I always wanted to write and be published – it took lock down in 2020 when I was in my late fifties (along with full pay!) to get me started. It wasn’t easy for me even then. I had to overcome serious illness at the same time as I was writing but seem to have succeeded in both.

Since I was a child of four or so, I have been sensitive to paranormal experiences in England as well as abroad. I could feel an invisible energy in rooms I entered for the first time, including a second hand car I bought as well as the dining room of a school I was working in recently.

In recent years though such experiences have diminished though one memorable experience of a school library book falling by itself from a shelf in front of myself and my students underlined the fact that one doesn’t need darkened rooms or the midnight hour to experience such things!

There is our reality and another reality – occasionally these realities interact and certain sensitive people may be spectators to these events.

I think this interaction of realities can include reincarnation as I have experienced on a couple of occasions, one of which I relate in my book.

I have never pursued ghosts or demanded a paranormal experience ‘happen’ to me – as most people in my world are sceptics, what has happened to me on occasion is invariably a solitary experience. I have though, never felt in danger from anything I have witnessed though I do believe that if you go looking for trouble in the paranormal world, as in any other sphere of life, you will find it. To that end I have never taken part in seances or such like.

As an English / English foreign language teacher by profession, it goes without saying that I have always loved words, phrases and expressions. I have taught creative writing for many years though it was the pandemic that gave me a chance to put pen to paper to devise my own stories based on real events.

I also realised once I began writing that constructing extended prose dialogues and descriptions was almost akin to writing music in its cadence and syllabic resonance. Rising tones and falling tones became as important in constructing a narrative as a key adjective or adverbial clause!

I have continued to write manuscripts which I hope to publish in the future, continually played back sentences and plot lines in my head and seeing how the tentacles of a story line influence an extended narrative