"Same Old Game!" is finally now available from the Amazon Bookstore in paperback.
Welcome to my author site, the purpose of which is to promote some of my recent work, "Merchants of War" (published by The Incorporated History Press) and "Barings Bank, William Bingham and the Rise of the American Nation", published by McFarland & Co, and now, finally to introduce the sequel to"Merchants of War" - "Same Old Game!"also published by The Incorporated History Press.
In the following pages I have described "Same Old Game!" and "Merchants of War", the
background to them and how they were researched.
Since first publishing this web-site I have been working on an eclectic mix of subjects, and I have just added "The BlueSpitfire" which is inspired by the work that my father did in the early stages of World War 2 on high altitude aerial photographic reconnaissance. He never really talked about this work, and by the time I realised its importance, it was too late to ask him about it, so that has entailed much original research to write a short history of the development of aerial reconnaissance, which, in turn has led to "Winterbotham, Cotton and Miranda"
My involvement with the sports-car company, Ginetta Car Ltd, during a turbulent period in its history during the 1990's gave rise to a number of stories that a wider audience might like to share, and some of these appear as "Ginetta Stories"
Some of this work is unfinished business, so if anyone can add anything or wishes to use it please let me know.
On subsequent pages I have described some of the other work I have done, and some of the projects that I am currently working on. Any feedback or input on any of this would be most welcome via the contact page.
About me................................................................
I graduated from Nottingham University with an average degree in Mechanical Engineering, and in subsequent employment descended from the technical cutting edge of nuclear engineering through photographic products and finally to food manufacture, where I found my level of competence, an example of the Peter principle in reverse, perhaps!
In the early eighties I started my own food production company, which proved ultimately successful, even if the start was a little shaky. The business was sold a few years later and with the words of my accountant still ringing in my ears, “no, you can’t retire” and “don’t spend all the money on a sports and racing car business”, I moved on.
The sports car businesses, Motorsport Classics and and an investment in Ginetta Cars Ltd were not a great financial success, for me at any rate, but interesting nevertheless. A spell in other people’s sports car companies was instructive but also financially unrewarding, and to pay the bills I returned for a while to the food business. With at least some of those bills paid my wife and I reflected on the possibility of moving to Devon where I would mess about in boats and do what I always wanted – write. So we did.
In my imagination, the days would be spent in the sun on the boat tapping away at the lap-top, firing off occasional articles to boating, motoring and aviation magazines (learning to fly a helicopter was something else my accountant advised against), and banking the cheques.
It didn’t work out that way, it rains a lot here, magazines pay peanuts, and elegant prose gets mangled by a sub-editor to fit the page - and anyway what I really wanted to do was write history. So I decided to write history by combining natural curiosity with the structure and analysis that I had acquired in a career of engineering and business.
I now just needed some history to write – and I stumbled, almost literally, on the stories behind "Merchants of War“, and previously, "Barings Bank, William Bingham and the Rise of the American Nation”. Researching these books and a sequel, "Same Old Game!" has unearthed so many other stories that need to be pursued, that the quiet retirement is on-hold for the time being.
April 2018
"Same Old Game!" is now available from the Amazon Bookstore as a paperback:
