I'm a bit of a magpie - I like trying different things. My work history is a little like those film-stars used to come up with - milkman, lumberjack etc. In my case the high and low-lights are stage manager, jewellry maker, shop owner, deckchair attendant, firework show designer/firer, tour manager, TV scriptwriter, social worker, gas board surveyor, data engineer, actor, delivery driver, barman and novellist. I had two children's novels published while still working in TV, and a number of short stories in national magazines, but have still to make the jump into adult fiction. I've been very close, with interest shown in all my adult novels, but no coconut. At the moment, I'm taking a breather, having written 16 novels in around 7 years. Right now I've taken myself back to school (Open University), where I'm working on my first degree so I can go and work on the Hadron Collider. Or maybe the Extremely Large Telescope. Haven't entirely made my mind up yet, and I'll probably be too old to be employable by the time I get the qualifications.The photo of me appeared in 'The Stage'. I'd just received a bursary from the Arts Council to study fireworks. As I was working as a stage manager at the time with the Kunju Shanghai Opera, they made me up to look the part. They, incidentally, had me playing post-horn in their orchestra for one show in Plymouth - their player had gone down with food poisoning, and nobody else could get a note out of the thing. I'd been having a pretty unsuccessful stab at learning the trombone, so I starred briefly in Macbeth.