meet Daniel

I was born in the fifties and brought up on smog and boiled cabbage in London. Sent away at 13 to boarding school in Malvern. Always wanted to be a doctor.  Studied medicine at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital (West Smithfield).  It was a good time in the early seventies: theatre, film and the rock scene were all thriving. Underground music was where we found our heroes, John Mayall, Peter Green and the like.  

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I married young, another doctor and we had a girl and a boy pretty soon.  Qualified 1974, various jobs in London and elsewhere - UCH, Hammersmith, Sheffield, Edinburgh.  Achieved two post-graduate degrees and became a cancer doctor in radiotherapy, settling with the family in the North-East of England.

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After thirty years a consultant in the Health Service, I am retired, still living on Teesside.  I spend much of my time writing, far from the hubbub of city life, enjoying peaceful periods of contemplation. It is so different from being a doctor, although I used to write a lot even then.  They say fiction is the lie that tells the truth.  I like fiction-writing for its way of setting its own rules, for settling old scores, for telling its version of the truth.  The novel thrives on misunderstanding and conflict and can be manipulated as a vehicle for hidden deception or a way of seeking honest explanations.

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I have a major concern about the current state of youth disappointment, our failure to give hope to an entire blighted generation, just as my two adolescent daughters are ready to seek their fortunes in these uncertain times. I worry for the future of mankind, when we rely on so many psychological misfits as world leaders.  

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I have two needy fluffy dogs at home to distract me - so small, one or two turns around the kitchen island and there’re done.