My first foray into ‘serious’ writing occurred when I was just 10 years old. I wrote a 54-page story about an astronaut and his family, and their encounter with some flipper-footed aliens. My teacher was so impressed he asked if he could borrow it to show the following year’s class (after I had gone on to high school). I never saw the story again. Perhaps it was beamed up.

Some years later I rediscovered my passion for writing, and after becoming a broadcaster and journalist I found myself writing a wide variety of material: scripts, documentaries, features, articles, stories, comedy, blogs, and yes, books.

My first books were simple self-help manuals, published by Government Print in Aotearoa - slim volumes of little consequence. But in 2015, after spending a year with my wife Liz living travelling on board a boat on the inland waterways of France, I authored Against the Current: Au Revoir to Corporate Life and Bonjour to a Life Afloat in France, the story of that cruising adventure. It could also have been titled, How Not to Go Boating. It was a hybrid publication with Matador, an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd. UK. I sold satisfactorily in the UK, but I was unable to get any traction in New Zealand, and no book reviewer would touch it.

Against the Current is now out of print, but still available as an audiobook through Amazon UK.

In 2023 I published my first novel Unity, in the UK, as a paperback, hardback and eBook through Amazon KDP. Unity, a Cold War spy thriller, has received nothing but positive reviews, albeit from not many people!

I have just (as at July 2026) completed the first draft of my second novel. It is called Settlement, and here’s the blurb:

It is 1839, and a private, clandestine expedition to New Zealand, involving astounding new imaging technology, is under threat from the start. The principal of the venture mysteriously disappears en route, leaving his protégé to undertake the mission alone.

His name is Lucien Treadwell, but he too becomes a target. His endeavours ashore in the nascent colony of Port Nicholson are closely watched from the shadows, and danger is never far away. But what he sets out to achieve also ignites tension and subterfuge almost two centuries later, on the other side of the world.

The draft manuscript is currently with a pre-reader focus group for feedback. I hope to be able to attract a New Zealand publisher.

 

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