About Me
I was born and spent my childhood in Lower Broughton, Salford, in the home of my maternal grandparents.
My conventional education was, by any reasonable measure, a disaster area. Not entirely through my own efforts, I should add. Family circumstances and school proved an unhappy combination, and by my early teens my principal ambition was simply to escape.
Three days after my sixteenth birthday, I joined the Royal Air Force.
The RAF changed my life. For the first time I became aware of the realities of the English class system and encountered people whose backgrounds and experiences were vastly different from my own. There were good times and bad times in blue uniform, but I remain grateful for those years. They widened my horizons immeasurably and helped me understand that the world was a much larger place than I had imagined.
Since leaving the RAF, I have followed a path that could hardly be described as a conventional career.
At various times I have been:
- A professional musician
- A maker of somewhat dubious battery-powered radios for a somewhat dubious gentleman
- An employee of several well-known London coffee bars
- A worker in a gloriously shambolic musical instrument shop
- A bookseller
- In the employ of the late Captain Bob
- General Manager of a university bookshop
- Worked for a major publishing house
- A student of Chinese
- A specialist in the stamps and postal history of China
- A journalist
- A web project developer
- A serial entrepreneur
Since 1997 I have been building websites and developing online projects. These have ranged from small independent ventures to major projects involving European institutions, environmental organisations, commercial clients, and public figures.
One long-standing project has been the Jazz Clubs Worldwide Database, established in 1998 and still documenting jazz venues and performances around the world. http://jazz-clubs-worldwide.com
Jazz, however, has been the constant thread running through my life.
I play valve trombone and have also spent time with piano and saxophone. Over the years I have performed in clubs throughout Britain and Europe, as well as appearances in Florida and New York. Festivals have taken me to Dunkerque, San Sebastián, Croatia, Belgium, and many places in between.
Writing has been another enduring passion.
My published works have included studies of Chinese philately, fiction, poetry, food writing, and biography. Among them are works on the stamps of the Chinese Treaty Ports, Great British puddings,, Singers, Journey Around the Whole Island of Herttach.
BBC programme: Missionary in Peking: The Letters of Ethel Wilding.
At various times I have also appeared on BBC radio, exhibited a painting in Leeds City Art Gallery, and recorded with several jazz groups and musicians.
Looking back, there are many things I might have done differently.
The exceptions are my children and grandchildren.
Their achievements have given me immense pride, and their lives have brought far more satisfaction than any professional success.
Today, at 86, I remain curious, active, and engaged.