Biography

The story so far. In the beginning I was born. This has made a lot of people very angry and is widely regarded as a bad move. Okay I just ripped that off Douglas Adams. But seriously folks, 1970 looked to be a good year for future fandom. This is the year that gave us Claire Brialey, Jess Bennett, Bridget "Bug" Bradshaw, Alison Freebairn, Jackie McRobert, Doug Bell, James Shields and Anders Holmström. And me. Oh well.

I was born (and am still resident in) the fair isle of Jersey. Unless you are from the UK or indeed Jersey this might take some explaining. Jersey is an island to the west of the French Côtentin peninsula. It is the most southerly and, at 6x9 miles, the largest of the Channel Islands, the others being Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm. It is 14 miles from the French coast at the closest point The islands are part of (the Duchy of) Normandy, and are the only part of Normandy not in France. We are not, however, part of the United Kingdom either, although we use British currency and banking systems. We have our own government (one for Jersey, and one for Guernsey which looks after the other islands) and although we maintain close links with the crown, we do not owe allegiance to the English monarch but rather the Duke of Normandy. This has through most of the last 1000 years been the same person. Indeed every true Jerseyman knows the traditional toast: "The Queen, our Duke".

I entered the job market at 18, and started work for a bank. I left after several years, although some of my best friends are people I met in that period. I have since worked for another bank, my father who is a builder and for whom I did administration, driving and labouring (how many other fans are there who know how to mix cement properly?), a builder's merchant (admin), a kitchen and bedroom company (admin/sales), and a wholesaler (really boring admin).

Nine years ago, Eastercon came over here. I heard about it more or less by accident, and decided to pop along. There I met ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha, the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy appreciation society and life changed. Later that year I went to a Hitchhikers con, and then started going to Eastercons, and Octocons (the Irish national con). For the last several years I have been going to Novacons (I missed what would have been my second because I was on holiday in the US), I went to the last British Worldcon and, on a whim, the UK Corflu. I will also, of course, go to any convention that looks like fun. In the course of a year I will go to several conventions, maybe a London pub meet, and any Sproutlore (Robert Rankin's fan club) events. This means a lot of air travel, which is expensive, but I consider it money well spent.

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