Born in Sydney, I grew up in semi-rural New South Wales, a childhood sometimes barefoot around black snakes. I begged off early from an apprenticeship in steel, at a factory 'round the corner—a place that made bombs. I went freelance a while and followed it with forty years creating in radio and television, learning the ropes and then, the tropes of story, observing characters, even playing a few on film. A fairytale place in Ireland turned up, with a view to the north Atlantic, and to there I returned enough times to finish a book. A second one has now begun, and it occurs to me that I am hoping it is not a bomb factory in which I am working.