a parson. I grew up in Fulham and still support the football team, London's oldest professional football team and, until recently, the only club in the major English leagues beginning with the letter F. My first school was a very large Primary, which loomed over the little terraced houses and whose main entrance was only 30 yards from my front door. My mum could look out of our bathroom window and check if I was behaving myself in class. At eleven I was given a scholarship to a boys' school in, what seemed, a distant part of London and was the only boy in my street unlucky enough to have to wear a cap and a blazer.

 

After school I went to London University to study dentistry but soon realised it was never going to be the job for me. A few years of variety followed, including being a porter at a fever hospital, a van driver, a morning postman, living in a commune in the country, cataloguing pressed flowers, toilet cleaning, studying biology and being generally undecided about what to do next.

 

Eventually I studied English Literature and taught in London and Southampton for six years. Then another change of direction, with a move to Bristol, starting a company making models for architects, museums, film-makers and designers, and being a director there for twenty five years.

 

I have written poetry since my postman days and for the last twenty years have also written for children. I like children's poetry because it's so unpretentious - or at least it should be. And a good children's poem can appeal to anyone of any age. I have had poems in dozens of anthologies and in 2011 had my first children's collection published, and then reprinted in 2015. My first collection of poetry for adults, Waiting in their Wings was published in January 2018. I still live in Bristol with my wife and have two grown-up children.