I began repairing clocks in 1972 when I was temporarily disabled and needed to work from home; the basis for my 'expertise' was the engineering apprenticeship that I had served twenty five years earlier. In 1978 I had the cheek to begin writing articles about clocks and to teach the subject.

Luckily I got better at it as the years passed!

Clock Design and Construction appeared in 1984, the Clock Repairer's Handbook in 1985, Practical Clock Escapements in 1998, The Carriage Clock in 2005 - I was slowing down. However there was a deal of writing and teaching in between. The Correspondence Course for instance, was born in 1986 and fully grown when I launched it in the USA in 1990. It was altered considerably in 2002 to become the AWCI's Home Study Course. There have been a couple of self-published books as well, but publishing and selling is hard work - much easier to simply sit down and write. Altogether I have been lucky with my technical works, they were all created at the instance of publishers, which meant, of course, that I did not have to write the books first and then begin the soul destroying task of persuading someone that they were worth publishing.

Fiction, on the other hand has given me a great deal of pleasure, a few kind words from agents and nothing else. Nobody wanted to publish it, so here I am offering it on the Internet. Just half a dozen people who enjoy reading of Gregory, Camelod and the growth of the Celtic Empire, would be an exquisite pleasure - even five ... possibly I will be happy with four. It's a great story, I know the author personally and have a considerable appreciation of his work. I thoroughly recommend the volumes of the Celtic Empire.

Betty and I now live in America, we moved from Totnes in Devon in 2001 and our present address is Indiana, a pleasant rural state, not subject to hurricanes, mudslides, tsunamis - just the odd tornado from time to time. We share the house with two kittens who are quite good about the arrangement, as long as we feed them regularly, open the door to the outside world every ten minutes (they do not regard 'outside' as a substitute for their tray), and change their water immediately the bubbles die away.

 It was a bit of a jump emigrating at the age of sixty nine, but it was just in time - a year later would have been my three score years and ten - that would have seemed a little foolish. As it is, moving westward put the clock back. I am now a vigorous fifty year old and looking forward to another half century in the USA.