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Ageing ex-hippy, one-time teacher, satellite TV installer, philosophy Ph.D. student, care worker, handyman, radio technician, Northern Ireland Civil Service clerk... probably about twenty other things, I was born in 1947 in London, the only child of an Irish GP married to a former Irish nurse. Shortly afterwards they returned with their offspring (i.e. me) to a rural medical practice in Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal. This is where I spent my childhood, wandering around the fields, fishing for tadpoles in the streams, 'helping' my uncle in nearby Bundoran with his many hobbies, such as amateur radio, amateur boat-building, flying model aircraft, scuba diving, building machines and vehicles from scrapyard junk, amateur film-making, making musical instruments... oh yes, I think I went to school occasionally as well, but thankfully it didn't interfere with my education.
The family moved to Belfast, where I was a student during the first phase of the most recent wave of 'troubles', and saw the city reduced to rubble and then re-built to resemble a London shopping mall by the kind generosity of the British taxpayers. During this time I built and ran a number of pirate radio stations, first as a schoolboy prank but later as a naive gesture of support for various political causes.
My studentship was completed in London, where I gained an M.A. in Philosophy as a full-time student on a grant (those were the days) and afterwards registered for a Ph.D.in the same subject and was given another grant, but to my shame I never finished. Somewhere along the way I got bitten by the commune bug, and spent many years trying to find or create a utopian communal family along with the lady who is still my partner, Jean Duggleby.
Eventually, like most 1960s children, I gave up on this venture (although I'm not sure I've ever really fully given up) and settled down into a more conventional life in a large house in London with Jean and our adopted daughter Cherelle, who at twenty-nine is about to give up a promising career in the BBC in London and move to Australia with her boyfriend, who is a New Zealander. We'll miss all the contact we have with her now, while she's living so close by.
In the later part of my life I took to writing short stories and (so far two) novels, helping to run the literary magazine Gold Dust and organising writers' holidays and book launches and similar events in London, as well as working as a volunteer editor for a number of small press publishers. I've also taken to travelling to a different hot country every year with Jean to avoid the British winter. I completed the PADDI scuba diving course late in life and have become a reasonably keen holiday sports diver. We take turns to choose where to spend our winters – our choices have included India, Thailand, Laos, South Africa, Florida, the Galapagos islands, Venezuela and Costa Rica.
I'm now coming up to retirement age (65) and getting more and more into writing and other hobbies, especially electronics and computing. My health is still okay (fingers crossed) and I'm looking forward to being properly retired in a few months and having lots of time for the things I love doing.
My interests include science, photography, psychology, wild life, and all things practical such as cooking, DIY, carpentry and light building work.
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